Tales from beyond the grave AKA Dan & Emma's Black Xantia, pug 206HDi, Daniel's 206 Verve 1.4i, GTi180 plus XUD9TE 206!!

[mickeymoon]

They're £39 quid a side from ECP and £16 quid a side from sgs-engineering.com

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[ekjdm14]

sgs engineering sounds familiar, were they the company offering regassing of XM glovebox struts?

[Harlequin]

I checked SGS and they don't offer 8731F4 I need - closest is £43 + postage

[ekjdm14]

Crikey that's not good, will have a shufty round when we get down there and see if he has anything suitable. Another avenue may be to check the end fittings & closed/open lengths so you can search by that instead, I feel it's most unlikely the C5 estate is the only car to have these struts fitted and there must be at least a couple of others that would suit... (takes me back this does, I recall the bonnet struts on my E23 BMW were shot and I replaced them with the tailgate struts from a Lancia Delta of all things! I had to drill one end fitting through as it was a ball joint rather than a pin that the BM used, but other than that they were a perfect fit).

[Dommo]

I checked SGS and they don't offer 8731F4 I need - closest is £43 + postage

You might find they have quoted a different part number on their website. I used them for my C5 boot struts and found they quoted the big long number that is actually on the boot strut itself, and not the Citroen part number.

Try following the guide here, and you never know they might have it. I would be surprised if they didn't to be honest:

http://www.sgs-engineering.com/help-adv ... gas-strut/

The struts I got from there seem to be very good and they came very well packaged too!


With regards to the accidental Knypersley meet, my dad did mention that he'd saw you, he recognised the Xantia from when the P/O had it. It certainly is a shame that the scrap yards can't let young people roam about, but in this particular case it is definitely an unsafe environment for kids, the cars there are stacked 4 high in some cases at this yard, with literally a foot between them for crawl space. So being realistic it's no wonder H&S these days are clamping down on it really!

Can't remember what the switch was for, it was for my brothers car, so I'm not sure if it was for a HRW sorry!

[ekjdm14]

OK as we all know, a project car is never truly finished. Nor is any older car that's being used ever going to cease needing little bits & bobs to keep it right and healthy. This being the case I'm going to try and get the bits down in writing that I feel are important for us to do on the Xantia in order to be completely happy with it...

First and foremost I will be giving it another service when all the parts arrive. Already changed the air filter and I have genuine/NOS oil & fuel filters waiting to go on too, as well as yet another cambelt on it's way (a Gates item as this is the one that will be staying on for the foreseeable). Depending on what I find when looking over the tensioner/idler from the old engine I may get new ones of those too. They looked/felt pretty new TBH but will be giving them a thorough check over and judge them on my findings plus what make they are. IIRC they were INA whom I've been happy with before.

As well as a full engine service, I may pull the glow plugs out and give them a test then either fit the 4 best ones out of both engines (and another BERU found behind the pump on dead engine!) or replace. Starting is fine though so I may leave well enough alone until that changes!

Transmission fluid will be getting another few drain/refill sessions to rid it of the last dregs of 'green gravy' and I may tinker further with the kickdown cable. Also need to attend to the selector inside the car as the cable is adjusted right & the detents are in the right places but the position indicator doesn't quite line up properly which the better half would like right to help get used to driving it.

Exhaust, while it's not leaking for now & passed without an advisory, is patched up and end-of-life IMO so I want to either find a NOS system or make a stainless one up. There's a good few bits of wiring and support clips/brackets/trim etc still needs putting back in the engine bay, plus some scratches on the inside edge of the 'chassis' legs where I caught it with the old engine.

There's a few little chips/scratches that have been sealed but I would like to touch them in & the lower edge of the tailgate has been messed with previously so will need repainting to get rid of the paint reaction it's suffered, plus a scuff on the top lip of the 'gate too which may or may not polish up. Also the trim inserts on the bumpers/doors have done their usual blistering thing and let the car down a bit. The right side doors are the worst I think but I'm sure none are perfect.

Actually, on that last point I have a question for other Xantia owners. Have you had any success in finding replacements for these at reasonable cost? (I seem to recall there were some NOS ones still wrapped up that sold a good while ago, and for a LOT of money ) and if not, what have they done to either restore the corroded originals or at least make them look better?
A thought I had (well the good lady did, but I think it could work too!) is removing them, peeling the plastic off and smoothing them down before either painting metallic silver or scotchbriting them up and lacquering them if an acceptable finish could be attained.

Ideas/thoughts welcome on that one please. Also how to remove them/refit them without damaging either the strips or surrounding plastic? Thanks


Oh, and then there's the interior. Just need to sort the sunroof, re-secure the column cases/stalks, modify the flasher relay (noticed last night it's started doing the clicking trick I read about not long ago, so either need to add a bigger resistor or replace with a later one), check if/how the relay mod has been done for the heater fan and make good if need be and finally attend to any blown bulbs plus sort the cable on the outside/recirculated air flap... Oh and there's a small crack in the instrument panel 'glass' so may replace that too.

Can't think of anything else just now but that's a pretty comprehensive list of what's needed to bring the car up to a very nice standard indeed.

[ekjdm14]

Stalks/column cases tightened up, and how's this for a rarity, there is no evidence of the relay mod having been done nor any suggestion of the switch contacts degrading.

I wonder if it's kinder to the contacts in the switch if the fan is off when the car is started? There has to be some reason this one hasn't been done, maybe it's just on about it's 29th switch unit!

[CitroJim]

I've not forgotten about the sunroof information, still searching through my mountains of documentation

[ekjdm14]

I have forgotten something though, never did get a photo of the bits that are broken! Gear selector displays a bit more accurately now, just a bit of free play in the linkage between the lever and the pointer.

[ekjdm14]

Still not got round to looking closer at the sunroof, knowing the cables are good and not really needing it have put that job on the back burner for now.

For the moment we're just running the car and enjoying the sedate ride, only small jobs I've done of late have been a gearbox oil change at 200miles & I have about 6 litres left to do more as the miles build. the 200mile change came out looking like very dark coffee so obviously it'll benefit from further changes although so far the 'box has behaved pretty well. Also changed the fuel filter and have all the bits to finish the rest of the service items ready here. Ordered an Amtex accumulator sphere this afternoon as well, and may look at building a pressure tester soon so I can see which of the ones I have off the car are any good.

Otherwise, it's just been comfortable sedate cruising and not much else

Oh, I did think maybe this thread could be moved to Blogs/Galleries section if someone would be so kind? Any technical issues I'll post back in here but general updates on the car I shall save for this thread.

[CitroJim]

Excellent Pleased to hear all is running well and happily

[ekjdm14]

Thanks for moving Jim Couldn't get much better IMO, she doesn't 'do' hills particularly but the ones she struggled with are some pretty brutal gradients & not on our normal day to day routes but more my 'proving grounds' for cars I've played with.

The old girl has soul too, had a pad wear light pop up earlier so looked under the front to find all wiring intact BUT a 10/8mm spanner sat on top of the subframe about to be lost forever (nowhere near any wiring by the way). After rescuing that the light was out... Go figure

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

Kids will be back in school then though .

Yes. That'll prevent me going too.

Hmm, that's different, its the kids being off school that has us staying at home, we go away term time

[mickeymoon]

If the boy was off school he'd either come with me or stay with my mum who's 200 miles from me but on the way to Scotland.

As he's only 7 I can't really leave him home alone..

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[CitroJim]

The old girl has soul too, had a pad wear light pop up earlier so looked under the front to find all wiring intact BUT a 10/8mm spanner sat on top of the subframe about to be lost forever (nowhere near any wiring by the way). After rescuing that the light was out... Go figure

Love it!

I had similar on one of mine. I lost my 12mm ring spanner for weeks and then found it sitting on the pressure regulator bleed screw! It had been contentedly sitting there for a couple of thousand miles!

That was in the days when my cars did a reasonable mileage!

One thing no Xantia lacks is character