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

[CitroJim]

Unfortunately today, the first day where the weather has been dry/warm enough to reasonably do anything outside, I've spent most of the day in bed feeling rotten. Typically feel a little better now it's dark but fingers crossed for some progress this weekend.

That's bloody niggling Dan Hope you recover soon and can crack on... May good weather and good health soon coincide

[ekjdm14]

Sod's law really, but I am feeling a little better this evening thankfully. Not a moment too soon as it turns out though, since the 206 has developed a brake fluid leak recently which I'm guessing is a failed wheel cylinder and just a couple of hours ago Black's drive belt tensioner decided to seize solid creating a nice smoke-show from under the bonnet!

Fortunately this happened after we arrived home & I was just shifting cars around (Once again the good ol' Xantia hangs in there to get us home before failing, just like the other FTP when the inertia switch popped on the way home from MoT! Loyal car ) and I have a spare tensioner and belt in the garage too.

Gave me a fair fright though, first I knew was it cranked over a bit slow like the battery was down even though I knew it wasn't, then I smelled something warm and then started to see thick smoke billowing from under the bonnet... Thoughts of melted/shorting battery leads and a battery ready to explode were at the front of my mind as I popped the bonnet, there was even smoke in between the bonnet and it's sound deadening material... I can honestly say I was about as pleased to see a wasted drive belt as I could ever be, even if it is a shame it's a lot easier/quicker job to replace it & the manual tensioner than it would be to replace any chunks of wiring loom...

As I said, sod's law that it all happens at once but we shall overcome Fingers crossed it's not tipping it down in the morning as I'll have to fix Black then, the bearing collapsed and freed off a bit when it cooled so I ought to be able to get the suspension on high at least.

[CitroJim]

Oh dear Dan That's just not what you want at all - two cars failing at the same time...

Weather is looking a bit better today so hopefully you can get at least one sorted and I can get back to some Ka-pers

Just returned from a run and if the weather stays as it is then it'll be OK - fingers crossed...

[ekjdm14]

Not exactly desirable, at least the Xantia was a quick fix & I had a spare to hand though. After letting some more smoke out of the belt in moving the car to a safe place to work (sidenote-: I'd happily recommend Meyle belts, they can take some serious abuse!) the swap went nice and smooth as I'd given the threads some TLC when I changed the belt so it was a pretty simple 5 minute job despite frozen fingers and lying on an old curtain in the snow!

Just to temper my joy of that being a quick fix, I managed to finish off the ignition switch contacts by leaving the fan on full speed when I restarted the car so I now have another little job to do. Not sure whether to just buy a new switch as it's lasted this long without the relay mod (I think it has a lot to do with having the fan either off or low when starting the car which I always usually do). For now its at the stage where tweaking the key will reactivate the fan mostly but I know from reading on here it won't last forever so will have to decide on that one.

206 and White's rebuild will have to wait until I'm fully better though, with luck sometime in the next few days! Hope the weather held for you, Jim. It was disgusting all day yesterday and started off sunny today turning to drizzle after dinner... Sounds like a song title or something, that. Drizzle after Dinner by Pink Floyd. Naturally(?) released as a flip side to Alan's Psychedelic Breakfast

[CitroJim]

Best to do the relay mod Dan, it's likely you won't need to replace the switch then...

The last time I did a relay mod the switch had really gone and would not even operate a relay... I worked around it by operating the relay from the other (good) set of contacts...

[Zelandeth]

Lucky it didn't throw the belt when the tensioner seized up...last thing you'd want would be it wrapping around the crankshaft pulley and snapping the timing belt as the XUD is known to do...

[ekjdm14]

That would have been rather a pain yes, although we have the lower timing belt cover intact so slightly less chance than if it's been mauled. (although I do know of it happening despite this, when the belt gets shredded and works it's way in the gap). All I have is praise for Meyle belts though, it took the damage like a champ and no doubt would be fine to keep using. In fact it'll be in the boot as a backup given how reliant HPN Citroens are on them for any kind of safe functionality.

Meantime, I'm still waiting for my chest to clear up before I start rolling round under White reassembling the engine. Fingers and toes crossed there'll be a good dry/warm (relatively) day this week to allow that to happen. Further updates as & when there's anything worthy of mention

[ekjdm14]

So, it's been a full week since I last had anything to say on White & the sump has been off since the 11th of January. Oil pump must be pretty good then, since I showered myself with retained oil when I rotated the crank All the work happened yesterday but I was too finished to come online afterwards, but the engine is now one big lump again, new rod installed, sump back on and head torqued & angled down...

Raining today but when I get a chance I reckon about 3 hours of (steady) work should see a test-fire happen and then if it sounds good the cooling system and intercooler will go back in and I can start chasing the airbag light issue properly. After that it's just a rack gaiter (shades of Black's rebirth there too lol but this is the left one so hope a bit easier), rear height corrector to free up and maybe a couple of tyres and she'll be ready to speak to Mr. MoT man once more.

[CitroJim]

Good work Dan, looking forward to hearing all went all good with the test run

[ekjdm14]

Fingers & toes crossed here too for a good result, might be a couple of days before I get it going even if the weather improves since I'm only just now starting to loosen up and be able to move in a way approaching fluidity. Been so sore and tired all day all I've managed to do is watch some videos online and drink some coffee, didn't even wake up till gone midday!

[ekjdm14]

Another week, another bit of progress... White's engine is pretty much all together far enough for a test-fire, with just the rad/intercooler & some pipework/covers to be complete. Unfortunately all my spare batteries are too discharged to crank it fast enough on the plus side I have managed to spin it long enough for the oil pressure to build & the lamp stayed out for a good few seconds afterwards so the lubrication seems to be getting where it needs to be. Just about to have some dinner while a couple of chargers do their thing, then fingers crossed for some healthy XUD-ish noises before bed.

[CitroJim]

I guess your weather has been a bit kinder than ours then Dan...

Fingers crossed for lots of very healthy XUD noises very soon...

[ekjdm14]

It's actually been pretty terrible most of the last week & was freezing this morning, but this afternoon was bearable if damp! Just remembered I completely forgot to send that sleeve widget for your friend, sorry about that, will get that done Monday now.

[ekjdm14]

Healthy sounds are go...

A bit of juice in the battery and a few seconds of faster cranking saw her splutter to life again sounding very healthy & obviously running a lot stronger as the idle speed sat around 1300rpm. Gave me a bit of a scare after 30 seconds when she suddenly began making a clattery noise, but I think it was a bit of carbon in a valve seat as it'd gone when I (hesitantly) restarted the engine.

So, it seems like we may finally have a definitive fix for the lumpy idle and smoke. here's hoping the airbag light fix isn't as involved a repair!

[CitroJim]

Dan, that's truly excellent news