The more I think about this fuel issue, I start to wonder if it's either a fuel pickup or filter issue. Maybe it's not the low fuel causing it as such, but the sustained flat out running on a motorway/'bahn causing air to be drawn in or a restriction in the fuel supply to be shown up.
First points I'd check are filter (unsure if it's been changed yet), tank breather (you know the score, if air rushes in when you open tank the breather's blocked) and then pipework/joints between filter and pump before finally looking at the rest of the lines.
On the battery front, it's surprising how different manufacturers (even PSA between different models!) have totally different standards of securing a battery. As you say, there's very little hardware actually needed to secure a battery well but where the C15 and Xantia obviously have the more usual clamp at the base, the 206 and 406 etc employed the more eastern method of a big bar over the top of the battery and a pair of long "tent peg" shaped studs hooked into the battery tray. And still others just have a box under a seat or in the floor where the battery sits secured by it's own weight & leads.
It is a known issue on certain diesel Citroens that the in-tank fuel pickup does get a brown sludge build up on it. This is microbes that happily live in the diesel. If you look on the forum you might find pictures of the results.
James ex BX 1.9
ex Xantia 2.0HDi SX
ex Xantia 2.0HDi LX
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
ex C5 2.2HDi VTX+
Yes, I am paranoid, but am I paranoid ENOUGH?
Out amongst the stars, looking for a world of my own!
Went to Berlin for a classic car show. the city's high end restorers are based in an old tram depot & once a year they have an open week-end, with a show in the car park but, unlike your regular static show, there are cars coming & going over the whole 2 days, so it's like a constantly changing tableaux. As if that's not enough, it's the finish for the round Berlin classic tour!
There are far too many Mercs, not even old &/or interesting ones but, for the most part, just loads of post "fintail" 4-door saloons although a 300 SLR turned up on Sunday. The Germans seem to be obsessed with them, they can't get enough & have even started re-patriating federal spec ones, with the weird 7" round headight conversions & ugly 5mph impact bumpers! However, there are also a good selection of Yanks (you could hardly move for early Mustangs this year), traditional British classics, E-types, Mk2's, Spridgets, "B"s & TR6's mainly, although there was a handful of TVR's - & a lone Marcos but always something unexpected, eg a Wolsley 1500 on Saturday, a Morris 1100 on Sunday (but for incongruity, you'd be hard pressed to beat the Wolsley Hornet sandwiched between the '75 Coupe de Ville that Elvis bought his father & a Lada ratrod (for want of a better description) &, yes the Eastern Bloc is always well represented, a Russian taxi, EMW 328, Skoda track car, Wartburg with full body kit & "Lexus" tail lights, 2 Trabant "jeeps" one like it had just been demobbed by the E. German army, one customised in style of a St Moritz buggy! There was a Volga there on Saturday - & another drove in on Sunday; a Barkas fire tender. So lots of boxes ticked for me - oh, & the French contingent vastly outnumbered all the other Europeans put together (& the Germans love their Fiat 500's Alfas & older Volvos!) - see my cars seen post, elsewhere.
I'll return to the fuelling issue later, think of me putting the poor thing up that long haul out of Dover, albeit on an almost full tank!
Last edited by van ordinaire on 17 May 2017, 00:26, edited 1 time in total.
Citroens:-
'81 2CV Club
'05 C15
'97 Xantia Exclusive estate
others:-
Jeep XJ Cherokees x 3
'96 Cadillac Eldorado
'99 Cadillac STS
& the numerous "abandoned projects"
Oh lordy...Barkas. Had a brief drive of a van or some description made by them once...quite possibly the worst thing I have ever driven. Diminutive two stroke of questionable origins powering it as I recall which in this case was far more effective in filling the cabin with smoke than promoting forward progress, and I had no more idea how many years there were when I finished the journey than when I started. I'm sure the answer was four, but I seemed to have found at least twenty, none of which were the ones I was after. Can't quite decide if that or the FSO Polonez 1.5GLE with it's truly special handling and braking characteristics were the worst.
Yes, I nearly bought both of the aforementioned vehicles. Still kind of wish I had the Polonez... don't think it would really be used like the Lada is, but would be a great one to just trundle along to shows with because it's such an oddball, and was even more violently orange than my Skoda. Not sure if I'm just mad, but I always thought the Polonez was actually a good looking car.
Current fleet:
07 Volvo V70 SE D5, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
Not as bad as that strange Polish device Sam Glover (who, I'm sure, needs no introduction) brought (nursed?) back.
I actually rather like the Barkas but, bizzarely, they've become too expensive to consider as a fun thing. The lump's Wartburg - I'm sure.
I don't suppose the E. German Feuerwehr had a lot of choice, but as an emergency response vehicle it must've left something to be desired (but then H-vans are hardly rapid). No doubt the German for "keep it going 'til we get there" just tripped off the tongue when they got the call.
Up until quite recently there was a Belgian firm which was importing them to convert into campers - so much more character than a VW Type 2! Iconic THEY may be but they, Trabbies, even H-vans are getting engine transplants, to make them more suited for regular use, so there must be something that that'd slot straight into a Barkas.
Citroens:-
'81 2CV Club
'05 C15
'97 Xantia Exclusive estate
others:-
Jeep XJ Cherokees x 3
'96 Cadillac Eldorado
'99 Cadillac STS
& the numerous "abandoned projects"
Zoh! Returning to the fuelling issue, now I'm home (the earlier missive was done on the ferry; I'd actually started replying to the responses but the on-board Wi-fi was driving me to distraction & gave up.
No long climb out of Dover because of a road closure (& detour signs that disappeared!), so came home via M2/A2. That route has some long downhill stretches but, try as I might, rarely nudged speedo past 85 - so, yes, lost about 10mph but it pulled like a train & made for an interesting comparison with the day I bought it (in Gravesend) & set off up the M2 with little confidence of it holding its own in the cit & thrust of M-way traffic.
Otherwise, I'll reserve judment 'til I've done the filter; if it arrives by Thursday, that MIGHT just decide whether I do the Northern Meet.
b-t-w: original plan was to get to Aucan in good time to refuel &, possibly, have a wander round the store but Pug garage about 25 miles earlier had diesel 6c a litre cheaper - so filled up there. Still had time to kill on Aucan site so thought I'd take look at the Norauto shop. I remember when it was like a factors but now it's a Halfords type store - but even more expensive! e.g. a Purflux filter is virtually twice the price in Aucan, on t'other side of the carpark. Always interesting to see how things are different in other places, but not tempted to buy anything, not even some rather nice black, torx head, flange self tappers - maybe, another time.
Citroens:-
'81 2CV Club
'05 C15
'97 Xantia Exclusive estate
others:-
Jeep XJ Cherokees x 3
'96 Cadillac Eldorado
'99 Cadillac STS
& the numerous "abandoned projects"
I do believe the van you're thinking of that Sam Glover picked up not that long ago was an almost neon green Zuk.
The type 2 VW vans never did anything for me. The T25 on the other hand, I really like. It looks like a van, and feels like a bus to drive, but unlike the T2, it rides nicely, goes round corners and actually has working brakes. Gutted I had to pass mine on before I could sort it. Had a really early one for a couple of years, astonishingly still with its 1.6 CT engine in place...finding one of those not having been upgraded to a larger engine is rare.
Van of choice though? Early to mid 80s Mercedes 308D. Don't know what it is but I just love driving them...plus something about that dashboard with the huge warning lights that looked like they'd come out of a Tonka toy left an impression on me from an early age.
Current fleet:
07 Volvo V70 SE D5, 88 Renault 25 Monaco, 85 Sinclair C5, 84 Trabant 601S, 75 Rover 3500, 73 AC Model 70.
Zuk, yuk more like it - only SG could come up with a device made by a company I'd never even heard of! It was actually at the NEC 2,3 years ago, looked like it had probably languished in PC's yard since it arrived. Unfortunately, I didn't get to talk to him.
T2's just don't seem to live up to their iconic status - but I reckon the Scooby engined ones go well enough (I assume they've had a brake upgrade) - but then the Yanks have been stuffing Porker & Corvair lumps in them for decades.
There must be as many T25 (& later) Transporters around Torbay as there are T2's clogging up Cornish lanes but while they make a practical basis for a camper they are, somehow, lacking in any charm. That big ol' Merc is popular as a living van & for people who, perhaps, travel that little bit further &/or for longer but they're just too big for daily use AND probably the most rot prone M-B product ever. Only one clear winner really: the H-van - except for the price (there was one for sale in Berlin, once resto & (presumably) full food truck conversion completed for - deep breath - €59,000!
Jim, actually I didn't think I was doing too well this year, it's just that everything seems to have come one on top of t'other. Usually this Berlin jolly is my 4th or 5th Eurotrip (even though Paris is now by train) but things haven't worked out; of course, had I started this blog earlier some of it would have been recorded there as, e.g. I didn't risk Maastricht this year because the cambelt had been put off again & I missed Citromobile because I was in Memphis a week later than usual.
Citroens:-
'81 2CV Club
'05 C15
'97 Xantia Exclusive estate
others:-
Jeep XJ Cherokees x 3
'96 Cadillac Eldorado
'99 Cadillac STS
& the numerous "abandoned projects"
Speaking of Sam Glover, I recall he suffered the diesel bug issues but in a 2T car of some sort. It ate half the carb on that, and left a stinky orange/brown scunge to be flushed out of the tank...
Now you come to mention it, that does sound vaguely familiar but as all his rides are odd, bordering on the weird (apart from his C15 of course!) you don't expect normal faults.
(Those tales of buying trips to Eastern Europe & sagas of the return trips would make a great omnibus edition)
Now, back to more mundane matters, no e-mail from CP4L advising order dispatched so, I thought, no prospect of filters in time for weekend - except when I got home, there was a box in the porch!
Driving back from Essen yesterday, it was so hot it was almost unpleasant (I think replacing the driver's window winder or, ideally, the door must now assume a higher priority; was really hoping for a passenger door of a LHD one by now!) &, today, in London, it's like October! Hopefully, it will, at least, have dried out a bit by tomorrow evening, in which case I'll do the fuel filter & if it's nicer I'll do an oil change IF I can get the filter loose (forgot to bring filter wrench up from Devon with me).
Not a great fan of "snake oil" generally, but any thoughts/experience of diesel additive/injection cleaner:?:
Citroens:-
'81 2CV Club
'05 C15
'97 Xantia Exclusive estate
others:-
Jeep XJ Cherokees x 3
'96 Cadillac Eldorado
'99 Cadillac STS
& the numerous "abandoned projects"