Michel's Motors

Unread post by **Hell Razor5543** » 24 May 2018, 22:11

Do you have one of those watches that links to you mobile phone and can monitor your heart rate and step count?

Michel · Unread post by **Michel** » 25 May 2018, 06:54

Hell Razor5543 wrote: ↑24 May 2018, 22:11 Do you have one of those watches that links to you mobile phone and can monitor your heart rate and step count?

I have at least two. My latest purchase is a Garmin Vivosmart 3.

Michel · Unread post by **Michel** » 06 Jun 2018, 22:03

Well, hilariously, my departure from Peugeot/Citroen ownership lasted all of 1 and a half days. We spent a week or so in the South of France - Nice, Frejus, St. Raphael and Agay. Had a lovely time. Whilst there, we found a buyer at home for the 107. They came and picked it up on Sunday morning - we arrived back home late Saturday night, and we decided to just run the Scenic and my motorbike as we don't *need* two cars.

Yesterday, the Scenic destroyed it's heater matrix and started dripping coolant all over my feet. This somewhat frustrated me as I've recently spent a bundle on tyres and getting the air con fixed properly. Well. That was it for me. It's been traded in against an 08 plate Grand Picasso today, and yes, it is a 1.6HDi, with 120k on it, and it is a manual. 1.6HDi was enough, no way was I getting a EGS as well

Well, it goes well enough, it chuffs from the injector seals at idle. There is *some* wetness around them, but no carbonisation of anything. I've been told I should get away with cleaning them up and torquing the studs down, but I'm damned if any of my allen keys fit them. They seem to be some bizarre 7.2576mm ! Whatever, I don't have the right size in any of my 4 sets of allen keys! I have also got a "risk of particle filter clogging" message on the dash on startup. I was, of course, aware of both of these issues before I bought it, and that's why it was cheap. It's clearly on the original turbo as nothing has been touched - which is a good sign, IMO and it has a FSH, and everything works, one owner from new and is generally in good nick. It's a VTR+, digital climate, factory parking sensors.

So, my question is - what do I use to tighten those injector bolts? I know how to get at all of them, that's not the issue. What tool to use is the issue. Is there a special size bit ?

What's the best thing to do about the DPF? I did "take it to Germany" on the way home from picking it up and drove it all the way down "the autobahn" flat out in 3rd and 4th for the 30 or so miles I could, but it doesn't appear to have helped. I've stuck a bottle of DPF cleaner snake oil in the fuel tank, to waste £8 for a laugh, but I don't expect it to help if I'm honest.

I shall of course be giving it an oil and filter change asap on Thursday afternoon, and dropping the sump and checking the strainer...

thanks all!

Unread post by **RichardW** » 06 Jun 2018, 22:28

If the injectors are chuffing, you probably need to have them out and fit new seals, but nothing to lose by gently tightening them - go steady as the studs are made of chocolate. AFAIK they are 7 mm. DPF will be 'full' of ash, providing it is still regenning, you can probably just try telling it you have fitted a new one; this may change the regen logic so it may block again: in this case you can take it out and jet wash it. This will also give you the opportunity to remove the filter from the turbo oil feed!

Michel · Unread post by **Michel** » 06 Jun 2018, 22:39

Thanks Richard. Is the DPF a sod to remove, or is it relatively easy? It's dark, and I'm at work, or I'd go and have a look. I have a pressure washer.. I presume Putting it in a bin liner and washing it out like that so the contents don't go all over the show is a good idea?

Unread post by **daviemck2006** » 07 Jun 2018, 01:40

Squirt a tin of mr muscle oven cleaner into the dpf before you power hose it Mike, When I did the one on the 407 it was easy getting it off, apart from breaking one bolt, and water would hardly pass through it. Once cleaned water just ran through it as if it wasnt there. Dont but expensive dpf snake oil, waste of money

Unread post by **RichardW** » 07 Jun 2018, 09:22

DPF removal is not as easy as it might be, as the rad needs to come out - it might be possible to do it without, but after struggling to get the pipes out and the bolts out the shield (the one behind the AC comp is particularly fun) I couldn't get the shield off; the garage that did the clutch on ours, however, managed to get enough room to get in behind it to remove the gearbox bolt without draining the rad. It's also preferable to have a pair of exhaust pliers to get the daft spring clip off the top and bottom. Make sure when you refit it that you lift the DPF up and get it fully engaged with the turbo outlet, otherwise it leaks, and you have to go through the whole palaver again to re-seat the joint.... To refill the rad easily, leave the small vent hose off the rad, fill the header tanker, block the top with your hand, then blow down the vent pipe - this will force the water back into the rad. There is a bleed screw on the matrix elbow (which you can get to once the air pipes are removed) and another on the stat housing on the end of the head, but I never got any air out of either of these after just taking the rad out.

Unread post by **RichardW** » 07 Jun 2018, 21:13

Of course you should lexia it first to check it isn't something else like the pressure sensor playing up.

Michel · Unread post by **Michel** » 07 Jun 2018, 23:04

Thanks Richard, I was going to do just that. Mr HellRazor was going to oblige, but I had to go to work. I'll do that over the weekend if I can pop over to borrow his Lexia.

It's *so* much better than the petrol version!

Michel · Unread post by **Michel** » 07 Jun 2018, 23:31

In bike news, I finally got my 'bike back from the workshop where it's been since Tuesday. It was not idling at all well, was a bit lumpy and giving off proper massive backfires when opening the the throttle after being on the overrun. I had a set of carbs rebuilt for it, and took it to the garage - here's yet ANOTHER tale where a full service history means sweet FA. Much of the work the previous owner had been billed for simply hadn't been done. There were many air-leaks where the carbs bolt onto the manifold, on both carbs, New seals fitted. split vac hoses in hard to get places, the supposedly 9 month old plug leads - one was tracking badly. The rear cylinder (it's a V-twin) had had it's valve clearances adjusted at some point ok, but it looks like the front had never been done as it's a pig to get at, despite various bills showing it had. £268 and a load of parts later, it's running like a new bike.

Sadly for my wallet, they had a sale on some helmets. I ended up with a Nolan N104-A, with 1/3 off as it was last year's colours. It is the best helmet I've ever had. The field of vision is simply stunning, it's so wide I can't actually see the sides of the helmet. It's got glasses-friendly lining that can be easily reconfigured to allow glasses to be put on, it's got big speaker cut-outs for flat earphones. Best of all, it's a flip-front that locks open, and has been crash-tested in that config, and is legal to use as an open-face helmet because of that. Handy in heavy town traffic when moving slowly. It's also got an integral flip-down sun visor, which saves me having to take two pairs of glasses everywhere. Oh, and a pinlock double-glazing insert that totally prevents misting up. The helmet cost £200 quid, but is worth every single penny IMO. It's much better than my £380 Shoei!

Unread post by **Zelandeth** » 07 Jun 2018, 23:46

Aye, had a shot of a friend's helmet a little while ago just because he said I'd not believe how far they'd come...too right!

Other than being shiny, bore no resemblance to the one I borrowed with the old Honda many years ago...though we reckon it was as old as the bike!

Would love that old thing back now to be honest...not that I'd want to ride it around here mind you. No idea what actual model it was...but Honda trial bike on an 1980 V plate I think. Single cylinder 500, only electrical things on the whole bike were a headlight and tail light. It managed to throw me clear over the fence twice when deciding to kick back during starting, and the biggest challenge I found was trying to keep the front wheel on the ground in the first three years. You had to equally be careful coming down through the gears as it could lock the rear wheel easy as you like. It also had a habit of firing the entire ceramic insert out of spark plugs, so you always carried spares.

However being ridiculously softly sprung for off road use and with a massive squidgy saddle, combined with the stupid levels of torque it had made it an absurdly comfortable cruiser...it felt more related to the Honda Gold Wing than anything you'd expect to see tearing around an off road assault course. It would just rumble and float its way along without a care in the world.

Shouldn't really have been riding it...but such were the realities of living in the back of beyond 20 years ago...

Michel · Unread post by **Michel** » 08 Jun 2018, 00:20

That would be a Honda XL 500 most likely. Lovely old thing

My friend had the 250 version when we lived out in Greece, brilliant off road , and not so bad on it, even on knobbly tyres. Even that would wheelie on demand in 1st gear. It needed a fairing really, because it was like being a parachute if you wound it up to 120kph on the National road! They were, which will be to your surprise, great in traffic and on busy roads. High up, loads of vision, decent-ish brakes, bars high enough to clear car mirrors in queues.

Not many people should have been riding a motorcycle when they first did

I can't think of anyone who was strictly legal...

Michel · Unread post by **Michel** » 08 Jun 2018, 17:23

I serviced the GP today.

Drained oil - easy
Removed oil filter - easy once I'd gone to buy a 27mm socket on Suzuki as the car had no oil in it...
Replaced fuel filter - Fiddly as hell.
Replaced air filter - what an utter &^%$ of a job.

Much oily mess in many places, I cleaned some of it off around the turbo and where it was down that side. It's not instantly reappeared so it looks like just "old engine accumulated filth". I did wiggle the turbo shaft while I had the intake off and there's no play.

That air filter though. FFS. What a bizarre piece of design.

Unread post by **daviemck2006** » 08 Jun 2018, 19:37

It’s a Citroen, did you really expect anything but bizarre design? Mind you try Audi A4 front suspension,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Unread post by **RichardW** » 11 Jun 2018, 12:31

The air filter is a particularly stunning piece of non-design. Easy enough on cars where the engine is not buried under the scuttle, but nightmare where it is. There's plenty of room in front of the battery no idea why they didn't stick it in there, which is where it is on the Focus.

When you Lexia it you may well find no fault recorded - in which case check the 'amount of additive in the filter' or some such words - if this is above about 100g, then it decides it's full and puts the light on. Light was on in my 307 for over 10k miles, and it didn't stop it regenning!

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