Marc's X7, C3 Aircross, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
My brother whilst driving buses used to crush wasps with his thumb, he reckoned that as the were facing away they couldn't sting him.
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. (Albert Einstein)
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
Whenever I've ended up with a wasp or similar in the car I crank the aircon down as low as it will go straight away. The cold slows them up considerably and allows you to continue on until safe or convenient to stop. Not a lot of use if you don't have aircon though 

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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
I just panic!
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
Just had the C3 serviced today at my local dealers - needed a brake fluid change and a couple or rear indicator bulbs replacing due to worn off amber coating.
I was speaking to the CS manager and they lost about 40 cars in storm Callum. 30 odd from the back and about 13 or so from the forecourt! All written off. They were in waders up to the waist on the weekend taking pictures for the insurance company.
I was speaking to the CS manager and they lost about 40 cars in storm Callum. 30 odd from the back and about 13 or so from the forecourt! All written off. They were in waders up to the waist on the weekend taking pictures for the insurance company.
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Marc
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
I'll buy one for scrap value!
As I get older I think a lot about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.
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Inside every old person is a young person wondering what the hell happened.
"Trying is the first step towards failure" ~ Homer J Simpson
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
I wouldn't want to be seeing the renewal premiums for that branch!
Some videos
Our dealer is down past ATS at about 0:58 in this video
Some videos
Our dealer is down past ATS at about 0:58 in this video
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Marc
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
yes, scrap value definitely... A car that's been for a swim is never going to be the same again... I saw what happened to a Xantia after it had been swimming... Despite lots of work it was never really right again...
In a more modern car all that water will forever play havoc with all the electronics...
Jim
Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
Yes they are all CAT B, so will be crushed - with some parts that may be reclaimed.
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Marc
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
In the early 1950s REME pulled an Austin truck out of Port Said harbour, it had been dropped over the side whilst being unloaded back in 1946, it had been waterproof prepared for shipping so the guys decided to see if could be made to go again, they had it running and on the road within a week...……….it wasn't pretty. 

Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new. (Albert Einstein)
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
My latest rant on car insurance renewals:
I have been having a continual battle for the last 3 years on getting factually correct information from car insurance companies on No Claims Discount earned when jumping ship to a new provider. As you are probably aware, the big companies tend only to give you 9 years on the confirmation as evidence.
A few years ago I suddenly thought, hang on, this isn't actually correct nor does it seem right to me - so got in touch with Tesco (at the time) and complained that I already had the the said NCD before I took out a policy with them and it should be more than this after the conclusion of the policy with them. They explained the usual about not taking any more than the 9 years into account for new policies. When I said that this was factually and legally incorrect - they soon changed their tune and asked me how many years I would like on the confirmation letter! Although this had been going on for years previously, so I had probably 16+ years claim free, I had no paper evidence as the same thing was happening every year - just getting the standard 9 years confirmation without thinking too much about it.
So I said this is the NCD I came to you with from my last evidenced NCD, so I would expect you to provide me with 10 years. They did that and I have used that as the basis gong forward now. Changed last year and demanded and got the correct NCD now going forward.
I've done this for my mother too and despite all the bull crap from the call centre operative "we don't provide bla bla..." I stopped him and said, that may be the case as far as your company is concerned, but there are other insurers out there that do provide additional discounts for 16 years on in some cases! But apart from that, I went on to tell him that just as you expect us to tell you factually correct info when we take out these policies, I expect the same from you - and to provide me with the same NCD that I had when I came to you is factually incorrect and therefore not acceptable to me.
I asked to be put on to a Manger as I know I am right having gone through this numerous times and was put on hold. He came back and said I am correct, but although they could not provide the NCD total, they would say that on the letter that 10 years was evidenced prior to the policy with them and a further 1 year claim free would be stated giving a total. I was happy with that and again I had to send them off the previous proof that I already sent when taking out the policy! That doesn't say much for their record keeping systems... Another email asking for confirmation of details and a copy of the PDF confirming the last NCD has now been sent off and I await the letter when the current policy expires within the next few days.
And on that subject, my Mother has gone with the AA this year as it came up trumps on the comparison sites - usually they are way down the bottom - but went to read through the policy and everything was agreeable, added on what we needed and then there was the breakdown cover.... I cancelled our AA after 25 years as they kept incrementing the prices each year - and I had to keep ringing up to get it back to normal - until one year they hiked it up £40 and would only reduce it another £20, so I actually did leave them.
My Mother is always concerned about changing a tyre which she physically would not be able to do and so usually goes with Green Flag as they specifically state they cover this - but she was paying well over £100 for breakdown cover! So the AA offered breakdown and relay on an offer for about £40 with the insurance policy - so after ringing them up after checking their website blurb, they did confirm they cover punctures and wheel change - so deal done and saved nearly £200 on the car insurance and breakdown cover over the previous year!
I expect it to go up again next year as you have to put the breakdown part on Direct Debit - but can be cancelled before the renewal if desired - but it just shows how much you can save - even as a savvy comparison site shopper I've become, by not becoming complacent.
I think there was another article on the news in the last week about the insurance companies' 'creeping' policy, slowly increasing loyal customers' premiums each year by a small amount and relying on those customers thinking "Oh, it's only gone up by £20 this year ..." - which of course over years can become a huge amount they are overpaying compared to new customers - I think the Government are trying to put the clappers on the practice.
So shopping about is the solution in the interim.
I have been having a continual battle for the last 3 years on getting factually correct information from car insurance companies on No Claims Discount earned when jumping ship to a new provider. As you are probably aware, the big companies tend only to give you 9 years on the confirmation as evidence.
A few years ago I suddenly thought, hang on, this isn't actually correct nor does it seem right to me - so got in touch with Tesco (at the time) and complained that I already had the the said NCD before I took out a policy with them and it should be more than this after the conclusion of the policy with them. They explained the usual about not taking any more than the 9 years into account for new policies. When I said that this was factually and legally incorrect - they soon changed their tune and asked me how many years I would like on the confirmation letter! Although this had been going on for years previously, so I had probably 16+ years claim free, I had no paper evidence as the same thing was happening every year - just getting the standard 9 years confirmation without thinking too much about it.
So I said this is the NCD I came to you with from my last evidenced NCD, so I would expect you to provide me with 10 years. They did that and I have used that as the basis gong forward now. Changed last year and demanded and got the correct NCD now going forward.
I've done this for my mother too and despite all the bull crap from the call centre operative "we don't provide bla bla..." I stopped him and said, that may be the case as far as your company is concerned, but there are other insurers out there that do provide additional discounts for 16 years on in some cases! But apart from that, I went on to tell him that just as you expect us to tell you factually correct info when we take out these policies, I expect the same from you - and to provide me with the same NCD that I had when I came to you is factually incorrect and therefore not acceptable to me.
I asked to be put on to a Manger as I know I am right having gone through this numerous times and was put on hold. He came back and said I am correct, but although they could not provide the NCD total, they would say that on the letter that 10 years was evidenced prior to the policy with them and a further 1 year claim free would be stated giving a total. I was happy with that and again I had to send them off the previous proof that I already sent when taking out the policy! That doesn't say much for their record keeping systems... Another email asking for confirmation of details and a copy of the PDF confirming the last NCD has now been sent off and I await the letter when the current policy expires within the next few days.
And on that subject, my Mother has gone with the AA this year as it came up trumps on the comparison sites - usually they are way down the bottom - but went to read through the policy and everything was agreeable, added on what we needed and then there was the breakdown cover.... I cancelled our AA after 25 years as they kept incrementing the prices each year - and I had to keep ringing up to get it back to normal - until one year they hiked it up £40 and would only reduce it another £20, so I actually did leave them.
My Mother is always concerned about changing a tyre which she physically would not be able to do and so usually goes with Green Flag as they specifically state they cover this - but she was paying well over £100 for breakdown cover! So the AA offered breakdown and relay on an offer for about £40 with the insurance policy - so after ringing them up after checking their website blurb, they did confirm they cover punctures and wheel change - so deal done and saved nearly £200 on the car insurance and breakdown cover over the previous year!
I expect it to go up again next year as you have to put the breakdown part on Direct Debit - but can be cancelled before the renewal if desired - but it just shows how much you can save - even as a savvy comparison site shopper I've become, by not becoming complacent.
I think there was another article on the news in the last week about the insurance companies' 'creeping' policy, slowly increasing loyal customers' premiums each year by a small amount and relying on those customers thinking "Oh, it's only gone up by £20 this year ..." - which of course over years can become a huge amount they are overpaying compared to new customers - I think the Government are trying to put the clappers on the practice.
So shopping about is the solution in the interim.
Please Don't PM Me For Technical Help
Marc
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
I have just this last week done the insurance thing for my wife. I always put aside an afternoon to go through the rigmarole.
Last year was a surprise for me as the AA came out cheapest (as you say they normally come out way down the list) at £295.73. They are brokers themselves and this was with CIS General Insurance. When the renewal letter arrived CIS wanted £442.70 - nearly 50% more expensive! The AA offered us an alternative with AXA at £387.62 but that's still some 30% up. Neither, obviously, acceptable.
The big surprise for me this year is that none of the firms on the comparison sites came out cheapest. It was Aviva that offered the best deal. In the past I have done the full comparison shtick and the big ones have always been waaaaay out too expensive but not this year. I had to check our details twice just in case I had made a mistake with the declarations but it was true - £272.00. Cheaper even than last year.
Some of the cover is better as well; the annual mileage is up from 12,000 to 14,000 and they only wanted declarations about claims for the last four years - not five like all the others seem to want. The foreign cover included full comprehensive as standard and Serbia was in the list of countries covered.
So, the message is: compare, compare, compare. And don't forget the big companies that are not on the comparison sites.
Last year was a surprise for me as the AA came out cheapest (as you say they normally come out way down the list) at £295.73. They are brokers themselves and this was with CIS General Insurance. When the renewal letter arrived CIS wanted £442.70 - nearly 50% more expensive! The AA offered us an alternative with AXA at £387.62 but that's still some 30% up. Neither, obviously, acceptable.
The big surprise for me this year is that none of the firms on the comparison sites came out cheapest. It was Aviva that offered the best deal. In the past I have done the full comparison shtick and the big ones have always been waaaaay out too expensive but not this year. I had to check our details twice just in case I had made a mistake with the declarations but it was true - £272.00. Cheaper even than last year.
Some of the cover is better as well; the annual mileage is up from 12,000 to 14,000 and they only wanted declarations about claims for the last four years - not five like all the others seem to want. The foreign cover included full comprehensive as standard and Serbia was in the list of countries covered.
So, the message is: compare, compare, compare. And don't forget the big companies that are not on the comparison sites.
As I get older I think a lot about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.
Inside every old person is a young person wondering what the hell happened.
"Trying is the first step towards failure" ~ Homer J Simpson
Inside every old person is a young person wondering what the hell happened.
"Trying is the first step towards failure" ~ Homer J Simpson
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
Well time for some more fun and games!
Two things - first of all came back last night to find a large black object where I park the car - so got out and retrieved it and took to Citroen parts in a rush to try and see if it was off the X7.
Luckily it had a part number on it 9684789580, which when I searched on was returning crank pulley! Can't be that I thought - since when are these made of rubber
So a deeper delve and a trip to my local mechanic and on the lift to find it is the crankshaft pulley plug seal that conveniently fell off at some point - but very considerate of the old girl to do so where she is parked and not on the road
The following is not my part - as it's back on the car now - but very similar to this below:
So cap will go in but will easily fall out, so we applied some mastic gasket type compound to hold it in place, which will allow it to be pulled out if necessary in future.
Problem number 2:
Over the last few weeks I've been hearing an occasional clunk / knock when braking harshly (although not all the time) and sometimes when pulling away harshly (again rarely), and further, when going over a small pot hole or are of missing tarmac on occasions - hearing the knock.
It doesn't happen on full lock left or right so I ruled out the driveshaft and CV joint. I recently had the drop links and both ARBs replaced - so I was suspecting something not mating or slipping under load...
So whilst at the garage this morning with my mechanic, he gave everything a good pull and push and bingo found the culprit. A bush in the lower part of the front pivot support. With a small lever it was moving from left to right without much effort - so causing the clonking noise under load. He suspected it would probably be doing the same up and down when being driven, hence causing the noise going over a rough road.
As you can see from the above , this is the bush in question - and of course Citroen only supply the whole pivot support (B) at a very uncool £357! and do not supply this bush for some crazy reason. You can see where it would knock back and forwards when attached. The left hand one is solid as a rock though.
So my mechanic has located the bush alone for £10 from his parts supplier so will be getting that done soon.
So this is another area that can be added to odd noises for future reference.
Two things - first of all came back last night to find a large black object where I park the car - so got out and retrieved it and took to Citroen parts in a rush to try and see if it was off the X7.
Luckily it had a part number on it 9684789580, which when I searched on was returning crank pulley! Can't be that I thought - since when are these made of rubber


Problem number 2:
Over the last few weeks I've been hearing an occasional clunk / knock when braking harshly (although not all the time) and sometimes when pulling away harshly (again rarely), and further, when going over a small pot hole or are of missing tarmac on occasions - hearing the knock.
It doesn't happen on full lock left or right so I ruled out the driveshaft and CV joint. I recently had the drop links and both ARBs replaced - so I was suspecting something not mating or slipping under load...
So whilst at the garage this morning with my mechanic, he gave everything a good pull and push and bingo found the culprit. A bush in the lower part of the front pivot support. With a small lever it was moving from left to right without much effort - so causing the clonking noise under load. He suspected it would probably be doing the same up and down when being driven, hence causing the noise going over a rough road.
As you can see from the above , this is the bush in question - and of course Citroen only supply the whole pivot support (B) at a very uncool £357! and do not supply this bush for some crazy reason. You can see where it would knock back and forwards when attached. The left hand one is solid as a rock though.
So my mechanic has located the bush alone for £10 from his parts supplier so will be getting that done soon.
So this is another area that can be added to odd noises for future reference.
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Marc
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
Is this crank pulley seal meant to fit over the end of the crank pulley? If that's the case, mine has dropped off a long time ago
Interesting about that one bush being worn. Is it a big job to get to it for replacement?

Interesting about that one bush being worn. Is it a big job to get to it for replacement?
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
The rubber crank pulley cover fits within the inner rim of the crank pulley. It's a friction push fit and there's a nipple in the middle so it can be grabbed with pliers and pulled out. Don't know if it's to keep muck out or for sound deadening - or maybe both.
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Re: Marc's X7, Rants, Raves & Everything Else
I think it's for damping and for keeping crap out Robin. Hopefully the mastic will hold it in place.
Elis - Yes, I would never of noticed had it not deposited it right on the driveway! Not a big job as they should be able to remove the support from the wishbone and knock it out and slip another one in whilst in situ.
Elis - Yes, I would never of noticed had it not deposited it right on the driveway! Not a big job as they should be able to remove the support from the wishbone and knock it out and slip another one in whilst in situ.
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Marc
Marc