Hello again! 1.4i ZX Content!

[beko1987]

Hi All

Gosh I have floated around haven't I! Thought I would dust off the old login as I am back in my 3rd ZX as of last night!

I don't think I've been on here properly since my XM days, I've had a few cars since then...

1997 XUD Xantia Estate - heavily tuned, was hilarious fun right until it wouldnt pass the MOT smoke test, had it de-tuned! Sold it for spares needing the common points welding to someone probably known on this forum, a guy called Richie who is slowly making one good one out of my old one and his one he already had

2005 Laguna 2 2.2dci Initiale - This was free! Was amazing in many way, I've never had a car with so many toys, it really was fab. I broke it for spares and scrapped the rest when the engine blew more oul out of the top than burnt it, the gearbox banged into 3 or more gears, rear void bushes were shot and the EPB started playing up

2001 Laguna 2 1.9Dci Expression - Much nicer with a manual gearbox, real world 55mpg and it was just generally very nice. Scrapped 8 months later when the clutch pedal stayed down after a depress more than came up, rear void bushes again, needed brakes all round...

2002 Peugeot 406 Estate - This is still actually behind my house awaiting it's final drive to the scrapyard tomorrow. Bit sad about this as it's a lovely barge, but I went to change the lower balljoints last weekend and they have welded themselves to the hub, removing the droplinks and track rod ends showed them to need replacing too, the rear brakes weren't doing anything so new discs and pads were needed there plus a rebuild of the calipers, horn didnt work and I think it was steering wheel related... MOT up on the 17th and I need a car to get to work.

So, enter the 3rd ZX! a 1997 1.4i Temptation! Bought from Derby on Monday, a guy from another forum I know was delivering a car to Newcastle on Tuesday, so I bunged him £50 and he got the train from Newcastle to Derby, drove to mine in Oxon, then I drove him home to Basingstoke and back again!

What did I buy (sight unseen)?

It's fairly tidy. No idea how many owners it's had yet as I don't have the V5 (The guy I bought it from only recieved it this morning, got to change the ownership tonight) but it has 57k on the clock and a very clean MOT history

The engine is lovely, as in there's space to work on it!

The guy I bought it from had fitted a lightbar using cheap LED ebay parts, and initially I asked him to remove it, but then changed my mind and I'm so glad I did! It looks awful frankly but driving home last night, having come off the m40 onto the B roads to home it made the night into day! It's wired into the full beam, so woe betide any full beam idiots coming my way now... (All the wiring needs tidying, it's all crimped on atm so I'll see to that)

Downsides, well... the interior is perhaps not as fresh as it could be

it utterly STINKS! Must have the carpet shampooed/removed and jetwashed before it becomes warm! Not the person I bought it from's fault, he only had it 3 weeks (couldn't fit his mobility scooter in it) but it seems to be wearing all of it's 57k in it's carpet!

Immediate jobs? Droplinks are clonking like a good-un, handily replacements are in the boot! Will do that Sunday, and whip a vacuum cleaner around the place then pretty much just drive it until payday! Driving it is taking some getting used to, I've been spoilt with 6 cars worth of TD torque! But I'll get used to it!

Medium term plans?

Well I'm amazed how cheap parts are! I have an ebay watch list set up and already it has a full cambelt and waterpump kit (no history), 2 new front indicators (missing lens from one), spark plugs, HT leads, fuel air and oil filter (I bought oil for the 406 but never got around to it, handily it's the same grade!) and valve clearances (I found Mr Eastment's mega-handy TU3 guide for all of that)

The gearstick is comically floppy between shifts! I've found some plastic bushes on ebay which look like they could be the ticket, need to research possible causes though

Drive it! It'll do 250 miles a week, might start going the back way a bit more as it's a bit noisy at 70mph on the m40!

Bye for now!

[white exec]

Certainly some seriously yukky interior bits!
What is that in front of the front bumper??

[beko1987]

That's the homebrew light bar! Looks silly but I do rather like it! The wiring needs tidying, and I'm not sure how MOT friendly it is so may look at making a quick release for the wiring and noting how to remove it for the MOT in December...

[beko1987]

Quite a productive weekend! First on the agenda yesterday was the non working rear door, took quite a few slams for the latch to flick and latch, and has been this way for some time going by the many shallow dents by the door handle, I had to give it a swift boot thursday after realising it wasnt shut whilst driving, and I was at risk of it opening and me loosing my lunch...

Doorcard off, inner foam cut cleanly for re-taping later, unclip the metal rods and unscrew and extract the latch assembly

A good blast with brake cleaner cleaned all the old grease and dirt off, I left that to evaporate for a few minutes, then a good douse of plusgas, shook the excess off then filled it with spray grease. Refitted, and fully working again!

I gave the window mechanism a good dribble of grease too, and one more for luck on the latch. Next, I removed the speaker for the next job, and their all like this...

The reason for this? The check strap did nothing. The cause was immediately apparent when I found the other half of it rolling around in the door skin

It had been pushed in from the outside, the mounting point was a right mess, so a few well aimed blows with a drift and mallet bent it roughly back into shape. I un-seized the mechanism with more plusgas and spray grease, then re-assembled and fitted it with some nice big washers to spread away from the mullered metal. Job done!

I then grabbed a broken Sebo from the shed (I collect, repair and have a youtube channel on vacuum cleaners, hence the easy access to a fully working suction wise Sebo, albeit with a broken height adjustment) and gave the doorcard a good vacuum off as it was filthy underneath the furniture

I broke a few trim clips removing it, but once hooked onto the top trim, and with everything screwed on it's not going anywhere

I did battle with the lock peg, I forgot how much I HATE THEM, can never refit it correctly. It's not fitted properly now, just sitting there with the rod moving underneath it, I'm never going to unlock the door with it(car has a chinese RF locking system fitted which is utterly fab) so it'll do for now!

I next moved to the boot, emptied the few things out of it and got vacuuming! It wasn't too bad, but the whole interior utterly stinks so I was half expecting to find a dead rat or similar

Boot Carpet

Nothing found, and it was quite clean really. The parcel shelf fabric slid right off it as I leant it up against the fence, so that's fully stuffed! Dropped the wiper motor down for a good grease of the pivot points, and I dis-assembled the wiper arm end, removed the circlip, 2 washers and remains of the seal and filled it with plusgas until it was dripping out of the other end. I can no longer hear it turning whilst driving at 70mph which is much better!

Rear wiper motor

The guy I bought it from said the rear seat covers were there for a reason, and he was correct!

Rear bench

I removed the cover from the seat back as that's fine, and tightened up the straps on the base, will look out for a ZX with OK seats being scrapped and try to nab a matching set, but for now, since it's only ever me in the car 97% of the time, it's fine!

I then whipped the drivers seat out for a good vacuum, and found some change! It's now a £299 car!

Seat out

Change

I neglected to take any photos as it was getting on a bit but it was all vacuumed off fairly well, it all needs coming out again when the weather is better for a proper shampoo but the amound of food I got rid of will hopefully take the smell with it!

The front seat fabric changed colour too with the vacuum!

And that was Saturday!

[beko1987]

This morning! And I had some spannering to do. The shocking drivers wheel was removed... This car had an advisory for knackered tyres on the MOT in december and I think part worns were lobbed on, or these are the same tyres (the advisory was for tread depth though and this has plenty of that)

5 years old

Eek

Anyway, we are here for the droplink

Because it's clonking like a right clonker! Removed

The guy I bought it from had meant to sort it but hadn't, so the new parts were in the boot which is my favourite kind of part! Shiny

Did the passenger side as well, and the tyre was worse if anything!

This side tried to be a sod, so 3 spanners were wedged in to keep the one spanner on the flats, and I deployed the persuasion bar

I won! All that done, I coppaslipped the faces of the wheels and the wheel bolts up and refitted the wheels. I then had a peek under the cambelt cover. The only paperwork I have with this car is a printout of the MOT history from the DVLA website (binned) and a properly dogeared owners manual (sat on the bookcase wedged to flatten) so I was half expecting to see string and bits of rubber, but it looks like it'll last the month

There is a very loud bearing-ey noise from the engine, that raises in volume with the revs. Ignoring that for now, aiming to lob a full cambelt and waterpump kit on it next month, if it's still there I'll have a look at the aux belt tensioners.

That done, it was blowing a proper gale. So I retreated inside to take bits of it apart

And fit and run the wires for my DAB aerial and phone mic. The previous owner had left an (awful) bluetooth headunit in so the guy who collected the car for me had some music for the drive from derby to Oxford, and I plugged my USB in for the last few days as well, it sounds like a terrible tape player!

But the thought was very much appreciated (I'm posting it back to him along with his wire strippers I found lying in the inner wings). But I need my Pioneer back! I bought this when I had my blue Laguna 3 years ago, this is it's 4th car... I've stopped properly running the cables for the DAB aerial now, the cable just comes in over the boot seal then gets tucked along the top of the A B and C pillar trims and door seals! Takes seconds to remove...

I set it to what I think is the same shade of green as the dash (see, having a radio capable of the full spectrum of RGB is handy, once you take it off stupid flashing disco demo mode). Need to double check in the dark though.

I then went to have a look at the fuel sender, to see if I could fix the comical fuel gauge. However, the sodding thing snapped with the 4th light tap with a hammer and screwdriver...

Luckily only a small part of the retaining ring moved, and the sender is still firmly stuck down with crud so I backed right off, need to source a new retaining ring now! I packed up all the tools, and as this was about 2.30, and the sun was shining and a gale still blowing, had a look at the mouldy passenger footwell

Using a load of hot water, with a slug of bleach and G101 I sloshed that about and scrubbed it right in, then sucked it out with a wet vac. Did that 3 times and it came up really well!

I had a load left, and the carpet was coming up really dry (which was something I was worried about) so I did the rear passenger footwell too

The vax told the tale...

It all needs doing properly, but it's a vast improvement and now it smells of bleach and G101 which is 600% nicer than it smelt before! I took advantage of the weather and opened every window and sunroof and left it until it got dark, smells very fresh in there now

When I get 5 minutes I'll find the proper upholstry shampoo tool for the vax, have the seats out and use a combination of sloshing water in, scrubbing, then rinsing it through with g101 and hot water in the vax, then fluff the carpet up with the steam cleaner. For now though, I no longer have to hold my breath as I get in before opening a window!

I also started cleaning the glass inside, the boot and rear windows are done. Must do the front tomorrow, not least because after I gave the steering UJ a squirt of plusgas I pushed the can with my head whilst exiting the footwell and it's all over the windscreen...

I'm now calculating fitting the very good wheels and tyres I bought for the 406 2 weeks before I scrapped it to the ZX... The signs are that they will fit, it has 175/65/14s fitted now, the 406 wheels are 15" steels with 195/65/15's. 2 1400 mile old Mitchelin winters on the front, 2 very good mitchelin cross climates on the rear... It'll knock the speedo out but if all else fails it'll do me for 2 weeks until payday when I can fit something else to the 14" wheels it has now!

[white exec]

You really are swatting things in rapid succession, and making it less of a rolling health hazard!
For mucky carpets/upholstery, try some biological clothes washing liquid in warm water (the water activates the enzymes) - cuts through dirt, grease and the like rather well.
Great work!

[Hell Razor5543]

I have found that the fabric foam cleaner from Poundland does a decent job (provided you use a suitable vacuum cleaner as well). Spray the foam on (close range), wait until the bubbles turn back to a liquid, then vacuum. The foam usually lifts the dirt up out of the fabric.

[myglaren]

I have found that the fabric foam cleaner from Poundland does a decent job (provided you use a suitable vacuum cleaner as well). Spray the foam on (close range), wait until the bubbles turn back to a liquid, then vacuum. The foam usually lifts the dirt up out of the fabric.

If there's anyone with a suitable vacuum cleaner it's Beko

[bxzx16v]

Nice work on the Zx , much underrated cars .

Mark

[RichardW]

That stain on the passenger carpet looks suspiciously to me like it leads back under the dash, and is quite possibly indicative of a failed heater matrix - which is a dash out job....

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

My sort of car, ran a two door 1.9na D as my Daily for six months. Looking on with interest. The value of these is just criminal.

Beware of the 406 wheels potentially fouling the front Calipers, will be obvious upon fitting ofc.

And enjoy, will probably benefit from some proper use; with (likely) years of crud in the combustion chambers clearing in the course of a couple of weeks.

If its really sad to scrap the 406, maybe an eBay listing starting at Scrap value, giving it a chance of life if someone wants it enough to take on the necessary repairs. I'm gonna mention it to someone I know who might be interested too. Will update reasonably prompt if its likely a 'go-er'

[beko1987]

The stain does look like it comes from up behind the dash, but the carpet was bone dry, it's not loosing coolant and the heaters are toasty so either it was and it's been fixed, or it was something else. Will keep half an eye on it!

I'm not fitting the 406 wheels, I had visions of it shredding the gearbox or something. Plus I'm planning to swap them with someone for a few interior bits I need for the zx! New tyres will be bought at the end of the month, these have gone at least 3 months without exploding, they'll go another 2 weeks I'm sure (hoping!)

406 went last week I'm afraid, it had to go quick sharp as the guy who sold me the zx let me pay him after collection, and I didn't want to take the mickey. Shame because the 406 was well sorted, but I can't keep an uninsured car on the road, and I have no off road parking.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

....and I have no off road parking.

used to be the case for me, with a 25metre front garden and only a pedestrian gate. I applaud you 'getting on with anyway'. I've quite recently moved house and I don't miss the long walk to the sheds.

[van ordinaire]

That's the homebrew light bar! Looks silly but I do rather like it! The wiring needs tidying, and I'm not sure how MOT friendly it is so may look at making a quick release for the wiring and noting how to remove it for the MOT in December...

Actually it's one of several versions that turn up on ebay all the time - it's a poor man's/Chinese copy of a common Swedish accessory (absolutely essential for fitting 2 - or 3 - HUGE Hella lamps to a "modern").

In fact Sealey do them now (& I bought one - without that funny little nudge bar - in the Christmas sale at my local factors, with a view to installing it back-to-front AND upside down, to fit foglights on the C15) - they simply fit behind the No: plate, using bolts instead of the original screws/plastic bolts. (I rather suspect the Swedes fit them the w/e they put the studded tyres on - & remove them in the Spring)

[beko1987]

I've always thought them to be a silly mod tbh, but the first drive home in the dark, full beams on... Daylight! Obviously now it's light when I leave work it's pointless, but I'll keep them! Need to tidy the wiring up, their choc blocked together atm...

I've not had anything silly on a car for a while, so it's time I treated myself!

The inside smells lovely now too! Drove to work this morning and bar a waft of horrible-Ness from the vents briefly it was fine! Not sure what to do about that, might turn the fans on full and empty a can of dettol aerosol spray into the intake in the scuttle... Can't smell petrol yet either so the broken sender retaining ring is holding on, must obtain another one fairly soon though