OK guys my one bit of advice for Pic owners...
After being convinced my sloppy gearchange was down to cable stretch, I replaced them and still no better off. More investigation with them unattached at the gear lever end showed to me that there seemed rather a lot of play in the actual shifter bearings, so I ordered a new mechanism ( a story for another time!) When it arrived the difference in them both was astounding, old one just flopped about, new one crisp and springy. Inspecting them on the table (wife was out) there is a return spring on one of the shafts that had for some reason broken in half.
Anyway this is the advice... The Haynes manual instruction is useless, remove plastic lower cowl, check, remove airbox chamber - not a chance in hell. This is how I did it. Lower cowl off, unclip the two gear cables both from the mechanism and the outer sleeve retainers, pull them down and out so they more or less lay on the floor. No way can the bolts holding the mechanism be accessed from underneath. So I took out the radio and removed the large grey oval dash panel. Once the radio is out, two screws, this is only held in place by two short stubby screws at the gear lever opening and a series of clips around its edge.
After this it was plain sailing, a gooseneck/ angled 10mm ring spanner can be inserted along with your wrist and hand through the aperture for the radio. Undo the 4 10mm bolts and the whole mechanism drops out from below.
Once I had worked this part out I had the whole job done in about an hour. So I guess the moral of the job is, never take as gospel information given to make your life easier, take it but then study the job yourself to see if there is an easier soloution. While we are on this subject, why do Citroen use those damn awful wire clips on the cable locators? It must be far easier to use C or E clips surely? I got the old ones back in, but I will be replacing them with a couple of E clips for sure.
Advice for Xsara Picasso owners and sloppy gearshifts.
Moderator: RichardW