Suspension sinks on Sundays! C5 X7 that works hard + 206 GTi HDi (and 406 Coupe and 306 HDi). - MattBLancs

[CitroJim]

A company in Ilford is called Golden Tyres (true)......just do not get their Rain tyres, they stink but are a piece of p@@s to fit.

[MattBLancs]

308 SW, front end clunk.

I had it up on axle stands today and a "good wiggle" to try and find source of the clunk. Recently replaced track rod ends unsurprisingly, and indeed thankfully! Fine.
Bottom ball joints seeming fine.
Suspected anti-roll bar drop links and have a set of febi items in stock ready to go on. So set to fitting those.
Job went remarkably smoothly with everything "just unscrewing" - a rare occurrence for me with suspension components!

Interestingly the ball joints on the ends of one of the removed drop links noticeably smaller in diameter, rather odd! The other had threaded studs and noticeable few millimeters shorter than the others. On inspection both seemed okay, but change them anyway for the sake £15 or so.
Knock was suspected as coming from the drivers / right-hand side so did that first. Then move round to the passenger / left side and have changed that too. However the wishbone bushes on this side appear rather tired. Again I've got a new set in stock, very cheap on Halfords trade got them a few months back.

This is the passenger side wishbone rear bush looking worse for wear

Car is back on this wheels and the wishbone bush replacement job well have to be post tomorrow morning's trailer tip trip at 10 o'clock.

A few pictures of the things seen on suspension:

Strange small anti roll bar drop link ball joint 1

Small link 2

Next on the task list was unearthing a brand new dv6 oil sump that I may have forgotten I'd bought! And attacking it with a hammer (and a impact socket and short extension) to convert its drain plug from an "inny" to an "outy" (again using the handy belly button terminology)

A few pictures of that for your enjoyment:

Wooden block....

Modified with 25 mm flat wood bit

Sump before

Sump before

Sump after

Weapon of choice:

Big 'ammer!

It's now been given relatively terrible splattering of orange paint from the end of the tin used previously. You may notice a rusty scratch mark near the drain plug, this caused by a relatively hidden nail within the wooden block which I had not spotted!

[CitroJim]

Excellent!

[MattBLancs]

Wishbone bush job underway, a few pictures and description:

Battery tray removal.
Furry terminal and can you spot something odd with these fuses?

Battery 1

Battery 2

This is to clear access to the gearbox breather cap (route for refilling)
Annoyingly battery steel tray is held with 5 fixings: 4 accessed from engine bay, the last from the wheel arch, needing removal of the arch liner.

5th bolt

Also found was a huge block of muck! And a fair bit of surface rust: sanded with powerfile and phosphoric acid applied. Paint to follow.

Muck in the arch

Gearbox magnetic drain plug had small hedgehog, gearbox oil pretty dark but not horrendous. New Chemoil stuff (fully synthetic, 20 litres, eBay, bought a while back) to go in.

Furry

Gearbox drain plug is 10mm square drive only (no outer hex)

Wishbone bush removal via "puller set" which is supposed to work by threaded rod. Keep trying this technique on various car replacement tasks but just keep bending the rods!! This time I did manage to use it with threaded rod: to forcibly rip the old rubber bush out if it's steel outer shell. Shell then slitted with hacksaw and curled in in itself to remove.

Bore of wishbone and outer diameter of new bush smoothed with Dremel type tool and flap wheel. Both liberally copper greased and new bush pounded into place with big hammer and 1 of the puller set pieces.

So big hammers saved the day again!

De-bushing

De-bushing

De-bushing

[mickthemaverick]

Nut missing on the 30A

[MattBLancs]

Got it Mick!

[mickthemaverick]

Be interesting to know what that 30A feeds as presumably it may have had intermittent interruptions according to suspension movements?

[MattBLancs]

Be interesting to know what that 30A feeds as presumably it may have had intermittent interruptions according to suspension movements?

Don't think it needs 30 amps but I've got a huge hope that it is the rear parking sensors (which are very intermittent!)
Surprisingly no sign of arcing on either the fuse terminal or threaded stud, so perhaps doesn't typically see anything near 30 amps (so fingers crossed again for rear parking sensors!!) F12 is it's number will dig into function later

[MattBLancs]

Wishbone

Wishbone rebushed and reinstalled.

Gearbox oil reinstated - 2.1 litres says Haynes, so that is what has gone in. Interestingly I measured what came out: about 2.4 litres, a good 300 ml overfilled if Haynes is correct.

Oil + extra

Lip seal 2

Lip seal 1

[MattBLancs]

Mangled (overtightened) battery clamp hole

Clamp before

Quick reshaping with hammer and punch

After

After 2

After 3

Quick paint and reinstalled

Bit of primer on the treated wheel arch rust spots, off out to get some underseal on them before I pack in for the day

[MattBLancs]

Final image from yesterday:

Daubs of metal primer brushed on the treated rust spots. The whole arch was painted with Tetroseal but no picture: black wheel arch pictured in failing light - wouldn't really show anything.

[MattBLancs]

308 SW:

Wishbone bushes replacement (front left, passenger side only at present) has cured the suspension knock.
MOT next week so fingers crossed all else is well. Bulb check over the weekend but otherwise (hopefully!) ready to test.

Fuse nut replacement reinstated: no change in parking sensor lack of performance. Haynes says engine bay fusebox number F12 is Front Wiper supposedly. Wonder if they are any faster (do seem a touch slow to me) - not obviously so, anyway!

C5 tourer:
It's not happy at present, current symptoms:
- occasionally pretty, noticibly in car, smokey for about first 5-10 miles of my commute (2 miles 30 mph road then onto motorway) generally then clears up and zero visible smoke from then on in. Sometimes no smoke at all.
Wonder if EGR valve is gummed up: sometimes sticking, sometimes functioning. Clearing as heats up. Can't think what else.

However, it's now (as of Wednesday return trip home) brought the engine management on, "engine fault, repair needed" will scan codes soon and see what it believes is wrong.

Still a coolant leak I've not found where as yet.

Still a clutch slip under full throttle acceleration.

Still a great "mile muncher" for my predominantly motorway journeys (i.e. 99% of what isn't a tip run!)

[MattBLancs]

406 Coupe HDi,

No welding progress of late (lots of work there to help done ahead of next MOT)

[MattBLancs]

In a perhaps related vein of thought to the C5 condition report above, what is the collective knowledge on the following vehicles:

Peugeot 207 SW HDi
(Ideally in borderline mythical 112 bhp, 6 speed manual, format) everyone on the planet seems to have gone for the cheapskate 90 / 92 bhp, five speed HDi option,

Peugeot 5008 (the original / facelift MPV, not the later SUV thing. Don't do SUVs)
Again everyone seems to have cheaped out and gone for the 1.6 HDi in a big car. Ideally I'd go for the 2.0 HDI ** in 6 speed format (don't do automatics either- can't stand them!)

Wondering if time for a change Vs tackle the C5 job list and the above are loosely: as economical** as a car with a big boot as I can think of for my (80 mile round trip) work commute with reasonable family/DIY capacity ( = 207 SW)
or
as much space for family/ DIY as possible. ( = 5008 MPV)

Obviously both would be a step down in terms of suspension refinement, but a step up in either economy and or practically. And are more conventional, so would alleviate some of the back of my mind concerns EG steering rack, suspension pipes, general suspension complexity of the C5 and it's lovely hydropneumatic setup.

The potential for something euro 6 and ulez compliant (versus C5 at Euro 4) also a consideration given current political landscape seeking to identify diesel engines as the bad guy.

** And focused on the most powerful diesel options as have enjoyed the available thrust of my 2.2 HDI C5 and I'm keen not to downgrade on that front too!

[MattBLancs]

5008 based on same platform as 308 SW (and 3008 and others)

Shares some annoying similarities to the C5: wipers are overcomplicated twin motor setup. Seems like all get an electronic handbrake too.

207 I know less about. No clever but prone to failure torsion beam setup at the rear like the 206. 5 speed will be the BE gearbox, not sure about the 6 speed but possibly the same as the 308 SW.

Incidentally, our 308 SW gearbox has no significant change in gear change following it's fresh gearbox oil - still quite notchy.