c16rkc's mad house

Tell us your ongoing tales and experiences with your French car here. Post pictures of your car here as well.
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c16rkc
Donor 2023
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Joined: 31 Aug 2023, 12:38
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

Things that were bugging me...

First update is on the CL500, and I continued my previous investigation into the rough idling by changing the fuel filter and fuel pump on Sunday 21st July.

These are both located on the underside of the C215 chassis Mercedes, and are quite easy (if a little messy) to replace.

Fuel filter:

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Fuel pump:

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They are located here:

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Released, clamped pipes, and changed them over, spilling lots of brown looking fuel in the process...

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With all that back together, the car does seem to run better, and the idle is fine when cold, but when it heats up the idle gets rough again... so it needs more investigation.

On a positive note - the oil leaks seem to be solved!!! - no smoke at all and the floor is clean under the engine after several weeks. The ABC is also behaving very well, as there was at one point 3 weeks between engine starts and none of the struts appeared to drop at all.

So that's all the work that got done that weekend, as we had a sickly Spencer and had to take care of him...

On the Tuesday of that week I had the day off, and we visited the local "Bug Park" with my sister and her family (who are visiting from Australia).

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Aston and Spencer were not really that impressed by the Spiders and bugs there, and preferred the cool playground, and Aston spent hours on these pedal go carts. Very good for his leg muscles so I was pleased to see him enjoy them so much (we were previously advised his chemotherapy weakened his leg muscles, so I am always keen for him to do things that strengthen them). He was on these karts for most of the day, and he could barely walk that evening he had been peddling so much!

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So then that took us to the weekend just gone. My sister and her tribe had caught their flight home to Australia, so we had a weekend free before my next sister (who also lives in Australia) arrives for a UK holiday with her family too.

Lindsey was out at an RAF airshow with the boys on Saturday, they had a great time

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But I had to do a job first, fix the washing machine!

The control knob had failed, so I bought a replacement online and fitted it - along with the board with all the buttons on too, as they came as a set.

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I've repaired this twice now, and it's lasted us over 10 years... I am very pleased with it!

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So with that done, I could go back to cars.... lots to do!

...there is more coming shortly....
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c16rkc
Donor 2023
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Joined: 31 Aug 2023, 12:38
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

Oil be back

First car job of Saturday? Flush our and replace the gearbox oil in the DS5 of course!

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This video was fantastic, and told me everything I needed to know.

How To Change Transmission Oil Aisin Tf-80 / AM6 Citroen DS5 (DS3, DS4, C4, Peugeot 3008, 5008, etc) - YouTube

To get to the oil filling bolt, you have to remove the airbox. The screws holding it looked very suspect...

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Once done, I dropped all the oil out - this is a 2 stage process where you first remove an inner fixing, then the main plug bolt.

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The main plug bolt is the one with a tall upstand on it shown below. The idea is you overfill the gearbox slightly, then remove the smaller fixing from inside this bolt. Excess oil then flows over this upstand and down the centre of this bolt. When there are only drips coming out you know the level is right. A very clever idea.

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Torqued the plugs back up correctly.

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Then used DOGBOX to reset the gearbox oil counter.

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Then lastly I started the car, and used DOGBOX to monitor the temperature of the gearbox oil.

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When it was warm enough I removed the centre drain plug to release the excess oil.

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That was this complete, and I must say it was very easy. I took the DS5 for a short run and I have to say the gearchanges do feel smoother, even if it's just my imagination.

I then turned to the CL500, as I wanted to remove and inspect the spark plugs.

All removed....

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I took a look at the plugs. They look very dirty and I cannot imagine they are the best, but I am not knowledgeable enough to know if they are particularly bad...

Here are a few random ones.

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If anyone knows much about spark plugs, I'd love their thoughts...

But in any case, I have just ordered brand new plugs, and also brand new leads too, which I will replace in due course... I am hoping this will get the idling of the car back to where it should be!!![/size]

So then the last thing I did on Saturday was fix the exhaust heat shield in place on the Citroen C5, as it has been rattling.

In two places it had rusted too large for just one repair washer, so I interlinked three!

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...more to come I am afraid...
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c16rkc
Donor 2023
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

All washed up...

Lindsey has been enjoying wafting about in her Infiniti M35h; I have to say it is an astonishing car. Fast, confortable, spacious, and stylish - and it really suits her.

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But that leaves us with the new unwanted DS5.... sob...

So I decided the time has come to pop it up for sale, and I gave it a clean so I could take some photos for the advert.

Here it is after the clean, I think its a tidy looking car for the age, and given there are a few knocks and scrapes...

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Very stylish interior too.

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But this is the bit let-down with this particular car, the wheels are in an awful state!

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Jealousy...

It's certainly possible I have become a little jealous of Lindsey's new Infinity; I look at cars I can't have all the time, but recently I had been toying with the idea of an upgrade to the C5.

On the one hand the C5 is pretty tidy now, and I love the practicality of it, but it is also a bit disappointing, as despite me replacing all the offending suspension parts and overhauling the hydraulic pump, the C5 does not ride anywhere near as well as a luxury car does - the "BMW 7 series ride" myth about the Citroen has not come true for me, and while the C5 rides much better than a Passat or Ford Focus, it's certainly not in the leagues of luxury cars.

I also find that it bounces a lot on the motorway and dual carriage way, and when I am tired it sometimes makes me feel a little sick. It does not handle smaller bumps very well either, and when going over speeed bumps there is one hell of a clonk which seems to be when the strut returns from it's travel. I searched the forums and found a lot of other C5 owners reporting the same thing, so it seems there is not much I can do about it...

So over the last few weeks I had been contemplating what I might get as either a replacement, or as an "aswell" and came up with some likely contenders. I wanted to keep to an estate car, as I love being able to pick up stuff from the DIY store, or take stuff to the refuse center.

I have about £6,000 in the bank to play with, and I first considered things I could replace the C5 with.

The Audi A6 and Mercedes E class estates seemed like obvious choices...

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But for £6Kish you really don't get much for your money - the specification of most of these is awful.

So I then thought how about I keep the C5 for use alongside something more interesting. I picked a few luxury cars I liked...

Audi A8 - too bland... and only just barely in my price range too.

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Mercedes S class?... nah I had one of these before and I did not like it.

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Lexus LS - I love these! - but there is no Diesel, and even the hybrid is too thirsty.

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The BMW 7 series is also a bit bland, and to boot they are rarely very well specified.

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So that left me with one more choice, which granted always comes with a truly amazing specification, and lots of good ones out there in and around my price range.

The Jaguar XJ Portfolio.

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But I just couldn't do it... I was so close but I just cannot warm to the styling, and even when I get over that I am worried by the reports of squeaking sunroofs and blocking DPFs... I found one I thought was a good car, and intended to go see it, but then I changed my mind. I decided it's pointless me spending all that money and being disappointed with the car.

No I couldn't do it.

Then a hit came up on one of my automated ebay searches for a different car I never expected to be able to afford - one had been listed by a frustrated seller as an ebay auction. I loved the car and spec, it had a great service history though a couple of minor faults listed to sort, the car had been listed on Autotrader since March this year, at a price of £9K. I watched assuming the car would sail way over my budget, but it didn't... the end of the auction got closer and closer and closer...

Trouble is the car was in Scotland, but was being sold by a seasoned Ebayer with fantastic feedback, and I spoke to the seller about either flying up there and driving back, or getting the train.

With a mere 5 seconds to go on the bidding, I submitted my highest offer... and won!!

So.... I now owe someone in Scotland £6,600...

I'm not saying anything yet... well only one thing... would anyone be willing to tell Lindsey I have bought another car for me?
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CitroJim
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by CitroJim »

Those plugs look fine to me, they're just in need of a good run to get them nicely hot to burn off all the cold-running deposits. I guess the car has not been out for a good long thrash in a while.

Do that and I think all will look a lot better...

That is a great way of checking gearbox oil levels.. I first saw this on the AL4 autobox and is better than the traditional level plug arrangement.

That old ATF looked quite mucky! Well due a change by the looks of it.
Jim

Runner, cyclist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
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c16rkc
Donor 2023
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

Black as the ace of spades :lol:
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MattBLancs
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by MattBLancs »

Too late as you've bought a mystery in Scotland, and probably a good few classes down from the selection of possibles posted above, but I'm well suited with my new 308 SW, few bits of progress and comments on my blog

viewtopic.php?p=805859#p805859

Interested to hear about your new purchase and indeed the first drive home back from Scotland in it too! :)
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c16rkc
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Joined: 31 Aug 2023, 12:38
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

Thanks Matt - yes I saw your new purchase, but I have not read all the updates on your thread yet (I'm on page 84). The Peugeot 308SW is a real nice looking car, and very modern for the money.
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MattBLancs
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by MattBLancs »

c16rkc wrote: 31 Jul 2024, 10:30 Thanks Matt - yes I saw your new purchase, but I have not read all the updates on your thread yet (I'm on page 84).
Ah, I can waffle at a rate of knots! :rofl2: