I'm going to kill that car soon

ItDontGo · Post by **ItDontGo** » 22 Jul 2004, 14:30

[:(!]
Just calming down after driving my mum's Xsara. Everytime I have to use that thing it makes me mad. Really mad. Its an awful bloody thing. There is nothing right about it but one of the worst things is the 1000/4000 rpm switch that takes the place of the throttle on a decent car. I think this must be faulty because surely somebody at Citroen didn't think it was actually nice like that.
When you try to heel and toe it all goes wrong (which is why I get angry with it) because it has almost no response for a short period of time and then suddenly the revs shoot up really suddenly. Its a similar story when you start to press the throttle to drive away so you shoot off all of a sudden with no warning as to when it is going to happen.
One thing I did notice is that if you give it a bit of stick it starts to cut out when it should be idling and also if you take the fuel cap off there's a gush as air is sucked into the tank. I assume this is at the route of the problem so what might cause this vacuum in the tank?
Even if that was sorted it would still be an 'orrible motor. Afterall thats not going to fix the clutch, the brakes or the steering is it! [:(!] [:(!]
By the way its a 1.4 8v.

steveallmond · Post by **steveallmond** » 22 Jul 2004, 21:47

Every car I've owned has a gush of air entering the fuel tank when I open the filler cap. It's never caused me any trouble...
Steve

Stuart McB · Post by **Stuart McB** » 23 Jul 2004, 00:35

Is this Xsara petrol or diesel? what size engine. We may be able to help with at leaste the stalling bit.

ItDontGo · Post by **ItDontGo** » 23 Jul 2004, 00:36

This was a proper gush - it was like a 'what the ****' moment. It might be my imagination but when I drove around the block without the petrol cap on I thought there was less of a tendency for the revs to drop when you push the clutch in.
As I said before it is a 1.4 8v on a Y

Stuart McB · Post by **Stuart McB** » 23 Jul 2004, 11:57

As you say the car drove better after taking the petrol cap off, could the tank breather pipe be blocked? this would cause a vacume in the tank which would eventualy draw fuel back to the tank from the engine and therefor a splutter or stall effect. Also could be oil vapor in the MAP sensor.

ItDontGo · Post by **ItDontGo** » 23 Jul 2004, 13:05

Do the fumes from the tank get fed back into the engine as some sort of emmision control? And also, would a new MAP sensor be required if that was the case stuart?

Stuart McB · Post by **Stuart McB** » 23 Jul 2004, 15:18

The tank should have a breather hose along side the main filler hose. This may be blocked by c**p. If so you get an air lock in the tank. As for a MAP sensor. If you can locate and remove it they can be cleaned out with a littler brake cleaner(not carb as this is too corrosive) and by leaving in a warm are for the oil to drain out on to some paper towel. Basically the oil vapours settle on the diaphram in the sensor and stop it working fully when cold. As the oil warms you get a better and better response from the sensor. You get a sort of stalling but onlu every now and again, no pattern to it, low ideling, revs going up and down but other wise the car runs fine.

ItDontGo · Post by **ItDontGo** » 24 Jul 2004, 14:29

If I was mad when I wrote this then that was nothing compared to how mad I am now!
Yesterday on my way home from a friends funeral the thing broke down on me. I cant believe it its only 2.5 years old. What are Citroen playing at these days?
If you're interested it was the ignition coils.
And even worse it obviously wasn't too happy about me running the air con all day the previous day and when I got in it yesterday it absolutely stunk of damp. It must have a blocked drain tube.
I wish I'd have gone in my AX!
On a lighter note does anybody want to buy a mint condition Y-reg Citroen Xsara? We've never had any trouble with it - runs like a dream! [:)] Father McGuire from our local parish never had any trouble wih it when he owned it either. And when we took it back to France the other week to get Citroen to do a full 35000 mile check up they said it was the best example they have ever seen [:)]

James.UK · Post by **James.UK** » 24 Jul 2004, 19:42

I may regret this, but I have to ask. Why don't your 91 BX 16V go???

Stuart McB · Post by **Stuart McB** » 24 Jul 2004, 23:53

This Xsara has got you pinned right tight. It'll go out of it's way to really p**s you off now. Don't you know that it knows all about how you hate it?

ItDontGo · Post by **ItDontGo** » 25 Jul 2004, 00:03

The BX dont go because I decided to go to uni and as I have said before it can smell my money. So I thought best to get a cheaper car whilst I'm an impoverished student.
Now I have finished, the reason it still 'dont go' is because I'm a lazy git and cant be bothered getting an MOT for it. Plus I love my AX. Plus it annoys my neighbours that I have a SORNed car on my drive. Hehe. But they are too polite to mention it. Hehehehe.

CITMAN · Post by **CITMAN** » 25 Jul 2004, 03:13

Must admit that I have often thought about replacing my old 95 zx 1.4i with an xsara vts when I was at university. But know ive got my degree and i know it sounds stupid but I cant part with it. So ill either run it until it goes pop. Or declare SORN and keep it on the drive and annoy the neighbours even more he he he he he he he he he he!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and get the vts.

mark_sp · Post by **mark_sp** » 26 Jul 2004, 14:33

Why does the SORN'd car annoy your neigbours ?
Mark

davek-uk · Post by **davek-uk** » 26 Jul 2004, 16:29

I have four SORN cars on my driveway - I can annoy the neighbourhood!!!
And it annoys the other half, so I guess the three none runners must go...

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 26 Jul 2004, 16:38

Take the three non-runners and make a couple of runners, make the Citroens live for ever.