Xantia Radiator
Moderator: RichardW
Xantia Radiator
Just got car MOT'd. No problems. Want to sell it to try and upgrade car, thought 1 years MOT would make it more appealing. Driving it last night and noticed water dripping out of bottom. Tracked it down to coming from radiator. Did the rad seal job last night, got to work and water still dripping out. How easy is it to fit a new rad for a 1.9TD? Knowing my luck with this car the leak is coming from elswhere!
Depends where the intercooler is & if it has a/c.Had to do mine a couple of years ago.Mine has a/c & intercooler in front of engine.Remove i/cooler pipes(if in front of rad)drain rad,remove pipes.The bottom hose to rad can be a right pain.Mine had the crap spring connectors on the pipes.Just couldn`t get the bottom 1 off due to access.Got it in the end after much sweering & cut knuckles.Replaced all pipe connectors with jublile clips,much better now.
A lot depends upon the age of the car. My '97er has the latter type 'push to fit' connectors and the top one is a breeze but the bottom one is a right bu88er; I had to saw the bottom corner off the rad, then saw the connector pipe length wise to break it off. With a/c and front intercooler I found the access to be quite restricted when removing the rad. If anyone is changing this type of rad it is essential to fully clean up the bottom hose end (it will be rusty) before reassembly - if it's not perfectly clean it won't be a good fit (as the tolerances are pretty tight) and if it isn't in correctly it'll blow out. Mine did this [:(] and as it is such a sod to get at I called the AA. The 'very nice man' spent 3 hours in the works car park scraping the hose end clean and refitting which was really, really nice of him - I'd have given up and relayed me home! So be warned - 'push to fit' - my arse!!!
I took front o/s wheel and inner cover off, removed hose from back of engine and bottom of header tank then removed radiator with it attached. I could then smash the radiator stub to get the hose out, stuck it in a vice and filed all the rust off, a bit of petroleum jelly over it and it slipped into the new rad easily and hasn't lost a drop in three months so far.
BTW whilst devising this method I rang a couple of Citroen dealers for a hose so I could just cut the radiator free, both said it'd be about three weeks to get one !
Pete
BTW whilst devising this method I rang a couple of Citroen dealers for a hose so I could just cut the radiator free, both said it'd be about three weeks to get one !
Pete