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No need to remove the seats for the most part, Citroen designed them well. Ideally, the fronts do want to come out to clean one tiny area only I'm aware of and to make shampooing them a bit easier but I'm happy enough to leave things as is for the time being. I think I'd rather put the effort into making a Mk1-alike, I prefer the look of the bumpers without the rubber inserts, and the Mk1 wings, and the longnose bonnet... very, very low on my list of priorities though. Since it got a bit darker I went out and took some photographs. It's a night much like the one Stripey first arrived. Only on sidelights, but they're delightfully yellow nonetheless! Just need to get myself on eBay.de for some proper yellow headlight bulbs too... priorities, this is a low one. The car really *has* come a long way.
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Lovely work, nice to see the water beading off that bonnet
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,253
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Why eBay Germany? Yellow lights IS a French car thing. You can get h4 yellow caps in this country on English eBay. It's what's on mine. That way if a bulb ever goes, it's not a hassle to find a replacement, just pop the cover on a new bulb. I'll ebay you up some in a sec.
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Last Edit: Mar 8, 2013 8:40:44 GMT by Rich
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,253
Club RR Member Number: 160
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I'd not bothered to look them up, in all honesty, eBay.de had been my tip off for the cheapest option of good quality yellow H4 bulbs rather than caps. It's still really low priority so it can still wait, but your link is now effectively bookmarked for future use.
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i've used caps and proper amber bulbs, caps are a great idea but i've found they tend to break, still on the car i hasten to add
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Mar 18, 2013 20:28:44 GMT
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Right, update time. After finding a source of fuel at 99.9p per litre available in a maximum of 30 litres per purchase, I could divert some funds elsewhere. I'm not as wealthy as I'd like to be, but I could at least do some under bonnet stuff. The rear wing has got no worse on the rust front, I seem to have arrested progress of the cornflakes there so I'm happy about that for the time being, though the new holes I made do make a funny noise at certain speeds. I decided to finally get on top of the sluggish and stubborn starting issues. First up was to replace the suspect fuel hose that was pretty hard. I also found the fuel inlet pipe was leaking slightly where it meets the filter so that got a jubilee clip which appears to have resolved the issue nicely. This in itself made starting a bit easier, so I'm guessing there was probably a very minor air leak on one of these pipes. Next up was the glow plugs, I got a set of four NGK regular glowplugs for about £25 inc. VAT and, having done a spot of reading on the job, it looked like a quick half hour job. I set an hour aside just in case and set to work. It did look rather like the plugs were ready for replacement, they were all pretty tired looking though I'm basing this on how I'd expect spark plugs to look so maybe this is normal for glow plugs? All went very smoothly, it wasn't that difficult... here's a picture that illustrates the procedure. Impossibru? Why yes, that was the last glow plug I attempted to remove and it happened to be cross threaded. That hour I set aside for this job became three just because of that one glow plug. However, I did finally get it out with a little help from my friends and managed to install the new plug without cross threading it and the refitting procedure was swift and easy even with the back of my knees aching and numb fingers. Waited for the plugs to warm up, turned the key and the car fired up almost immediately. Things felt decidedly more practical now that I shan't have to wait for up to a couple of minutes before I could start the engine. Whether it's the replacement of the plugs or the fuel hose the engine feels smoother now too and less grumbly and willing to stall at lower speeds and junctions, though that may just be the euphoria of not having to be bent over the engine bay any more tonight! The other day I found a litre of suitable oil bought for my departed Polo that went into the BX which also helped smooth things out a little. I've priced up a new thermostat as the existing one has a leak and a replacement is never a bad thing, and the lower ball joint since I now have the tools for the job and it needs doing. The LHM/PAS issues will be resolved fairly soon too, just a case of having the capital to resolve them as is often the case.
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I suspect the glow plugs have helped most with your starting issues. When I replaced the ones on the Pug, they looked like your used one in the pic, and they didnt work at all. Nothing, nada, nill!Now it starts on the button. Keep up the good work.
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,253
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Same as above, XUD's don't like starting with dead or dying plugs. I got down to 2 plugs before I replaced mine and it was a chore to get going including plumes of white smoke, misfiring, ect. Turns out that the 2 glowplugs behind the diesel heater/filter and injection pipes were the originals and the 2 others were mickey 'mega-glow' or some other tosh. It's easier to just slip the 2 injector pipes off and do it that way, but all done now!
Edit: just seen the photo.. turns out the NA XUD has different injector pipes and they don't cross over DIRECTLY in front of glowplug 2. So yea, the pump plug becomes the hardest!
If you ever need any tech guidance, I have the workshop manuals here. Not a Ganyes, the citroen workshop manuals.
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Last Edit: Mar 19, 2013 8:27:07 GMT by Rich
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Mar 31, 2013 18:38:32 GMT
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rich: noted on the manual front, we'll see how I go and if I get unstuck, I'll shout for help. Right, miniature update. I've been feeling pretty crappy about my cars of late thanks to my current situation and the appalling extended winter we seem to be under the spell of. Since getting back from Brooklands I haven't had chance because of the snow or motivation when there's been a window in the weather to actually clean the old bus, so that got done today. It's very unlike me to leave it nearly 500 miles between car washes and even though I've got all the curse word off the car the weather was too cold for me to get any polishing or vacuuming of the interior done, it's very much an it'll do job. However, I did manage to finally get the ghost stripes off the back panel of the tailgate which means I'm a step closer to the next phase for this particular panel. Remember that rear wing I dressed up quickly? I knew the paint I used wasn't ideal and unfortunately some rust staining has appeared around the edges. It's not got any worse over the last few weeks and hundreds of miles so I'm just going to live with it for now, after all when things improve I should be able to weld in fresh metal here anyway so it's not the end of the world. I'm just happy that I'm not seeing rust bubbles getting worse week on week, the progress of the tin worm seems to have been slowed almost to a stop. Sod calling the car Stripey, I think I have to start calling it BX-xon Valdez. Prime suspect, looking around the engine and engine bay, is the rocker cover gasket and the fact I squirted some degreaser on the block which washed some of the old oil off... at least I hope that's what's going on here. I don't seem to be losing a great deal of oil, I just need some decent temperatures to be able to clean off the block and find the source of the leak more easily.
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,253
Club RR Member Number: 160
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Mar 31, 2013 18:54:26 GMT
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Cam box, crank and cam seals both ends. Usual XUD suspect leaks. Mine has had all 4 done now and seems oil-tight enough to call it a day
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Mar 31, 2013 19:23:00 GMT
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Well you know how much I like spending money... wait, that's not something I like doing at all!
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Rich
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,253
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Mar 31, 2013 20:24:05 GMT
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Well you know how much I like spending money... wait, that's not something I like doing at all! They are all cheap enough, the old cam box gasket can just be pepped up with a dose of instant gasket. The cam and crank seals on the timing end are easy to do as well, there are no specialist timing tools for an XUD, just poke an M8 bolt into the alignment hole in the flywheel, use 2 more M8 bolts in the cam and injection pump sprockets and that's as complicated as the timing belt gets. Then just a case of remove belts and sprockets, pop new seals in and fit a new belt. The LHM pump end is just a case of get the belt and pulley off and its right there in front of you!
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Mar 31, 2013 20:28:53 GMT
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I'm not using the car at the moment - financial constraints - so I'll just add it to the list. I've got to do the water pump and timing belt anyway - parts came with the car - so I might as well do everything all in one go.
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Looking good Volks, keep the faith squire...!
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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grifter: I'm trying! ___ Still plodding along. Since it was dry and sunny but cold, I thought I'd get out and see if I could sort out that stupidly stiff height selector. First thing is to get the car up in the air safely, axle jack under each safe point according to the manual and jack as a back up under the central jacking point. I did notice the rear axle stand location has a hole in the sill, so that's something else that needs doing before the MoT that I need to add to the list, even if I just bodge it with a view to proper replacement over the summer. Then, I wanted to see better what was happening inside the car and check that nothing had got wedged down the side of the selector rod. Removing the central console was easy enough, and it's the best way to clean it all up as you just can't with it in the car. Something to keep me occupied with later, I have no doubt, even though it's not really that mucky anyway. There was some detritus, namely a 5p coin and some cigarette filters, but nothing that would cause any sort of real problem. So that meant I needed to look under the car and try out the suggestion of a wire brush and some grease to free things up. The copper grease has disappeared, so I had to use WD40 instead as that's all I've got. I will go back and grease this properly when I have suitable grease though as I know WD40 isn't the most ideal thing for this application. However, it did let me see what was and wasn't moving. Underneath, the car is lovely and solid and the underseal still looks and feels nice and fresh. That was comforting, really, because I was worried about what I'd properly see under here. Couple of areas needing attention on the sills that I already knew about and the boot could do with a coat of underseal to keep things tidy, but mostly it's very presentable. I learned that the front half of the height selector rods move nice and freely, helped in part by the lubrication from the chronic oil leak/s going on up front. However, the rear rod doesn't move freely and the main culprit appeared to be the pivot part at the back that, from what I can work out, helps with height selection by operating the hydraulic balancer thingy at the back. All the little notches that the book shows as being present on this part where the rods go in are not present and look to have not been present for a long time so I'm not sure that's the problem. I did get some movement in the pivot, but hardly any and the rods were still having a tough time of it. After much fettling, and reading and trying to figure out just what was wrong I had to admit defeat. There's something here I've missed I think, or that is broken or missing... I'm not sure. Fact is, I can't figure it out and have a BX that no longer goes up and down properly, which is pretty disappointing. What's more frustrating about this is that when I got the car it did go into all settings, allbeit grudgingly with high and low, and was getting much better until the recent cold spell at which point it just decided it didn't want to anymore. I've no idea what's going on. So with that put to bed, I turned my attention to the rear lights which look dim and which I'd been told are very weak when you're following the car. This would give me a chance to look at the metal behind the clusters too, which is happily quite solid. Investigating the silvering on the backs reveals that not only is it quite dirty from accumulated road muck, soot and cobwebs but it has also started to lift off in places. Best fix here is to clean them up properly and repaint with a chrome enamel or similar to get some brightness back. I haven't the materials to do that now, so I've made do with a clean. Back on the car they look brighter as I've also cleaned the back of the lenses. They were about as mucky as I was expecting, it's one of those funny little design flaws with these sorts of composite light clusters. I'm trying to cheer myself on with this, the car has lots of niggles and no serious faults, it's all to be expected. Normally I'd be buoyed up by the challenge but lately I'm fed up of challenges.
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Brigsy
Part of things
Posts: 610
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Get it on ramps and soak the height corrector in plus gas. Keep wiggling everything until it moves. Ramps are safest option for the hydraulic citroens in m experience.
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Normally I'd be buoyed up by the challenge but lately I'm fed up of challenges. We've all been there and it does pass... What with Spring springing of late hopefully that vitamin D rich sunshine will help things...!!! Failing that you only have to look at how different the BX looks in order to see it's going in the right direction... With regards to the height malarky I am sure the above suggestion will help no end...
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***GARAGE CURRENTLY EMPTY***
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So, the height adjuster works a bit better now, probably due to soaking overnight. I'll continue to soak and twiddle the rear adjuster until it loosens off.
In other news, the BX is likely coming off the road when the Tax &c. expires so I can get through all of its problems (mainly the rust, if I'm honest) and the Princess will be taking over as my daily driver since she needs a lot less money spending to get her ready for the MoT... I can divulge no more details than that at this time.
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Apr 13, 2013 12:11:24 GMT
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I am putting this up for sale now. There are very sensible reasons for doing this, mainly that I need to be down to a single car again, which is going to be the Princess. Offers in the region of £180-200 invited (this is what the scrapyard offered me for the car as a runner) as the car still has tax and test on it. The car does have problems, most notably a leaking rocker cover and sump gasket and is in need of an LHM return pipe. All the bits you need to fix the car can be got for £50 delivered from AEP. Personal health issues mean I'll be better off focusing on just the one car, and since the Princess is the one I'll always choose, the BX must go. If it hasn't sold by the end of June (when the tax expires) it will sadly have to be scrapped. The BX has done everything I needed during my ownership, I'm not selling due to any fault with the car (though it does have some faults), I just don't think I shall be able to do it justice and would rather offer the opportunity to sell it on for someone else to enjoy. MoT expires beginning of June. Tax expires end of June. New waterpump and timing belt supplied, but not yet fitted. New glowplugs fitted recently. Rust progress halted on the rear wing, I didn't get as far as exacting the repairs. Pedal box is strong and not in need of repair A pillars solid with no hinge-area rot Fully cleaned inside and out with the exception of the headlining and engine bay which I didn't get finished, and won't now. Utterly reliable and runs on veg. Happiest on an 80% veg 20% diesel mix. So yeah. I'll be sad to see it go, but if it isn't bought then I'll have to scrap it, which I don't want to do, but storage here is going to become an issue in addition to my health problems so needs must.
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