1991 Citroën BX TZD - Potentially my perfect commuter car

[matfenwick]

May 9, 2020 15:39:38 GMT Flynn said:

Are there any more horror jobs waiting for me that I am yet to tackle?

I think that you've already done all the worst jobs, so everything else will be a piece of cake!

[Xenocide]

Ahh man my dad had a K reg (what's that? 94?) white BX TZD. I LOVED it at the time. Seeing the interior again is weird. It's like I know it but i've not seen it in 20 years.

He used to pull us along on our skates with the wing on the back.

The seats were the most comfortable thing ever although they squeaked like an upset cat.

He never played with the very stiff suspension lever next to the handbrake due to fear of it breaking I think. I've totally got a soft spot for them. About the only french car i'd have.

[gentabout]

Have a real soft spot for BX’s myself and have loved seeing the updates on this one as it brought back memories of the 3 I’ve had.

E911 EMY pale blue 1.4. The synchro has gone on first and second and only worked when it was warm(my second car alongside a Dolomite that was my first)

J905 JFT. Red 1.4 that I put 150,000 miles on whilst repping for 3Com as I didn’t want a company car and this was perfect as it didn’t matter where I went in London I knew I could leave it safely and no one gave it a second look despite thousands worth of IT stuff in the boot.

The final one was Dark grey Meteor can’t remember the details as the ex keep that when we split up and I kept the Xantia that I bought to replace the red BX when a Viagra saleswoman pulled out of a drive on me and wrote it off.

Fond memories of all my Citroen’s and maybe one day a BX will replace the MGB GT.

Dean

[Flynn]

Miles covered since last entry - 600 or so.

Issues to report: The BX literally takes the pee out of me, traumatic unbonding, time to move on?

Xenocide - funny you mention not using the suspension lever for fear of it breaking, I thought mine was knackered when I first got the car but apparently that is just how they are! Can't beat the French for qaulity eh!

gentabout - glad to hear from a fellow Citroen sufferer. How did you know that this woman was a Viagra saleswoman? Did she offer up that information straight away or had sample product spilled everywhere on impact?

So since my last entry, there has been much trouble and aggravation caused by the BX.

It all started so well, lockdown rules were relaxed and so I took my wife out to the Malverns for a day out of socially distanced hill walking. 170 miles travelled getting there and back and then a few errands locally and all was well, really starting to enjoy using it again. Sounded like the exhaust was blowing a bit towards to rear and sure enough, the smallest and cheapest to replace section of exhaust had rusted out and must have split open when I dropped the exhaust to do the turbo change. Ordered a new one, arrived, fitted all ok.

Old and failed.


New and shiny. All of £21 - delivered to my door, how do they make money on this stuff?!

I also noted that quite a few of the dashboard and instrument light bulbs had failed so I bought some LED replacements - I was worried this might turn in to a horrible chav flavoured mess but they're actually really good and I can thoroughly recommend them. The one for the clock was too bright for me so I changed it back for the normal filament style bulb. I haven't changed every single bulb here, just the ones behind the heater control panel, the instrument illumination, the indicator tell tales and the one for the STOP light - which got a good test just a few days later but we'll get to that...


I'd been doing some reading up about the suspension system of a BX and I fancied that my accumulator sphere was probably on the way out, it was from 2009 and I did a quick 'see if your accumulator sphere is working properly test' (this consisted of listening for the clicks of the pressure regulator which were at about 5 second intervals and when the engine was shut down, I could force the rear suspension to the bump stops and it would stay there) which seemed to suggest a fail and so I ordered up a new unit and fitted it when it arrived.

Initially all was well however on my first journey out in the car, the fluid return line from the pressure regulator came off and fired LHM absolutely everywhere, I didn't notice anything wrong until I got home and saw what looked like the Exxon Valdez oil spill up my driveway and a pool of LHM under the car. I remember snagging this return line for a moment when I was removing the gearbox and so assumed I had disturbed it, probably pulled it out a bit and the newly improved return line pressure had finished the job and blown the line out completely. I re-seated the ball bearing in the pressure regulator, fitted a new hose clip, 2L of LHM and a big cleanup and I was back in business.


Joy.


Offending pipe with new hose clip tightly in place.

In the meantime I had also ordered up a full set of suspension spheres as they all had date stamps of 2011 on them and the front end was a little stiff feeling over some bumps in the road. I changed the spheres and the already good ride was now in another league, I've said it in an earlier post and I'll say it again, you have to experience the ride of these old Citroens to believe it.

I came out to the car one morning and noticed another pool of something oily on my now oil sodden driveway, towards the back of the drivers side sill - fuel this time! I had a look and found a questionable looking fuel pipe repair, lacking a hose clip, had to faff around and drop the tank an inch or so on that side to get a new clip on but I did and it hasn't leaked since.

Feeling confident in the old girl I fancied a trip out to Cannock Chase with my mountain bike so I loaded up and set off, I get there no problem but the main car park was more rammed than I had ever seen it, I didn't fancy that so I set off for a quieter place to park but the dreaded STOP light illuminated and shortly after, I could hear the LHM pump sounding odd. I started heading for home and pulled over to take a look at what was going on. LHM EVERYWHERE, that is what was going on, I couldn't really see where from, it was just everywhere underneath. I had a minimal selection of tools with me and no way of safely supporting the car to get under it. I had a full 1L bottle of LHM in the car so I emptied that in to the reservoir and set off for home.

10 miles later and the STOP light illuminates again. I pull into a layby on the A5 now, 15 miles or so from home. With no breakdown cover and no interest in walking to the nearest Halfords 5 miles away, I decided to use my initiative and use the fluids I had on board to get me the rest of the way to Tamworth Halfords so that I could buy some LHM and then get home and fix whatever was leaking. Fluids on board consisted of the contents of my still full water bottle and the contents of my very full bladder. That's right, I had a wee in the empty LHM bottle from earlier on and dumped that in the LHM reservoir. This emulsion of LHM, pee and water got me to Tamworth, I stocked up on LHM fluid, filled her up again and got home, when I arrived back I stopped short of my driveway and slipped the belt off the pump so that I would get less mess up the driveway. After cleaning down a light green coloured pee emulsion from the underside of the car, I found that the other end of the return line from the pressure regulator had come out. I think when I did the gearbox I must have almost pulled it out of both ends.

I set to with cleaning everything up and refitting that return line. I also found a split return pipe near the drivers side strut so I fixed that whilst I was there, I have since completely flushed and refilled the LHM system 4 times haha, I must have gone through 20 Litres or so of LHM. I have since covered around 200 miles since this fiasco and I am pleased to report I now have no leaks.

All this breaking and leaking (admittedly the leaking is mainly my fault!) has created something of a traumatic unbonding with this car and right now, I am struggling to find a good reason to keep hold of it - it isn't quite big enough for what I need a car for sometimes, since lockdown I've been working from home and I think my traditional 5 days in the office working weeks won't be coming back any time soon - so I don't really need a small economic car to commute to work and back in. In fewer words, I think I'm going to sell up. I might still change my mind but that's my thinking at the moment.

In the meantime, my P38 Range Rover is in for MOT tomorrow and I am also coming round to the idea of selling that too and then perhaps consolidating to either a really tidy P38, or a tatty Range Rover classic that I could smarten up over time.

Not sure. Anyway. Hope everyone is well and virus free and that life is starting to return to some semblance of normality.

Chin chin.

[Xenocide]

I don't think anyone would be jumping to own it after the hilarious recollection of how the underside and engine bay is now covered in your curse word.

I wish I had a way with words like you

[vulgalour]

Well... that was a story. It does sound like it's giving you some annoying issues to contend with. There's taking the p, and there's taking the p.

[georgeb]

Owning a P38 as well, you'll know their general reputation but never, once, have I had to piddle either on it or in it go get me home!

Great storytelling by the way.

[Flynn]

I'm glad that somebody is able to enjoy the trauma these vehicles inflict on me.

I suppose admitting that I have essentially used the car as a toilet and then offering the car for sale in the same post is a bit of a difficult sell haha. Maybe this is my subconscious effort to make the car unsalable so that I have no choice but to keep it.

Well in good news and with less pee is my P38 that passed the MOT this morning, it also happens to have fully functioning air conditioning which was very welcome driving about this afternoon! Absolute scorcher!

P38 photo from this morning just because it's great:

[callisr]

That P38 looks lovely! A nice one like that is a rare sight these days.....
Don’t get too pee’d off with the Citroen (see what I did there? I’ll get me coat....) we all fall out with out cars now and again (I even fell OUT of mine once!!).

[Brigsy]

Epic update, cant believe the pee worked

Ive had similar falling out with cars, the love comes back when they are sorted. I used to run the ph1 and ph2 Xantia diesels as daily drivers, the bar on the rear height corrector snapped when it was snowing in winter, did not enjoy fixing that in the snow! Still fond memories of the suspension, comfy and worked great after i had changed the spheres and give it an overhaul due to lack of maintenance from the previous owners.

[darrenh]

PHM fluid

[Flynn]

Miles since last report: 470ish, 260 of them just yesterday!

Issues to report: Maybe it doesn't hate me afterall...

Good day, so things have been moving at pace here and I have good news and good news!

For a start, this morning I have sold my P38 Range Rover - usually when I sell a car I have got bored with it and am looking forward to moving it on and getting something new and interesting but the P38 is quite different, I have owned it for nearly 4 years which for me is a proper long term car, in that time it has never left me stranded, always been good at whatever I needed it for and always scrubbed up well and looked nice and I've never felt bored with it. I'd certainly have another P38 again. The sale allows for two exciting things - the first is that it makes some space for a new arrival which I'll get to shortly and also with some cash in hand, I can finally do something about my god awful dust factory of a garage floor - I've thought long and hard about this but I am going to go for those heavy duty 7mm rubber interlocking floor tiles, Costco currently has them on offer on their website at £19.99 for 4 (which is almost a square meter) which seems a good price. I've ordered some and if I feel like I have a useful experience/opinion to offer about them, I'll post about it in the garage life section.

More good news is that the BX carried me down to Winchester and back yesterday (260 miles all in) with no hassle at all, it was comfortable and has gone a long way to making me feel like I can trust the car again for longer jaunts (maybe my long held plan of a week long road trip, visiting various Brocantes, driving over the Millau viaduct and seeing some other points of interest in southern France should be lived out in this car!). I think I might have some earthing issues however as the rev counter only works when it feels like it, the rear sidelights seem to dim a fair bit when the indicators are switched on. I think I'll take some time to clean up the earth points and see if that improves the situation.  

So what was I doing in Winchester? I was buying another car of course! Unfortunately far and away too modern to post about here but it is a car I have lusted after since I worked on them as a JLR technician in about 2009, at the time it was a £50k+ car and I was an apprentice so, just a little out of my reach but thankfully in time honoured Jaguar fashion, their value has plummeted like a big stone and so now I can afford one! I've gone and bought one of these...



So yes, P38 is out, X350 is in. BX seems to hate me a bit less now which is good and my garage floor is soon to be one colour and less dusty which will be really nice.

Bonus shot of the BX on a tea break yesterday, with RR sticker peeking out of the rear door fixed glass:


Also! Bonus bonus shot of a Paul Smith inspired Ford Scorpio limousine that was parked up near an engineering workshop in Nuneaton where I dropped off my MGB engine block 2 weeks ago, it looks like someone daily drives this and I can completely understand why, practical and stylish.

 

Well that's it for now. Hope you're well.

[matfenwick]

I can highly recommend a French road trip in a BX. They seem to be perfect for cross-country travelling on the fast D roads, and if you break down, spares shouldn't be a problem!

Rev counter is most likely to be the flywheel sensor, around £30 last time I looked. There is a brown 3 way connector above the gearbox with a grey cable downwards between the bulkhead and 'box. Trace that to the sensor (accessed from below) and make sure it isn't loose or too big a gap before spending.

[Flynn]

G'day sports.

Miles since last report - quite a few. Lost count really - averaging 52mpg which is nice. Just ticked over 87,000 so I think I've done about 3.5k over the last 12 months - not bad considering the what the last 12 months has been like!

Well it has all been pretty quiet on the BX front recently, it's actually been pretty reliable (until this afternoon but we'll get to that) I've gone through at least 2 full tanks of fuel which is about 1200 miles of driving, averaging 52mpg which is great. I've actually owned the thing over a year now, feels like 5 minutes but it was August last year when this machine entered my life. I've been using it daily to get me to work and back and do the usual errands a daily driver does, I still find it a bit small for the odd run to the local tip but it tries:



The old aftermarket stereo head unit that the car arrived with slowly died over the course of about 2 weeks, going from 4 speakers, to 2, to 1, to turning off and not coming back on one evening. I like a bit of radio on my way in to work in the morning so I nicked the head unit from the wife's Modus (she's working from home now and hardly ever goes out in the car so I should have ages before she notices and gives me a good shouting at) and fitted it to the BX, I now have a swanky bluetooth enabled stereo. I think it cost about 25 quid from eBay so you can imagine the quality - anyway it works so it is a big step up from what was there before.

In the meantime I have been getting my latest acquisition - a 2007 Jaguar XJ - ready for daily service so have given it a thorough service, including a timing belt change - seems I did that just in time because when I pulled the timing belt cover off, this is what I found:


Yikes! That is the belt that it left the factory with, 60k miles and 13 years of service and just starting to fall to bits. People who don't change timing belts because the engine hasn't done many miles be warned! Anyway, belts changed and that Jag is now ready for the road, which is good because this afternoon the BX let me down again. I had done I think somewhere around 2k miles since the last let down so we were well overdue, it chose to do it on my driveway which is convenient, although a little messy because of course, it has fired LHM all over the place.

I simply moved the car and parked it in a different spot, when I turned the steering wheel full lock to the right, there was a loud bang and then no more power assisted steering, I assumed it would be hosing the driveway down with LHM again so I got a drain pan and kicked that under the car, sure enough it looks like something to do with the steering rack has let go, I haven't bothered to look yet, I am saving that joy for tomorrow. I knelt next to the car slid my phone under there and took this picture:


Once I have fixed this, it will be a good time to move the car on I think, the car that replaces the BX is either going to be really big or really small, with a Volvo 960 estate top choice of big car, and a mk 1 Audi TT the really small choice. I will have changed my mind on that by tomorrow though probably. 

So yeah, BX for sale soon. When it's scrubbed up it looks pretty good!


Hope everyone is well.

TTFN.

[vulgalour]

Ungrateful thing. They're a superb car, and difficult to replace. Mine's moved on now, I didn't need a diesel in my life and it seems to have gone to the right home with its new owner. Hope you have good luck rehoming yours when the time comes.

[darrenh]

i bet a shilling some of the capacitors on the main board of the radio have vented. ive had this issue with 2 radios now, one a receiver and one a transmitter receiver. i noticed some of them are rated at 12v (ontop of being 30 years old) so when they are dealing with nearly 14 they have spewed their guts

[eternaloptimist]

A late 960 estate is a fabulous thing. I had a 3.0 litre auto, it was wonderful.

[lightyearman]

Much want for the BX

[Flynn]

Sept 15, 2020 23:47:19 GMT lightyearman said:

Much want for the BX

Make me an offer I can't refuse and it is all yours!

darrenh I'm afraid I'm rubbish with electronics, I just binned the failed stereo, Linkin Park CD and all!

vulgalour Yes the BX has some really excellent features and I've really enjoyed getting this back on the road and enjoying it for the last year, even despite the regular LHM hose down sessions it has provided. I have been following and enjoying your Lanchester updates, looking great!

eternaloptimist The 960 is to my eye at least, a really smart looking car, there isn't too many out there now so I think I'll have to do some waiting if I want to hold out for a nice one.

BX time...

So I got the car on the ramp and the problem was immediately obvious. The power assistance on a Citroen BX steering rack is achieved with a hydraulic cylinder, one end attached to the rack body, one end attached to the left hand side track rod - my hydraulic cylinder had completely failed, the end cap that I would guess would have been friction welded on maybe?? Had separated from the main body of the cylinder, I took the cylinder off and it now looks like this, hopefully this makes sense to you, it is supposed to be one assembly, with the shiny rod sticking out of it:



As luck would have it, a chap was selling a new old stock steering cylinder on eBay, I haggled him down a tenner to make me feel better about the cost but it was still £160 which is annoying. I fitted it this evening and all is well, I wonder if the steering cylinder had been giving up for a while because the new one has made the steering feel much more 'power assisted' than the old one did. Here it is, notice a film of LHM still everywhere despite many wipes over with brake cleaner and a microfibre!



The MOT runs out next month so I will stick it in for a test over the next week or two, can't see that it should have any issues but you never know what surprises await with this car. I have bought some frankly ridiculous 9" LED spotlights, was going to fit them to this to assist the almost useless headlights (I live out in the sticks, no street lights for miles so a good strong main beam can really make a car a lot more pleasant over winter). I was looking forward to how that would look but it seems like a lot of work to then sell the car so I'll keep them for something else, my wife's Renault Modus also has candle like headlights and would look similarly marvellous with a pair of 9" spotlights nailed on the front bumper somewhere.

Tatty bye.

[bumper3d]

Wow, I've never seen a BX power steering cylinder fail before! I've had the rubber collar with the return line break before but that was a minor niggle. Also your steering rack area looks remarkably clean compared to mine, it's all covered in decades worth of oily muck. Rust protection, eh?

BX is one of those cars where the headlights really benefit from a pair of relays and a shorter power feed. I used to daily-drive the BX for years and don't have any complaints with the headlights.

Sort of sad to hear you're selling it. I hope she finds a good home!