Vulgalour's Vehicles - 10/03 Ignition Switch Woe

[rich.]

you have been busy!! dont forget the number plate
still waiting for pics of terrys plate though

[JPB]

you have been busy!! dont forget the number plate
still waiting for pics of terrys plate though

Yes, that Citroen's looking very attractive. It's amazing how much more enjoyable stopping for a quick splash & dash is when you touch the bit beneath the flap and don't get your fingers all oily.

Rich, do we know what Terry's plate is? Maybe we could guess and the closest one after a day or two would win a prize of an hour on a farm - one with tractors - which is at least 57 minutes too long but you never know, some of the southern members might like the idea of seeing animals that pose for free.

[rich.]

im an ex farmworker....

[mach1rob]

the dealer fitted it by actually measuring things before applying the plate to the lower tailgate. Shame they made an arse feathers of the rest of the work they were called upon to do, but..

As a mere work experience workshop lackey back in the day, one of my jobs was PDI and fitting of said number plates. Working for a small Ford dealership, we had templates for all the current Fiesta to Granada plates to measure and mark out on the new plates so the holes were in the exact place for whichever car they were being fitted to. Thems were the days. (even if half the time the cars the plates were being screwed onto had plastic bumpers on the front)

[tractorman]

I was just thinking of the Xantia this morning - just after nearly hitting one as I turned off the main road! It belongs to an indy Citroen mechanic and is about the same age as the one here. However, it's dark green and mud coloured and, at the time, was pulling a four berth caravan (it was going to turn left from a narrow road, so was over the centre line of the road). They also have a C5 estate, so there must be something a little special about the older car if they use it for heavier work!

Both cars are relatively recent purchases as he was always a BX fanatic - and had three or four at one time!

[Mitsuru]

If the C5 has the same rear suspension as the C4 that could be why it isn't being used
as a tow vehicle. The C4 was on watchdog because of it's rear air suspension failing
within a few years of being rolled off the production line. If you were towing it would
probably fail sooner!

[tractorman]

The C4 problem was on one particular model (a high spec Picasso if memory serves), a friend has a lower spec C4 Picasso and has no problems. He also has a Xara Picasso, which has had a few problems in the eight years he's owned it, but it does quite a lot of miles.

I'm not sure about the C5 suspension, but my neighbour has one (he sold his "R" reg Zantia estate to buy it) and he tows quite a large trailer without any problems.

For all that's said about Citroen's poor quality, there are a surprising number of the bigger ones around here and I can't think of many that spend much time in garages - and some get a real hammering!

[JPB]

That airbag suspension used on C4 Grand Picasso models was bugger all to do with Citroen's reliable and well-liked Hydropneumatic system as found on many Citroens from the '60s right through to more recent times. OK, spheres can and do go hard through nitrogen loss but they're easy to change, accessible and don't need an external device to reinflate their fluid component - as BL cars with Hydro suspension did - thanks to the system incorporating an accumulator device that keeps everything up and level.

Then there's the fact that 99% of the words relating to cars that you'll hear on Watchdog are pure crap! But scientific fact makes for boring TV..

[rich.]

i used the c4 picasso as a taxi, lovely drive but i didnt like the way the dipstick leaked/sprayed oil all over the alternator. i pointed this out to citroen at the srvice & they didnt seem bothered, i wasnt impressed with the level of response.. a nice drive but i wouldnt want one..

[vulgalour]

Citroens are surprisingly good old things. Sure, you get bad ones, but overall they're pretty great machines. Surprised me to learn it, in all honesty. The Xantia is a proper workhorse, you don't always realise just how many miles you've done because it just doesn't want for anything.

Today, I did something that many people won't understand. I swapped the attractive Xsara alloys on the Xantia with some much less attractive steels and trims. Mike also paid a visit in his silly red car.


There is method in the madness though. I agree, the Xsara alloys looked great on the Xantia, they really did, but they weren't very me. I wanted something a bit more me and to do that I needed to get the Xantia back on some steel wheels. The fact that the steel wheels have Michelin tyres in the factory size rather than Westlakes in a low profile is, for me, a large bonus and while the wheel trims do look a bit Halfords they are Citroen original. Note also the Xantia roof rack, front bar pushed back so it's more aesthetically pleasing to me. The gains in MPG without the roofrack on the car are so minimal that it makes more sense to leave it fitted, I pull the front bar forwards if I need a larger roof rack.






The other lovely thing Moog brought me was the parcel shelf. It makes a huge difference to how tidy the car looks from outside and reduces cabin noise considerably inside.


The new tyres are very, very grippy and the clutch feels better on these wheels than it did on the others. The speedo also appears to read more accurately and it's slightly less effort to get the car moving. In addition, the ride feels smoother and the wheels now fill the arches much better so all in all I'm much, much happier with the car as it is.

I'll be happier still when the Synergie wheel trims I've bought are delivered as I'll get all of the above and some sexy looking wheels instead of the so-so wheel trims look I've got going on right now.


On the Princess front, the Xantia was used today to ferry some repair panels up to the beige one who now has quite a lot of bottom ventilation that we need to rectify. There is a lot of bodgery, it appears that the bodging I'd already undone is now hiding in the floor pans in the form of finely crafted pink fibreglass hidden under bitumen. Best of all, the 'minor' repair needed to the front footwell turns out to be a rusty hole with a sheet of crudely cut metal fibreglassed in place with bitumen liberally applied inside and out. What was a selection of small holes has been made much, much worse by someone badly restoring the car in the past. The rear screen is coming out too, thankfully I have a spare screen and seal just in case, so that we can cure the rust in the frame that we stopped in its tracks when I bought the car a couple of years ago. Might as well get all the rusty bits sorted while it's in the garage and my brother and his mate are willing to tackle the work for 'something to do' so I can focus on all the other stuff I've got to crack on with.

We shall persevere, it just means the restoration is going to take a bit longer to achieve.