Lonely In Scotland!

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tranentbx
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Lonely In Scotland!

Post by tranentbx »

She's got no BX pals up here :-( She's a lonely old girl....

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Tim Leech
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by Tim Leech »

Oh yes she has! Theres a few members in Scotland!

What a beauty, suitcase engine too!
Lots of Motors, mostly semi broken....
tranentbx
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by tranentbx »

Thanks Tim, yeah she's a good un'
Only problem is the hot starting mystery...
I wish you could search members by location so I could see where these elusive BXers are! Bit of an invasion of privacy though I suppose!

Pascal
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Tim Leech
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by Tim Leech »

Its a manual choke?, so I imagine starts ok when cold? it should just crank over and fire up when warm without touching the throttle (the one I did was like that), so could possibly be a carb/fuelling issue?

Strangely early Mk2 BX's (86-87) with that herringbone style trim and the light grey interior are very rare now, we had a 19RD with that interior, most left now are the slightly later 88 onwards green/red set up.

She looks in great condition, whats her mileage/history
Lots of Motors, mostly semi broken....
tranentbx
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by tranentbx »

Yes, manual choke Tim.
The hot starting issue has been annoying me for a couple years now.I think I've narrowed it down to fuel evaporation. I've had a lot of advice form the good folks on here! I think she is running a bit hot due to a lean mixture. The last emissions results showed 0.49%. The co2 should be more like 1.5 - 2% I think. Anyway, the lean running puts a lot of heat up into the carb causing the evaporation. weirdly, the car starts instantly if you switch it off and on again (when it's fully warmed up). if you leave it for 10 minutes or longer it'll take a good 10 seconds of cranking before it splutters into life.
I'm not brave enough to fiddle with the mixture myself but the local garage have offered to have a go whilst the cars hooked up to the emissions reader to see if they can get the co2 up to 1 or 2 %. This may or may not solve the problem!

The other thing I've never worked out is if it's been converted to Unleaded or not. I use an additive and assume it hasn't been converted but I might be wrong. I did run it on plain unleaded for a while and noticed no difference! If anything unleaded would make it run leaner???? I wish I was a bit more technically minded!

Otherwise she's in really good condition. I think she's one of the very last models with the old 150c suitcase block having been registered in April 1988. I didn't realise the grey tweed was rare now. She's a vision in grey! like if John Major had a hand in the design :-)

The paintwork is virtually flawless and the interior excellent with very little wear. The cars always been garaged as far as I'm aware and only has 66 thousand on the clock. I'm the second owner, the first being a gentleman in Stockport. He had it serviced religiously by the same garage. The service book has stamps all over the place since they ran out of space a long time ago! Everything works as it should. I've replaced the battery, leads, sparks, filters and recently the front spheres which were getting hard.
Rust is not an issue yet. There's a few spots here and there but nothing serious. I've treated/repaired it where required. The two main spots were the rear exhaust bracket and the offside rear sill end which was holed (now patched up)

I've had her at a few shows up here and am planning to go up to Aberdeen in a couple weeks to the How Many Left? show. Should be a laugh (if I get there) it's 172 miles so you never know.... I've not done such a long journey since driving back up from Stockport 4 years ago.
tranentbx
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by tranentbx »

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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by Defender110 »

Very nice indeed.
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Tim Leech
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by Tim Leech »

regarding the unleaded, if you don't do too many miles then don't fret, using an additive wont do it any harm but modern petrol's are a lot better now than when she was new, personally I always use Shell but that's my choice, it does sound like its running to lean though, when you have the hot start issue have you tried giving it a little choke to see if that cures it?

It does sound like she's running a bit lean which for prolonged periods isn't good so a tweak of the mixture sounds in order to get it somewhere near the MOT limit.

My 16 TRS was exactly the same except it was auto choke, would start fine when hot or cold but was a pain when in between.

As for rust, its what kills BX's these days not suspension issues, plenty of waxoyl is the way forward, a well ventilated garage and avoiding as much rain as possible (hard I know in Scotland) and salty roads....the nice thing is the suitcase engine is reliable and simple if a little unrefined and should last for many years to come.
Lots of Motors, mostly semi broken....
tranentbx
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by tranentbx »

Thanks Tim,

Usually pumping the pedal a bit to put more fuel through does the trick but it's a fine line between that and flooding the thing! I think your right, a trip to the garage is in order. Apparently though, (according to Haynes) the mixture isn't adjustable on the Solex carb I have (although I find that hard to believe!)

I don't take it out in the rain or salty roads if I can avoid it so it's always dry. The garage is well ventilated and none leaky (after many patches on the roof!) She shouldn't rust too badly from now on but it can never be stopped. My dream would be a full strip down and rebuild with proper rustproofing but that ain't gonna happen on my budget!

Bizarrely,Where I live in East Lothian has the same annual rainfall as Istanbul, Turkey! It doesn't rain very much at all!
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Tim Leech
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by Tim Leech »

Sounds very much like the carb is at fault, I imagine its been weakened off in the past for a MOT and probably they have gone too far!

It is adjustable however, I had the same car, same engine and same year which failed its MOT on the idle mixture being MILES out, I adjusted it myself (with a screwdriver) whilst on the gas tester and it came down enough to get through the test.
Lots of Motors, mostly semi broken....
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by deltic »

tranentbx wrote: The paintwork is virtually flawless and the interior excellent with very little wear. The cars always been garaged as far as I'm aware and only has 66 thousand on the clock. I'm the second owner, the first being a gentleman in Stockport. He had it serviced religiously by the same garage. The service book has stamps all over the place since they ran out of space a long time ago! Everything works as it should. I've replaced the battery, leads, sparks, filters and recently the front spheres which were getting hard.
Nice car and great to see a less desirable model looked after. Same colour as my GTi but interesting to see how good your paintwork is on a garaged (and older!) car compared to one which has lived outside for at least the last 13 years. But mine is looking a little smarter now fitted with Tim's old bonnet!
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1991 BX GTi auto, grey, 92,000 miles (2022 Citroen Classic Challenge veteran)
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tranentbx
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by tranentbx »

About the bonnet, does anyone know why the paint goes crazed? Only seems to be a problem on the plastic ones. Mine is badly crazed but only noticeable when looking from the side in direct sunlight.... Guessing the only way to fix is a respray? Is it only silver cars that suffer from this problem? Bootlid and carburetor pillar panels are not affected at all - must be different plastic.

Just curious!

Pascal
tranentbx
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by tranentbx »

Edit: c pillar is what I meant
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Tim Leech
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by Tim Leech »

It's the lacquer which is old, dry and brittle, you could repainted it but if it's not too bad just keep polishing to protect it further.
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Re: Lonely In Scotland!

Post by rutter123 »

My first bx was a 14re 150c with a 4 speed box B267KDP i seem to recall starting issues when hot too, im sure a carb strip and good clean done the trick, i remember the jets bein quite blocked with a carbon residue, access to an airline helps. That carb prob has best part of 30 odd years worth of crap in it, im sure service kits are still available., is adapting a carb from a later TU engine an option?
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