Cut & shut on TD heater pipe

DLM · Post by **DLM** » Wed Jul 18, 2007 9:06 am

Repair now complete (fingers crossed) to a very pesky coolant leak in the behind-engine area on my TD that kept me from even considering a trip to the national. Cut and shut but it'll have to do. Many thanks to Tom for his considerable asistance. The moment of truth now awaits as the coolant system's been bled....

If you need to get at the collector-box area behind the engine I'd strongly recommend checking all pipes there thoroughly, and in particular around the jubilee-clamps as two offending pipes found on separate fixes were badly cracked and perished just on the outer end of the clip. You don't want to end up going into that area twice if you can avoid it.

Unfortunately, the only way to get there is by removing driveshaft and intermediate carrier, and if you need to order up any pipes from Citroen you'll be immobile while you wait. Pipes do still seem to be available but there are plenty of RP number changes to look out for.

tom · Post by **tom** » Thu Jul 19, 2007 1:22 pm

Thanks for the kind word David. There's still the doseur to do which is probably even more frustrating than the plumbing but I reckon that you're winning - fingers crossed!

DLM · Post by **DLM** » Fri Jul 20, 2007 4:55 pm

Was it the big long one from the header tank that goes all the way to the water housing on the back of the block?

No Jon, it was the upper of the two heater pipes (the braided ones). Still bad enough as the engine then has to come forward to get it off at the heater end. Any of those pipes going is bad news, I'd agree.

I'd spent a number of weeks unsuccessfully trying to get hold of the pipe that originally went + which I fixed with some improvisation - only to see the car incontinet again within a couple of days. I was convinced it was this repair that'd failed. The one that originally went was the very short bit of rubber pipe which links the collector end of the metal pipe from thermostat to the collector itself.

Tom used the various pipes for wrong RP numbers that I'd collected on the way, a plastic jointer and my jumbo-pack of jubilee clips to do the cut'n'shut. The improvised repair, done with a cut-down of the pipe from the other end of the thermo-to-collector pipe, seemed fine (Tom assures me), as was the re-gasketing of the collector.

My RP number falls right on a change for at least one of the pipes there, and though it's only 2 RP numbers away from the RP of Tom's , he assures me that most of the fitments on my BX are different from his!

Post by **docchevron** » Sat Jul 21, 2007 2:55 am

DLM wrote:
My RP number falls right on a change for at least one of the pipes there, and though it's only 2 RP numbers away from the RP of Tom's , he assures me that most of the fitments on my BX are different from his!

I've never found two BX's the saem, regardless of RP number or model TBH.
I think they just threw on whatever was left in the parts bin at the time...

DLM · Post by **DLM** » Tue Jul 24, 2007 1:36 pm

Thanks Jon - but it was a case of finding a fix while everything was dismantled as my last experience of waiting for parts (from a dealer) wasn't a particularly happy or short one. 5414 is the RP number for reference. Jon - still have the bumper strip but I guess it may be redundant for you now (unless Ed could do with it).