The Aubergine

Tell us about life with your BX, or indeed life in general!
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MULLEY
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My Cars: 1999 Xsara LX 2.0HDI (90) Hatch - Fern
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2011 Mini Cooper D Clubman - SOLD
2016 Mercedes A180D Sport - Auto refinement
1992 TZD Turbo - Bluebell - SORN
1992 TZD Turbo Estate - SORN
1991 Gti 16V - Blaze - crash damaged, will get repaired - SORN
1990 Gti 8Valve SOLD - looks like it's been scrapped
2002 Mini Cooper S - SOLD - i miss this car
1992 TXD - Scrapped in March 2014
1988 CX 25 GTI Turbo2 - SORN
1996 - AX Memphis 1.5D - Dream - SORN
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by MULLEY »

It'll feel very fast i imagine, doing 40+ on a mountain bike always felt fast to me, especially when i was off road at the time ;)
2002 C5 2.0 HDI Estate - Jasmine - Now SORN
2011 Mini Cooper D Clubman - SOLD
2016 Mercedes A180D Sport - Auto refinement
1992 TZD Turbo - Bluebell - My daily
1991 Gti 16V - Blaze - crash damaged, will get repaired.
1990 Gti 8Valve SOLD - looks like it's been scrapped
2002 Mini Cooper S - SOLD - i miss this car
1992 TXD - Scrapped in March 2014
1988 CX 25 GTI Turbo2 - SORN
1996 - AX Memphis 1.5D - Dream - SORN

I'm not just a username, i'm also called Matthew.
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TizzyD
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by TizzyD »

As it's christmas time I've decided to treat the car to a 'new' head unit, a Blaupunkt Memphis SQR 88 which sounds much better than the Clarion unit that was in it before plus this one lights up so I can see what I'm doing at night now. The only draw back is the Blaupunkt didn't come with a cage so its currently sitting free in the slot but I'll be taking it out again soon to wire in the rear speakers as well as fitting some extra ICE so its not a big worry. The other present for the car (as well as my ears) is it's booked in to have the rear arm bearings done as I cant stand the noise its making now and it looks like I'm running more camber than Vettels red bull!!

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'02 Clio Dynamique 1.2 16v - 92K - Sold
'09 Yamaha YBR 125 - 1100 miles
'93 Bx 17 TZD Turbo - 240K - The Aubergine

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bxzx16v
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by bxzx16v »

That would have been one nice stereo back in the day 8), it suits the Bx well.

Mark
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citsncycles
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by citsncycles »

Yep, I always think a nice period radio sets off the interior nicely.
Mike Sims
BX 19RD Estate Mk1 - Timex!
BX 4X4 Estate - Oh god, I've done it again!
BX 17RD MK1 - it called to me!
BX14 TGE, - SOLD
XM Turbo SD,GS Club Estate,Visa 17D Leader,HY Pickup,Dyane Nomad,Dyane 6,2CV AZL,Falcon S,Trabant P50,3x Land Rovers (88" series 1,109" series 2a FFR,series 2a Marshall ambulance),DKW F7, Lambretta LD150 x 1.5,Mobylette SP93,Ural Cossack,Ural M63,CZ 250 Sport,Honda Varadero 125,lots of bicycles & tricycles including (but not only) Sunbeams,Higgins & Bates!
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TizzyD
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by TizzyD »

I only paid £45 for it, sure you could buy something super modern all the usb/bluetooth/card reader stuff for that but I like the period look, plus I have something in the pipe line for it when the (hopefully right) cable comes in from the states :wink:
Memphis SQR 88 (£633 in 1988): 20 watts x 4 channels, radio/cassette with a CD input to the front so should be possible to play an iPod or CD through it. CODEM III receiver, CPS, DNR, Dolby.

£633 :shock: :shock: according to this site
http://www.bmwccgbforum.co.uk/ice-cool_topic8740.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
'02 Clio Dynamique 1.2 16v - 92K - Sold
'09 Yamaha YBR 125 - 1100 miles
'93 Bx 17 TZD Turbo - 240K - The Aubergine

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citsncycles
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by citsncycles »

Sounds a bit pricy - I'm using a cassette adapter with mine. I got mine from Maplins for about £12, but I've noticed Tesco stock them too. Steer clear of cheapo Chinese ones on Ebay as they're rubbish!
Mike Sims
BX 19RD Estate Mk1 - Timex!
BX 4X4 Estate - Oh god, I've done it again!
BX 17RD MK1 - it called to me!
BX14 TGE, - SOLD
XM Turbo SD,GS Club Estate,Visa 17D Leader,HY Pickup,Dyane Nomad,Dyane 6,2CV AZL,Falcon S,Trabant P50,3x Land Rovers (88" series 1,109" series 2a FFR,series 2a Marshall ambulance),DKW F7, Lambretta LD150 x 1.5,Mobylette SP93,Ural Cossack,Ural M63,CZ 250 Sport,Honda Varadero 125,lots of bicycles & tricycles including (but not only) Sunbeams,Higgins & Bates!
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TizzyD
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by TizzyD »

I've got a Sony cassette adapter which I was using with the old head unit as it didnt have an AUX in jack, the adapter works nicely in this unit and if the cassette still in the slot when you turn it off it spits the cassette out for you
'02 Clio Dynamique 1.2 16v - 92K - Sold
'09 Yamaha YBR 125 - 1100 miles
'93 Bx 17 TZD Turbo - 240K - The Aubergine

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Jason
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by Jason »

I like the aubergine colour!
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TizzyD
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by TizzyD »

Cheers Jason :)

Bought these off ebay to have in the 'Parts bin', I had the arms done recently with some cheap italian made things but its nice to have these as back up ;)

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The cars been a trooper mind, nearly at 183K and going strong. Just insured her for £543.93 for the year with Admiral, with 4 years NCB and mum and dad as named drivers so not too bad plus I am only 22 years old with a turbo! ;) :lol:

Will be booking her in after the X rally to have the screen surround done and maybe get some rust-proofing done as well.

Not much of an update but all is going well and I'll see some of you at the X-rally. :D
'02 Clio Dynamique 1.2 16v - 92K - Sold
'09 Yamaha YBR 125 - 1100 miles
'93 Bx 17 TZD Turbo - 240K - The Aubergine

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Gary
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by Gary »

Good to hear all is well with the car Andrew, I do get an update from my daughter who sees you on the A6 in the mornings as you fly past her. :D
Which has her wanting to drive the TXD Turbo instead of the Saxo.
1992 BX GTi Hurricane x2
1991 BX Meteor 1.9d
1993 BX TXD Turbo, Ice blue
1987 Visa GTi
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TizzyD
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by TizzyD »

:oops: I did wonder if she ever mentioned the pace I have when I'm running late in the morning :lol:

Her Saxo looks great with the VTR alloys on though 8) I'll have to give her a turbo race down barton one morning once she's in the BX ;)
'02 Clio Dynamique 1.2 16v - 92K - Sold
'09 Yamaha YBR 125 - 1100 miles
'93 Bx 17 TZD Turbo - 240K - The Aubergine

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mds141
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by mds141 »

I was wondering who outbid me on the rear arm bearing kits. Andrew. ;-)
Mark Smith

Is it just me or is everything shit?

1989 BX GTi 16 valve. Blanc Alpine. Completed the Citroen Classic Challenge Ecosse and 1337 miles without a hitch.
2000 XM VSX 2.1 td Auto. Rouge Magenta.
TGD saloon many years ago.

1990 Swift 'Corniche' 12/2 aka BXClub HQ.
Honda Firestorm. Gone, but not forgotten.
2015 Triumph Tiger Explorer XC.
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TizzyD
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by TizzyD »

Haha sorry Mark ;) I noticed they hadn't been posted on here so went for them but if the valver ever needs an arm bearing kit let me know ;)
'02 Clio Dynamique 1.2 16v - 92K - Sold
'09 Yamaha YBR 125 - 1100 miles
'93 Bx 17 TZD Turbo - 240K - The Aubergine

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TizzyD
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by TizzyD »

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Jesus wept! It's been two and a half years since I've updated this blog.... :shock: :shock:

So, whats happened since then ? Not a lot really, car had been running well and clocked up a lot of mileage. She now sat on 240,100 or so.

Currently she's off the road as the cam belt has been due as it was in the ball park of 80k to 100k and being at least 4/5 years old so she hasn't been used much for the last 10/11 months, and with a change of job, Ive been able to walk to and from work as well as getting some fresh air.

At the moment she's over at Chevronics having the MOT done as well as the cam belt, water pump, tensioners, coolant flush, fix a fuel leak from the top of the pump where the spindle for the throttle arm is, and anything else that might be flagged up. Im going to wait till next year and some point before the Classic Challenge before having the new aluminium rad and silicon water pipes fitted.

But here is a recap of whats happened over the last year or so...

**** If you're on Facebook then you may've seen most of this as I've been doing it but if you aren't then here you go :wink: ****

December 2015

Fun and games with the window mechanism! The driver side window was shot, it would only go up and down on the bottom half of the window. Thankfully I managed to get a used one off a car djoptix was breaking down in Bristol and my sister kindly brought it with her when she came to visit. After much swearing it was fitting and working meaning I now have full use of the drivers window and one touch controls. Looking at the old mech I took out it's easy to see that it had been chewed up and lost half its teeth.

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Having fixed the window I came out one day to find one of the little s**ts from the Sixth Form College down the road had decided to take a foot to my N/S mirror. :evil:

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Not a happy bunny was I !! The car then went round to my late grandmas house to live on her driveway out of harms way.

February 2016

We welcomed a new member to our Citroen family thanks to Tim :D (Don't worry it's still being well looked after :wink: )

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With the white Xantia living on the drive with my mums blue TGD the red Xantia was on the road and fell victim to the same pr*cks who has smashed my mirror, so began several months of taping up wing mirrors and watching out of windows and reports to the police and Sixth Form and even when they had managed to match the culprits on CCTV nothing came of it :roll: Surprise! :(

Anyway, the red Xantia has gone off to a new life in Fleetwood with my uncle who's managed to source replacement wing mirrors for both sides and has joined the North West CCC club.

July 2016

While all of this had been going on, my Dad and I had been working on my Grandma's 1989 Ford Escort 1.3 Popular with a 4 speed with 33k on the clock and manual everything! that my Grandad had bought new. The plan was to get it started and running having stood since 08/09 untested and on SORN. So with liberal amounts of Easy-Start in the the carb and lots of jump starting we managed to get it running and driving.

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I part polished the car just to see how well the paint would come back after years of neglect.

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With the Escort running and driving we threw up and eBay ad and it sold for £500 which was much better than we'd expected for a bottom of the range poverty spec Ford running on 8 year old fuel. Still, the young lad in his 20s from Ipswich came with a trailer and took it away with the intentions of keeping completely standard. And Im pleased to say that it's MOT'd, Taxed and back on the road as of the start of August.

Anyway, back to BXs!! I knew mine has a slow leak from the N/S rear tyre so that came off and the spare on. Leak plugged for £18 so cheaper than a new tyre!

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That'll be why it kept going down! :roll:

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Back on and looking much better :D :D

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August & September 2016

This is when things got fun and I had a bright idea to upgrade the wiring to the speakers in the front of the car as well as add some sound deadening.

Sound Deadener:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Silent-Coat-18 ... +deadening

Cabling used :
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Van-Damme-Prof ... me%2Bcable

Speakers / Tweeters / Crossovers used:

Alpine SXE 1350S (used for door speakers i'll explain why)

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Alpine SPG 13CS (used the tweeters and crossovers from this set but not the door speakers as they protrude a long way and hit the speaker grill causing annoying rattles but without grills they do sound really good!)

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So, door cards off, removed the old moisture barrier but kept as much of it whole as I could. Fed the new wiring into the foam grommet at the bottom of the door.

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Next, popped off the rubber door tube/gasket thing.

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Made a hole big enough to feed the wire through and up making sure the hole would be on the inside of the door skin when pushed back into place.

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And then into the cabin following the original wiring.

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To stop the new cable from fouling anything I used the original securing hoop and a cable tie to keep it out of harms way.

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Now onto sound deadening. Having cleaned the door down you simple trim to shape, stick it down and then apply some firm pressure and mould to fit the contours of the door. ( I found the handle of a small knife really useful for this.)

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Ive left some cavities uncovered should I need access to the window motor or lock mechanisms at some point down the line and made a makeshift moisture barrier. In hindsight I would've used more deadener at this point as I have a few sheets left over but if I have the door card off again I can always add to it. Ive used some of the original barrier as extra padding over the top of the sound deadener.

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Door card back on and speaker wired up to the new cable.

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Side note: To make sure I didn't 'misplace' any screws during all this, tablet bottles work well! (so there is one plus side of working in pharmacy :wink: )

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This seemed like a good time to finally replace that wing mirror too so it was ready for the MOT.

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Now repeat everything again when doing the drivers side.

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Tweeters in, and while looking a bit 'bling' and out of place without the grills on, you don't notice them with the grills fitted.

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The original speaker wiring goes up from the A pillar and behind the dash under the speedo pod and along. But having had the speedo pod out once already to change a blown LED , I couldn't be bothered to take it out again so fed both the door speaker and tweeter downwards towards the footwell and round the steering column. So using cable ties and following other wires Ive been able to keep the new speaker cables out of the was of pedals, gone over the steering column and then down and through the central air vent thing behind the radio.

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<--------- A pillar toward the left of the photo. ^^^ Steering column^^^ Centre Console --------->

Tested to make sure everything worked and sounded ok.

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I used the same cabling for the connections to the back of the headunit as well and cable tied all the original wiring out of the way and labeled with masking tape and a sharpie.

While I'll be the first to admit that this isn't the finest execution for the end goal but it all fits, works and is out the way.

The crossovers are held to the underside of the dash using extremely sticky backed velcro should I need to peel them off and change anything. All other wires and cable have been cable tied out the way to reduce weight and tension on the crossovers so as not to pull them from their position, I also left enough slack on the stereo connections so I can pull the radio forward and get behind it without pulling on anything. I also fitted a aerial extension cable to make life easier as the factory cable is about 3" too short and is a real pain to plug back into the stereo.

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ALL DONE! Glovebox back in and you'd be none the wiser! Like I said, all original wires and connections have been retained should I ever need to remove this from the car. (Unlikely but just incase)

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Over all I would say it has made some difference. The doors make a slightly deeper pitched 'clunk' and sound less tinny when you shut them and the mids and bass from the speakers sounds much better when you turn it up :lol: 8) When driving I'd say it is a bit quieter inside when doing say 20mph to 30mph round town. I do have left over sheets of sound deadener so will maybe play with the rear doors at some point.

So now I'm just waiting for a phone call from Chevronics on how the MOT went [-o< [-o<
'02 Clio Dynamique 1.2 16v - 92K - Sold
'09 Yamaha YBR 125 - 1100 miles
'93 Bx 17 TZD Turbo - 240K - The Aubergine

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TizzyD
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Re: The Aubergine

Post by TizzyD »

Sorry for another long gap between updates but I seem to be coming to a cross-road with The Aubergine :-k

After suffering coolant issues with the car choosing to chuck its guts up out the expansion tank about 5 weeks ago and a compression test showing nothing alarming but was it was noted that the rad wasn't in great health. So new aluminium rad went in and everything seemed fine.

Then, a week later one of the braided metal water pipes going to the heater matrix had dry rotted and failed dumping all the coolant. It was coming out as quick as you could pour in into the expansion tank.

Drove the car for three weeks and again everything seemed fine until on Saturday I had more coolant lost from behind the engine but when checking the level in the expansion tank the next day all seemed ok. But the last few days Ive notice a small oil leak coming from the back of the engine. It looks like its coming from higher up and running down to the lowest point and then dripping off the back lip of the sump (my only thought is that it might be from the oil feed to the turbo?). Booked it in to have this looked at and on the way over I had both the orange and red temp light of doom and the big red STOP light come on but not the low coolant light. Parked up and popped the bonnet and things were smelling pretty hot.

Im waiting to hear what damage is done and what my options may be but in my head it boils down to three basic choices:

1) Continue to throw money at a 242,000 mile engine, have it taken apart find out of its HGF, if so, have the head sorted if it isn't cracked and hope this this is the last I have to deal with for a while.

2) Find another 1.7TD lump which is an unknown in regards to reliability/condition internally even if it does have few miles on the clock.

3) Swap the engine out for something completely different. 1.9TD from a Xantia is a common swap and its been done enough times to prove that it works well. A 2.1TD from an XM would be fun to drive but an awful lot of work to have to pay someone to fit as I wouldn't be able to do it myself. Or I do know of an 8v GTi engine that's fitted with an auto box at the moment but would an 8v with a TD manual box be worth the hassle doing a fuel conversion on ? I genuinely have no idea.

Anyway, this is my shit pit of a situation at the moment and I'm not sure what the future holds for my car at the moment....
'02 Clio Dynamique 1.2 16v - 92K - Sold
'09 Yamaha YBR 125 - 1100 miles
'93 Bx 17 TZD Turbo - 240K - The Aubergine

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