Leaks, leaks everywhere

[assembled]

This is essentially a rant and a general request for guidance with an aging 1.8TZD Turbo.
I pulled my BX out of storage a couple years ago, drove it for a bit and then parked for another year due to failed MOT equivalent. Welded rear, did some orher repairs and recently passed. Now back on the road and it just won’t stop leaking SOMETHING. It’s as if everything is taking turns to leak. I *think* I managed to plug all the leaks from return hoses on top of the LHM tank, but it is still wet under it. Could be a rust or a crack under. Front strut return cracked, fixed with some plastic tubing and new hose. Radiator empty valve seal (aftermarket radiator) degraded - replaced. Seems to be some oil or fuel leak around the pump - slightly wet fuel lines. And today a pool of coolant under the engine, looks like flowing from the front, but can’t see if it something from the oil cooler or one of all the tiny hoses. And that’s on top of replacing all 4 wheel bearings, ball joint, steering rack and a lot of other small stuff. Last year pulled gearbox to replace that tiny rubber seal under the end cap and reseal the sump. Replaced valve cover gasket as it had just split.

Am I just unlucky, is my car is crap, or is this just a reality of the age of the car? I am considering ripping out anything not necessary for it to drive (oil cooler, other coolant-driven stuff), rip out all the returns and replace with plastic tubing, proper joints. I am not sure though if it is reasonable to expect to get it to a decent daily driver state at this rate. Bodywork is also in a sorry state. I could fix that too, but so far all time available to it just goes into fixing things that unexpectedly brake. I drove 500km this year and it is not a great fun so far.

[assembled]

Alright, seems some UV luminescent pigment is the way forward to find all those leaks.

[panky]

I guess you are just unlucky but I think these things are to be expected (maybe not all at once). I too have had a few issues over the last year or so like drive shafts, wheel bearing, heater matrix, exhaust blowing up (my fault) But I still love getting back into the car knowing that those things I've done are behind me and I've learned from the experience and, for a car pushing 200,000 miles on the clock, only to be expected.

[Kitch]

I'm going to be totally blunt and honest here, but are you working on the car yourself? What's the common denominator?

[assembled]

I am working on it myself, yes. The main thing, I guess, is a 35 year old car thar has done close to 400kkm and still has plenty original wear parts. Everything is at or past the limit. And I am not an experienced mechanic, even if I can eventually fix any issue. Eventually. Sometimes after making it worse.

[David]

It just sounds like bad luck and timing to me. The cars are beyond the age that many components are designed to last for, so things will break, it’s just annoying that it happens at the same time. I’ve had many leaks from my car and just couldn’t seem to stop them and it took much longer than I’d care to admit to stop oil pouring out of everything. It still has minor leaks, but nothing like it did at one point. The annoying part is everything that’s currently leaking has been ‘fixed’ at least once. Several parts have needed revisiting 3 times before they finally stopped, some of which were down to bad parts wrong seals and the illusion the leak came from elsewhere, but it doesn’t make it any less disheartening when you’ve wasted time trying to fix things. Once you find and fix the leaks with good parts, it should be good for a long while again.
I also had trouble with a leaking injector pump, which was supposedly rebuilt, but I had to do it again because the back seal leaked.
Just try to track them down and hopefully it’ll be sealed up in no time!

[Jaba]

As others have said you have to never give up and sort the leaks out one at a time. Eventually it will behave and become a leak free friend to you. Any BX of whatever age can and should be leak free if you really want it to be. My GTi in 25 years of ownership never had serious leak problems. Of course I had to work to keep it that way changing tubes, pipes and seals both rubber and metal.

BTW you said the LHM reservoir is wet underneath. They do rust through and become porous. If you lift the plastic disc at the bottom of the reservoir you can find obvious rust there with dark particles of rusty metal there caused by presumably water getting into the fluid.

DONT GIVE UP vive la BX