Got my BX

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 11:59 pm

docchevron1472 wrote:If not then yeah, buying blind sucks..

Guess that's the bottom line, short of appealing to the seller's better nature?

Post by **docchevron** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:01 am

If I was the seller I'd have felt guilty about taking valver money for a TXD with shit wheels and HUGE foglights frankley...

Post by **docchevron** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:13 am

I had a look at the item description on E-bay, it was rather sparse wasn't it...

I'm sure Silver Slipper is / was a member here though..Certainly that name rings a bell somewhere in the vast vacuum that is my head.

However, in the other thread realting to this car Touist dude said:

Tourist wrote:Update: went to see the car today, apart from a few minor chips/scratches on the bodywork it's great, nothing wrong with it at all apart from the heater blower, which has been bodged to work.

I have put a bid in, but already I have been out-bid, and the price has gone over £500. The car's condition is v/good overall, so I think it's worth pushing past the £500 mark a little bit.

I met the seller, he's not a trade seller and he's only had the car 5 or 6 months. Seems genuine enough, took the car for a little test drive and all seems solid.

So, my immediate thoughts would be:
Does it feel the same to drive now as it did when you test drove it?
If it does, then I doubt you'll get any joy from the vendor TBH.

If not, can you prove it's been arsed about with / had parts changed?
That wuld be difficult, if not impossible and obviousley suggests the vendor is a fraudulent shister, and I'm not at all suggesting that he / she is.

Given that it had been driven and checked before purchase I think really you're stuck with it at the price you paid TBH..

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:21 am

Does seem odd that these problems have only just reared their head.

Every car i've bought off the land of crock i've test driven before i've handed a penny over. Of course they've all had issues, some more than others (which i've tended to notice after owning).

The seller in most of the cases would have been oblivious to all but the major issues, & even i would have spotted not much power with dodgy coloured smoke coming out of the back, or a clutch thats slipping & clonking sounds whilst driving etc....

What happened tourist?

Hopefully these are just niggles & once sorted you'll have a nice car, but i'd forget about going back to the seller. You've paid for the vehicle & had the chance to give it a good look over & a test drive before paying (did you?), if you havent done that then the seller can quite rightly look at you with some level of hilarity.

Sold as seen i'm afraid & i suspect that unless the description is clearly lies, again no comeback i'm afraid. If you find the turbo has infact expired (or there are other expensive issues, if minor forget about it), then you might as well contact the seller to see what he's prepared to do as you've got nowt to lose. Good luck either way & keep us posted on whats happening...

Tourist · Post by **Tourist** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 12:24 pm

Yes I did see the car before buying, but like I said it was on a farm surrounded by dirt tracks and right next to a quarry so the roads were rough. This is why I didn't notice the turbo and suspension issues. I didn't get it over about 15-20mph on the test drive because of the dirt tracks.

I did take someone with me who knows a fair bit about Citroens. Niether of us picked up on the problems, so you could say it's our fault but we certainly weren't told there was anything wrong with the car!

As it stands, I owe my dad over £800 which I don't have, and I'm facing potentially very expensive repair costs for an already expensive car.

I'm down

but I like the car, and I won't let this situation get the better of me ...

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 1:26 pm

Tourist wrote:Yes I did see the car before buying, but like I said it was on a farm surrounded by dirt tracks and right next to a quarry so the roads were rough. This is why I didn't notice the turbo and suspension issues. I didn't get it over about 15-20mph on the test drive because of the dirt tracks.

You live and learn. He's had you mate, probably gave it the old lies about not being insured to go onto the road or lack of time, or low on fuel or some shit like that.
Next time drive it and drive it hard. You only get 15-20mins usually, so drive it in just about every capacity you can!

This time round you're gonna have to shell out on spheres, which are luckily cheap and easy to fix (although I wouldn't ask the same person who "knows about Citroens" to help you otherwise it'll end up clamped to the exhaust or something). This will sort the ride, provided it is just the spheres.

Turbo....finding the bits second hand isn't too bad, but fitting and stuff is a PITA. I suggest getting very friendly with a member local to you on here for help with that! (when I say very friendly, I don't mean....you know. But many of the BX clan on CCC are of that persuation I've noticed. Must be the wedge shape?!

Just put it down to bad experience, get shot of those rim's 'yo and ditch the mahoosive fogs. Fit standard ones from a TZD/GTi etc, get some silver speedlines and polish her right up. At least you'll have a very straight fairly low miles example which you know is generally ok. All you need to do is learn to be able to sleep at night again thinking about all that money!

Post by **docchevron** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:03 pm

/\ good advice really.
Ok, it's a pisser the spheres sound shagged, but, they are a consumable unit, and cheap enough, if indeed it is the spheres at fault.

Without seeing the car it's hard to say for certain whats up with the engine, if anything. It really could be that the wastegate is jammed, it's not unknown if the cars been laid up for a long time, or it could be something more sinister.

Like Kitch said, I'd ask a member whose local to come have a look at the motor and give an unbiased view of what you've got.

At the end of the day, as long as the body shell itself is sound, the mechanical bits are almost irrelevant. It's alot easier to change an engine or whatever than spend 300 years welding up the hulk of Titanic..

Tourist · Post by **Tourist** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 2:18 pm

docchevron1472 wrote:I'd ask a member whose local to come have a look at the motor and give an unbiased view of what you've got.

That's a good idea, but I don't know one who's local to me? If you are, please let me know

I know a mechanic who's looking at the turbo next week. If these repairs are too expensive I won't be able to carry them out, simple as, and I will try to phone the seller some time next week too just to see what he says.

Fed up

and I still haven't shifted my ZX! Need cash, I'm in a real bad situation right now but not to worry, things get better don't they.

Do they?

Way2go · Post by **Way2go** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 4:00 pm

Tourist wrote:
docchevron1472 wrote:I'd ask a member whose local to come have a look at the motor and give an unbiased view of what you've got.
That's a good idea, but I don't know one who's local to me? If you are, please let me know [/size]

'SE England' as a location mentioned under your avatar is a massive chunk of country, so difficult for anyone to say they are local to you! Maybe you have said somewhere in the previous 122 posts but it's not reasonable to expect people to waste time searching back through those.

There's a lot of help available here but in order to achieve it, you need to provide helpful information towards arriving at it.

ken newbold · Post by **ken newbold** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 8:22 pm

No Turbo boost, could be a really simple fix, like the induction hose off or split, I've not known a turbo to fail on one of these engines.

Do we have any photo's from under the bonnet?

stuart_hedges · Post by **stuart_hedges** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 8:32 pm

^ww2gs.

I'm also in "SE England" - if you're within 20 miles or so I'll come and have a butchers. I'm no expert but I do have a TZD Turbo to compare to so if, as Ken says, it's a case of something not connected right we'll spot it.

toddao · Post by **toddao** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 9:25 pm

Tourist wrote

I owe my dad over £800 which I don't have

when I was 19 I bought a Hillman Super Minx convertible that turned out to be a right dog - my Dad leant me the money after he'd also just paid to get my rusty heap of a '77 Fiesta through the MoT which I then sold. He forgave me, took longer to forgive myself.
You seem like a good bloke, we all do things on the spur of the moment, with passion, I'm sure everything will turn out fine and at least there's a few blokes around here who can help you. The deed is done, I've done plenty such thing myself and continue to..

I always remind myself : Don't sweat the small stuff.

Also, a friend was given an MGB V8 for his 21st which his not well off Dad had spent two years restoring in secret, all by himself. Within six months my friend had pranged said car. His Dad said : Don't worry about your bent bit of tin! ( then he spent another year fixing it again)

I love that. Don't know if any of this makes you feel better Tourist but I've been in your shoes many times and of course it gets better!

BX Bandit · Post by **BX Bandit** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 pm

/\ Nice comments Toddao........I Sir, salute you!

Kitch · Post by **Kitch** » Sat Feb 07, 2009 11:51 pm

Very nice Toddao.

But if I was your dad I'd be kicking you around the street

maxgreenwood · Post by **maxgreenwood** » Sun Feb 08, 2009 1:32 am

Tourist I sympathise with you - if it s any consolation i paid slightly over the odds for my tzd estate without really giving it a good test drive. It had two shot rear spheres and needed the rear arm bearings doing badly, and a LHM change, all of which i got done at Louis Barbour's place in Great Missenden while i was in London. I was blindly unaware of these things at the time of buying - i will explain... And yes, it was a stinger on top of the purchase price. I had spent the previous few months on the bxclub forum entrancing myself with the mysteries of citroen folklore and decided i had to have one. I nearly bought a TXD turbo saloon off someone, but decided i wanted an estate, preferably white, so when it came up on ebay with MOT and looking really tidy i just bid til i got it -- At that point i happened to be working in the UK for a month and the ebay listing fell at a good time with me being able to bring it back over to ireland. When i went to see it i wanted it so badly i was blinded. I'll know better next time!

When i bought it it had a fair bit of go, Louis Barbour thought it was ok, but it was not what i thought a turbo diesel should be... over the next year, it gradually lost all hint of turbo power so i took it to a diesel specialist here and it was quite a simple job - the diaphragm in the over fuelling sensor on the fuel pump. It has been a very steep learning curve getting to know the bx. before this i had a 1.9 ZX and knew next to nothing about cars, but i'm quite a techie so have got into learning about the bx - well you have to don't you, to keep one running

And since then as people on here are probably aware, there are several niggles with my car which i will be getting fixed in the next month or two. Its pretty tidy in its shell so i think its worth it.

What i did was book it in for a service with the best citroen specialist in Dublin and he went over the car thoroughly and did a detailed report on all areas that needed attention (for an extra fee of course! but i thought it would be worthwhile). So maybe you should get someone to look over it and decide whether its worth spending some money on?