Mike's Citroen woes

[mike22861]

I thought I would start a Blog rather than list the sibling rivalry going on amongst the Citroen collection they do seem to sulk lots like petulant children

Well the good news, in advance of the new radiator turning up, 2 tins of Radweld plus made the Activa mobile again,
in response to this the RE shed it's gear linkage (purely attention seeking behaviour) who needs 1st,2nd 5th and reverse anyway
so that's a job for tuesday night. I gave up with the Red Baron it has been despatched for garage treatment namely a few new water hoses and Lucas pump seals hopefully that will be back friday and delivered to Geordieland ready for its bumper paint in readiness for the NEC.
On a good note ive been running around in the silver Gti 4x4 and as of yet it hasn't thrown a sulk in the meantime the Nissan Juke has quietly sat and chuckled at the antics.
As a passing shot the Landrover dropped a gearbox bearing and now makes nice crunchy noises so some shed time required rebuilding an R380 fortunately removing the box from a landrover is child's play compared to the box in a Gti 4x4.
There should be plenty news to follow up on, wonder if they will ever all run at the same time!

[mike22861]

Red Baron update:
Pump seals replaced all bled alas flatly refuses to start
further investigation to do friday watch this space

[Caffiend]

wonder if they will ever all run at the same time!

Well, you can't drive 'em all at the same time ...

Sorry to hear there's a queue building up, guess the priority is to get the Red Baron ready for NEC? Glad to hear the GTi is running well though

[Philip Chidlow]

Honestly can't believe the Red Baron is being so troublesome. It performed faultlessly on the Challenge, and every day up to the day you drove off in it. Talk about petulant. Tell the Red Baron he's off to France again and he might perk up.

[mat_fenwick]

Cars do that when you sell them - the guy came to pick up the silver BX yesterday, and as he drove off down the drive I noticed the front suspension didn't seem to have risen! I wouldn't feel guilty Phil, it's an old high mileage car which is bound to need attention from time to time. But you picked the right time to sell

Mike, what are the symptoms? I take it you reckon it's an air leak?

[mike22861]

I wasn't getting at Phil it performed faultlessly all the way home it has just sulked a lot since.
first symptoms were an unsteady idle and reluctant starting which got worse until it would start after much cranking and then die 4 or 5 times and also a visible diesel leak out of the throttle spindle.
Eventually as it didn't think it was getting enough attention it blew a water hose down the back of the engine.
I'm going to give it some attention tomorrow afternoon.

[Philip Chidlow]

I'm OK, these things happen (the litany of problems that befell my recently acquired 806 are testament to that)...

I'm going to give it some attention tomorrow afternoon. The Baron will love you for it lol!

[mike22861]

The Red Baron lives albeit in more of an intensive care mode than pole position on the grid.
Fuel pump seals are done and with a bit of persuasion it started and eventually settled down to a slightly wandering idle.I'm hoping its more residual air then more leaks. Oddly it's other problem failed to appear despite sitting at fast idle and idle for about 30 mins not a drop of water did it shed in complete contrast to last time it ran when it would empty all its water in about 2 minutes.
Jennie's going to drive it round today and see what it settles down like if it's ok shes bringing it to Newcastle tonight.
The RE is fixed but needs the 5th/reverse linkage shimming which i will do next week but it's off to Flamingoland today and the Activa has held onto its water and is behaving quite well tho Jennie says she had forgotten how much fuel it uses so its been sidelined for the RE
I will let you know if the Red Baron makes it fingers crossed.

[Xemes]

Let's cross fingers

[saintjamesy89]

Your daughter is rather lucky Mike, free choice of TGD/RE/Activa! I wish my dad had a stash of BX's and other cool cit's that I could use - many BX's and with C6, XM and CX turbo of course.

[mike22861]

I did have a look at an XM this weekend then slapped myself with reality they are a really nice car but always break terminally on me.
Update on my collection the RE had a good day at Flamingoland but needs shimming it was difficult to get 5th.
The Activa is still active
No further progress on Red Baron I havent had time to look at it, it will have to wait until friday.
On a non Citroen note ive ordered a strengthened R380 box for the Landrover with Discovery ratios so thats another job to do when it arrives.

[Defender110]

I've ordered a strengthened R380 box for the Landrover with Discovery ratios so thats another job to do when it arrives.

Strengthened? Ashcrofts? I thought the discovery ratios where in the transfer box not the gearbox?

[citsncycles]

They also run high ratio diffs don't they? I'm sure I've read it as a way of raising the ratios on series Landies

[mike22861]

The 5th gear is higher in the disco its doing 80 at 3000rpm mine already has disco ratios standard defender ones are fairly useless in a tuned TD5
yes Ashcrofts they are the best. The tranfer box is the Quaife torque sensing which works very similarly to the torsen diff in the BX 4x4
My transfer ratio is different as I have the RR 20" wheels on.

[mike22861]

Red Baron update:
Back to square one yesterday it would start and run for 30 seconds then die i bled it with no improvement.
At least it will start and raise so its getting despatched on a trailer to get sorted they couldn't pick it up last time as they refused to winch it on the trailer with the suspension down.
Hopefully it will be back next weekend then it can go have its beauty treatment the others have behaved themselves fairly well.
I still have a spare Gti 4x4 needs a home.