BX19 TRI Automatic in Sydney

[michaelr]

As I announced a few weeks ago, I acquired a 1989 BX19 TRI sedan which had broken down and in need of a rescue. I am hoping to get the car running well enough to be used as a daily driver.


It has been a "Canberra Car", meaning it has spent it's life in a dry inland city and so has no rust that I can find. The flip side of that is that it has had plenty of sun and so the plastics have suffered, but that is normal with most Australian cars. A bonus is that it has only travelled 130,000 km (81,000 miles) which is very low as the Australian average is 15,000km pa for private use and more like 40,000km for a business use car. This has averaged just 5,500!




I have been around Citroens for a while, and have a 1974 DS23, but knew little or nothing about the BX. If i have a DS a BX has to be easy, right? OK, I admit a bit of further research, and the wonderful pool of expert knowledge here in BXClub, thank you, has shown me that it is still a real Citroen. Why do they make so many maintenance and repair jobs so hard?

Anyway, the reason for the breakdown was a cooling system problem which turns out to be a head gasket leak. Lots of gas in the radiator though no oil/water mixing. It as also terribly behind in lots of servicing and apparently has the original timing belt. Time to learn more about the BX !

[michaelr]

I made a start on the head gasket repair this week. I was waiting a couple of weeks for some parts to arrive so in the mean time I fitted a replacement second hand muffler from a local parts car and rebuilt the rear height corrector while I was under the back of the car. Wonderful, the HC is the same as used in my DS and I had the parts needed in the garage.

The other end of the car is a leaning experience for me. I have not pulled an OHC car before... always been push rod man

I have to say that although it took a bit of contortion and some patience with a rattle gun to get the crankshaft pulley loose it all came apart with no broken studs. There was of course a broken engine mount but I was told to expect that.







Now, my questions! Maybe someone can point me at a few answers?

The head looks OK with little corrosion and the bores are good. Compressions before I stripped it down was 170/135/140/170. But the gasket looks a bit sus between centre cyls and water has been getting into two head bolds. One is very badly corroded.





I need to track down a set of bolts and I will take the head a local engineer to check for flat and to lap the valves.

Two questions at the thermostat housing end of the head: Firstly the back of the housing hold three sensors but only two were connected. I cannot find any loose wires and the unused spade terminal has been vacant a long time.



Secondly the O ring seal around the distributor has turned to mush. There is not a replacement in the head gasket kit, just two seals for the thermostat and a "paper" gasket for the head/housing joint. Anyone know the correct seal for this one?

[mat_fenwick]

I'm assuming you have two warning lights on the dash (orange and red) rather than a gauge and a red lamp? If so, that accounts for two of the senders/switches. The sender for the gauge is shorter than the switches for the warning lamps. I'm also assuming you have AC? All the information I've read suggests that the AC system is linked to the engine temperature to cut it off in the event of overheating, but my system doesn't have any link and the systems that others have got that I know of have a temperature switch with two terminals!

Regarding the distributor seal - when I've worked on this engine in the past (in 205s) I've just used a standard O ring from my stock. I would have thought it would be easy to match it up from an engineering suppliers.

[michaelr]

I'm assuming you have two warning lights on the dash (orange and red) rather than a gauge and a red lamp? If so, that accounts for two of the senders/switches. The sender for the gauge is shorter than the switches for the warning lamps. I'm also assuming you have AC? All the information I've read suggests that the AC system is linked to the engine temperature to cut it off in the event of overheating, but my system doesn't have any link and the systems that others have got that I know of have a temperature switch with two terminals!

Regarding the distributor seal - when I've worked on this engine in the past (in 205s) I've just used a standard O ring from my stock. I would have thought it would be easy to match it up from an engineering suppliers.

Thanks Mat, yes, it should be easy to find a O ring if that is what is required... it is just that the one I removed was so degraded I could not see quite what shape it used to be!

The car has A/C plus the full GTi type dash with a coolant temp gauge. It seems to me that there are far too many sensors on this engine

[michaelr]

I realised the parts book shows the size of that distributor O ring, not just a part number. 36.5 x 3. My local bearing place had it. I also had a win, picking up new set of torque to yield head bolts for A$50. (34 GBP).







I got the head back, flat and with valves lapped so the plan was to put it back together today. Alas my stupidity has slowed me down. With the crank pulley off the timing belt sprocket was a loose fit on the shaft. I thought I could easily slide it off to look at the seal behind it. It almost came off but then stuck, so I put a screw driver behind it to gently lever it off. Result? Broken flange on the inside of the sprocket! It is so thin and brittle that flange! I just don't know where I am going to find one of these. I am thinking not many people manage to break them!

[michaelr]

Very pleased with the way my BX is running. It is now registered again and serving well as my daily driver.

[mat_fenwick]

Did you find a timing belt sprocket or chance it with the broken one?

[michaelr]

Did you find a timing belt sprocket or chance it with the broken one?

Hi Mat, yes, a local Citroen mechanic found me a crankshaft sprocket off a knackered engine and it all went together easily.

There is a bit of a surge in BX ownership in my neck of the woods. I got mine from Canberra and a mate found another, a white estate, in Melbourne. It was being retired due to a failing octopus. He drove his back to Sydney (840km) in about 9 hours and 3 litres of LHM.

We got together with another owner today to compare notes and share resources. All three cars are 1989 19TRi

[michaelr]

Thought you might like to look at a few retired BX here in Sydney. They expire here not because of rust or catastrophic failure but mostly because they are simply unloved, parts are scarce (never a big seller in Aus) and few mechanics understand them.... "funny French cars". Having said that, the early cars in this graveyard have dash boards and switch gear that has turned to dust from years of UV and heat.

The 19TRi pictured is very close to the same age as mine so probably arrived on the same ship. They meet again.

[Tim Leech]

Coor! look at that lot, early GS and a couple of Mk1 BX's!!

[TizzyD]

Plus a valver with morettes

[michaelr]

The Valver is not being parted. It is being stored while the owner considers restoration.

[MULLEY]

As above, wow, get em saved

Jesus, how many times have we heard that old story, it'll be getting restored, no chance, its been there years & will continue to stay put until its a pile of dust. Shame but its not ever going to get back on the road with the current owner.

[michaelr]

Thought you might like to see the little Teardrop Camper I built. Not finished yet but I took it for a run. The BX is a great tow car, just a shame there are no diesels here but the 1.9 injected motor is pretty capable.

[Des Smith]

How big are those wheels on the caravan!