BX Club Forum

Hi all,

Here are a few photos of my recently acquired BX, following a few requests. She's no looker I'm afraid, but I need a workhorse rather than a beauty queen. The lacquer has peeled from the roof and the wings, and she has 167,000 miles on the clock so daisy fresh she ain't. But on the plus side (and saying this might come back to haunt me!) everything seems to be mechanically sound. I've got a full specialist service history up to last year and bills for a crazy amount of work. Seems like no expense has been spared on the workings. Only thing that worries me is that the rust around the driver door hinge is probably going to scupper the next MOT.. time will tell.

Here we go:

She looks great bud.

Nice colour too. 167K is ime sure no problem, make sure you keep changing the oil and coolant regularly and the problem re the door hinge can be easily welded. TZD Estates are highly desireable, took me a long time to find mine so well done.
In the mean time, cover any rust with rust killer.

Cracking looking motor, well done.

Andy

Is that the one that was in Manchester? Looks nice.

It was in south London - easy find really, just cropped up on Gumtree. Took it from Reading up to the Peak district over the weekend, very impressed - 550 miles over four days, no drama apart from a slow coolant leak and a suspension noise on the offside front. Managed 40 mpg as well, four up with a boot full of climbing kit. Also, it had a bit of a gender change over the weekend. Started off as a 'she' as my cars tend to, but he's now affectionately known as "Bruce". One happy BX owner so far!

Very nice.

should be nicely run in at 167k, finding good estates is like hens teeth should do u a few years service yet, there aint many estates that will carry a washing machine, tumble drier, and fridge/freezer (or a pallet of bricks @750kg and it still levelled up) all at same time and close the tailgate, great car wish i still had my bx16rs mk1 estate C220OCF RIP. Get that coolant leak sorted asap you dont wanna see the dreaded death lamps illuminated !!

Not that its important but I know a guy with a correct set of wheetrims for this car if you are after some.

I'd be tempted by a set of wheel trims but I'm skint as a church mouse at the moment so think it's an expense I could do without for the time being. Cheers for the heads up though I'm going to stick some radweld in there for now and see if that plugs the coolant, but if not I'll give it some further investigation. Sure it's as simple as a perished hose somewhere, got to expect these things after 20 years of service. Are there any particular common causes of suspension knocks on these? The hydraulics seem fine, thinking it's just a bush or mounting somewhere that's gone.

Someone call the badge police - they're all over the shop!

Yes, I saw this one on Gumtree, looking mean in Low Glad to see it on here!

And it has headlamp protectors!!!

It's been said elsewhere on the forum, but sticking Radweld in may cure the leak, but it could also possibly jam up the heater tap. A lot of the hoses for these are no longer available, but the smaller ones at least can be substituted by silicone items. I found that all the heater hoses down the back of the engine were failing due to oil contamination on mine.

Good looking motor by the way - if you want to see a rough one look at my 'Timex' blog!

ruari wrote:I'd be tempted by a set of wheel trims but I'm skint as a church mouse at the moment so think it's an expense I could do without for the time being. Cheers for the heads up though I'm going to stick some radweld in there for now and see if that plugs the coolant, but if not I'll give it some further investigation. Sure it's as simple as a perished hose somewhere, got to expect these things after 20 years of service. Are there any particular common causes of suspension knocks on these? The hydraulics seem fine, thinking it's just a bush or mounting somewhere that's gone.

front suspension knock usually caused by worn drop links/stabiliser bar or poss worn ball joints, rear knock more than likely rear arm bearings, all widely available GSF will keep all of these items from stock tho the rear arm kits are listed for a C15 Van they are the same.

citsncycles wrote:It's been said elsewhere on the forum, but sticking Radweld in may cure the leak, but it could also possibly jam up the heater tap.

What he said - radweld's a bad idea. Have you checked the actual whereabouts of the leak yet? it's very common on these to have a slight weep from the water pump. Sometimes it can go on for months and years withot getting any worse, but sometimes it can dump its guts with alarming rapdity (almost always just when it's least convenient - my last one chose to go when we were in the south of France...). Pumps are cheap as chips, and it's a good excuse to do the timing belt as well, unless you know for sure it's been done recently.

167,000 miles is low... mine is on 213,000. doesnt burn oil or drip
needs regular oil changes. Just found a crack on the pedal box tho so something to watch out for.