Chris' BX blog

Tell us about life with your BX, or indeed life in general!
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white exec
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by white exec »

Outer sills
Finally got round to getting some chip-resistant paint on the outer sills yesterday.

Over the last few weeks, I had put the pale brownish look to the paint finish as just mud fling from our rural roads, but mud it wasn't . . . it was a beigy colour showing through the black paint on the sills!

Had half a tin of Teknox stone-chip paint left over from a previous job, and decided to give the sills a wipe over with detergent/water to remove any actual mud, and then a wipe with alcohol. Was amazed to find the remains of the black paint started to come off with water :shock:, and then lots more to lift off with a bit of IPA :shock: .

Not sure who had painted these sills, and what with, but a few months of car wash had obviously begun to remove it!

Got most of the rest off, and then noticed what was underneath was good Sable body colour, with a stone-chip coating underneath.

Wonder whether that stone-chip was original factory finish in black, and a subsequent respray (parts of the car have been) put body colour over it? All pics of non-sporty BXs I found seem to have black sills.

Anyway, a couple of coats of the solvent-based Teknox have been applied, so looks a whole lot better. Before painting, I straightened out one or two short sections of the vertical sill seam which had been used (as they do) as a jacking point. A squeeze with a vise supported by a trolley jack got the nice straight line back again.
Chris
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white exec
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by white exec »

Verdict on the AC
Must say, after all the pfaff, the AC on the car has turned out to be really rather good.

Apart from the new bits necessary for the conversion/refurb (compressor, dryer and pressure-switch, TX valve, O-rings), the big improvement was cleaning off the evaporator matrix, which was half-choked with dirt/fluff. The air-flow through the system is now massively better, and the blowers can be run at lower speeds. The cooling no longer cuts out if used for prolonged periods (guess the evaporator sensor didn't like what it was seeing), but just...keeps...working. Chuffed.

Also, with the evap now unclogged, ordinary ventilation/heating by ram effect (blowers off) is an option, which is wasn't before.

I'm guessing the system was designed with R134a in mind (Citroen listed the conversion parts), as it seems to work so well on it.
Chris
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by Jaba »

Interesting, I thought all BXs had a flap in the scuttle air intake which opened up between closed and fully open depending on the blower dial position to which it is linked by a cable.
This would mean that even with ram effect very little air comes in when the fans are off. Does yours not have this fitted?
The Joy of BX with just one Citroën BX to my name now. Will I sing Bye Bye to my GTI or will it be Till death us do part.
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by white exec »

The only flap valves I've seen at the scuttle intake are the two motorised Fresh/Recirc ones.
At moderate speed, fans set to off, there's air flow into the cabin if system set to Fresh.
At motorway speeds, air flow is appreciable.

Have seen the bowden cable leading away from the hot-cold control, but assumed that was just to operate a flap valve in the heater unit itself, rather than an intake control. Could be wrong.
Chris
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by white exec »

French horns - Jolliffe.jpg
Finally got round to fitting an extra Mixo horn this morning.
Plenty of space in the bumper void for the second one.
The original single (basso) horn always sounded a bit apologetic, so now there's a nice Basso+Alto blare to demand a bit of attention.
You can't beat a nice pair of French horns 8)
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by Kaapelimies »

I love my apocalyptic air horn in my 2CV, it really draws attention and stops even BMW's before hitting me ;)
BX 4x4 estate, several BX Van's and some more normal estates in Finland.
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by Jaba »

My horn stopped working a few years back. It failed the MOT as a result cos I hardly ever use the horn so was unaware of its failure.
Investigation revealed that there were not just one but two horns fitted. They are wired in parallel so that if one fails then at least the other horn will still toot, so both of mine had failed. It was just the wiring., which I repaired, added better support, soldered on new connectors and then had the sound of a two horn chord. It was F sharp.
The Joy of BX with just one Citroën BX to my name now. Will I sing Bye Bye to my GTI or will it be Till death us do part.
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by white exec »

Temperature gauges
Finally got round to doing something on the list from last year - temperature gauges for the diesel dash:
.
DSCF3998p.JPG
Had been looking for a GTi instrument panel for some time, but not managed to find one, until Eathan came up trumps when he stripped a BX (I had ordered a trim piece from him) only to find a GTi instrument pod languishing in its boot!

Some good fitting instructions on the forum, and another good 'how to' here:
https://citroen.tramontana.co.hu/en/coo ... ture-gauge
including what not to do on a BX with A/C with regard to the sensor wiring.
.
DSCF4002.JPG
Additional sensor (1337.72; I used a Febi 30767) for the water outlet, in place of one of the blanking plugs) with a single wire back to pin 6 on the 10-way white connector behind the instrument. Pin 7 would allow the oil temperature gauge to operate, if a sensor were added.
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by DLM »

"Some good fitting instructions on the forum, and another good 'how to' here:
https://citroen.tramontana.co.hu/en/coo ... ture-gauge"

That's very good fortune to come across the GTi clocks that way - it's such a reassuring mod to have on a diesel BX. The BX DIY page seems to be the poor relation when (or even if) people go looking for a BX info resource online nowadays, but there's some very useful stuff there.
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by xantia_v6 »

Chris, does your sump have the hole for an oil temperature sensor (on the front face I think)?
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by white exec »

Went underneath today, and was surprised to find what looked exactly like a second sump drain plug, a few cm immediately above the one used for draining, on the rear face of the sump. Presume this is for the oil temp gauge. Unsure of its thread, but oil needs changing before long, so will pull it out and see.
Chris
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by xantia_v6 »

These are apparently the dimensions of the sender
Image
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by white exec »

Later on, Mike, I managed to pin the pt.no. down - 0242 50 .
Found a couple on Mister Auto: that FACET 73099, and an FAE 32080.

Have already put the wiring run in (when I did the coolant temp gauge), so an easy addition.
Not desperate to know about oil temp on the diesel, but it does seem daft to have a gauge not showing anything.
Chris
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by white exec »

Vintage part for vintage car...?

Well, the oil temp sensor arrived today from Mister Auto - an FAE 32080 (made in Barcelona).
A slightly dated-looking small box, with pt.no. FAE 3208.
The brass sensor is the right one, but date-marked "1 94", so pretty much as millésime as the car!
Interestingly, it's also listed for a new Mini Cooper.

Oil change next week, so good time to fit it.
Do I really want to know about oil temp? Too late now...

Have used a good few FAE sensors/gearbox/temperature switches over recent years, and they all seem good.
Chris
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Re: Chris' BX blog

Post by white exec »

All good on the car, and earning its keep as our daily, not least towing a small trailer to/from the local recycle centre, as part of the house clear-out. Nice to be able to see what's going on engine temperature-wise now, and no surprises there.

The clonky front driveshafts got renewed earlier in the month, written up elsewhere. Not the most pleasant of jobs, but nice now to go round corners without clunks!

Injectors
Finally got round to having the four Bosch injectors serviced and recalibrated. Despite some dieselclean, the engine had become somewhat clattery, and not just at idle/when cold, but also at speed. All four injectors were found to be down on opening pressure (not sure by how much) and were reset to 130+5.
Fitted the re-furb'd set the next day, and the only grizzly bit of the job was the pair of short torx bolts on the front brackets of the air chamber, where getting even a small hex bit on to them was a challenge. Removed ok, but managed to cross-thread both (both!) when replacing. They'll get replaced with a nut+bolt when I get a mo, and a break from packing up the house for our move to the UK.
Anyway, car now drives decidedly better with the serviced injectors: quieter and nicer throttle action, more driveable between 1000 and 2000rpm, and clatter all but eliminated. Engine also running a tad cooler, which suggests one/more of the little fellas was being a bit over-generous with fuel, and probably not well atomised either.
Chris