Talking B____X

Terry · Post by **Terry** » Fri Mar 28, 2008 9:31 am

Very a la mode for my second mid-life crisis a dozen or so years ago!

Fantastic times, still waiting for the third one!

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 3:42 pm

A very busy week over. Nice to be able to relax this morning. I have decided to get a few niggly jobs on the ZX sorted. The BX is my drive of choice though! I took it out for a drive this afternoon, before the rain, and decided to burn some 99 octane on the winding roads off the A12 - almost totally free of traffic, visibility good (no leaves on the bushes yet!), road surface good - but lots of camber changes to catch the unwary.

Brilliant stuff, but I must have a look at my pedal rubbers - they are worn and I think slip a bit when heel and toeing... Just straight rubber replacements will do - not into drilled metal and all that

I have sort of decided now to look into a car mechanics course at night school... I'd welcome anyone's views or experience of this.

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Sat Mar 29, 2008 5:05 pm

heel & toe, very good technique, never gotten around to do that myself, although i can double de-clutch which i quite enjoy doing when driving quickly....

Post by **docchevron** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 12:45 am

Never been to night school, but did look into going to a technical college in Bristol many years ago.
Courses can be very very good, but with things like mechanics and engineering, it's best to be trained (or taught) in practical terms.
Reading manuals and watching a 90 year old prof type scribbling away at a black board (ooh soory thats not PC anymore is it?), ok, white board, pen board, chalk board, whatever will teach you nothing.
So if you can find a good techy school that does proper hands on "learning as you do it" type classes then it can only be beneficial.

The best bit of advice I ever got when I were a lad was to look at specifics rather than the whole.

IE, if you know sweet FA about how a car works as a whole it can be rather daunting to start taking things to pieces.
But, if you look at each system individually then it becomes less daunting.
So seperating the hydraulics in subsystems (brakes, suspension, steering etc) and so on makes things simpler. I think so anyway.

Same with engines, I know people that will rebuild single pot Lister engines all day, but are terrified of stuff like 8 cylinder Gardner commercials.
If you look at the engine as 4 (or however many cylinders the engine as) individual engines stuck together it makes things simpler.

The old saying of "you're never too old to learn" is totally spot on.
Equally, and I believe this for all learning not just car stuff, if you are really interested in learning a particular subject, then thats 3/4s of the battle, the learning becomes very easy.

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 2:10 am

A very worthwhile philosophy Doc. It's all in the mind, I guess. I want to gain the confidence to pick up a spanner - or whatever - and have a go. I'm not thick - I can learn and read instructions - but you do need to 're-wire' the brain sometimes... I want to understand how cars work and how to approach fixing them.

Post by **docchevron** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 5:55 pm

A BX is a very good car to learn about cars on actually. Most jobs are very straightforward and once you've done the same joba few times you learn all the tricks.

However good you get at cars though, if anyone ever asks you to do a clutch on a Mondeo, or a Focus, run, run like the wind...

toddao · Post by **toddao** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 6:42 pm

Doc sang

run, run like the wind...

Chistopher Cross?

CitroXim · Post by **CitroXim** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 7:48 pm

Doc, you missed one

docchevron1472 wrote:However good you get at cars though, if anyone ever asks you to do a clutch on a Mondeo , or a Xantia, or a Focus , run, run like the wind...

And if anyone asks you do do an Activa Alternator or Radiator, play dead

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 10:58 pm

I've had a thought - could this forum run a feature posting theme - in the technical section: Citridiot's Guide to... covering (for us numpties): Routine maintenance; petrol; diesel... Changing a cam belt and so on - the key aspect being that these posts assume NO mechanical experience... Even a BX Essential toolkit might be a starting point? Just, as they say, a thought...

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 11:33 pm

There's loads of theory and nice diagrams in Gabor's technical guide - go to Citroen DIY site and follow link to technical guide (top LH Corner)

http://www.tramontana.co.hu/citroen/

When it comes to jobs on the car Haynes isn't that bad really.

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 4:42 pm

I was walking back to the BX last might, and under the lights of the multi-story car park, looked well good.... then I started to notice how small a BX is compared to 'modern' cars. It was next to a new Mondeo, which looked huge compared to it. Behind it towered a Nissan Qashqui (sp?) and to the other side was parked a Meriva, which despite the fact it's supposed to be a mini-MPV was much bulkier than it looked like it needed to be. I remember how our Yaris - small as it was supposed to be - dwarfed my neighbour's AX...

I know why cars are getting bigger, shame the roads and parking spaces aren't growing with them.

I like the Japanese idea of taxing cars on size (dimensions) too!

The Mondeo is 2 feet longer than a BX saloon... not particularly an issue, but when you consider it's also nearly 10 inches wider and 6 inches taller that's a lot more road/parking space.

M · Post by M » Tue Apr 01, 2008 5:56 pm

Philip chidlow wrote:I've had a thought - could this forum run a feature posting theme - in the technical section: Citridiot's Guide to...

What you want is here:
http://www.bxclub.co.uk/diy/

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Tue Apr 01, 2008 6:17 pm

Touché my friend

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 4:51 pm

Went away this weekend in the ZX, four up with luggage and a roof box. 492 miles at an average speed of 64 mph and 40.5 mpg. I'm impressed.

My eldest daughter's thinking of a car (she's nearly 15 but as she was born after 1991 she'll have to wait until she's 18 before she can drive). She wants a Saxo (don't they all) or a 106, or a C2 (I might be persuaded), or a Mini (dream on)...

This got me thinking:

Then got me worrying...

OK, in today's money I have a budget of say, £1,000-£1,300 (would be more but I guess insurance will hurt)... what is a good choice of 'first car' for a teen girl? I suggested she have our ZX TD - but in reality that'd probably be too expensive to insure!

Candidate cars (bear in mind we're talking possible 2011 values):
C1/Aygo/107(?)
C2
C3 Pluriel
Diahatsu Sirion
Fiat Panda
Fiat Punto
Ford Ka
Ford Fiesta
Peugeot 206
Renault Clio
Toyota Yaris
Vauxhall Corsa
VW Polo

Any views?

BX 16v News
Got the new Dizzy/rotor arm and HT leads on, and apart from the fact the king lead doesn't work and I need my old one still, it seems crisper (if that's the word) but the speedo's packed up... a couple of hours in the workshop on Friday will see to that hopefully. Oil change then too. I'll take the opportunity to do a general check - especially front pads and rear discs. I wonder about front caliper wear as I get a bit of a grunchy noise from the n/s front under heavy braking - under some conditions - but last time I checked the front pads and disc were in very good order.

RichardW · Post by **RichardW** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:11 am

Phil,

There appears to have been much press speculation about a change in the driving age and / or tuition requirements - but I can find nothing to say the Gov has even published the consultation yet, let alone moved towards legislation. At the rate the wheels turn, I guess you will need to be looking at 17.....

Small cars are no longer cheap - they are perceived to be cheap to insure*, so the price goes up, making the overall package become expensive

*nothing involving young newly qualified drivers is 'cheap' to insure - there's expensive, very expensive, and prohibitive!

You need something that is low insurance group, but just off the radar for most young drivers, keeping the price of the metal down - 1.4 306s come into this, as they are only group 4 or something, and can be bought for pennies. You could go a 1.4 ZX (which are usually given away

), but they're all at least 10 years old now, and generally 2 insurance groups higher than the equivalent 306, for no good reason!