Relocating the multiway rubber "octopus" in hydrau

[novomanbx]

Some little time ago, having had a quote from local garage to replace said beast for over £800 I became very motivated to DIY.
Have successfully removed old beast from behind driveshafts etc in a deeply inaccesible place I have relocated it just under the reservoir tank and run extended tubing around through the space where the windscreen washer reservoirs sit. It works really well and I can recommend the move.
At the time Plieades ( Sawtry) ( fantastically helpful company) provided the flexible tubing, they seem to have disappeared from the map and I need some more low pressure tubing and suitable connectors to improve the layout, can any one recommend a company to supply?

[stuart_hedges]

Eight Hundred Quid

I once sold a car because of a £250 quote on this job. No wonder you did it yourself. How long did it take, out of interest?

Pleiades have moved here, to a site which will probably get them a lot more Google hits than their difficult-to-spell old name. I'm sure someone will be along to correct me in a minute if I'm wrong, but I do believe fuel hose will do the job just as well. Don't be tempted to use rad hose though - it will melt.

David and I will be tackling this job on the TZD Break next weekend (OK, David will be tackling it and I'll be drinking cider and making silly jokes) and I think it's time for a photo-guide to doing this job.

From what I've been hearing, it's a do-able DIY job that garages really take the piss on.

[novomanbx]

The garage excuse was that they would have to remove half the car, well the driveshaft to get at it. I found I did n't have to do this.
The difficult bit was tracking down where all of the tubes went! I had to cut up the old octopus to double check what went where!
Don't just rip it out the octopus does unexpected things internally.
I 've still got my "map" somewhere, if its' any use I 'll scan it and send you a copy.
Once you've worked out where to go it takes about two or three hours (mind you I do work very slowly!!)
If you want to clear out all of the old tubing that takes time because there are solid lengths of tubes bolted to the subframe.
To get the beast out of it laire just cut off the limbs. Ideally work form above and below, with car up on ramps, (mine jumped off the axle stands, very hairy!)
To fit new use new tubing to extend the run, I used some redundant plastic tubing from the system with preformed rims as connectors.
I ran out of these and used some ordinary plastic water pipe connectors but I don't know how long these will last in the fluid.
On the nearside of the car I drilled a hole near the water reservoir to run tubes across from one side of the car to the other. The tubes can be wriggled through an existing hole by the other reservoir.
Everything is alot more accessible. I've held pipes in place by bundling them in thick water pipe sponge insulation and using cable ties to keep it all in place.
I also used cable ties to tighten up on the connectors.
Where the connectors were a tight fit I warmed the rubber fluid tubing a bit, it just eased it to get the connector in. Once it had cooled it made a good leak proof joint.
good luck with the project.
It only cost me £40 for the new octopus so I was greatly encouraged thinking of the £760 saving I was making!!!

[stuart_hedges]

Thanks, novoman, that's useful stuff. I imagine your map will be useful to the whole forum - would you post it so that everyone can benefit? I have web space coming out of my ears so I can host it if you want.

The driveshaft issue seems to be personal preference - some people find it easier to remove it, others are happy to go ahead even with it in the way.

You really need to start going to another garage. I'm assuming you're not a trained mechanic - if it took you three hours, they should have been able to do it in two, so they're clearly charging around £300 per hour in labour...

This kind of thing makes me really cross; it's the reason good cars get scrapped. I was once told (by two separate garages!) that I'd have to scrap a good BX because the rear exhaust hanger was broken...

[ken newbold]

Novomanbx, never having met you, you must look very stupid, or at least your garage thinks so.

Honestly I have replaced these in 2 hours without removing anything more the the o/s wheel.

I had a problem with one last night and was in two minds whether to do the bodge repair or change the whole thing.

In the end it was just the end of the height corrector return pipe that had a split in it, cut back, new clip, job done. 1/2 hour

and I still have my spare 8 legged beast waiting for another day!

[novomanbx]

ken, didn't you know that some citroen main dealers only use gold plated tools and parts and charge over £70 an hour labour , oh, of course if your up against an MOT deadline and over a barrel they never find half a dozen extras to whack up the extra ..do they!

We can all look stupid or is it "seen as having little other choice" under such circumstances.

One reason so sad to see the apparent demise (for repair work and their honest advice) of Pleiades, a rare breed who I've used since the days of owning my first fairly new GS.

Bodge repairs are never worthwhile, inspired design improvements maybe.

Three hours was good going for someone of my age and fairly limited resources, long gone are the days when I could whip out an engine and recondition it at the kerbside in the blink of an eye!!!
Stuart, will dig out the diagram, is a bit back of the envelope but the notes on it might be useful to another owner driver: (I'm sure all trained mechanics don't have these problems)
take care out there ya all

[novomanbx]

ken, just realised why it took me so long, if you got at it from the o/s , I was working thinking mine was on the nearside!!! noo wonder it was so difficult to reach.
Oh and that hole I drilled near the water reservior was on the offside everyone. sorry about that mistook!!

[AndersDK]

There is no explicit reason to use the dreaded Octopus for collecting the various fluid returns.

Its just there as it was the easiest way on the production line to connect the varoius returns - and hence the cheapest.

You can do each individual return line and collect them in small "manifolds" - using dead standard plastic Y or T connectors.
The only thing to note is, that the groups of returns must be maintained, as some of them has a quite high reurn flow.
If you mix them up, you may get unwanted leaks because of "backflow".

You can use any type of petrol hose or the clear PVC hosing that will withstand mineral oil, as the LHM fluid is a mineral oil base.

[Kevin B]

In response to the originator of this thread, it may be of interest to know that the 4x4 Bx estate has the octopus relocated to on top of the drivers side inner wing. No doubt due the conjested nature of where the octopus would normally reside.
Hence it is one of the few easy things to replace on a Bx 4x4.

[kiwi]

I think there would be a lot of people interested in a easy fix DIY way of making an octopus fitting to replace in case of failure. Well me for one knowing it will cost me $280 for a new pipe in Kiwiland. Thats over 100 quid before labour for fitting.

[novomanbx]

Just to apologise for not having posted octopus map yet, spent rather longer than anticpated under the car today unsuccesfully trying to fit the clip around the bottom of the front suspension strut to hold a new vent + overflow rubber thingy inplace.
HELP, is there a special or not so special tool for this????

Looking at the map it does need a little tidying, too much grunge on it to scan a decent copy.
Will post asap, hope its of use.

[Way2go]

HELP, is there a special or not so special tool for this????

Carpenters Pincers are what you need

[novomanbx]

thanks will look around

[DLM]

I've sniffed a lot around octopi lately, and have come to the conclusion

"if it ain't broke don't fix it, but when it does, just do the bit that's broken".

This particularly applies to cars that you know have only limited life left - for long-termers a new Citroen octopus or a radical re-plumb as described above are probably better options.

As I've just posted elsewhere, there are 3 unconnected sub-sections to the octopus, and if one fails, then why do the other 2 if they remain sound and you don't have to do it at that time? The main investment is time rather than money, though I will admit to an aversion to removing driveshafts unless I really have to. That said, you can make enough space though undoing the timing-belt-side engine mount and carefully raising the engine on a BX already up on stands at the front end.

Admittedly, I've mainly done this for BXs owned by a gentleman whose bread-and-butter business includes gas and low-pressure water-supply plumbing for caravans and campers. As a consequence he has plenty of 1/4" copper-tube fittings which allow you to make up and adapt fittings so as to join into the BXs return plumbing, and I've also used some spare wash-wipe tubing for patching-in new sub-assemblies where needed .

I'll post some example pics on Photobucket as and when.

[stuart_hedges]

I've sniffed a lot around octopi lately, and have come to the conclusion

"if it ain't broke don't fix it, but when it does, just do the bit that's broken".

In the end, that's what David did to mine - using bits of Snoopy's Octopus as patches! It was unnecessary, and unnecessarily difficult and expensive, to do the whole lot... although we may do it soon when the car is in bits for other reasons. Watch this space.