displaying posts 51 to 59 of 59

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Author Subject: 2 owner, 57k Ph2 Xsara VTS
Ben_W

Formerly gpm

Location: Lutterworth

Registered: 01 Sep 2007

Posts: 2,941

Status: Offline

Post #51
You might well be right Simon, I probably do need some impact torx. However, there is at least one other from the same set that has snapped an end with me just using it by hand on a normal rachet.

Yes, I know it detracts from the Rallye..... I'm trying to get going again on that. Found someone who could possibly weld the stiffener panels, just trying to save some cash. Had an expensive few months lately for one reason or another.

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Posted 8th Jun 2019 at 08:23
Ben_W

Formerly gpm

Location: Lutterworth

Registered: 01 Sep 2007

Posts: 2,941

Status: Offline

Post #52
Time for a bit of an update on this.....I've not updated here for ages....so will be a series of posts...

I really dont know what's wrong with me and cars, honestly I don't. Nothing really seems to go right, be easy or simple or generally not cause me hassles. The Xsara, it seems, doesnt want to break with tradition.

So, way back at the start of this thread, when it was up on the ramps being tracked, I noticed the cat had been 'clearanced'....since I've owned it, there has been an issue with the exhaust vibrating against the car body somewhere (most likely the subframe) under acceleration. Up until today, I suspected the reason to be a worn bottom engine mount. I'm now entirely convinced that this is not the issue.

Since the weekend drive out to Yorkshire, the engines not been happy, throwing a code for the position 1 lambda sensor (covered that already) and seeing as I've a spare from the breaker, I decided I'd swap them. How hard could it be?

With it being so low, it's a pain to get jacked up enough for me.to get under it but eventually I did. Axles stands in position, away I went. The lambda sensor was a complete pig. Even with a 2 ft bar on the end of the spanner, it was having none of it and my left shoulder gave out before it cracked free. Hmmm, plan b.

I've a spare cat from the breaker and given the one on the car has been butchered, I figured why not take it all off and have a proper look. First job, remove battery, battery box and then ECU from the back of the battery box to gain access to the two lambda sensor connections. With those disconnected and the leads fed down, it was time to get the exhaust off. I only needed to remove the centre section, the back box could stay in position. Centre section came off easily. Cat, much less so.

Access was awful. A 12" extension bar, a 3" bar on top of that and a deep reach 13mm socket. Stupidly designed clamped, lots of swearing fiddling, access you need the hands of a 5 year old for....

Battery box off and ECU separated



Lambda plugs undone



The horrible clearencing job



And the god awful clamp



Eventually, I got everything undone, the clamp remove and the cat off.....where the full horrors became evident.







It's clearly the wrong cat. Something that needs that much adjustment, and still doesn't fit right, clearly isn't right. I know its not the original cat as the history details a replacement after an MOT failure on emmisons. However, that's been hammered so much, the pipe is less than half it's original diameter.

At this point, I got the other cat from the breaker out and compared them. It was at this point, it dawned on me it was the wrong cat. The difference is massive and the garage must have known with the amount of modification they had to do, and even then it still didnt fit properly.





This is the biggest bit for me. This is the difference in the section that's been flattened. It's almost 2" in difference. That's 2" more clearance over the subframe.



So the cat that's come off, won't be going be going back on. I'll try the one that came off the breaker. I did a trial fit, and it's much, much better.

For a giggle, I thought I'd see what Citroen want for a cat....



I'll take two please LOL:

So, overnight, I did a bit of asking on the Xsara owners Facebook page.

Someone else with a VTS replied with some very interesting information. Cats for these cars, at least ones which fit, are very hard to come by. Citroen are now NFP and ridiculously expensive. Ones from Eurocarparts do not fit properly at all. It seems the only options are to find a second hand OEM one, a Bosal one (these are apparently what Citroen fit and who make the OEM ones), or a custom one. Milltek apparently made one too but even that needed some fettling to fit properly.

So I had a look at Bosals online catalogue at the cat. Very interesting picture.



Mine looks exactly the same as that in terms of shape. It's clearly much better around the subframe and has the same bend after the matrix.

I've had a good look at it and apart from some vague engravings and the remnants of a sticker, I can't tell who it's manufactured by.





It definitely looks the right shape.....

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Posted 28th Jul 2019 at 15:01
Ben_W

Formerly gpm

Location: Lutterworth

Registered: 01 Sep 2007

Posts: 2,941

Status: Offline

Post #53
So it turns out the crap cat is actually the right cat.....by part number but nothing else.

It's a Klarius part.....



Pipework by Stevie Wonder I think. Quite how they managed to get it that far out, I've no idea.....



Sensors out and then that will be filed under B for bin (although I'll cut the matrix section out, never know when that might be useful....)

I should have been born an octopus.....or perhaps rather I wish I had been tonight and if going into a career of on driveway cat replacements, then it's a must be!

I've finally got it.all back together tonight. First job was to transfer the sensors into the new cat. Immediately had a bit of a moment as I was really struggling to remove the sensor from the old car that's been causing the issues.......until it dawned on me I didn't need to as it was shot.....ahem. So with both sensors into the new cat, it was time to get under the car again.



This is where I needed about 17 hands....some to hold the cat in place, some to get the clamp into position and hold it, another one to guide the socket onto the clamp bolt and a final one to turn the ratchet.

Not quite sure how, but I managed to do all that with just a pair.



I didn't get any pics but the cat/subframe clearance immediately looked better. I then refitted the exhaust centre section and looked at the tail pipe. With this other cat being about an inch longer, I think the tailpipe now sits perfectly.

Best before I have....



After



Then finally off the axle stands, battery box, ECU and battery refitted, fault.codes cleared and started her up



No engine management light, result. Slight blow from the exhaust but nothing major. Just need to road test tomorrow to see if the vibration issue has gone and let the ECU relearn.

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Posted 28th Jul 2019 at 15:02
Ben_W

Formerly gpm

Location: Lutterworth

Registered: 01 Sep 2007

Posts: 2,941

Status: Offline

Post #54
I didn't think that something as simple as changing the cat could make such a difference to a car. Simply, it's transformed.

Last jobs to do this morning were test drive to see if the vibrations were cured and let the ECU relearn. Pootled off down my estate, got about quarter of a mile and there was this awful noise like something had fallen off. Metallic banging sound as whatever it was hit the car and fell off. Sh!t!!!!!!!!

Stopped immediately and got out and started looking. A lady came out of her house to see if I was ok as she had heard it too. The car seemed fine and I couldn't see anything missing so drive slowly back home. Jacked it up, couldn't find anything missing, or anything in the undertray. All exhaust clamps and bolts present etc....I was puzzled.

I then wondered if I'd left something in the engine bay and it had fallen down so I checked my socket set........and lo and behold, a 16mm spark plug socket was missing, the one I used to tighten the manifold to cat clamp...

I then remembered that whilst I was adjusting the exhaust, I'd finished tightening the cat clamp but left the extension on it. Whilst doing the centre section, the extension fell off. It must have left the socket on the clamp which is what fell off. I went back and widened my search area and eventually found it on a wide grass verge!!!!

With that resolved, it was time for a proper test drive. The lack of vibration under acceleration is just lovely. I was wincing as input my foot down, waiting for it to happen.....it never did. I'm sure it revs more cleanly, the horrible rapsy sound that sounds like a cross wasp is stuck in my exhaust is gone, as is a metallic tinkly rattle. In short, it's an absolute joy to drive now. On part throttle it's comfortable and quiet, full throttle it's just an animal!!!

Exhaust may need sealing on the joints, I'll take it to the garage and have them do that. I am absolutely over the moon now though. It's the car it should be.

Other than the driver's side door card (which should be easily fixed) it's the last of the issues I knew I had with this car. Just need to drive it a bit more now!

My mate bought his Xsara over this morning and I replaced his handbrake cables. I'm done with rolling around on the floor under these things now!!!!!!

Just an awkward pain of a job. Anyway, with that out of the way, I decided I'd cut the old cat up, just to see how much of a restriction the hammered patch was causing. I was quite surprised...



Probably just less than half the pipes original diameter. I guess that was the cause of the horrible raspy sound.

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Posted 28th Jul 2019 at 15:03
Ben_W

Formerly gpm

Location: Lutterworth

Registered: 01 Sep 2007

Posts: 2,941

Status: Offline

Post #55
FFS.

It's not often I get really cross but I've noticed this on the Xsara rear bumper this morning.



Someone has hit that. Nudged in a carpark would be my guess. It really, really annoys me. It's not going to polish out, that's for certain.

Slight upgrade to the sound system today....

A mate found a silver Xsara VTR diesel in a scrap yard the other day. He had the door cards from it and found it had a fairly decent pair of Kenwood speakers. I can't really find too much info on them, they are a pair of kfc-hq167db's.

Anyway, he grabbed them for me. I tried to fit them yesterday, only to find they weren't a straight swap, which was odd because they came from the same car. The issue arises from the fact the Citroen ones are 6.25", these seem to be 6&1/8"....and they are too small for the factory holes. Harrumph.

I looked around online for some custom speaker rings. Plenty at 6.25" outside diameter, but none with a 5" hole in the middle and a distinct lack of custom options either, so this morning, I went about bought a sheet of 6mm ply, some more jigsaw blades and got busy.

Firstly, old skool with a compass and pencil!



Checking for fit....couple of bits clearanced for the grill clips



Inner hole cut...



New speaker in!



Had to cut the factory speaker plugs off but have kept them and left enough of a tail that they can be replaced if needed.

It's certainly no SQ build but they are a decent improvement over the std ones and they fit nicely. The 6mm ply is fairly robust and the speaker are mounted pretty firmly. The rings screw into the old speaker mountings, and then the new speaker into the ring... The limiting factor is the factory headunit which will have a very low power output I'd imagine and will never drive these new speakers to their limit (which is peak of 210 or 220w, I can't remember which!). All fairly simple fabrication stuff really and the factory grill just pop back on over them.

New against old...

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Posted 28th Jul 2019 at 15:03
Ben_W

Formerly gpm

Location: Lutterworth

Registered: 01 Sep 2007

Posts: 2,941

Status: Offline

Post #56
So, after a weekend of looking, asking and finding, I've another project in the offing for the Xsara.

My friend with the other Xsara popped over Saturday and bought me:

A) 24 bottles of Henry Weston's and,
Cool A much better head unit for the Xsara.

The ciders were for numerous fixing jobs I've done on his, the headunit, as he had a couple spare. As I looked at it, I started to think.....could I connect my phone to it via Bluetooth? And then, if I could, what else could I do? Within 5 mins, I'd got the spare centre fascia and the tape measure out.....



Now, the std tech offering in the Xsara, is, frankly, in comparison to my GTD, prehistoric. A Tuner/cd player and a little display showing date/time/temp and a couple of other bits.



The Golf, is all lovely and sexy and touch screen and integrated and just ace.

The cogs continued to turn......touchscreen.......Bluetooth......sat nav.......and then it struck me:

Raspberry Pi.

Frantic googling suggests building a touch screen multimedia centre for the Xsara is not a figment of my imagination and is perhaps more than possible. Talking with a couple of IT expert mates who know about this stuff (who got very excited at the idea) and it's game on.

So, my plan, is to replace the Citroen display and std headunit, with an 8" touch screen which will then be capable of doing all the multimedia stuff (Bluetooth, phone Integration, DAB etc) run Google maps, RCA output for the amps so the install still works, emulate the Citroen display so it will show the stuff the display did, etc. There may be other bits I yet add but who knows.....let's see where this goes. Bluetooth, GPS, RCA, DAB and other required modules are all available, it's just about the coding.

So, the first thing for me to do is source an 8" touchscreen. They are about, but it's not a common size. 8" pretty much fills this space left by removing the headunit and Citroen display so I'm busy sourcing the screen. That's the first job, getting one and making it fit the console. The gap at max is 210mm wide by 120mm tall. Most 8" screens I've found will fit within that and I can modify the Xsara surround to fit, or possibly make a new one from fibreglass.

Once that's done, we can then start on the computing side of things. If anyone here is into this kind of stuff, please feel free to contribute or point me in the right direction....

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Posted 28th Jul 2019 at 15:04
Ben_W

Formerly gpm

Location: Lutterworth

Registered: 01 Sep 2007

Posts: 2,941

Status: Offline

Post #57
Finally got around to changing the other back plate. Remembered we were going to near Halfords so put the old Torx bits in the car. They changed them no issue.

Couple of mins work and the old was off and the new on.





You can never own enough 3 dr Xsara:s in silver can you?

No? Good, that's what I thought...LOL: or at least what I told the wife.

So, there I was, minding my own business, not looking at cars at all.....nope, I was lying on the bed, minding my business, not doing much.

Bing. Facebook messenger. Who's that I thought? Turns out to be an old 306 circles friend, sending me a Facebook marketplace post, for a 03 Ph2 Xsara VTR with 79k on the clocks.
















For £100.

Yes, £100.







Safe to say, I now own it. It's way to cheap to pass up for that money.... I'm picking it up next weekend. It's a 110bhp 1.6, 16v lump, it starts and drives but has no MOT because it needs brakes. That's no issue because I'll trailer it home.

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Posted 28th Jul 2019 at 15:05
Ben_W

Formerly gpm

Location: Lutterworth

Registered: 01 Sep 2007

Posts: 2,941

Status: Offline

Post #58
Next bit for the Xsara bought!

Whilst away on holiday, I picked up some car bits for a chum from Bodmin as we were close (4 X 15" rims, a radiator and a pair of morrettes for a 106......god know how I got everything in the car, but I did.....!)

Whilst there I was talking to the guy (really nice fella actually) and he happened to drop into conversation that he had a set of GTi6 calipers, painted red, with carriers and Goodrich braided hoses.......wanted rid and would let them go for £40. So they came home with me too!



Picking up the VTR tomorrow so hopefully get these fitted Sunday...

Well, stupid me didn't realise the hoses were for a 106 although it should have figured.....

Anyway, calipers fitted and bled....took about an hour in total. The use of an easibleed kit and an old Ph2 VTS alloy (I knew they'd be useful for something!!!!) made it a simple job.





Not hugely visible but there if you look. Compliment the red VTS badge quite well.

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Posted 28th Jul 2019 at 15:07
Ben_W

Formerly gpm

Location: Lutterworth

Registered: 01 Sep 2007

Posts: 2,941

Status: Offline

Post #59
Today was VTR collection day.

A very wet start, with the weather gradually improving as we headed west in Wales. A 16', 2700kg trailer (was all they had left) was certainly a bouncy affair empty, but other than an intermittent Electrical fault with the left light cluster, all was good.

Collection was from a small town/large village outside Newport. Last 15 miles of roads were fairly narrow and very hilly but we made it there. Parked up in a rugby club very close to the seller and met him. As the car drive, he drove it the very short distance to the rugby club and onto the trailer.....with no exhaust it sounded fruity!

Anyway, onto the trailer and strapped down by 1pm, we headed home. Back home by 4:30 and then a dash to drop off the trailer.

At the load up point



The most agricultural wing mirror ever





By 6:30 pm



And parked up!



So far, I've buyer for:

Wings
Bonnet
Bumpers
Lights
Crash bar
Crash bar brackets
Beam
Rear spoiler

________________________________________

Cherry Red Rallye .... On going OEM spec resto

China Blue GTi6 .... Weekend toy

Black 208 GTi .... Wife's car now

Silver BMW 550i.... The executive missile

Posted 28th Jul 2019 at 15:06

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