All Things V6...

[Mandrake]

So if we see a lunatic on the 10pm news being followed by police helicopters for going around and around the same roundabouts at high speed we'll know who it is ?

[KP]

And possibly screaming "They can take my licence, but they can never take my activa!!!!" Said in the best braveheart speech accent ever..... :p

[Hell Razor5543]

So if we see a lunatic on the 10pm news being followed by police helicopters for going around and around the same roundabouts at high speed we'll know who it is ?

Head to Milton Keynes. They have lots of decent sized roundabouts, and a lot of them are not speed restricted (so, in theory, and, with an Activa, in practise) can be taken at 70MPH!

[DHallworth]

That was the plan... I was going to head to see Jim tomorrow morning but I believe dad is leaving home in the early hours to get down here to retrieve the trailer, the Activa and I and start heading back to Glasgow so it now looks like I won't have time unfortunately.

David.

[DHallworth]

Oh yea... one problem I forgot to mention was that when trying to program the new ECU to my car and set the immobiliser up the CPH kept refusing to accept the key code for the car.

After checking with Citroen this morning we are definitely entering the correct key code into Lexia when trying to program the keys but it keeps saying it's failing so I'm looking to change the CPH to try and sort this out.

Apart from that, all has gone smoothly with no problems experienced during the weekend

David.

[Northern_Mike]

You have a pm David.

Enviado desde mi GT-I9505 usando Tapatalk

[DHallworth]

Mike, I have replied

David.

[hattershaun]

You're now a fully paid up member of the Activa V6 club, you've had the warm welcome by spending the weekend listening to all the stories from the B.L.Autos boys. Citroen enthusiasm is quite infectious.
Shame we didn't get time for a photoshoot of all their Activa V6 conversions.

[DHallworth]

That sounds like en excuse for another trip down, Shaun!

David.

[Mandrake]

Oh yea... one problem I forgot to mention was that when trying to program the new ECU to my car and set the immobiliser up the CPH kept refusing to accept the key code for the car.

After checking with Citroen this morning we are definitely entering the correct key code into Lexia when trying to program the keys but it keeps saying it's failing so I'm looking to change the CPH to try and sort this out.

Were you trying to do the ECU pairing process when it failed, or were you trying to do key programming ? Did it accept the 4 character code and fail later or fail immediately at the point you entered the code ?

I'd try programming the keys (but wait until you get home in case anything goes wrong! ) and if that works it may simply be that the unlocked engine ECU can't be "paired" with the CPH in the normal way, as the immobiliser code in the ROM is disabled.

There are a few different ways that engine ECU might have been unlocked, and the original listing for that ECU was a little vague.

1) Completely unlocked - it will just work right away no pairing needed and can be swapped to another CPH at any point. My Auto Engine ECU that you have is like this. A completely unlocked ECU will have NO immobiliser function - eg you can unplug the transponder antenna around the ignition barrel and the car will still start. (Test after the car has been stopped and locked for 10 minutes as it remembers the last immobiliser unlock for a few minutes)

2) Factory original un-programmed - won't start until you pair it with a Lexia - once you pair it to a CPH it is forever paired to that CPH (unless you send it to an unlocker) and you will have an immobiliser function. This is what I thought you were buying with that ECU.

3) Unlocked and auto-pairing. This is similar to 2 but the ROM code has been rewritten so that it automatically and permanently pairs to the first CPH you connect it to (careful!) without need for a Lexia session. Once it pairs itself it is locked to that CPH and the immobiliser works, similar to 2.

Have you ever done a successful key programming session on the Activa with your Lexia before ? Could the CPH have been swapped before you bought the car therefore meaning the code Citroen has on file is wrong ? If so you could try my old CPH as it has a known code. Bear in mind though that if the engine ECU is indeed fully unlocked you still wont have a working immobiliser no matter what you do...

[DHallworth]

Well... after yet another interesting journey home from Welwyn Garden City I am home.

Dad left home at 3am this morning in his Range Rover, the newer one that's only done 8000 miles. He arrived there just before 10. I went to meet him in the Activa and we had a coffee. He then followed me to BL Auto's where he had a closer look at the Activa and was very kindly shown around the collection of SM's and DS's by Barry.

We then hitched up and loaded the Activa onto the trailer and at 13:00 we headed for home. We decided that for a change we'd come up the A1(M) and avoid the M6 as we'd be hitting somewhere around Birmingham at rush hour.

We were just south of Doncaster in the Range Rover and all of a sudden this almighty noise started. Luckily we were in a slow moving part of the road where it's just dual carriageway doing about 30-40 mph. We dived immediately onto the hard shoulder and came to a stop.

Whilst getting out of the car I noticed that the rear near side tyre on the Range Rover had completely blown out.

This tyre still had 7mm of tread on it and had only covered around 8000 miles since the car left the factory.

Whilst trying to change the wheel, the wheel on the car was to hot to touch so we had to let it cool down a little before taking it off.

When spinning the wheel there appears to be a screw in the tread which is annoying but I'm not sure it explains the total failure of the sidewall.

As far as I know, a screw in a tyre would cause a gradual loss of pressure. This in turn would cause the tyre to run soft and could cause it to blow out I guess. However, should the tyre pressure monitoring on the car not have detected this and flagged an alarm?

Luckily, as I said, we were only doing 30-40 mph when it failed so there was no damage done to the car and we were able to stop immediately upon hearing the noise. We can't of travelled more then 50 - 60 feet after the noise occurred yet the way the sidewall on the tyre has failed though is pretty spectacular. The entire outside wall is destroyed. There's nothing left of it.

I reckon a phone call to the local LR dealer tomorrow might be on the cards.

Simon,

The ECU that is in the Activa is the brand new one that came from Bosch using the link that you provided.

The car starts and runs perfectly on it but it won't pair the keys or initialise the ECU to the car.

David.

[Mandrake]

Geeze David, it's almost as if the Range Rovers are jealous of all the pampering the Activa has been getting lately and are throwing their toys out of the pram in protest!

Maybe the screw was there for a while and it was only when the extra load of the trailer and car were applied that it caused trouble, or maybe you only just picked up the screw - who knows.

Strange about the key programming. With my unlocked ECU it did not hinder the key programming process in any way - I wasn't even aware it was unlocked until I started swapping ECU's around.

If you have never done a key programming session on the Activa before the engine swap and therefore can't be 100% sure that it was working before with the original code I think the most likely explanation is that your CPH is not the factory original one and so has a different code.

If you had the correct code for the CPH but the engine ECU is unlocked I don't believe that would hinder key programming, although I could be wrong. During key programming both the CPH and ECU learn the transponder codes, but with an unlocked engine ECU there is nothing for it to learn because the immobiliser function is disabled anyway.

All that teaching the CPH the key transponder codes seems to do is allow the CPH to detect the presence of the key for the key left in ignition alert (the immobilising is done by the engine ECU) - eg the chime that plays when you open the door with the key in the off position still in the ignition. If the transponder in the key is not coded to the CPH this chime doesn't play because it doesn't recognise the presence of the key.

[DHallworth]

This Activa just keeps getting better

I fitted a new set of shoes to it this morning as the old tyres were hard and perished. When accelerating at wide open throttle in Welwyn Garden City the car was pulling a little. It felt like it was torque steering across the lane. I'm pleased to report that 4 new tyres has cured it 100%.

I was making a cup of tea at 00:45 tonight and realised that there was no milk left in the fridge. Normally this would be a leave it till morning job but I just find myself looking for excuses to drive the Activa at the moment, so I had a back road blast to the local shell station where the car was given a load of V-Power and I picked up some milk.

I cannot get over how different this car is. It has totally transformed it and all for the better. There's certainly no looking back now. I was a little bit nervous at the end of last week in case after having spent all this money having the work done I didn't like it but I am 110% sure now that having this done was the right move. Anybody who has an Activa, some spare cash, and a V6 that they would sacrifice for the cause should definitely give BL Auto's a call as this is one conversion that every Activa should be entitled to!

The only problem I've found so far is there appears to be a slight leak of gearbox oil from the nearside driveshaft oil seal. This is quite annoying as the guy who reconditioned my gearbox told me that they were find and didn't need replacing. I'm a little annoyed at myself for not changing them anyway but it's not a bad job to do so I'll get them ordered tomorrow and that'll be it done. The left seal is about £11 and the right seal is about £15 so it's not an expensive job.

I also think the 407 Coupe is going to be coming up for sale. Now the Activa is a V6 manual I really cannot justify having them both on the drive. The 407 is a luxury that has only done 3000 miles since September. Over 1000 of which were done in the week we picked it up going from Belfast to Dublin, into Wales and visiting family all over Wales before travelling home to Glasgow in it.

I also need to look at replacing the Range Rover as I do a fair bit of towing. I have decided that I'm going to go for a newer Range Rover then my old one. I'm hoping for something around 2007 with the 4.2 Supercharged engine in it so that's another reason that the 407 needs to find a new loving home. I'm waiting for it to be detailed at the local guy before advertising it though.

David.

[Mandrake]

So what do you say to those who say that chipping the boost on the TCT engine to 190hp is just as good as the V6 ?

Was your TCT chipped or have you driven one ? I've always been doubtful that increasing the boost to get 190hp would have the same effect as the V6 - sure you might have the same peak horsepower near maximum rpm, but you won't get the instant throttle response of the NA engine, nor will you have the wide extremely flat torque band of the V6 that makes it so drivable...it literally pulls all the way from below 1500 to over 6000.

I know how you feel finding excuses to go for a drive - during the good spells where I'd done something to mine that seemed to fix it (for a while) I'd be looking for excuses to drive it...

Do you think the extra 200Kg on the front wheels has made any difference to the handling, and does your Activa have the bigger V6 front struts fitted ?

How does the performance compare to the 407 coupe ? Less horsepower but I'm assuming quite a lot less weight too, so pretty comparable ?

Glad you have no regrets David, I didn't think you would.

[Northern_Mike]

According to Carfolio, there's only 58kgs difference between the 2.0 TCT Activa and the V6 Activa, so the extra horses will be well used.

Usually I'd prefer a turbo-4 as I really like them, but the TCT, tweaked or not isn't a great example of one. It's heavy, inherently thirsty and not that powerful in my opinion.

I bet David's Activa is amazing.