French Car Forum

All this cycling is taking a toll on my bike - it's needing a weekly service now... This year I'm currently on 7,200 miles and should comfortably exceed 8,000 miles before the year end... Aiming for 10,000 next year :)

I for one would be interested in details of your maintenance regime, also how long various components last such as chain &...

The plastic handle has a square hole that fits over a square shaft from the seat - without any sort of metal reinforcing, so of course it has split and stretched.

Maybe worth trying a mod ?

Would a socket drive fit the square drive and reinforce the handle ....

Great news on the brakes ...that will surely sort them out ....

The store-man looked for a part number on the part, but did not find one. We were obviously not the first to open that box.

I have to say that the proliferation of thermostats for THP engines seems like bad management, as there are I think 6 versions that I know of, only differing in the type of connection for a heater hose, the location of the...

Will be in touch Jim.

Probably latter part of the week, the guest we've had staying with us is returning home Monday afternoon, and will take a couple of days to recharge and get the house back into order. Hoping after that I'll be able to start getting back into stuff.

Did have a brief poke at the van earlier to see if I could track down what's...

I have just this last week done the insurance thing for my wife. I always put aside an afternoon to go through the rigmarole.

Last year was a surprise for me as the AA came out cheapest (as you say they normally come out way down the list) at £295.73. They are brokers themselves and this was with CIS General Insurance. When the renewal letter...

Richard, at least you know what to do now if you ever want to rekindle memories of your Xantias ;)

Well, the 207 is reassembled and has been MOT'd. It failed yesterday on a broken coil spring and an oil leak from the engine.

The coil spring surprised me as the car was sitting perfectly level but it was the bottom coil that had snapped off. It's now had a new spring and a strut top which has apparently made the steering lighter according to...

No going outside today poor weather and im not well

I can't help but notice that I've been developing a great want for any pedal and go 50cc moped I could get my hands on. I've no idea why, especially given the fact I live in the one place in the country where it's the least useful.

Look out for a nice Mobylette Zel ;)

Or the British equivalent - a Raleigh Runabout...

Or just get one of those...

Miked, it is not against the rules (AFAIK) to name a garage/service that has done a good job. In fact, there is a dedicated section for such;

Thanks Jim, good to see you're well enough to post here again. :D

It's good to be back Mike and I sincerely hope you'll be a lot fitter very soon and the scan will help do the trick... Could be a nice Christmas present :)

So today (I got the car in August!) I finally got to drive it! Since the MOT owner offered to buy it off me, I've been itching to have a go.

There were a couple of niggling doubts due to the charging issue mentioned above and wondering if I was going to get a tug off an ANPR car (if the MID hasn't updated yet) but it was an all round ok...

That Volvo with the bed for a driving seat is scary by the way!!!!

ECS is 35% thinner than 9000 at 100°C and if you drive it hard, it really shows how bombproof that engine is!
That definitely proves that 9000 Energy will be good for my car.

Thanks :)

And this is something that's bothering me.
Front bumper doesn't sit flush with the fender. Any idea why?

Was in the UK for a couple of weeks, so hadn't done anything on the car.

Today, I decided to attempt the headlight restoration, and am rather pleased with the results - I still need to put the paint protection film on, but it was very windy today, so might do that tomorrow if the wind dies down, or clear up the garage a bit so I can get the car...

On the canals the 'step' that the upper gates rest on is called the 'cill'.

#-o
What's worse than having 2 broken Activa's....?

Why, having THREE, of course.

Wow time's flown, sorry I didn't get back sooner. There was no brand name but the seller was shirley9293 ... I actually thought I'd bought from them before with success, but that was gasketsforclassics :( wish I'd checked...

Anyhow, some changes in circumstances over the last month. White is still using oil despite running NA so I've made an...

Also, I replaced the handbrake cables and guide tubes on the C5 a few weekends ago and filled them with grease. I am smitten with the C5. It's a really good Xantia replacement. I'm pleased I went for an estate too. I've lost count of the number of times I've needed the extra capacity since I've had it. I've also used the roof bars a few times.

Left Torbay (having got the train down there after work on Thursday) to drive the Eldorado to Fishguard, on route to Cork, for an American car show.

Beset with IT issues but finally managed to get a connection, courtesy of a Topaz garage/convenience store/cafe where, having all the time in the world, I stopped for 11ses.

Not prepared to spend...

PM Sent

Things have been at a standstill im afraid to say. My best friend reversed her focus into a pole so I have been fixing her dent, along with the rusty front wings which every mk2 focus has. She was annoyed when i took the sander to the wings that there is already about a whole tin of filler in each one! She has had the car for 4 years when it was 6...

This car is up for sale BTW, look in For Sale for details.

If the system is overcharged and going out on the high pressure switch I'd expect to see a behaviour where the compressor would drop out and the engine fans would be on full speed (to try to bring the condenser temperature down). I'd not generally expect it to interact with the interior fan...though I don't know the specific quirks of the...

Thanks Jim

I am always lurking just do not have time to post much on here, Working again today off to Scotland, looking forward to retiring and have more time to myself.

Only 6 years to go.

I'm looking forward to getting my Activa on the road again now. I was going to do it last month but realised that I was 3 weeks through the month and refused to loose a months tax... in hindsight I wish I had done as it's now MOT time and she's not moved since last year so I'll be going the very long route to MOT to give her a bit of a workout on...

NG4 I’ve had no issues with and it runs the latest firmware and software, maps, etc.

Steering rack, I don’t know about, I’m going to ask my local dealer if they can pull anything from the history of the car, it’s been maintained by a main dealer in Oxford (Hartwell) so I’m hoping there’s something they can find out.

It’s going on next week for...

Don't use petrol for parts washing... It's dangerous both from a fire risk and a health risk...

Best to give it to a friend with a petrol car...

Well, experimentation is kind of my business at the moment. It's only natural I extend it to my side projects too :-D

The pump has been running all day today so I'll cut it open tomorrow and inspect the paper element for any crud.

Visually when I check a sample of oil with white paper it seems a touch redder so that's promising.

Regardless,...

Well all looking good on this being the cause of the odd tail light behaviour (makes perfect sense) but unfortunately not the cause of the battery randomly dying. So, no more messing about - a replacement Bosch Silver has gone in.

First time I've replaced a battery on a C5 and I must say... Gosh! What a brilliant bit of design! Easiest battery...

Yep.
Thats on top of the various other things like the usual broken/missing clips all over the engine bay and wheel arch liners, engine undertray missing...
There's also an oil leak from the rocker cover somewhere (another fall out from the cambelt that was done less than a year ago). So bloody annoying. But underneath it all, it's a fun (and...

I had a Connie SE in Wedgewood blue/Blue interior also, that was a 2.0 KV6 and it was a lovely smooth drive. Only things that were a pain was the driver's window cable went and I got it just after analogue TV was switched off so all the onboard telly picked up was static!

Funny thing about that, it absolutely reeked of Old Spice inside... I...

\tfr is also very harsh to alloy of any type and seeps into seams attacking zinc coatings.....nasty stuff imho

as citronut (Malcolm) used to say when he had to work on a height controller, Work and grease, work and grease . I take this to mean that (when he had one off the car) he would move the arm several times through its' full travel, apply some white grease, full travel a few more times, grease, and repeat until the arm moved freely.

That's it...

Yes, energy density is the reason why you need to put in ~30% more compared to gasoline. But when that requirement is satisfied there really shouldn't be any real world difference in power output. And the ECU adds that fueling for you based on the Lambda signal. Or at least the ES9J4 ECU does. Most fuel injected cars will throw a fault code when...

but the gearbox is a slightly different matter. It can best be described as 'random'. It sometimes holds gears for far too long, while at other times changing up in quick succession, only to have to change down as its in too high a gear. Other than that its fine !

Unlikely to be an impending sign of failure but one potential cause can be...

XM owners' handbook (1996) also says that the gauge should be read (a) when cold, and (b) after leaving the engine switched off for at least 10 minutes. Guess that the latter is to allow oil level to return to 'stopped', rather than the oil to cool down, which takes an age.

I love it when the colour is carried over to the interior. One of the best things about the Fiat coupe in either the bright yellow or electric blue with black leather is that there's that big slab across the dash in body colour. Skoda kind of gets that effect going too as it's mostly black - but has the exposed metal on the door tops. Actually...

BTW, given the number plate on that XM... In its past, was it ever the personal transport of Roger Bradford by any chance?
Roger was never an XM man really and this wasn't anything to do with him, however I do still have a couple of CXs tucked away which were to do with Roger...

Peter is correct this was Geoff's car (1 of 4 XMs he had at the...

Well done on the new purchase!
Always pleasing to see an old Citroen being saved :)

I've experienced worse than that Mike long before the advent of dashcams I think I posted all about it before on here, the result was a t bone collision and the death of the driver.

That's awful Gibbo!

Sadly, I too have come across a few fatalities over the years.
I was first on-scene for two of them, both on a motorway, while a third turned...

.... Meaning 'Shall I stop sending? - Stop sending'

Wish I had more skills and knowledge!

All the knowledge you need is on here Rob... I just wish you were a lot nearer and I could offer some of my skills... A lot of the work you need doing i did just a couple of weeks ago and Possibly some more I'm doing right now ;)

Thanks - I have been misinformed then.
Pleased to hear it is home-grown :)

I did hear that when Volvo released the 850s that they had said it was the last engine they would design and develop themselves as the cost of doing so was astronomical for such a small manufacturer.

Quite a few others, it is all down to end plugs and seam sealer :)..............ohoower Matron !

I don't recognise it either but mine is a 2L 8 valve.

I hope so Jim, just came back from two weeks in Ireland last Sunday and both the Wife and i have decided we could get away more often and enjoy life a bit more rather than sleep walk through it with a Camper, the hope is we can nibble the savings a little to buy a Camper but not lose any money by getting a van that's at the bottom of it's...