Zel's Fleet Blog - BX, Jag XJ-S, Sinclair C5, Mercedes 208D & 230TE, AC Model 70.

[xantia_v6]

Are you overfilling the radiator? On cars with no expansion bottle, there should be an inch or so of air at the top of the radiator header tank to allow for normal expansion.

[Zelandeth]

Are you overfilling the radiator? On cars with no expansion bottle, there should be an inch or so of air at the top of the radiator header tank to allow for normal expansion.

I don't *think* so, but that possibility is why I've been trying to leave it be to find its own level for a bit. Given the system holds three gallons of coolant there's inevitably going to be a fair old chunk of expansion going on. Which is why I had put it down to me having put a bit too much in and the slope of my driveway when it had dribbled a bit on previous occasions. For a while it was kind of hard to leave it be as there were several not insignificant leaks present so I had to keep an eye on it, but now it's at least for the most part water tight I've been trying to let it settle.

After yesterday's eruption the level is sitting here now it's cooled fully.



Which sticking my finger in there shows to be about 3/4" above the top surface of the actual core. I'll leave it be there for a bit and see how it goes. The handbook helpfully doesn't make any mention of what the correct level actually is.

The cap is *new* and from a reputable supplier - but with the average quality of new reproduction parts these days that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to hold to the correct pressure...

[xantia_v6]

If the design of the head has air pockets above the bleed path, the air in these pockets will expand and displace some water after switching off.

[Zelandeth]

If the design of the head has air pockets above the bleed path, the air in these pockets will expand and displace some water after switching off.

Wouldn't surprise me. Especially as there is definite potential for air to be drawn in as things cool given we do have a crack in the water jacket on the block (which we obviously can't really do anything about).

It has been confirmed that there are vehicular collection capers on the horizon. Exact logistics are still being figured out, but there is definitely another vehicle inbound.

A pair of VW T4 drop links have been ordered for the Renault, so we can have a look at them and see if they look like viable replacements. Hopefully get them picked up at the start of next week.

Didn't get a photo as I was driving and there was nowhere safe to pull over at the time, but TPA ticked over 15K miles during the trip. For which this was definitely the right car for the job given that once again due to the utterly stupid traffic on seemingly all the roads around here a round trip of just under 40 miles managed to take very nearly two hours.

She could really do with a wash! There are a lot of splattered bugs on here now.



Being covered in greasy handprints from in the garage and me perpetually using the engine cover as a workbench doesn't help either.

Can you spot the difference here compared to earlier photos of the Rover?



Maybe from here?



Yep, sorted the mirrors so they actually stay where you put them now (or at least I hope so, haven't been out of town yet since securing them).

Passenger side one is still kinda pointless - I do wonder if it's got the correct arm fitted as it's pretty much totally hidden behind the bonnet unless you lift yourself up from the seat a bit.





Though equally I do know the springs in the seat are a bit tired.

Will make parking a lot less stressful at least. This honestly took about ten minutes to sort so I'm kind of kicking myself for not doing it sooner now. Parking without mirrors on this is really awkward as while leaning around enough to look over my shoulder I physically cannot turn the steering at parking speeds - you need both hands on the wheel (well I do anyway)!

[CitroJim]

I can spot the difference Zel but then I saw you and the Rover a few days ago so had an unfair advantage...

Is that 15,000 miles on the Invacar in your ownership?

[Zelandeth]

Is that 15,000 miles on the Invacar in your ownership?

No, just coming up on 4K since she was revived. A decent chunk of that over the last two years.

The camper having departed is actually likely to increase that given that it makes getting the car in/out of the garage far less hassle because I don't need to move (and find somewhere to put) that every time.

[Zelandeth]

Just to confuse everyone, this arrived on my driveway this morning.



Which is absolutely not the car I've bought. However the seller of the car I HAVE bought had bought it, and the seller of this lived a five minute drive away from me - so I offered to deliver it, saving both of us having to find a second driver.

I'm really not a BMW fan, but I liked that more than I expected. Actually surprisingly comfortable despite the taught suspension (and on a car like that I absolutely don't begrudge it!), and astonishingly refined at speed with the top up. Made a lovely noise too, that I can't deny. I rather doubt the exhaust was standard...not a boy racer drone either, a proper and utterly addictive old school howl. Only when on the throttle though, cruising at 60 or 70 the exhaust was totally silent so it wouldn't become wearing on a long trip. Fun or not though, it wouldn't be something I could justify on fleet at the moment as it wouldn't fill any role. Plus I just always feel whenever I'm driving a BMW that everyone else on the road automatically assumes I'm going to behave like an ass, and as such you're never going to get anyone be helpful to you.

It also had the same issue as virtually every German car I've driven in that the seatbelt spent the entire trip trying to saw its way through the side of my neck. No adjustment for that on this either as the shoulder buckle was integrated into the seat

What I have bought though is this.



I've been keeping my eyes open for a Berlingo/Partner for a year or so now. I missed this one on another forum a couple of weeks ago, however the guy who bought it got in touch with me when they'd spotted the Z4 so offered me the chance to buy it for what it owed him. Given what they were asking I said yes.

This one seems pretty well kitted out, not sure if being a special edition which seems to have at least got is fancy graphics on the sides has anything to do with that. Oh...and impact protection on all the lights for some reason...because ADVENTURE maybe?









The option I was most excited to see ticked - and working is visible here.



Yep, this one has air conditioning. Which is allegedly a vanishingly rare option for them to have been specified with. Certainly none of the others of this generation I've looked at have had it fitted.

Part of the treatment this edition seems to have been given was colour coding a lot of interior bits silver. Including the instrument panel.



Not totally sure what PSA were thinking there. Visibility varies depending on the ambient lighting from "okay" to "I can't see a thing." I pity anyone who needs to actually read the Km/h markers on the speedometer. They're basically invisible unless you're in full shadow.



A distinctly odd choice I think.

The silver treatment also extended to the interior door pulls, which haven't stood up to the test of time all that well. These will both need to be re painted.



Is my memory playing tricks on me, or do I spy Citroen ZX door handles there? Both interior and exterior.

She needs a little love here and there and a really good deep clean, but for the price paid seems to be in pretty good shape. Especially bearing in mind that these are vehicles which tend to have to work pretty hard to earn their keep.







Quite surprised to see the fold out load cover still present. They've usually long since vanished by this age.



The engine bay deeeeeefinitely has an appointment with some degreaser and elbow grease in its future.



Aside from some bodged on wiring for an aftermarket horn (currently run to a button on the steering column) at a glance it seems free of hackery though. Just needs a clean. Guessing the horn issue is likely to be a clock spring problem, so we should be able to hopefully get rid of that in due course. Especially given the quality of the routing of the wiring to the engine bay...



Drives really nicely though. Clutch is a bit heavy, but I'm used enough to diesel PSA products to know that's par for the course. General refinement and ride quality are streets ahead of the Caddy, as you'd kind of expect. Aside from being a newer design, it's something that was designed from the ground up to be what it is rather than a small hatchback that someone welded a box onto the back of. It's miraculous really that the Caddy drives even half as well as it does, but it does have shortcomings, particularly in the road noise and suspension refinement departments.

I need to double check, but could we be as lucky as that adding cruise control to this is as simple as plugging the stalk in and activating it via Diagbox...

I'll need to start a shopping list.

[] This wonderfully painted front wing. I suspect finding a replacement would be cheaper than getting the paint properly sorted. Hopefully someone can make up the bit of graphics for me by copying from the other side.



[] Driver's B pillar trim has a couple of holes in I assume for some long gone hands free kit.



[] Couple of the wheel trims have definitely seen better days.

[] missing cover on front nearside seat belt.



[] Trim on inside of tailgate seems to have a few broken clips so rattles. Not sure if the broken bits are actually on the trim or clips that can be replaced. Need to investigate first.

[] Small crack in the cap on the gear knob.



[] Passenger headlight looks to have started to lose some of its silvering.

[] Guess if I'm already parts shopping it couldn't hurt to see if I could find a front bumper without a scuff on the nearside corner. Not holding my breath though.

[] If I could find the genuine dog guard at a sensible price I'd probably grab it.

Aside from wanting to get that wing sorted sharpish all pretty low priority stuff. That's quite an obvious cosmetic issue which really draws the eye though so I'd like to try to do something about it sooner than later.

Mechanically I still need to properly go over things, but it's just had a set of front brake discs and pads, and an oil service. Timing belt wasn't done massively long ago either. There IS a belt whining a bit at higher revs so I need to pin down where that's coming from and put a stop to it before it gets worse. The gear shift feels like it could do with a bit of lubrication but isn't really that bad.

It will be interesting to see how different the car looks in a couple of weeks!

[Hell Razor5543]

I will keep an eye open when I visit my local scrappy, just in case. I recall Michel had a problem with the horn on his Berlingo, and he also ended up doing some sort of 'off-standard' fix to overcome this problem.

[Rp0thejester]

Could that front wing just need a varnish spray to match the rest?

[Zelandeth]

I will keep an eye open when I visit my local scrappy, just in case. I recall Michel had a problem with the horn on his Berlingo, and he also ended up doing some sort of 'off-standard' fix to overcome this problem.

It seems there can't really be much to it, unless it's a wiring issue elsewhere. I'd automatically assumed the horn was just directly wired - but this is modern enough I guess it could be switched via the BSI module etc couldn't it?

Either way, even if the button stays, a neater (and more waterproof) solution to the wiring is going to be needed than duct taping it to the door pillar!

I guess on the plus side at least it does have a fuse in the feed to it.

Edit: I've just noticed the live wire they've run to the battery is a household earth wire. Oh that's going to drive my OCD mad now...

Could that front wing just need a varnish spray to match the rest?

Possibly, though the colour match at a glance doesn't look great. Plus to do the job right I'd really want to take the panel off anyway. So if I can find another one that's already the right colour for a sensible amount of money I may as well save myself the time faffing about with paint. Anything I do is going to be a rattle can job, so it's only ever going to be "nearly passable from 20'" anyway.

Edit: I'm shocked. Not a single dash light out!







I really need to clean that instrument panel...

[CitroJim]

Good buy Zel The Berlingo/Partner is a highly rated vehicle and would be my first choice should I have to replace my current vehicle any time soon...

As we discussed, I'd be after a wheelchair adapted one for ease of transporting bikes... I have no need of four seats so a two-seater adapted would be perfect...

[daviemck2006]

I've had two of these, well citroen berlingo but the same thing. One was a 1.9d non turbo van which was a bit of a heap, bought from thainstone auction for sweetie money as an emergency stop gap, I got the windscreen broken, I han no windscreen cover and sold it with a couple months mot left for the same as it had cost me 6 months earlier. The other was a 2.0hdi car, with the fancy moduo roof which were nice but renowned for leaking. Mine did not disappoint in that case, it was wetter inside than outside when it rained. Despite the copious use of silicon I couldn't stop the leak. Then the turbo decided not to be a turbo and it got sold on soares or repairs, again I did not lose on it, and I was honest about its problems when it went. Both of these were in my running 3 or 4 vehicles stage, and one was my xantia activa, another was a 407 coupe and I had old bangers to do the pizza deliveries, which were changed with alarming frequency. The berlingos were comfy items and both were cheap on fuel for what they were though, and I would run another if I ever needed an older cheap vehicle to abuse again. That looks a good one, for me the odd coloured wing would not matter, as long as the insides were clean and tidy I did not worry about outside.

[MattBLancs]

Hopefully the horn button is along the lines of "MOT on a Monday morning, suddenly stopped working late Sunday afternoon= fix it with whatever can find in the back of the garage!" Then not had chance to dig further and so the quick bodge remained in service. Either that or an irrational fear of airbags stopped it from further investigation.

A handy vehicle no doubt, should be very useful

[Michel]

I will keep an eye open when I visit my local scrappy, just in case. I recall Michel had a problem with the horn on his Berlingo, and he also ended up doing some sort of 'off-standard' fix to overcome this problem.

It seems there can't really be much to it, unless it's a wiring issue elsewhere. I'd automatically assumed the horn was just directly wired - but this is modern enough I guess it could be switched via the BSI module etc couldn't it?

It's switched via the BSI Zel, and they're a total PITA to repair, so totally up your street
There is no clock spring. Pop the airbag off (3 clips, flat blade screwdriver, back of steering wheel, fiddly AF) and you'll see what I mean. Earth wire is usually the culprit, or the Comm2000 itself. Try earthing the steering column itself before you do this - I used a jump lead around the column and got it to work as a test.

Rest of it looks great - my Berlingo was one of the few with AC too - I couldn't have a Berlingo or Partner without it! I looked for another for a while, but not one had it. They all, Berlingo or Partner, had the silver inserts. I painted the worn ones on mine with black Plastikote and lacquer. The head unit and speakers you'll probably want to change at some point. Pretty standard to do, though it's best to disable the option for ICE with Diagbox (not essential) because the little display can do weird stuff if you don't, but that's all.

Anything else you want to know, just ask. My ADHD is DYING to tell you all about them, stuff you already know. I did so much to mine over the 7 years I had it. Brilliant vehicle.

[Michel]

Hopefully the horn button is along the lines of "MOT on a Monday morning, suddenly stopped working late Sunday afternoon= fix it with whatever can find in the back of the garage!" Then not had chance to dig further and so the quick bodge remained in service.

Nah, the horn press design and wiring is total turd. I ended up with a button on mine, though it was wired properly through the bulkhead. Even DickieG couldn't fix it.