So we're back from our holiday weekend up north and everything went fine on the car front.
240 miles from Motherwell to Embo (near Dornoch) on Friday, then about 200 miles from Embo to John 'O Groats and back on Sunday (just to say we have been to the tip of Scotland
) and another 240 miles home again on Monday. So 680 miles all up.
The trip up I managed 31.8MPG fully loaded driving to the speed limit, so typically 60/70:
I was pretty happy with that but then on the trip to John 'O Groats and back I managed a new record for the Xantia V6:
33.8MPG - not bad.
Has anyone bested this on the V6, especially fully loaded ? I suspect its because I was driving with very little use of the brakes and at a constant 40-50mph due to being behind slow but steady traffic most of the way.
Here's the old girl really stretching her legs for the first time in many months:
She was an absolute joy to drive and didn't give a moments trouble on the way. (Comment to Jim - I haven't checked the banjo for further leaks since I got back, hopefully it didn't leak!
)
The ride is incredibly smooth and well composed compared to the bouncy little Ion, and there is hardly any wind noise even when you're well above the speed limit. (Overtaking, ahem) The steering is also incredibly precise and direct at high speeds compared to the somewhat indifferent electric power steering in the Ion which is nice and light at slow speeds but somewhat unpleasant and indirect at high speeds.
The only issue I noticed really was that I think I might have a shot engine mount somewhere.
This car has always had quite a lot of take up "slack" when you go from power to overrun at slow speeds in 1st gear, I know I've mentioned it before, and what I noticed over the weekend is that under hard high rpm acceleration there is quite a lot of "vibration" that almost feels like a shudder. For example full throttle 1st or second gear you'll feel it around 4000-6000 rpm, but under a lighter throttle or lower rpm you don't notice any shudder or vibration, where it is perfectly smooth.
I have noticed this vibration before and had wondered whether it's a torque reaction on worn lower arm bushes, but when I put two and two together with the take up slack I realise it's probably more likely to be an engine mounting allowing the engine to vibrate when under heavy load.
The only problem is that the easily visible top engine mounts looks fine to me!
Has anyone else ever had an issue where a worn engine mount can cause a kind of shudder/vibration under hard acceleration at high rpm ?
When I put the car in drive then reverse with the hand brake on just at idle the engine does seem to tilt a long way, but it's not immediately obvious where the slack is... any ideas ? How many other mounts are there other than the mushroom one on the wing and the torque stabiliser bar ?
It is also due for an MOT around mid July (need to find the last test printout to find the exact date - or is there a way to find out online ?) and as far as I know it should pass without comment!
In other news the Ion has been booked in for its somewhat expensive yearly "service" on July 17th - Peugeot offer an extended 8 year battery warranty (which I think also covers the drive train EG motor and drive inverter as well) which only remains valid if you get the car serviced by them on its yearly schedule.
A bit of a scam if you ask me, making an extended warranty dependent on servicing of non related items, (how does servicing pollen filter, changing the brake fluid etc affect the longevity of the traction battery ??!) however there is 2 years left on this warranty and the car had been kept up to date on the servicing before I bought it (and thus still has a valid extended battery warranty) so I decided to bite the bullet and pay the £381 originally quoted when I bought the car.
However when I went to book it in today I was quoted only £258, which is still expensive IMHO but less than I was expecting.
Perhaps they had previously estimated some mileage related items would have been due but the actual mileage I've done since then and quoted them today hasn't been enough for those items to be due. Who knows.
They will need it for two days in a row because part of the servicing is a battery diagnostic where a Lexia is used to completely run the battery down to measure its working capacity and then charged up again before I can collect the car again - and full discharge and recharge at normal 3 pin plug rate would take the best part of a day. Fortunately they are giving me a "free" courtesy car for the two days so it's not too much of an inconvenience.
It will be interesting to see what work they actually do for the still hefty £258! I've managed to get hold of a copy of the i-Miev service schedule, below: (ignore the ticks - they are for the i-Miev owner who scanned this copy)
Larger:
http://i1002.photobucket.com/albums/af1 ... dule_1.png
This will be a 6 year (and therefore 24 month) service so everything in the right hand column of the left table, and the mileage is 32k at the moment. I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to see if the applicable items listed on this service schedule add up to £258!
As soon as next summers final battery warranty-enabling service is complete it won't be going back to Peugeot again...
Ever since it went in for the hot flush (where they disconnected that joint to attach their machine) it has been difficult to get it completely sealed 100%.
We did actually drive through Dunnet to get to Thurso but did not drive to Dunnet Head, where I see there is a lighthouse. Close enough I say! 
