1984 Citroën CX 25 TRD Turbo

Great thread, I too love the citroen quirky design ideas, thanks for taking the time to update this thread, look forward to seeing more,
merry xmas

Keep up the good work, here's my dads one.
Series 2 - 22TRS.
All the important stuff works!

image by Simon Gravett, on Flickr



He barely drives it and it leaks through the sunroof. I haven't driven it in a year or so.
Unfortunately his garage space is taken up with other cars, my mother isn't keen on some sort of shelter for it.

We grew up with Citroen's having had GS/CX safari/BX etc....there's a 2cv lurking at their house too. We've had nothing as complicated as a CX.
Have you had a look at the Diravi system? Hydraulic fun!
Have you checked the underside of the car, in particular below the A pillars?

Thanks for the comments people, glad so many people have shown an interest!

simes, I've had a quick look round the body but not properly underneath yet, it seems fairly solid compared to some CXs I've seen, but it's still got a bit of rust here and there. Yes the Diravi system is wonderfully weird and unique, can't wait to feel what it's like on the road!

I've been a bit busy this past week so still haven't tried to start it up, but I should have everything to get it running as soon as I have a spare day at a weekend and some nice weather for a change!

I took a look over the engine bay last weekend and began to really absorb what was going on under the bonnet. There's a bunch of stuff disconnected and there's no workshop manuals for this engine in this car, so it's a bit more of a challenge than previous cars I've owned. I've worked out I'm missing a few bits, so I'll list those as I go, more for my own benefit than anything else. Let's take a tour round the bay anyway...

This horrendously scabby-looking dust bin is actually the air filter housing. I thought it was some random old piece of junk when I found it inside in the car, but then I opened it up and found a filter element!

IMG_0803 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

IMG_0804 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Missing item #1: Air filter to turbo inlet pipe
Missing item #2: Air filter fresh air intake pipe
Missing item #3: PCV Hose from rocker cover to turbo inlet pipe

If I can't find a replacement original, it shouldn't be too hard to make something up to connect up the air filter to the turbo. From here...

IMG_0805 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

...to here.

IMG_0807 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

A hose is meant to come off here and tee in to the air filter to turbo hose.

IMG_0809 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

This is what's left of the fresh air intake hose.

IMG_0810 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Crusty turbo/exhaust.

IMG_0811 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Moving round to the side of the engine, we have the ancillaries. I'm going to have to explain this because it's so weird (to me anyway) and I love how silly it seems nowadays.

On one side of the engine we have two normal toothed timing belts, one for the camshaft and one for the diesel injector pump. On the other side of the engine, the camshaft essentially extends out of the block and drives the hydraulic pump via a splined rod and a pinch clamp, much like a steering rack sort of arrangement. Wrapped around this drive rod is a pulley with two v-belt grooves in it, on which two v-belts go forward and meet up to a pulley with four v-belt grooves in it that is attached to the water pump. The v-belt on water pump goes down to power the alternator. The v-belt on the other side of the two belts coming from the camshaft drive powers the air con compressor, which has it's own seperate tensioner pulley.

Hope you followed all that About the only image I can find on Google of that setup is this.

9303160774_35f49dfa32_c by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

This is what my car looks like.

IMG_0814 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Missing pulley here.

IMG_0812 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Missing the drive rod arrangement for the hydraulic pump.

IMG_0813 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

I'm really hoping the previous owner has got these bits somewhere, but he hasn't replied to any messages I've sent him in the past couple of weeks... I've found a CX website in Germany that has what I need, but it's a few hundred euros for the lot, so I'd rather get them somewhere else!

The wiring isn't too pretty. The battery tray is pretty rotten too.

IMG_0815 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Some relays floating around.

IMG_0816 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

IMG_0817 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

The radiator is missing, along with the relevant hoses. That's the air con condenser up front.

IMG_0818 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Not sure what this is... something related to boost pressure possibly?

IMG_0820 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Found this hydraulic line that's been cut/crimped hanging in the wheel well. No idea what it's for but I guess it's meant to go somewhere important...

IMG_0821 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Fuel filter.

IMG_0823 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Oil filter, with coolant passageways at the bottom to cool the engine oil. The front hose is missing, should be able to sort that out fairly easily as well.

IMG_0824 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Little umbrella hiding back here?

IMG_0825 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Ahh that's the dipstick then.

IMG_0826 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Some random electrical connectors with no obvious home... hope these aren't important!

IMG_0831 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

So, after taking a good look around the engine and trying my best to work it all out, I thought I'd pull the oil and fuel filters off and try to source some replacements.

IMG_0001 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

The fuel filter was built in to it's housing, so I stripped it apart to get the filter cartridge itself out. Ended up with diesel all over the work bench, obviously.

IMG_0002 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Bit of crud in the bottom of there...

IMG_0005 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Cleaned that out and stored the housing bits away in the cupboard.

It took me a few hours searching part numbers and doing lots of research, but I was eventually happy that I'd found suitable fuel and oil filters on the web, so I ordered them and they arrived a couple of days ago. I also bought some oil from Halfords so I've got all I need to get it running, in theory... whilst I was at Halfords I also bought a battery.

IMG_0004 by Sven Cumner, on Flickr

Didn't get any more pictures, but I hooked it up and some of the electrics around the car actually work! I've got headlights, indicators, some dash lights, some interior lights... no electric windows, the dashboard was making a weird clicking sound like a relay was triggering every few seconds? But the central locking works, which is cool, and I accidentally left the light switch on sidelights when I was finished, as the sidelights weren't working at the time. A couple of days later and I noticed the sidelights were on. Henceforth, any electrical problems in future shall be left by themselves with the switch powered for two days and I shall expect it to be fixed!

So hopefully I'll be able to see if it runs sometime in the next few weeks, but this lovely weather we're having might postpone things somewhat.

Anyway, thanks for reading people, hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Years

YES l love these, my dad had one when l was nipper an estate with twin sunroofs it was a huge old beast he used to scare the bejesus out of me with the suspension lowering the front saying we were falling into a big hole haha brill memmories. Up until recently there was a yard full of these close to me, even had a rare as hens teeth cx tissier conversion and a 6 wheel van. I'm sure these where used to deliver papers up and down europe but lm sure someone on here will correct me haha..

Most of these have gone now l always had plans to find the owner and get 1 but time flies along l never did

Now that's a van I could go for !!!

Any updates for January 2016?

Nothing major unfortunately, but I've been doing a bit of fiddling with little bits and pieces, making some progress, so shall post an update soon.



Still a step up from mine, I'd settle for not having a load of pieces missing from the engine bay! I've been trying to get the previous owner to sort out getting me the missing bits (he says he has them somewhere, along with the V5 that I still don't have) but he's just ignoring all my messages now and being a right pain in my rear cheeks - it took him 6 weeks to get the car to me after I'd agreed to buy it and now after over 7 weeks of it being on my drive, I still don't have some of what I paid for, and I don't even legally own the thing yet. I absolutely hate knowing I can't make the progress I want to on this car because of someone else's in-actions (if there was a family issue or something I'd completely understand, but surely anyone could take 2 minutes to write a message to me to let me know...). I'd like to just buy the missing parts from somewhere else but there's seemingly only one choice (CX Basis) and it's expensive, so I'll wait a little longer before giving in and spending lots of money! Ahh, anyway, rant over, apologies about that...

I've read a bit of your blog about your CX (and some of the other cars!), it's a good read! Hopefully there'll be some useful experiences of yours I can use to help with my problems in future Maybe we'll be able to park them next to each other at a show one day (RRG16?!)

Aye would deffo be up for meeting up!

Mine just needs to hold onto its electrickery a bit better..

Yeah I've actually filled out the forms ready to apply for the V5, but it's £25 that I shouldn't need to spend if the previous owner sticks to his word, so I haven't sent them off yet... I'll give in and pop them in the post soon I'm sure!