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The Xantia decided it hadn't had enough attention lately so decided to pop up the low oil level warning when I started it up this morning.  Had a look and the level is absolutely fine, so just the usual "once every three months" false positive. The occasional false positive or not, I'd still far, far rather have this warning light than not. Of slightly more concern however was that in the last couple of days I've been becoming very much able to hear the dump valve from the turbo again. That was last heard back in November 2018 when the intake line between the air filter and intake ducting split. This was repaired at the time using self amalgamating tape, duct tape and cable ties. No great surprise it's failed again...astonished it's lasted this long!  Just fell apart when I touched it. This is a problem that basically all TCT engined Xantias are running into now as the pipe just turns to plastic then splits. The parts have been NLA new for years, and the vast majority of secondhand ones are just as bad...Having had a quick look at it, the hose is a 70mm inside diameter, so a generic silicone elbow will be ordered in to replace this. In the meantime a bit of random ducting and a cone filter have been deployed. The soundtrack now is frankly ridiculous. To say the dump valve is "obvious" when you come off the power would be an understatement. Hopefully shouldn't be too hard to sort with a bit of off-the-shelf silicone pipe. Should be enough flex available that it can accommodate the kickback in the line the duct needs to take. |
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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Oct 18, 2020 22:10:06 GMT
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Gave the Xantia a quick wash as well while I had things out cleaning Chris' company car which is being returned tomorrow. Removing these stickers from the windscreen really felt like absolute vandalism and doing so broke my heart as they feel like part of the car's story. Sadly the sun over this summer had done a number on them and they were disintegrating.  Will just need to start earning some more now I guess! |
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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Oct 19, 2020 15:26:32 GMT
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What about getting some replica stickers made?
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This morning the second hose I had been waiting for for the Xantia arrived so I was able to get the air intake put back together properly and do away with the ridiculous looking cone filter.  I think once there's a bit of engine bay dust on those hoses you wouldn't notice that they weren't standard unless you were really knowledgeable about Xantia engine bays! ...If you do know them that well you probably know that that hose always disintegrates therefore why it's been replaced! Yes, I did get one of the hose clips the opposite way around first try. I then had to go back and fix that as it would have driven my OCD round the bend. |
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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Do you have to declare aftermarket hoses to the insurance company or am I being irrational (with worry about insurance voiding the policy due to undeclared 'upgrades' - are they an upgrade as such)?
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jamesd1972
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 2,921 
Club RR Member Number: 40
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Oct 21, 2020 10:44:02 GMT
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Do you have to declare aftermarket hoses to the insurance company or am I being irrational (with worry about insurance voiding the policy due to undeclared 'upgrades' - are they an upgrade as such)? I personally wouldn't worry about upgraded service / replacement parts as no performance gain, people do it to change the colour etc. The cone air filter might have been an issue. James |
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Oct 27, 2020 12:33:20 GMT
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I don't really need why this would be an issue insurance wise as it's as near as possible a like for like replacement, where the original parts simply aren't available. It's possible that there might have been some performance improvement as the internal diameter of the original hose dropped further due to the way it was moulded - but you surely must be talking hundredths of a percent rather than anything measurable in the real world. A little package of things arrived for the Xantia yesterday morning.  As far as I can see these appear to be correct, fingers crossed they are!   Slightly alarmed by how skinny the belt is...but I guess it is only an SOHC engine. Have to confess to knowing little about belt driven engines as the vast, vast majority of my cars have had chains. A little disappointed to get a water pump with a plastic impeller in a Gates kit, but I guess that's just the way it is on more modern cars like this isn't it. It only has to last until the next belt change anyway. Only part I'm still waiting on before we get this fitted is a crankshaft oil seal. I want to have this in stock so if there's even the slightest sign of leakage we can swap it while we have things apart rather than stalling the work while we wait for it or having to take everything to bits twice. |
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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Think I may just have found a smoking gun with regards to the slight but annoying damp that seems to be getting into the Xantia (just enough to make the windows instantly steam up whenever it rains).  Will pull and re-seal that tail light and see if that cures it. All of the water off the rear of the roof and tailgate runs over here and there's a seam between two panels under the seal so it's a prime candidate for water ingress even though the actual void into the interior is pretty tiny (just a passthrough for the wiring). |
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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Apr 21, 2021 21:12:20 GMT
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Task number 1 today... changing rear spheres on the Xantia. Aside from knowing having it done will make the car far, far more pleasant to drive, I really want to get the sphere removal tool back to its owner. I'm utterly paranoid about losing other people's tools so always try to get them back as soon as I can. Dodged the usual game of chasing the ramps around by doing the job on the lawn. They dig in enough there to stay put.  Still hate getting the car onto the ramps. Of course because it's the Activa there's a hydraulic line in precisely the right place to be in the way when you're trying to get the removal tool onto the sphere.  Not enough to be a problem, just enough to be moderately annoying. Offside one first, wound off without too much of a fight  Only slight game I had there was the seal vanishing into another dimension (I did find it eventually) which had me second guessing if I'd got the old one out of the strut for a few minutes. New one in. That's this side done.  Nearside required a little more persuasion to shift, but I was still able to do it by hand just using the sphere tool. Didn't need to get any additional breaker bar or anything involved. It's really nice working on a car where the previous owner or a garage haven't overtightened absolutely everything.  New sphere on.  Tightened the bleed screw on the regulator back up, checked for leaks then that's that job done. Maybe 20 minutes? Well it would be if the new spheres weren't flat. Knew it was a bit of a risk being NOS ones from 1998...but was worth a shot. Offside one is passable, nearside one though is just as bad as the one that came off. No huge inconvenience really, as mentioned above they take about 20 minutes to change and they were given to me free, so I'm really not even in the slightest irked by this development - it's just one of those things that happens when you're tinkering with old cars and old parts! We'll be playing this game again shortly then. |
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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duncanmartin
Club Retro Rides Member
Out of retro ownership
Posts: 1,320
Club RR Member Number: 70
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What's the parts availability for this like? I assume the spheres are the same as for all the other hydraulic Citroens and are readily available?
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Apr 22, 2021 12:03:24 GMT
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What's the parts availability for this like? I assume the spheres are the same as for all the other hydraulic Citroens and are readily available? Spheres aren't too bad. They're still in production, and even though some very specific types are a bit hard to find they're generally not bad. Often it's been found that different spheres with broadly similar ratings (they're rated based on the gas chamber capacity, pressure and orifice size) can usually be used without any issues. Plus so long as the diaphragm isn't ruptured they can often be regassed. As far as other parts go... I'd say "almost okay-ish." PSA have dreadful legacy parts support to be honest, and had stopped production of quite a lot of spares before these cars were ten years old. Generally there are third party parts available for most Xantia bits that PSA have abandoned. Some Activa specific parts though are more of a problem as they're particular to that model and they were never made in great numbers - as such secondhand or the odd NOS part are the only options. Strut tops are one thing which was a big sticking point about ten years back (they're a metal-rubber bonded part) but there's a company over in Poland if memory serves who can rebuild them so that's less of a headache than it used to be. Though obviously it's not cheap and there's an appreciable turnaround time there. To be fair most Activa owners seem to stick together so awkward bits can *usually* be found. I've not come unstuck on that count yet at least. I think the V6 variant of the Xantia is probably the biggest headache in the range though (we never got that in Activa form in the UK) as quite a few engine parts are impossible to find for that. |
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Last Edit: Apr 22, 2021 12:05:22 GMT by Zelandeth
Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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Apr 26, 2021 22:55:58 GMT
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For the last month or so I've been unable to get the boot on the Xantia unlocked. Wouldn't unlock with the central locking or the key. No amount of fiddling around with either on a dozen or so occasions had any effect. Yeah...right up to this afternoon when I went outside to properly investigate and fix it.  When I unlocked the car to undertake this task the bootlid unlocked perfectly normally. The lock has then proceeded to work absolutely perfectly, and pulling the trim off didn't reveal anything amiss which would have caused any issues. Yep, that's pretty much situation normal then! I'm sure I can hear the car laughing at me... |
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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Apr 27, 2021 18:44:50 GMT
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Sounds like situation normal to me..... I'm sure I can hear the car laughing at me... Dunno about the car, the car gods certainly are though....🙄 Nick |
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1967 Triumph Vitesse convertible (old friend)
1996 Audi A6 2.5 TDI Avant (still durability testing)
1972 GT6 Mk3 (Restored after loong rest & getting the hang of being a car again)
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Apr 27, 2021 18:51:26 GMT
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It's that French quirkyness in action- Non,non,non,non....oui !
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Needs a bigger hammer mate.......
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Apr 30, 2021 11:17:36 GMT
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Intriguing!
I was eyeing up Citroen spheres as a potential solution to the lack of availability for new hydragas spheres for BL cars. It's in the thoroughly 'huh, wonder if that might work' stages at the moment, but just having a new supply is quite useful really!
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Apr 30, 2021 13:31:03 GMT
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Honestly don't know!
Just keep in mind that there are two parts to a sphere which can vastly change the behaviour.
You've got the actual cavity/diaphragm assembly. These come in a variety of capacities/pressures, and is what behaves as the suspension spring. There is also a precisely sized orifice through which the fluid going in/out of the sphere passes through. This is what essentially what serves the role of the shock absorber. So you'd need to play around with all of these parameters a bit - even after you had figured out how to attach one to a Hydragas setup - which honestly is probably not that hard if you've got a lathe and some patience really.
The accumulator spheres used on Citroens don't have a restriction as they're purely there to provide a "head" of pressure without needing to worry about damping.
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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CaptainSlog
Part of things
Posts: 510
Club RR Member Number: 180
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Dodged the usual game of chasing the ramps around by doing the job on the lawn. They dig in enough there to stay put. Still hate getting the car onto the ramps.. Can you not put the suspension at max height, put axle stands under, put the suspension at minimum, to lift the wheels up, shove the ramps under, raise it again to remove the axle stands and then there is no reversing up those ramps. Hope that makes sense - does to me remembering our DS. |
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Seems to be a week for disintegrating wiper blades - Xantia decided to start shedding the rubber from the driver's one while I was out this morning so that too has joined the New Wiper Blade Club.  Disappointing to see the hybrid blades fail so quickly. They performed very well, but at more than twice the price of normal ones they would need to last at least twice as long as they did for me to consider putting them on again...so back to conventional ones it is. To be fair, they look absolutely daft on anything made before about 2010 anyway so probably for the best. |
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Current fleet: 73 AC Model-70. 75 Rover 3500. 84 Trabant 601S. 85 Sinclair C5. 06 Peugeot Partner 1.6HDi.
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ddfxa
Kinda New
G'day from DownUnder :-)
Posts: 1
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Sept 23, 2021 18:50:14 GMT
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I just spent an hour or so reading this thread, and it gladdens my heart to know that the Activa is still loved.
I bought mine, a 6 month old demonstrator, in early 2000 for around AU$43k. Christened "Xena" (TV's Warrior Princess) by friends, she was my daily driver for about a decade.
Her Xmas 2010 service was a bit of a shock at $2k, but was an income tax deduction, so I figured it was worth it. However with a year or so, a significant LHM leak developed around the front left wheel, and I was told the replacement part was very expensive ($2k), so I kept topping up LHM whenever she warbled at me, while trying to decide what to do. Some time in the next year or so, I scored an ex-colleague's '99 S4 cheaply.
He'd paid $105k (5% disc.) as a demonstrator about the same time as I bought Xena, but was offered just $15k in 2011 or '12 (at ~140,000km) as a trade-in on a Holden SV6 (a large saloon ~$50k). He'd always kept his beautiful silver S4 in perfect nick, and I'd coveted it for years, always hoped to buy it from him if & when he emigrated. That never eventuated, and he decided to trade down to the Holden, to minimise service costs as he was retired, and it was no longer a tax deduction.
I guess one of the reasons for the low-ball trade-in was that it had a minor engine oil leak. Anyway I told him my thoughts, but he said it was too late as he was doing the swap tomorrow. I offered him another few grand, and after a quick call to the dealer, we had a deal. I took it to an Audi/VW specialist for the repairs. They found it was just a cam seal, but replaced cam belts, and anything else worth doing while it was stripped, as well as an ECU reprogramming for just under $3k.
So poor Xena has languished up my driveway for a long while now, and desperately needs some love.
After reading this thread, I'm inspired to either have the repairs done and get her going again, rather than finding her a new home (I doubt she'll fetch what I think she's worth). I must admit, I had been thinking doing a V6 transplant might be an exciting prospect, but it sounds like a folly. Better to just tweak the turbo :-)
Like your XAN7IA, her clear coat's pretty much gone, and the red base coat's getting chalky. I must ask the specialist mechanics at Paris Motors (my previous provider) if he remembers the leak issue, and whether it's fixable at a reasonable cost (perhaps it can be brazed, or second-hand part sourced from somewhere other than Citroen).
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'99.5 Audi S4 Silver (leaking LHM @lf)
'99 Citroen Xantia Activa 2.0T Dante Red
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