'96 Xantia Activa - back to the future!

[wurlycorner]

Nothing too exciting to post up today. Lots done and it's nearly there, but loads of today was niff-naff fiddly stuff.

Sussed out the best way to orientate the jubilee clip on the bottom of the header tank, so there's at least some chance of undoing it in future This is while lying upside down, looking up inside the front wing, with the arch off to the head of the screwdriver...


Despite the arch liner, there had been a lot of mud build up inside the back of the front wing, but fortunately being galvanised, 18 year old car still in great nick Worth a good clean up, quick wire brush, quick rust treat and Dinitrol underseal though








Also the front wing stay/washer bottle hanger;




Took this all the way out to give it a properly good clean up inside while I had the chance (get rid of any sludge/scum)


One thing that I thought was a really nice touch colour coded hoses and pump ports (black hose to black port, clear hose to clear port)


Bolted up using normal bolts and nuts now, none of the clip in bolts.


After that I did some more undersealing at the back, ran it up, charged the suspension and bled the rear brakes.
No leaks from the suspension or cooling system (forgetting the heater matrix, which still needs doing! )

So got to re-build the front end and then should be back on its wheels tomorrow.
And after all this? It re-paid me with chucking an ABS fault and springing an exhaust leak

[wurlycorner]

Just been pointed at the official Citroen instructions for what I need to do tomorrow...

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/a0c ... l%20SC.pdf

[indigolemon]

I assume you have all those tools then

[wurlycorner]

Nope, but I'm drokking hopping mad about not seeing this lot when it was on ebay recently!
http://tinyurl.com/ot2pvwd

[wurlycorner]

Right, made some more progress on this on Bank Hol Monday.

While the ECU box was out, a quick wire brush down on some small areas of surface corrosion underneath it.

Rust treat

Spray with Dinitrol (Love the fact it's a non-metallic black car lol)

Refitted. Exciting, huh?


Trying to stop the bottom bayonet connector corroding again so I can get it apart in future, wrapped it amalgamating tape to protect it from salt spray.


De-rusted air intake pipe bracket


Also correctly re-shaped so the inlet hose nearest the rad isn't squashed any more



Front headlight had suffered from a bit of water ingress (turned out someone had had it apart before and not re-assembled correctly, squashing the seal) so took it apart in the hope it might just be deposits that would clean off with meths

Nope But did at least get the glass nice and sparkly and it won't leak any more

The other side had always had this little sod in it, so it came apart too while I had the opportunity.


Back together and treated to a new set of indicator lenses because the originals were discoloured and covered in tiny surface cracks. Bargain at £9 each



These brackets from under the rad carry the bottom hydraulic pipe and large wiring loom. They were well rusty, this is after scraping and wire brushing. Stuck them in de-rusting solution intending them to only be there for a couple of days, forgot about them and then remembered a week later


Dark spots are massive pitting, not rust. Couple of coats of primer and Porka Alpine White (just because I had a load left over and what else am I going to use it for?)

The lary colour doesn't matter tbh because it'll be covered in a coat of black Dinitrol too. Refitted with all stainless bolts, 2 of which I had a massive fight with because of crap access (2 HOURS FOR 2 BOLTS! ) Mental note in future, if you remove brackets after the rad has been removed, ffs refit them before refitting the rad (and everything else)

Front end finally all back together,

And back on it's wheels


(hollow victory though, because as soon as I lowered the suspension again, it was back on blocks - still got some more wire brushing and undersealing I want to do before I move on to adjusting the suspension )

[newkid]

Probably missed it somewhere but does it start or needing a belt change?

[wurlycorner]

I did the belt change a couple of years ago (PITA job).

Yeah it runs fine, just been off the road for about 4 years needing an accumulation of work. I put it through an MOT this time last year and it failed on rock hard rear suspension and headlight aim being out because the suspension was wonky, so I started on that and have been picking up some of the other essential bits (drokked rad) at the same time, which unfortunately snowballed

It's nearly there now, just need to finish titting about undersealing a couple of bits, refit the front arch liner/undertray, then level the active suspension (hopefully won't take the 2 days some people have said it takes to get it right!) wash and brush up, new rear wiper and then off for another MOT/CV gaitor change

[newkid]

Cool, shame they dont make cars like they used to.

[Vtecmec]

Stuck them in de-rusting solution intending them to only be there for a couple of days, forgot about them and then remembered a week later

I've done that, but left it longer than a week and when remembered the bits had dissolved to nothing.

Are you going to keep this when finished or sell it on?

[wurlycorner]

I've done that, but left it longer than a week and when remembered the bits had dissolved to nothing.

Yep - the intake pipe bracket is steel but aluminium riveted. When I picked it out of the solution, the rivet just fell apart I'll stick some pics up on the thread I started about de-rusting to show speed of results when I get time...

Are you going to keep this when finished or sell it on?

Oh keeping it. It's a great and properly interesting car and well rare. There were only about 800 sold in the UK I think and by latest figures only around 80 still registered with DVLA as of last year (of which only 34 on the road). That includes the V6 versions, so the number of 2.0 turbo engined ones is far less. Most of the turbo ones built got raped for engine transplants into pugs and Saxo's I think mine is the only black one, too...

Absolutely worthless at the moment though - probably struggle to get £800 if I tried to sell it!