The wonky £1K citron Citroën

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GingerMagic
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by GingerMagic »

I cannot echo Steve's wise words enough, a beautiful heartfelt post from a kind man with a kind heart.

Thank you Steve.
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by rwb »

Thank you.
This was a good place to come for some sense.

Well I've made my begging phone call and the answer is no. Sounds like they're running out of money again and were glad to get rid of a bigger salary.

So it would appear that the only way is forward...

Current: 407 2.2 HDi 170 & C6 2.7 HDi.
Former: 406 1.9 TD; 406 HDi 90; 407 2.2 160; 307cc 180; 508 HDi 140.
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by Doggy »

Forgive me, but I couldn't find the right words last night.
Absolutely agree with Steve & Kelv - it's the worst time of year to be facing the upheaval on top of your tragic loss. It's also perfectly natural to want to make a new start and certainly nothing to feel guilty about, (if that's part of how you're feeling).
FWIW my first instinct was to advise against going back to the old job - you made that decision for a reason.
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by Welly »

Sorry to hear of this set back to your wider plan rwb, Christmas/NY can go and get in the Sea for all I care about it; it seems designed to wind people up.

There's a lot going on in your world, it will settle of course and I hope that in 6 months you will look back and see that it was absolutely the right thing to do in making all these choices.

All the best to you in the meantime and sorry for the late response.
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by steve_earwig »

I'm a better listener than I am a talker, but that's not very helpful on a web forum...

Sounds like your old employers are in trouble there, oh dear. Ah well, plan A it is then. Right now it'd be understandable if you put less important things like the Citroen on the back burner. Or even if you just set light to it... Hey, it's just a car.
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by rwb »

Just checking in...

It's been a tough month living in Telford and working in Oldham, but Oldham house has now completed so I'm starting to get some time back and I've got some work to do that I can actually do.

House was a bit grim to start with as it had been tenanted and left in a bit of a mess.
Feeling better now I've had a cleaner in and someone to remove the rubbish from the back yard (although now I can actually get to the bins I've found that they're full of the wrong stuff and I'm missing grey and green), and roofer turns out to be general handyman who is probably going to be very useful.

Roofer has checked the roof (turns out it's new which means that the weak point is where it joins on to the neighbours -- he really seemed to know his stuff) and repaired a leak from the gutter at the back.
Because of said leak the back of the house is a bit green, so intending to power wash it and the yard tomorrow.

Gas meter on day 1 was astronomical.
At first I thought it was a pre-payment meter but it turns out it's a smart meter.
Took a while to work out how to take a meter reading; so maybe not all that smart.
The utility company say that if I don't send 'documents; in the next 7 says then they'll set the debt recovery on me because the tenant left unpaid bills, but don't deign to say what documents. So I've sent a very sweary e-mail. I can't imagine a court would find in their favour?

Dehumidifier filled a tank in 24 hours, but it seems to have settled down a bit now. However the BTU of the front room seems to be about twice that of the pathetic (and grotty) type 11 radiator in there, so I've found a bigger radiator to pick up tomorrow evening. I'll ask roofer if he can fit it.

The back of the house and the mullions are painted and bits are peeling so that'll be to strip and re-paint.

Got curtains and light shades to put up tomorrow and start painting over the rather grim grey in the living room with magnolia.
All of which should make it feel much more pleasant.

As far as work is concerned it could probably all just be left, but that's not what I'm like. Gut feeling is to start furthest away from the front door so that you're not trailing mess through rooms that have already been 'done'.
So that means that the first thing to do is the front bedroom that has some decrepit fitted wardrobes and a saggy patch in the ceiling. I think I have to get someone to look at that. Worst case scenario is a new ceiling. Planning a massive built in wardrobe with sliding mirror doors and vertical column radiators in the alcoves at the sides of the chimney breast.

There is evidence of past leaking -- which presumably motivated the new roof -- but it appears to be dry now. There is some sloppy re-plastering -- presumably where the damp was -- that needs tidying up; sanding?

Back bedroom is fine but has a bathroom style cord pull instead of a normal light switch.

There is a general shortage of electrical sockets.

It's hard to use the shower without splashing water all over.
The first decision there is whether to keep the bath or replace with a shower cubicle.
Then I want the bathroom tiling completely. Floor to ceiling. Every wall. And the floor.

Kitchen is livable but could be much improved with new tiles (the existing ones have been painted) and I'd love a quartz composite worktop and some period parquet. There's a terrifying plug socket under the sink -- which is for the washing machine -- that needs sorting.

Front room is getting some magnolia short term.
Longer term I wonder if there is a nice fireplace hidden there. You don't know until you've smashed the plaster off the wall.
The plan currently forming is to pick up some old wingback chairs (6 ish; Parker Knoll, Cintique, that sort of thing) and get them reupholsered in bright colours (to contrast the magnolia), small coffee/side tables with lamps and houseplants, bookcase, and no tellybox -- apparently all the kidz just have streaming on their computers these days?

407 is now on 215k and had clutch and DMF no. 3 fitted in December so that it's good for abusing as necessary should the need arise.
LuK parts from AutoDoc (with some cash back via topcashback.co.uk
.
Turned into an absolute bastard of a job because a captive nut in the subframe was spinning meaning that the subframe couldn't be moved and therefore the gearbox not moved far and furthermore because the black country monkey that did the previous one had rounded off the flywheel bolts.
Mechanic is an independent one man band and a former Citroen tech. He's a nice chap, is interested in what he's doing, and will have a conversation, and it's always clear that he knows -- and more besides -- the stuff that we pick via reverse engineering up on places like this forum; it's very reassuring.

Following the pay rise it's now actually plausible that for the first time diesel is not more valuable than my time and so I need to get my clog down, however, hold habits die hard and it's hard work dealing with all the Audi/BMW %$&? (and they really are absolute f*cking %$&?) that you see at 70+ mph.

New place has lots of German shite parked outside. I really want to park C6 next to the MD's Aston Martin and see if anyone notices. David Brown is the nearest I'll ever get to an Aston Martin. Love a bit of hydrashift...

...and the slushbox on the C6 is usually so smooth that I lose count of what gear it's in. Except when it's got hot when it will hold 2nd until about 2500rpm (which feels like screaming on the V6) and then have an almighty BANG into 3rd. So that's going to get another oil change...

Otherwise, Citroen is still being a bit of a lemon. The latest development is a headlight is out and it isn't the bulb so it's probably the ballast, and an indicator is out which I think is a loom problem. It's using a bit of coolant; there are three well known weak points in the coolant system so I'll just specify to do them all, and it ought to have a cam belt as I don't know the history.
The current complication is that I don't know whether the water pump is run off the cam belt or not, and something about the oil pump and a balancing belt.
Needs rear drop links -- which are identical to the 407 (quite a lot of it is identical to the 407 but don't say so because it upsets the C6 kool kidz who like to be special) -- but I can't work out how to lever the weight off them and can't crack the nut, so mechanic can do that too.
I did manage new front pads.
The 407 really needs discs and pads all round.
I'll see if mechanic will put EGR blanks in too. I thought the front bank would be in plain sight but unfortunately not.

In fact, in general the 2.7 is a complete mess compared to the 2.2. The 2.2 looks like a component that's been planned out in advance to be fitted. The 2.7 looks like it turned up at the factory one day after Jean-Paul and Pierre had been to the cafe for lunch and then they spent an afternoon finding somewhere to put all the pipes and loom.

Irritatingly, now that I am an office worker again, I'm going to have to have a day off work just to take C6 to mechanic.

Current: 407 2.2 HDi 170 & C6 2.7 HDi.
Former: 406 1.9 TD; 406 HDi 90; 407 2.2 160; 307cc 180; 508 HDi 140.
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steve_earwig
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by steve_earwig »

Ah, there you are, splendid :cheesy: I'd have thought your handyman would be the person to ask, the man on the spot so to speak, for advice. Make a list so you don't forget stuff, then maybe hand it to him.

Sockets, old house syndrome, probably old wiring syndrome too, if you think you'll need to add more or even rewire it's a hell of a messy job, lifting floorboards, channelling walls etc, so that needs thinking about before you start decorating.

Lumpy wall can be sanded but it's messy (here they have a thing called a giraffe, 30cm sanding disk on a stick but it's mainly for ceilings) and there's nothing to say the monkey who did it had a clue and maybe it'll fall off anyway if a nearby door is slammed.

Socket under the sink may have to stay, it depends if you can move it and/or the washing machine. I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you're likely to go crazy doing the washing up, perhaps swap it for something designed for outside?

Utilities - presumably they're after something that gives the date you took over. I wouldn't have thought they had a leg to stand on.

New radiators - I go for overkill myself, although you need to check the boiler is up to it.

Bath/shower - when t'wife moved in here 17 years ago she had the bath replaced with a shower because of her mother, who has since passed away. 3 years ago when I made the bathroom upstairs she insisted that I put a bath in there, lots of talk about relaxing in a bath, muscle aches etc. She's used it only once. The shower downstairs has a proper cubicle, which I reckon is essential unless your entire bathroom doesn't mind getting wet (even the bog roll...)

Cars - I reckon concentrate on the 407 as you need a car, the C6 can wait for other projects. On Service Box it looks like... hold on...
It looks like the water pump is driven off the aux belt (I can't see it here, the pump diagram shows nothing), the oil pump is driven off of the crank? That doesn't show anything either. Oh, and while I was searching I saw the diagram for the cooling hoses, there looks to be about 50 of the things :shock:

Nazi cars - I tend to give them a wide berth as they're usually driven by morons (not exclusively obv. but it's better to be safe), lots of distance in case they do something stupid, try not to pull out if you can see one in the distance because it'll be right up your chuff cooking the back of your head before you know it. Don't let the morons wind you up.
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Doggy
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by Doggy »

Good to hear you're making progress. Telford to Oldham wouldn't be a great long term commute, but I guess that's behind you now.
Sounds like you have a bit of a project with the new house. I would be tempted to find yourself an acceptable short term 'holding position', i.e. fix the bits you absolutely must have asap, then work on a comprehensive plan for the rest so as to avoid as far as possible attacking anything more than once. Easier said than done, but I have found it relatively easy to ponder over while you're doing the urgent bits, stopping to check/measure/plan as you go.

Sounds like you could do with an electrician to look at the least expensive/disruptive way of sorting the various snags you've identified. Did you get an EICR or similar report on the state of the installation as part of your paperwork?

If you don't mind me asking, how much did the clutch/dmf swap sting you altogether?
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by Welly »

rwb wrote: Sat Feb 08, 2020 11:50 pm Just checking in...
Bejesus, just reading that is making me feel stressed, as the others said prioritise the urgent stuff and only fix things once.

As far as decoration goes; there are thin semi-adhesive films you can buy on a roll - you know, if you thought you were going to make a dusty mess in or near a 'finished' room you can use a film covering over any finished flooring/carpeting etc to protect it from the worst. I've even fashioned temporary polythene 'doors' before. Probs not a great help here but there is a market for protective products out there.
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by rwb »

Cutting it fine: as I arrived at Mechanic's on 12th March it left a puddle. Water this time; there are three weak points in the cooling system and it was booked in to have these parts changed and a cam belt.
It's now stranded there. It's going to have to be SORNed.

Just taxed and insured the 407 at the start of March. And both have full tanks of fuel. :roll:

I could really have done with it back because now 407 isn't starting -- having not been touched for three weeks. Seems to be the crankshaft sensor (Diagbox shows engine speed as zero when cranking). Got a genuine part for a tenner but it's unlikely that I can even find where it is let alone change it, so I hope Mobile Mechanic is working.

Then I expect the handbrake will have seized; can't leave it off as it's parked on a slope.

So that's got me a bit down this weekend; haven't done a fraction of what I was intending to -- really didn't feel like washing the bitch.

Keep wondering about caliper painting with paintbrush or whether to pay for a proper job and refurb. The front ones are rather rough and had a sticky slider bolt (couldn't put on new discs because I couldn't crack the caliper carrier bolts).

Working from home pretty much unaffected -- except for a pay cut and not being able to go to the gym to break up the day. It's a bit odd doing new job from old desk. Managing not to booze. I want to eat all the time, but nothing satisfies.

Current: 407 2.2 HDi 170 & C6 2.7 HDi.
Former: 406 1.9 TD; 406 HDi 90; 407 2.2 160; 307cc 180; 508 HDi 140.
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by steve_earwig »

Good to hear from you :cheesy:

I take it the mechanic's where the Cistern is are shut. They seem variable here, the place I go was shut for a couple of weeks but now seems to be running again, although spares seem to be done over the phone.

I had an astray with handbrakes that used to seize if it was left for a couple of days. Eventually I had enough of taking it to bits every time and just drove it dragging a wheel, banging it up and down kerbs until it let go. Not that I'm suggesting you do this with the 407 mind.

Find a couple of bricks? Doesn't look very glamorous but needs must.

I'd need to install Sedra to look up the crank sensor, it's a nuisance (and I'll probably need to find another key for it :roll: ) but if you need it and nobody else appears, drop me a line & I'll have a go. Maybe it just needs the connector reseating...

I think you're allowed to go for a walk. Yeah, it's boring so you'll need an mp3 player :wink:

Take care!
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by rwb »

steve_earwig wrote: Sun Apr 12, 2020 7:12 pm Good to hear from you
aww shux :oops:
steve_earwig wrote: Sun Apr 12, 2020 7:12 pm ...just drove it dragging a wheel, banging it up and down kerbs until it let go. Not that I'm suggesting you do this with the 407 mind.
I imagine it's probably going to work out something like that.
Sometimes the C6 is a little reluctant to let go but to date it has obliged within a car length.

IIRC -- although I can't remember if it's the crank or the cam sensor -- that contains a magnet and therefore crap sticks to, so it's possible that it just needs cleaning. However, by the time you've found the bugger and got it out you've done most of the work so for a tenner it's not worth not putting in a new one :roll:

I got some of those ear bud things that all the kool kidz have (so goodness knows what I'm doing with them -- although I'm remeasured to find that they are somewhat disappointing. And I'm still not convinced that I'm broddling them into my lugs quite right.) and I'm learning Hindi.

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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by Doggy »

Nice to hear from you (+1)
Leaving it in gear will normally stop it rolling unless it's on a serious slope....
Crank sensor location on a 406-vintage DW12, as far as I can remember, (since I can't access Service Box layout diagrams anymore), was on the gearbox end of the engine, same general area as the reversing light switch. Think it's a tubular hall-effect sensor, poked through the bell housing, senses the reluctor ring on the flywheel. Can't swear this is the right picture, (from a 2.2 peugeot boxer van, No.3 being the crank sensor).

Image

If you can't find it, let me know & I'll have a butchers at my bro's 2.2 407GT SW before he gets rid, (he's bought a Merc C220 estate and has the 407 SORNED).

Caliper refurbs and the like can wait.

I'm wearing out my daughter's labrador, exploring public rights of way courtesy of Northants County Council's interactive mapping system and feeling grateful for the exceptional weather to do it in.

Annoying my planned trips to Scotland next month, Austria+Switzerland (July) and Portugal, (September), won't happen but if we all get through this in one piece, I'll count that as a win.

Stay safe
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by rwb »

Interesting... I was expecting somewhere near the crank pulley that runs the timing belt.

The 2.2s and the 2.0s are all the same block (aren't they?) so I'd expect them to be in the same place. I believe they're the same part: 1920.EH.

In any case: if it's not in plain sight then I'll need a grown-up.

Oh, goodness, you've got the camper haven't you? That is very irritating.
And I was looking forward to seeing the Citroën and find it out how you're getting on with it.

Indeed I keep discovering footpaths that are not on Google maps, so i got a real paper map -- which is a work of art, I love looking at it -- but it could do with zooming in a bit.

Current: 407 2.2 HDi 170 & C6 2.7 HDi.
Former: 406 1.9 TD; 406 HDi 90; 407 2.2 160; 307cc 180; 508 HDi 140.
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Re: The wonky £1K citron Citroën

Post by Wul »

Although haven't personally replaced any crankshaft sensor myself, but from seeing various Peugeot videos I'm pretty sure that the sensor is number 3 at the picture above

Edit: didn't see that Doggy has mentioned that, I only see the red circle :shock:
Last edited by Wul on Mon Apr 13, 2020 11:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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