'96 Xantia Activa - back to the future!

[Supermarine Blues]

Xantia Activa's corner like dogs on grass! .

Is that good or bad? Can't say iv seen a dog run on grass. I can imagine it will slide some.

Well, a friend said his dog ate a big lump of hash, once.

It ran around the room in circles incessantly for an hour, them slept for about six.

I probably misunderstood the OP...

[Donald]

excellent Super, had a similar friend who's goats at his garden stock.

As for the dog, sounds about right oral consumption takes longer to kick in, but lasts longer.

[wurlycorner]

Porka gone, got to get this back on the road asap.

Started with a nice simple job, replacing a rear light that was cracked.




Then onto the rad. First time I've come across quick release connectors on a car - impressive actually and a real piece of body lemonade.

Unfortunately the lower ones are spring clips, which are fine, but access is bum droppings so it was much drokking around just to undo one clip.

The rad is then held in with 2 spring clips at the top, lift them up, rad swings back and should then just lift out. Overall, it's a great bit of design to be honest.

Unfortunately (!) mine's a petrol turbo which has a big intercooler and it turns out this is mounted to the front of the rad and they come out as one piece, so I now have to strip down all the inlet system too in order to let the rad swing back far enough Got some way through it but then it started to absolutely body lemonade it down and I had to stop. So that's it for this week. If it's dry next weekend, rad to finish, then onto the rear spheres (I'm dreading that bit, because one of them has no access).

I also need to decide whether to do the heater matrix at the same time. They're known for leaking and mine is. It would make sense to do it at the same time, but it's a dash out job and I have designs of retro-fitting a/c too (black car, black interior, lots of glass) which would mean doing exactly the same and I don't have the time right now so I think I might leave the matrix for now

[wurlycorner]

Oh yeah, I also have to put at least one new tyre on the front, because when I went to drive it out of the garden the front tyres had gone down a lot and I didn't have the tyre inflator and couldn't be arsed to wait... Result? One tyre off the rim!

[wurlycorner]

drokking cars...

4 hours later today, more and more of the car stripped down and I STILL haven't got the bloody rad out!

The bottom hose quick connector is corroded solid and won't budge.


Access to it is crap so I can't even properly whack the crap out of it to smash the plastic housing. Either way the hose needs to be changed now, which is a sod - I don't have one of course and it's also a royal PITA to change this one. It runs from the left hand side of the rad round the front sub frame and then T's off with one bit going up to the bottom of the expansion tank;

Access to the bottom of the expansion tank to undo the clip is impossible - sandwiched above the washer tank and below the inner wing. I can reach up and feel it, but you can't even see the clip;

And the other bit of the T runs to the back of the engine;


So far then, all the intake system removed;

And the inner wing stripped down (which involved the usual angle grinding a couple of rusted metal screw clips)

All for not changing a rad And this was meant to be a quick side job before I move onto finishing sorting the rear suspension

To take the washer reservior out (so I can access the bottom of the expansion tank) means bumper off Tomorrow I'll be desperately trying to avoid having to do that...

[wurlycorner]

The usual suspects (eurocarparts and GSF) don't list the hose and ebay is bereft of them also, but a random search online turned up a supplier surprisingly easily and for decent cost

http://www.mister-auto.co.uk/en/radiato ... H0292.html

I'll give my usual supplier on Monday to see if he can help and if not, at least I know I can still get hold of one quickly.

[indigolemon]

Good find!

[wurlycorner]

6 hours more fun and games today, 4 bolts angle ground off, side cutters used to full effect, various skin off arms and I've finally reached the point where it's in more bits than I orignally wanted, but probably (hopefully) as many as I need to complete the 'rad' change




(Notice the chocolate teapot in the last of those 3 pics )

Here's the son of a bitch that started making life difficult;

And this is what the rad looked like;



Rather full of jobby under/behind the rad;



Started cleaning it up and realised a fair bit of it was bits of aluminium so whipped the intercooler fully out;


Doesn't look too bad from here so started taking a soft brush to it to clean away the loose crap.




It's perfectly serviceable atm but the bottom is really brittle. When you touch or brush it, bits come off, so all it's going to do is keep disintegrating and cover the new rad in crap and then need changing a year or so down the line (and I can't face taking all this apart again! ) so I'll make a call tomorrow and see how much a new one is.

After taking it out, my anality wouldn't let me leave the bottom looking like this;


So I started cleaning it up.



The shell is in absolutely great nick, thanks to being galvanised. The rusty bits are bolted on brackets, that aren't galvanised. It's only surface rust though, so I'll treat them and refit before I finish putting it back together.

This is where the coolant hose attaches to the bottom of the expansion tank, viewed up from underneath the bumper.

This is after I've chopped the rest of the hose away and shifted the washer tank out of the way (sits underneath the hose) but as you can see, it's a complete dancer to access and to top it all, the bloody squeeze clips are round the furthest away side as well

Finally managed the get it off - even after taking the spring clip off I still had to cut the rubber off!

And this is the muffin finally all off;

[wurlycorner]

I'm thinking now is the time to get hold of and fit an a/c condensor too, even if I don't fit the rest of the gear till later, so will see what I can turn up for that (used) over the next week as well...

[wurlycorner]

Intercooler ordered - not too bad at £80 + VAT
My matey couldn't get the bottom hose, so I'm just going to check with the dealer on the off-chance that it's cheaper from them than that on-line place I found and then that'll be on its way too...

Have asked some questions on the frenchcarforum about air-con on Xantia's, because from what I can read, it's not straightforward - there are various different manufacturers and I'm not sure what is/isn't interchangeable. Also not sure how the heck you would even fit the condensor in behind the rad and intercooler on a turbo. Doesn't seem much space left, if any, between them and the fans?