C5 - schmokes

[jjmartin349571]

If you wanted to go down the repair route but you can't go without a daily for the time it'd take to do the subframe swap then I've got that lovely Civic coupe going spare - you'd be welcome to a lend of it for a bit if it gets you out a hole.

[Donald]

Car Wars: Revenge of the Ostrich

[BlackMwack]

I'm quite glad that we weren't in a prelude

[wurlycorner]

That's very kind of you Jj, thanks.
I'll see what the alternatives on the market at the moment are like.

[wurlycorner]

Right, the sump is also damaged. Taken a very very tiny scuff directly below the drain plug, which is leaking.
It won't nip up, so I reckon it's ovaled the hole slightly. It's a cast Aly sump, so needs to be replaced.

I've been looking into changing the subframe some more. With a 2-post lift it's actually not that difficult a job, so I rang a localish independent Citroen specialist to get a quote for doing it, if I supply the part. They say they're used to dropping the sub-frames, because they take them off to do clutches (not necessary but makes the job much easier) and will be around £200 labour.

So yeah I'm gonna get it fixed and claim off the council.

I'm not into the claim/blame culture, but it's been playing on my mind and I've just been out for a drive in basically identical conditions, observing what traffic islands are like etc. There are several missing round near where I live, but the council here have put cones all round the islands and big blue arrow temporary signs, sandbagged down, so they're really visible.

Google maps shows the bollard on that Island I hit in London has been missing since at least April this year, so not doing anything (even temporary) after all that time is just not acceptable and I don't see why I should be left out of pocket.

At the end of the day this would come out of the tax payers pocket though, so will be going with cheap used parts that I buy/supply to the garage and not looking to recover things that I was going to do anyway (e.g. oil filter) in order to keep costs down.

Used parts;
Sump
Sub-frame (incl. cross member)
Off side suspension arm
4 seatbelts.

New parts;
Undertray (this will be new/pattern because finding a good used one will be impossible and they are only around £25 new anyway)
Oil
Fixings (a/r)

Freebies;
Oil filter (I have one spare anyway)
No labour for the belts, because I've done them and reset the ECU myself.


While they have the subframe off, I'll see what the extra would be to put a clutch in at the same time. If it's not much, I'll get that done (makes sense since they're at least half-way there) with me covering the extra for that.

[wurlycorner]

So an update with some more little bits done/fixed on it.

Replaced the windscreen bar. All fixings intact on this one and it's from a later car with the improved bolts fixing in the centre, so it's definitely going no-where!


I'd noticed this on mine recently and thought it looked a bit odd...

While I was in the scrapyard on Thursday I checked out some others and turns out I was right - there should be a cover over the slave cylinder. So...

Duly fitted
(Yep, I admit it - largely pointless, but I'm anal )

Haynes description of removing the B pillar trim and changing the seatbelts is largely correct, with a couple of notable changes.

Trim-wise, it's not necessary to remove the sill covers - the lower half of the B pillar cover is barely covered by them and can easily be flexed clear.
The upper half of the B pillar cover shouldn't just be yanked out/down - there are 2 clips at the bottom which should be squeezed first, to release them. THEN pull it outwards and then down.

Fixings wise, they have completely forgotten to mention a fixing halfway up, that is held in with rivets
So glad I started stripping this down when I was 25 mins away from my rivet gun as a result

Seatbelt reel with the covers removed;


Said middle seatbelt fixing;

2 rivets holding it on;

Only option is to drill the heads off;

Then knock the back of the rivets through into the pillar (they will fall out the bottom)

Important to vacuum up all the swarf generated, so that none of it works its way into the seatbelt mechanism (could potentially damage the belt, jam the mechanism, or cause the pretensioner to be set off)

Everything removed and vacuumed clean;



On the passenger side, it's important that the wire for the pretensioner is clipped into a holder and fed behind the belt, to ensure it doesn't get snagged;


Into Lexia, diagnostics section, Airbag Ecu, this is the fault that will have been logged;

(Ignore the temporary fault open circuits showing here - that's probably 'cause I had run the car with the old pretensioners unplugged, while I drove over to get my rivet gun)

Cleared by simply going into erase faults;


As Haynes describes, you can tell the pre-tensioners have gone off, because the inertia reel units make a noise a bit like bits of broken glass rattling inside a steel can. On mine, the passenger side reel worked as normal, but the drivers side had completely locked up, no movement either way.

Haven't got round to changing the rear belts yet (only the missus and I that use the car, so no mega rush).

[wurlycorner]

Righto, the airbag fault kept appearing, because of the pretensioners having activated. Despite clearing the faults and even re-configuring the Airbag ECU to tell it that it didn't even have pretensioners (as a trial) the fault reappeared after every ignition off cycle.

The pretensioners on the used seatbelts I fitted have not deployed.
Consulting another thread on FCF offered a way of testing the rest of the circuit.

So both sides hooked up with resistors;


(the power rating of that resistor is overkill, but it's the only 2.2Ohm resistors that Maplin had in stock )

Cleared the faults, re-ran diagnostics...

Bloody thing.

Looks like the airbag ECU is a write-once affair so I'll have to change it
What a waste of time!

All the rest of the parts needed for the repair are either with me, or at the garage I've selected and it's booked in for Thursday.

[mercutio]

so your having the subframe replaced then?

[wurlycorner]

5th post on this page?

[wurlycorner]

Right, all sorted.
I picked it up on Friday evening - the garage had the car for 8 days in the end, which wasn't what I'd bargained for, but never mind - done now.

Items done as expected - used subframe and cross member, new (pattern) sump and undertray. Purflux oil filter from my stock
Suspension arm wasn't needed in the end.

I also had a new clutch stuck in, seeing as the car was half way apart for that job anyway and I have no idea if/when it has been done. The car is on 158k so it's likely it's the original. I do a lot of (heavy) towing and the pedal was noticeably high. So it made sense.
Unfortunately the DMF wasn't fit to go again, so that also had to be changed meaning extra expense
The biting point is much much nearer the floor now.

As a result of all this, the car has had a BSI reset (battery disconnected, so done by them) and survived

Pics of the dead items;

Sub frame was more bent than I thought



Crunched back and bent down. Car still drove fine Strong old things these C5's...

Shiny new undertray;



So as far as the accident goes, that just left the pretensioner problem to finally sort (ECU fault came back every single time straight after clearing it).
Got a replacement used ECU from my local breakers.

This is where it lurks, in front of the gear shift lever;

Held on by 3 nuts on captive bolts from the transmission tunnel. It's a bit of a pain to get out without dismantling the dash further. The nuts are recessed inside stiffeners on the side of the ECU body, so you need a slender socket. The 2 furthest bolts are then underneath the main dash centre console. I managed to get at them using a universal joint on the socket and an extension. Fiddly, but do-able;

Old and new ECU next to each other. It's the same ECU on saloons/estates and through all the S1 range as far as I could see, checking on service.citroen before I headed off to the breakers (I didn't check the facelift part numbers).

Found an original assembly fail on the part of Citroen on mine. The one I took off at the breakers (an '04 car) was secured with all metal lock nuts, whereas mine had all nyloc nuts.
The eagle eyed among you will have spotted that one of the securing holes is an earth point - so nyloc's are unsuitable! I just re-used the all metal nuts off the breaker.

Worked fine first time, no need to set the ECU up or programme the VIN etc. I didn't disconnect the battery, just turned the ignition off.



So that was it. All