Chris' BX blog

[white exec]

Found it, I think - it's 5751 14.

Upper retractor roller.JPG

Something of a special, as the bearing for the pulley is internally threaded, and with a hex socket on one side for tightening.
Mister Auto (who else?) has a choice of several, and the lower swing tensioner too.

Parts diag:
The V-pulley on the alternator is just there to mislead, and the idea of a "non-sinking" BX is intriguing...

Looks like Citroen changed their mind several times over the aux belt arrangement for the car.
I'll take the old one off first, before ordering anything new.

[white exec]

No going back now . . . a welcome end of an era . . .

Our '03 Toyota RAV4.2 was finally scrapped yesterday, after 234,000km. It was pretty much essential in 2004 when access to the locality was via rutted dirt tracks, and the odd river-bed, but those days are past, as our mountain carrils are now decently concreted and even crash-barriered. The Toyota's 2.0 D4D could never rival a French IDI diesel for smoothness, and it was a car we never had an emotional attachment to - perhaps it knew. Always decently serviced, it still tore its way through two Toyota dual-mass flywheels, and only took up drive well after a Blueprint SMF was fitted. Bits of Toyota body-trim detached from their numerous plastic clips, the rear door's spot welds fell apart under the load of the spare wheel, and the clear lacquer peeled away.

So, 'tis gone, and I'm pleased about that. Some of our UK family think we're potty in now having a pair of heading on for 30-year-old Citroens, and the BX as a daily. We think we know different, though, partly because we've been there before.

[Jaba]

I think you are potty too. But I too have a BX as one of my dailies.

On another note I notice that Mister-Auto .uk are now accepting orders in GBP even though the warning banner saying not available is still there.

[white exec]

Fitted a new pair of spheres to the rear end this morning.

One had suddenly given up its 40bar a good few weeks ago, so an XM rear was temporarily fitted, just to keep things afloat.
XM sphere was regassed to the correct 40, but damping was just 0.7, instead of the required 1.8 (one of the gentlest Citroen dampings), so back end - on one side - became a bit knobbly.

New spheres are Eurorepar (which we now know are made by IFHS, Belgium), and were €70 each from Citroen. Cheaper available from other sources, but at least these have specific damper markings, which others tend not to.

While at it, checked the 55bar fronts for pressure, and was pleased to find them still showing 52bar, after being Valprexed and re-gassed around 10 months ago. They are genuine 500cc Citroens, so good they're still doing their stuff. Car now riding nicely.

The Hydraurinçage was finally hiked out this morning too, and replaced with normal LHM+. Good to find that it was only slightly less clean than when it went in (5000km ago), which tallies with finding what looked like new LHM in the car when I bought it. The H has done some good, though: no strut creaking, steering smooth, and ups-and-downs decently quick.

Useful find in a branch of Leclerc in July, while visiting family - Total LHM+ at just €6.45 a litre, rather than the €9?11 here. Bought a good few.

[rutter123]

We too scrapped our 2002 rav4 vvti about 18 months ago, mot failure due to all tyres, brake discs and seized calipers handbrake and missing exhaust shield, made it uneconomical to repair it served us well from 2007 and clocked up over 160k in our ownership with few problems, so far as I know it was exported, to where I don't know..

[white exec]

A few more jobs ticked off on Saturday, more than I set out to tackle:

Aux belt rollers

DSCF3991 annotated.jpg

A good bit of unwanted noise, especially at idle, from both of the rollers on the (AC) aux belt.
The lower (tensioner) roller managed to tinkle (it is rather bell-like if you strike it) while also whirring!

Found both of them on Mister Auto:
6453 C6 Compressor tension roller
I used the Dayco APV2006 (looks identical to the original)
5751 14 Retractor roller, diam.12
Item used SKF VKM33006 (again, same as original)
.

BX aux belt path revised.jpg

.
Removing the retractor roller turned out not to be straightforward. The roller is essentially just a ballrace (70 diam x 24 wide), with its inner hole threaded to a fine M12, so it screws on to an extended alternator lower fixing bolt. The roller is provided with a hex socket in its outboard face, which accepts a 10mm a/f Allen key (hex wrench). Trouble is, the hexagonal socket is only 4mm deep, and the socket is the hardened steel (and potentially brittle) ball race inner track. The result here, when the key was turned, was that the socket split...
.

DSCF3996.JPG

A bit of a bugger, but I did find that - behind the roller - is a very accessible large hex (around 22mm), which is the 12mm mounting bolt.
Good news is that this can be undone and the bolt withdrawn (with the roller still attached); bad news is that the roller hits the inner wing before the long bolt can be hiked out. Easy solution was to remove the RH top engine mount bracket, and lower the engine at that side by a few cm. This allowed the roller+bolt to come out, and be dealt with off the car.

As can be seen from the last photo, the old roller's bearings were dry, which would explain the noise and very slight slop.

With both of these items replaced, the engine is now appreciably quieter, with/without the AC in operation.
___________

After all that, the other bits to be swatted were new air and fuel filters - untouched since getting the car last October - and a new Bosal rear transverse box (135-493), to replace the previous one, whose long seam had rusted out from the inside. Good to see that Bosal have now repositioned this seam by 90deg, so it is no longer at the bottom!

[white exec]

A question about the AC slide control on the dash...
I'd assumed that this was just a switch to turn the system on, plus a variable resistance to adjust the level of cooling.
For some reason, the control on the car here is quite stiff to move, and gets more so if the AC has been running for some time.
Does the slider control have a mechanical function/linkage as well?

[Jaba]

No linkage to this exists. It is just a VR with plastic slider. Some silicone needed probably

[white exec]

Brilliant, thanks John. The stiffest pot I've ever encountered!
The panel needed to come off anyway, to check the occasional loss of blower speed.

[white exec]

Sorted, so thanks.
It was the slider pot itself which was surprisingly stiff. The pot 'lever' runs along a groove, and this was amazingly tight, as soon as any attempt was made to slide it. Lube'd and contact cleaned, and the dash knob can now be operated with one finger but it took several attempts at lubrication. The friction was on the underside of the plastic guide track, not the topside.

JFI, pot is a Valeo special, 10k lin, connected as a simple series resistance.
At AC OFF position, resistance = 2M5 (effectively open circuit).
Around 10% along the track it comes in at 10k, and smoothly reaches zeroR at MAX cold.

Because of slightly intermittent blower speed, I ran an additional Gnd connection between the panel's 5M3 Gnd pin, and a good Gnd (the cig.lighter body connection). Previous to that 5M3 showed up at 5R away from Gnd. Slight increase in fan speed obtained, and control seems more positive. Time will tell.

One oddity found:
If the temp (hot-cold) rotary control is placed on the end of the blue (just where it changes to red), the fan speed is noticeably higher (and able to blow more air from the vents) than if the control is set to min (cold).
Wonder what's going on there?

[RobC]

There’s a micro switch on the temperature dial which is meant to be actuated on ‘full cold’ in order to beef up the blowers iirc- seems like it’s slightly out of adjustment?

[white exec]

Aha, Rob!
Have just checked, and the heat control here does the converse of that - adds a small amount of extra blower speed/output when you move the control out the blue, and into the red, or anywhere along it. Does not bring on full speed, just adds some blower output.

Can't see anything in the circuit diagram (second one on the current 'AC for 16v' thread) that would do this.
The other item I haven't managed to identify is #270 on that same diagram, which would bring on full blower speed if actuated.

[jamescarruthers]

Could 270 be the relay that lives in the steering column area that requires a mod to get working as Citroen forgot to wire it up from the control panel?

[xantia_v6]

Guessing from theory, 270 is a microswitch on the temperature control which is intended to disable full speed when the system is in heating mode. This would seem to be mechanically misaligned in your system.

If 270 is switched to the high speed mode, but the relay is not operating, either because the speed control is not grounding the coil, or due to a wiring problem, then the act of 270 switching the bias resistor 788 out of circuit will give a limited speed boost.

Two issues to track down, I think.

[white exec]

Found the 2007? thread "The definitive heater modification", which contains lots of helpful info.