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As
many of you know, my first love affair with a BX (Vera a 1.7TZD
Turbo) was rather short lived. Despite a LOT of work by Dave and
Jon over a “Mad BX Weekender” resulting in a fresh MOT,
the car was dogged with problems (possibly the BXClub window sticker
was at fault here?) Coupled with a thoroughly unsympathetic wife,
eventually it was scrapped via Mr. B, and a very nice ZX was sourced
which I clocked 11K miles on in 6 months.
Dave went on to buy a lovely TZD Turbo with retrofit air con and
his red TXD came up for sale…. It wasn’t very long before
I was persuaded to part with some beer vouchers for it.
Dave
acquired this late 19D from EBay (home of the great unsellable!)
Work required included replacing head gasket due to an oil leak,
replacement clutch assembly, and welding to the inner wings. Dave
decided that all of this work would be much easier if the complete
engine/gearbox assembly was removed from the car. With the lump
out, the head gasket and bolts were replaced, as was the timing
belt and tensioner and the water pump. The gearbox was removed,
and a new Valeo 3 part clutch kit was installed. New diff seals
were fitted. Possibly though the most worthwhile mod that Mr. B
did to the car was the fitting of a Pug sourced dashboard temp gauge
– this now means that the car has a natural looking dash pod,
but with the added benefit of a linear temperature gauge that is
more useful than the “Yellow Lamp of Death”.
Presently the only other modification I will be making will be moving
from the Xantia steel wheels with Berlingo wheel trims (which look
very nice on this car) to a set of 15 inch Pug 205 Gti alloys from
a 1.9 and shooing them with a set of Goodrides which come highly
recommended! The 1.9N/A engine, whilst not as rapid as the 1.7TD
is frugal, simple to work on and if looked after carefully with
regular oil changes seems to be bulletproof. The car has already
covered some 156,000 miles – and is to be pressed into every
day service as my work car – it will be expected to do between
16 and 20K miles a year
The
car benefits from privacy glass will shortly have a new radio/CD
player installed and has had a TZD front spoiler, door handle embellishers
and electric rear windows donated by the scrapped TZD. I am on the
lookout for a trailblazer, a sunroof deflector and I hope to source
some Black Chevrons for the bonnet – which will make the car
at least 20% faster and 90% more reliable. The cost to me of this
new voyage into BX ownership is the Xantia I own now belongs to
my wife – a small price to pay I think! Major plans for the
future possibly involve the transplantation of a TD engine; I know
this is something Dave was thinking about doing at one point, though
the mechanical simplicity and reliability of the N/A unit is not
one a mechanical numpty like I should discard too readily - the
car will never set the tarmac on fire but is brisk and frugal, what
more can a man ask for? Other than that, routine maintenance and
servicing every 5000 miles is the order of the day.
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