BX16TRS - flatspot

[white exec]

Seeing today's post about the 16TRS with carb issues rang a bell. Not sure whether this is of any interest, this is what happened...

Back in 1989-90, my then other half took delivery of a brand new 16TRS, on lease.
Car was essentially fine, except for one fault: a monumental carburettor flat-spot, which had all the hallmarks of the engine running weak if you opened the throttle with any gusto. Back off on the accelerator, and the car would accelerate.

Being under warranty, the car went back to the Citroen dealer many times for attention to this, but nothing much was sorted until we presented them with an ultimatum: replace the carburettor, replace the engine, or replace the car.

Just days before the car became one year old, we got a phone call from the workshop, asking us to bring the car in. A couple of hours later, another asking us to collect it. I was invited to take it for a test drive, and was surprised to be able to get quite dramatic front wheelspin when pulling out on to the main road. Transformation!

Back at the garage, I quizzed the service manager about what they'd done, to be told they'd simply fitted a pair of Peugeot jets in place of the OE Citroen ones. Apparently from the same engine, but Pugs, being heavier than BX, had been tuned with some performance in mind, where the lightweight BX had been jetted for economy. Well, that's what he said.

So why couldn't they have done that before, to save everyone months of annoyance? All to do with warranty, apparently, and the fact that Citroen had not acknowledged that there was a problem.

One of the technicians wrote down the Peugeot part numbers for the two jets: PT 4505, PT 4506.
I have no idea whether these numbers mean anything now, but that was the info.
It cured the problem handsomely, with only a bit less than a 2 mpg drop.