HubNut Blog

What’s on my mind?

Project BX: Prize winning!

Last weekend, I took the BX on a mighty trek to the X Rally in Lincolnshire, taking in the excellent Pride of Longbridge rally on the way.

The BX coped with the 300+ mile trip in typical unflustered manner. It may look dreadful, it may be far from healthy mechanically but it does just keep soldiering on. It’s getting better too. An awful lot of work has gone into the car over the winter, and it’s paying dividends. Sadly, many problems still remain and I still need to get the hydraulics working properly. On the way to Birmingham, the intermittent power steering made driving on unexpected snow rather too exciting!

Prize winner! Ok, so the prize was for Shed of the Show, but it's still a victory. (picture courtesy of Tim Leech)

Things improved with mileage, but the BX remains an absolute sod to drive around town. For a start, you can hear the hydraulic pump cut in every couple of seconds. It shouldn’t do this. My plans to buy a new accumulator sphere at the X Rally were thwarted by there not being anyone there selling them. The lack of consistency from the steering doesn’t help either, though this does improve when the car and ambient temperature are warmer. The biggest problem is the drivetrain though. First gear synchromesh is long departed, but it’s very tricky to try and double-declutch into first. This generally results in hideous crunching. I suspect some engine mountings are knackered too, as there’s a lot of shunt and judder at times. There’s also some excitement generated by the fact that the brakes are sometimes a little slow to react as I need to re-bleed the front brake lines following a caliper replacement.

However, despite the issues, the BX did get me to the X Rally and amazingly – it even won a prize! Ok, so the prize was for Shed of the Show, but the Citroen purists knew how rare it was. Not just a symbol of its dreadful state! The bottle of beer will be enjoyed by my wife and I’m trying to use the unexpected prize win to boost moral for the continuing project. If I can get the engine and hydraulics performing better, and sort out some of the drivetrain issues, the car will be transformed.

Project BX: Suspension trickery

The best thing about owning a hydraulic Citroen – until they fitted Xantias with anti-sink valves – is the fact that you start the car, and it then majestically rises to driving height, rather like a hovercraft preparing for launch. I never tire of it. I do wonder why so few manufacturers went down this route though. For a glorious few decades, the likes of Audi, Mercedes-Benz and even Rolls-Royce licenced the technology for their own cars, though all used conventional springs with the Citroen-technology offering a smoother ride and self-levelling.

Whatever the weight, the BX runs level

For an estate car, self-levelling suspension seems something that no load-lugger should be without. After all, in theory, an estate should find itself hauling heavy stuff about from time to time. It’s kind of the point. The BX makes an excellent estate, even though it’s actually a conversion carried out by coachbuilder Heuliez. The changes are restricted to an extension piece to increase the rear overhang, different rear wings and rear side windows and a plastic roof transformation piece. The seats, doors and basic bodyshell are all stock hatchback (or, confusingly saloon as it was officially called). The load space is very generous, and includes little eyelets for fixing down loads. Again, the hatchback load cover is extended, which means the estate has a hinged parcel shelf. Good for hiding stuff in the boot and much more effective than a flimsy, roll-up load cover.

But the best element is that height-adjustable, self-levelling suspension. Place a heavy object in the rear and the height corrector will notice the drop in ride height, and cause the pump to push more pressure into the suspension loop. The rear end then rises to the correct height. Simple and exceedingly effective. The really clever bit comes from the rear brakes. These are supplied with pressure from the rear suspension units. If they’re under more pressure due to a heavy load, they’ll consequently give the rear brakes more pressure to boost stopping power. Genius!

I put this technology to the test today, by loading the BX with a good quarter-ton of wood. There’s plenty of room for a builder’s sack full of wood and once the engine is started, the car easily rises up to normal height. It felt good and stable to drive as well, with little drop in performance – accelerating or stopping.

There’s certainly no way that I’m going to stop grinning like a schoolboy every time I start the BX up. Few cars deliver this level of joy before a journey has even begun, and fewer still that can be bought for so little money!

Debunking a big myth

I feel need to debunk a myth as this seems to be recurring theme in my life.

People assume that the life of a motoring journalist is filled with adventure, beautiful cars and exotic drives. I would like to state now that for the non-Top Gear folk who churn out the majority of what you read in magazines, that certainly ain’t so!

The vast majority of my time is spent like an increasing amount of the population. Behind a computer screen. I spend a lot of time talking to club folk and specialists as I research features which very often have a lot more to do with corrosion and other worries than driving experiences. So far this year, I’ve written over 30 features, with about 75% of those over 1000 words. That doesn’t include features where I’ve got 1000 words in, decided it’s rubbish and completely re-written it. I’m not really one for tweaking. Either it’s right or it’s not.

Nor does it include the ramblings contained within this blog. I do that just for fun!

Now obviously, I still consider myself pretty lucky. As jobs go, this is a very pleasant one, but I do want people to understand that very little of it actually involves cars in a physical sense! Nor does it pay well. I think people must see what Jeremy Clarkson earns and then assume that anyone who writes about cars can afford two large country houses and a London flat, plus whatever latest powerful sports car is on the market. I am not wealthy. Sure, I don’t work full-time, 37hrs a week, but you only have to look at my cars to known I don’t have a lot of money. They’re generally old wrecks or, in the case of the 2CV, purchased when it was pretty much worthless (£450 in 2000). As it happens, that fits in with our new lifestyle very well. My wife and I quit our steady day jobs in 2010 to make an attempt at becoming more self-sufficient. I basically earn money so I can indulge in my motoring hobby and buy meat. We can’t afford to go on holiday, but we don’t mind as the work/life balance is firmly tilted towards life at the moment. It’s idyllic most of the time (but usually hard work!) but there are times when we hope there won’t be a big bill due before pay day. (for firewood for example).

It works well because I write when the mood takes me. That might be 9pm on a Sunday night or it might be 8am on a Monday morning. I write quickly and that’s a big bonus as deadlines can sometimes be many and tight. I’m fortunate in that words tend to come quite easily to mind – which is odd as I’m generally rubbish at conversations as my brain doesn’t seem to work quickly enough. It’s not like I type slowly either. I can nudge 80 words-per-minute when really flowing. Years of working in boring administration jobs actually proved a good grounding!

Driving a Hillman Avenger

So there you have it. I might occasionally get out and drive some nice cars (once this year so far) but the life of a motoring writer is much more about the writer bit than the motoring bit. If you fancy having a go at this writing lark, join a car club and speak to the editor. They’ll probably be delighted to have you write something for them and as I discovered myself, it’s very useful practice. You may discover that this writing lark is actually pretty demanding! Or you may decide you love it. This is a job where it’s good to like cars, but it’s REALLY good to like words.

Project budget 4×4: Stuck in the mud

I seem to have found the limits of the Maverick, in some very muddy woods in Carmarthenshire.

Oops. Maverick gets stuck!

I had concerns about taking the Maverick to a Pay and Play site. I’ve been to a couple before and found them rather a challenge for vehicles in stock form. Bodywork damage seems inevitable, as does getting stuck as a lot of the trucks there are very much modified – which means deeper ruts than a stock vehicle can cope with.

And that was the undoing of the Maverick. I was amazed about how a friend’s near-stock Defender coped in the same conditions. That extra ride height, axle articulation and some proper mud-terrain tyres kept it going where the Maverick failed. Which was good as it rescued me several times!

But, it’s ok. I accept that the Maverick was always a compromise that put road manners ahead in priority terms of something as skilled off the road as a Land Rover. I found the limits, scratched the bodywork in quite a lot of places and impressively filled the front end of the Maverick with lots and lots of clay! I also learnt a lot about vehicle recovery…

But, the Maverick is happily proving more than just an off-road toy. It’s also been busy hauling wood about. It’s nice that I can chuck 300kg of wood in the back and it barely notices. If anything, it stops better because a load sensing valve increases rear brake pressure – which makes the rear shoes work harder. That has to be good for them. A loss of brake fluid, which stopped the rear brakes working altogether, has caused some concern. I’m monitoring to see if it drops again, in which case I think one or both rear wheel cylinders could be to blame. There was so much mud and water in there when I cleaned it all up at the weekend that I couldn’t tell if there was a leak or not.

I still plan to take it laning later in the year too, though I might pass on any more Pay and Play action for the time being…

Goodbye winter blues

I apologise for the lack of blogging activity lately. Somehow it’s 12 days since the last one. Surely I’ve been really busy and haven’t had time?

Well, not – though a burst of sunshine was doing little to remove my winter blues. When you’re into old cars, winter can be a torrid time. Mainly because there’s so little going on. No events and few classics out and about as they hide away from salt and cold.

But my summer is fast filling up with events to look forward to, and that’s making me feel more positive. I’m only a couple of weeks away from the Citroen X Rally in Lincolnshire and on my way east, I’ll be stopping off at the Pride of Longbridge rally in Birmingham. I’m ashamed to admit that I’ve not been to the Pride of Longbridge yet, despite being a Brummie lad.

That trip will be undertaken in the BX, which is currently sitting in the garage at a jaunty angle awaiting the fitment of a new brake caliper. Sadly I broke a spanner this morning, which brought that job to a rapid and frustrating halt!

No, it doesn't usually lean like that, and it is safer than it looks!

After that, I’m very much looking forward to taking the 2CV for a return to La Vie en Bleu at the famous Prescott Hillclimb. Last year was the first time I actually managed to get to this event and I was very glad I did. I had a great time with other 2CVGB chums, especially when we got to hoon our Tin Snails up the hill during a parade. Great fun!

The 2CV will naturally be making the trip to 2CVGB’s Registers Day event in July too, back over in the east, just down the road from where we lived until October 2010. That’s always a great event.

The big dilemma for me is which Citroen to take to the International Citroen Car Clubs Rally in Harrogate in Yorkshire. This is the biggest all-Citroen meet in the world, and I’ve never been to one before. Frankly, the idea of this event alone is making me drool. Don’t get me wrong – I love 2CV events – but this one will be filled with some of the other kind of Citroens. Large, floaty slices of ultimate exotica. I cannot wait, though deciding which car to take is tricky. I hate to be without my 2CV, but the BX is rather more special as even at this worldwide gathering of double-chevron delights, I can be pretty sure that it will be unique. Even if it does look absolutely dreadful.

So, there’s lots to be positive about, starting this very weekend when I take the the Maverick for its first Pay and Play off-road session. I’m looking forward to pushing it to its limits…

Reaching braking point

In the past 18 months, I’ve rebuilt the Mini’s front brakes, a Range Rover’s rear brakes, tried to fix a sticky caliper on a Saab 9000 and pretty much completely overhauled the Ford Maverick’s stoppers. I was hoping I could take a break from brakes, but live isn’t always fair.

The problem now is the BX. One front caliper is suffering from a sticky piston, while the other suffers from a sticky handbrake cable (handbrake is on the front wheels). The two are combining beautifully to create binding brakes. Just like we had on the Mini, Range Rover, Saab and Ford. What is it with bloomin’ brakes?!

First look at the BX's brakes while recommissioning. They worked fine a few months ago! This one now suffers a sticky handbrake cable

My mood isn’t enhanced – though it probably should be – by the 2CV just sitting there looking smug. In almost 100,000 miles of motoring, and 12 years of ownership, the 2Cv has needed one set of front discs, a couple of sets of pads, a pair of new rear shoes and that’s about it. No binding issues at all, thanks apparently to the use of alloy pistons.

The problem with the others? Steel pistons. What a rubbish idea! Being steel, they inevitably corrode and then seize. The other issue is that the brakes on these cars all sit in the wheels, so get covered in road muck. The 2CV wears its front brakes on the sides of the gearbox, in the engine bay, and further away from wheel-hurled muck. Whoever was in charge of 2CV brakes deserves a medal. Especially as they’re so powerful as well!

I’ve now got the decision with the BX about whether to rebuild the front caliper or just buy a replacement (as I did on the Maverick). £40 for a complete caliper, but not sure how much a rebuild kit would be. Probably a fair bit as the piston is gunked up enough to need replacing. Hopefully pay day will allow me the luxury of the expensive option! In the meantime, yet another hero on the BX forum is sending me another handbrake cable, so I can sure that issue pretty easily.

I hope that this will bring an end to brake-fettling for some considerable time. I can dream can’t I?

Alfaddiction

I have owned a great many cars – somewhere over 50 – but few get their claws in. The 2CV has managed it, and I keep returning to Citroen BXs but otherwise, few cars leave me wanting another. I sample their delights and then move on.

A car I should not have sold

One car I would still like very much to own again though is an Alfa Romeo 164 V6. I made the mistake of buying a cheap one. £375, which seemed an absolute steal for one of the best sounding engines, in a beautiful Pininfarina-styled saloon body. The digital climate control even worked.

To be fair, it did get me around a fair bit, and it provided many hours of pleasure. Every opportunity to kick-down the smooth ZF auto gearbox provided a treat of power and sheer music. There was something truly primeval in the growling-then-screaming soundtrack that played havoc with the hairs on my neck. Who cared that the rev counter sometimes packed up? My ears gave me all the feedback I needed. Oh, and the speedometer would sometimes cut out as well.

It all went a bit wrong on a trip to the Cotswolds though, when one of the front brakes began to bind to such a degree that I couldn’t touch the front wheel. It would occasionally do this several times, which rather ruined my enjoyment of it. At the time, unlike now, I’d never tried dismantling and overhauling a brake caliper. A feeble attempt at investigation resulted in a snapped-off bleed nipple and a great degree of colourful language.

Idiotically, rather than fixing it, I lobbed it on Ebay and sold it for £300. £300! For one of the best cars ever made, albeit in slightly shabby condition. Everyone has one of those cars they wish they’d never sold. I rather fear that my Alfa Romeo 164 V6 was mine. There is another, entirely different car that fits this category, which I’ll Blog about soon…

2CV – fun in the sun

It’s been a while since the 2CV has appeared on this blog and I apologise for that massive oversight. I’ve been rather busy with other vehicles and work, but that’s not to say that I haven’t been using the 2CV. In fact, the little Tin Snail has been very busy recently, reminding me why I love it.

When it comes to bombing around the roads of rural Wales, I honestly think there isn’t another car I would rather be in.

For hurtling around Wales, few things can match a 2CV

That may seem a bold statement, but there’s a reason for it. For a start, much as I love TVRs, it would be left for dead by the 2CV on some of the twisty, trecherous mountain roads around here. It simply doesn’t have the ground clearance and with bends coming at you like a herd of demented cattle, there are few opportunities to exploit the power. You might as well have a mere 29bhp that allows you to keep your foot down.

So, with undulating roads, perhaps a 4×4 would be useful? Well, not really. 4x4s are big, bulky and generally don’t handle as well as smaller cars. If I was in one of those, I’d have to be seriously worried about meeting another car. The 2CV is skinny enough to nip past most things.

A modern supermini then. They’re nippy things aren’t they? Well, no. They’re heavy with city-friendly and therefore lifeless steering. Oh, and huge blind spots. I’m here to appreciate the view, so it’s roof back in the 2CV, which makes it easier to keep an eye on kites and the like. Well, until I got too cold…

Mix in the 2CV’s keen steering, sharp brakes and fabulous all-independent suspension and you’ve got an exceedingly entertaining machine that’s also very comfortable. Also, it took in a forestry commission lane (to a legit car park, don’t just go heading off down random lanes) and transported a household door. The 2CV may not be brilliant at everything, but it’s bloody good at a lot of things.

Project Budget 4×4: Modify or not modify?

I had a jaunt yesterday along the Golf Links green lane, that runs alongside the fabulously scenic mountain road from Rhayader to Cwmystwyth. I’d tackled it several times previously in both my Land Rover and Range Rover. It has a couple of challenging rock climbs, but I was feeling confident about the Maverick’s abilities – and I was not mistaken.

As the picture shows though, there’s no getting away from the fact that there isn’t really enough axle articulation. The right rear wheel is barely in contact with the ground. To be fair, this isn’t the handicap you might assume, as the limited slip differential will always ensure that the one wheel that does have grip will receive power, but a little more flexibility has to be a good thing. Doesn’t it?

That leaves me pondering whether I should begin the modifications. Already, the lack of ground clearance is becoming a bit of an issue. With independent front suspension, there’s always going to be a low ‘belly’ between the front wheels. Thankfully, there’s a hardy, reinforced plate beneath the engine and front differential, but I’d still rather not scrape my way along rutted lanes. As it happens, I suggest a lot of Pajeros had been through previously, so some sections had been flattened!

Check out the dangle angle. But should it be modified?

Raising the front end is not difficult. It’s a question of adjusting the torsion bars. Pretty easy. It’s also quite easy to raise the rear end by fitting long-wheelbase springs. A pal on the Nissan 4×4 Owners forum has offered me a pair of long-travel shock absorbers and there’s also the distinct possibility of removing the rear anti-roll bar. With these modifications, the rear end should have vastly more suspension travel and a lot more flexibility.

The problem is, I really like pushing a standard vehicle to its limits. I get very wary of those who feel the need to bolt huge lumps of metal to their 4x4s and the obligatory row of spotlamps above the windscreen. I’m also very aware that the general public takes a very dim view of such modified machines when they see them tearing around the countryside. A pretty, metallic blue, bog-standard Maverick doesn’t seem to garner frowns in quite the same way.

That’s not to say that the suspension modifications will make the car look vastly different – they won’t bar a slight rise of ride height. But the question is, where do you stop? And would it be a waste of time? My Maverick will never be the best off-roader in the world. The petrol engine lacks that lugging torque and the low ratio gearing (allied to poor engine braking – another petrol weakness) mean that there’s always a lack of control at very low speeds.

I shall give this question some more thought over the coming weeks.

One of those days. Again

Read through my Blogs and you’ll see that there are days that really test those who like older cars. For some reason, my cars do often seem to conspire to play up all at the same time. Today was one of those days.

Before I start, I shall exonerate the BX. It coped with a 320 mile day recently, despite still being far from entirely healthy. Perhaps I used up all of my car luck on that journey…

Anyway, I got up this morning and headed in to town for some totally unexciting shopping. Things didn’t start well – or at all – when the 2CV’s ignition barrel resolutely refused to take the key. I do have a spare barrel kicking about because the one fitted has played up before, but I was in a hurry to get to Morrisons before the Aberystwyth masses arrived. So, into the Maverick I hopped and off I went.

It was a horrible morning, with mist and rain conspiring to make me very glad of the variable intermittent wipers. Well, until they just suddenly started going continuously all of their own accord. I tried turning them off. They just kept on going. Ok. One of those delightful electrical quirks eh? Switching to fast and then off did make them behave, but then I needed the intermittent setting again – which lasted for precisely two wipes. Gah!

I bought an oil filter for the Mini and then went supermarket shopping, ensuring that I also filled my trolley with some cheap 15w40 oil for the 2CV and BX. They never get fancy stuff, especially as the BX soon leaks most of it back out. I tried not to get too upset with the wipers on the drive back and thankfully, for the most part, they did behave themselves. It’s either a relay or an earthing issue – probably not a duff wiper stalk as I first suspected.

After lunch, and far too much time spent reading the third instalment of the superb Stieg Larsson Millennium Trilogy, I eventually got myself outside to tackle an oil change on the Mini. The usual cursing and scraped knuckles ensued, and I had to park the car on pieces of wood to enable me to get my oil catch can beneath the sump. The oil filter is also horrible to get at unless you remove the grille, which involves removing and subsequently losing far too many screws. Ugh.

My mood was not enhanced when after refilling the engine with lovely, fresh 20w50 oil, a distinct dripping sound could be heard. I gawped underneath and watched lots of lovely new oil pour from somewhere at the rear of the engine. What?! It wasn’t from the sump plug or the filter. I was entirely baffled. Also, very, very anxious as the Mini is meant to be tackling a 300 mile drive to Cornwall in the morning – probably the furthest it’s ever travelled in a day in our ownership. I was starting to wonder if I should have just left it, but Minis rely on good engine oil, as it’s also the gearbox oil. And it’s well over a year since it was last changed… (to be fair, only about 2000 miles ago).

I decided to bravely attempt a test drive, as no matter what I did, I couldn’t get it to repeat the random oil dumping. It seemed to be behaving.

My conclusion is that the rocker cover gasket is shot. I think I poured so much oil in via the filler that the rocker cover actually filled up with fresh oil. I suspect (by the stains out the back of the rocker cover) that a fair dollop of the fresh oil bypassed the engine and flooded straight down the back of the engine. I hope it’ll be ok…

I try not to get too disheartened as mechanical issues are never far away when you’re dealing with older cars that have plenty of miles on them. Yet weeks can go by with no problems at all! Well, they did until I bought the BX…

At least none of these issues required a laptop to sort them out, or special tools. And as bad as a Mini is to work on, it’s a lot better than some moderns. Plus, I’d feel really, REALLY annoyed if I experienced mechanical trauma with a car that cost tens of thousands to buy. Ignoring restoration and running costs (of probably £10,000 across the entire fleet) the purchase costs of the fleet are £450 (2cv, 12 years ago), £741 (Mini, 6 years ago), £250 (BX, six months ago) and £500 (Maverick, last month). They may cause me woes at times, but financially, they still make a lot of sense!

HubNut – celebrating the average!