12-10-2018, 06:17 AM
(11-10-2018, 01:04 PM)Mighty306 Wrote: All that in 3 weeks ....impressive! My GF would get the hump if I spent 3 weekends in a row dedicated to the car without spending a bit of time with her! She already jokes that I love my 306's more than I do her. Not quite true ....just almost
I have a couple of 16v XSi's. Engines seem good so no need to strip them down as things stand. Both currently have pretty much everything stripped off the rear end, incl fuel tank. Hoping to find the time soon to clean up, repaint & seal the underside. Wish it had happened over the Summer but work n other things there wasn't the opportunity. One of the beams has been fully rebuilt, have new mounts, new brake lines made up, have new brake compensators and rear calipers have been rebuilt ready to go on. Also have some new bilstein rear shocks. Need to sort out an issue on one with the tank not breathing (prob blocked charcoal canister). Have seen on good ol' Youtube that some people have managed to recondition theirs by opening it up and filling with new activated charcoal. May be blocked breather of course. (EVAP solenoid tested & works fine). There is a small patch of welding that needs doing on the n/s wheel arch, but not as bad as some have had to deal with. Will leave that one to the local garage - one of the guys down there is pretty handy with a mig & I only have an arc welder & no power at the garage I rent. (That is a monumental pain in the ass, but do have a small genny that will run some power tools. Should get round to investing in some rechargeable power tools but the good ones are pretty expensive!).
Once the rear is sorted the engine will come out to get the rust in the bay sorted. (Yours looks pretty clean - was it garaged most of its life?). Clutch & clutch cable change planned at the same time, and think the gearbox could do with an overhaul. Company in Bristol have said they'll do it for £350, which I can live with. Front calipers to be rebuilt and one side needs a new wheel bearing. Will prob do crank seals while engine is out. In addition, apart from some new Bilstein shocks up front that's pretty much it as most of the suspension components are ok & rad seems fine too. I was going to take some advice though on whether it's worth getting the steering rack recon'd whilst everything is out.
Was also considering getting the dash out to replace the heater matrix - have bought genuine Valeo / Beru items ready to go in (one is an AC model, the other not) & would rather pre-empt any issues that might lead to coolant loss.
Plan then is to keep one on the road as a daily while the other gets fettled with. If I've learned anything so far is that a car this age doesn't go very long without throwing up some issue that needs attention!
Yeah it wasn't bad going, quite intense! Feel fortunate having another car I can use, which really helps with logistics of course. My Mrs wasn't too happy to be honest, but she understood the sentiment behind it, and the fact winter will be setting in soon and wanting to get it done before that.
That's one thing I noticed about the HDi too, above the spare wheel I've got surface rust, and yeah it would have been ideal over the summer but you're in a Catch 22- nice weather to do work, or enjoy nice weather not doing work
You should get a mig welder, that's one of my bucket list things to learn how to weld! No power is a PITA, although the power tools you invest in should last a hell of a long time.
Surprisingly it wasn't garaged no, but my Grandad barely did any miles in it. He owned it from 2012-2018, it was bought on 161k (I went with him to buy it) for the grand sum of £695, so he did about 7k in it- mainly shop runs and the occasional blast to Wales to see my Aunt.
Not a bad shout on the heater matrix, is it a fairly straight forward job? I would definitely do both crank seals whilst everything is out, they're pennies. Mine were both also weeping slightly. I need to do the shocks and springs on the HDi eventually, would you recommend OEM replacements or upgrades to Bilstein, and if so, which variants? It's only being used as a daily. What are your symptoms with the gearbox? £350 seems quite steep for a recon...