My Xantia Activa

[David Hallworth]

I keep mumbling about my Activa in threads on here and thought that I'd put up a bit of a blog about it after the work it's had done this summer in case it interests anybody I bought the car in December 2007 with 37k miles on it and she's now just nearing 52,500.

Have copied this post from FCF.

Well a MASSIVE Thank You goes out to Robert, Barry & John at BL Auto's in Welwyn Garden City.

Despite my efforts to travel down on Friday to be there early going to pot they have still turned this around in a weekend.

They were meant to have my Activa to start work on it on Friday afternoon however I arrived at 18:35 on Friday. They did however get the car in, on the ramp and have the exhaust off it on Friday evening. This is the last time the TCT engine ever ran in my Activa as the hydraulics were depressurised for the final time under TCT power on Friday 6th June 2014. I can't figure out how to embed the video so click on the link below:

http://s15.photobucket.com/user/David30 ... 6.mp4.html

I went to the hotel on Friday night and fell asleep at 22:00 and woke up at 08.30 on Saturday morning, over an hour after I'd wanted to as I had fallen asleep before setting an alarm on Friday night.

I got to the garage just after 09:30 to find that the last couple of engine mounts needed to be undone and the TCT was free to come out.

TCT Engine out:



Everything was then changed over to the V6 components, steering rack pinion, pipework, etc. Whilst Robert & John were doing this, Barry was giving my engine a once over and cleaning up anything that I might have missed before sending the engine down.

The V6 engine then went in without any giant problems:



After all of this was done, the mounts were connected up, all of the piping etc. was connected up and there was oil added to the engine and gearbox the car was left overnight on Saturday.

On Sunday morning, Robert wasn't happy with a couple of hydraulic pipes so he swapped them over to make sure that they were spot on. Shortly after this, the cooling system was filled with water and the engine was ready to be started. This is the first time the V6 engine was run in the Activa. It had been running for a second or two before I managed to get the camera recording on my phone:

http://s15.photobucket.com/user/David30 ... 2.mp4.html

This was before the exhaust was put on the car hence it sounding a little noisy.

The front of the car then started to go back together:



The back bumper was then modified to take the V6 exhaust. It actually sits in the cut out perfectly.



Initially when trying it on the ramp, it felt as if the gearbox wasn't engaging 2nd, 4th and reverse properly which was infuriating as the gearbox had just been reconditioned. Robert then took it for a quick run and said that it was engaging properly after it had been moved so it was probably just needing to move to settle in as it had just had major surgery.

Robert then came back form his run and asked if I wanted a go. I grinned and jumped in. The transformation just moving off in first gear is phenomenal. The car is so much smoother and quieter and is just perfect! It has totally changed the car and it is 100% better then it was before. It pulls all over the power band rather then needing to be "in the zone" like it does in the TCT. I didn't get a chance to open it up as it was busy and I didn't want to be away too long in it as there was still the heater matrix to do.

John then set about taking the dashboard apart to do the matrix:



Unfortunately the heater matrix that I bought on eBay as being listed for a Xantia, isn't for a Xantia so we're having to try and source a genuine Valeo matrix tomorrow. The pipes on this one face the wrong way:



It's a bit of a shame as it would have been nearly finished today had we had the right one.

Anyway, the Activa is now a V6 and it's perfect. There isn't a rattle of vibration from anything. It's got all new engine and gearbox mounts and it just behaves as if it should have been there since day 1. The only issue is it seems to be idling slightly high. The fault code stored is for the idle control valve which I can resolved once we get the car home.

The catalytic converter on my V6 donor car was aftermarket and tiny so I bought an original cat from BL so that I had a proper one on the car. You can see the difference in size below:



The TCT engine has sold as well and is being delivered tomorrow too

The Range Rover shopping has commenced as well as I'm trying to get back home to Glasgow with minimal fuss. I think I might have found one so all is starting to fall together

However, I'd just like to repeat **MY ACTIVA IS NOW A V6**

[David Hallworth]

Unfortunately the journey to BL Auto's wasn't quite as straight forward... Another posted copied from my FCF blog.

Well, last night I double checked and ensured that everything was in the car, I then hitched the trailer to the Range Rover and put the Activa on the trailer.



I went to bed at 22:00 and got two hours sleep, alarm went off at 00:00, I got up, had a shower and left home at 01:00 heading for Welwyn Garden City.

At about 04:50 this morning I stopped at Lancaster Services and filled the Range Rover with LPG and got a coffee. We left Lancaster and about 11 miles down the road the Range Rover engine cut out. As I was on the inside lane I coasted into the hard shoulder. When I stopped I saw smoke coming from under the bonnet on the Range Rover. I lifted the bonnet and had a look and the fuse box was on fire.

I ran around the car, got my backpack with the trailer keys in it, unhitched the trailer with the Activa on it and pushed it down the hard shoulder to get it away from the Range Rover. I then ran back to the car and managed to get everything out of it before the fire got to the back seats. I was emptying the boot as the front seats were burning.





The Range Rover is now a burnt out shell and looks like this...







The Activa and I continued our journey to Welwyn Garden City like this...



We came off the M6 toll road to find the M6 closed due to a lorry fire so we were delayed for 3 hours there. Then we had to be dropped at another services to wait for another lorry to relay us to WGC.

So... the Activa is now at BL Auto's. Unfortunately due to the delays incurred they are about 4 hours behind where they wanted to be but there's nothing that can be done unfortunately. There was a few things I didn't manage to rescue from the Range Rover... my Oakley sunglasses which were a present, TomTom cradle for my iPhone and the one that's annoyed me more then anything... my wallet

Hopefully tomorrow will be filled with some better news!

Just need to figure out how I'm going to get the trailer home again now. The Activa is fully legal so can be driven but unfortunately it doesn't really have a tow bar and I'm not overly fussed at the idea of fitting one

David.

[David Hallworth]

The Activa was also detailed recently at a company called Pristine Machine in Port Glasgow.

He started work on it at 8am and I got a phone call at 18:00 that evening to tell me that the car would be ready in around 30 minutes. I headed down to collect the car and am amazed at the results



The paint is as smooth as glass and feels wonderful. The interior on mine was pretty much spotless but they still spent almost 3 hours giving everything on the interior a good going over. The floor mats have been treated to make them the original colour, everything has been cleaned amazingly and the freshening spray that they've used on the interior smells absolutely fabulous.

Check the reflection out on the back door when I got her home:



It's had something called a hard nano wrap applied to it which means that it can be washed with a very mild shampoo, almost just water, apparently bugs and stuff won't stick to it in theory now either. The shampoo I've bought for it is £10 per litre but is to be diluted to 1:200 before use so should last for ages!

The XM went in a few days later so it gleaming as well

David.

[MTXM]

Gosh David that is great news about the Xantia but your poor Range Rover and what a distressing experience! With regards, Matthew T.

[marc61]

Blimey David that's one hell of a story! Great to get something very good out of it at the end, especially after all that hassle. Must be an outstanding Activa now!

I had a fire with my DS in 2005 in France, and know how quick you have to act to get things out. I was lucky an off duty fireman came round the roundabout just as I was about to walk away because I couldnt kill the flames, and he put it out. Biggest stroke of sheer luck I've ever had!

Cheers

Marc

[citroenxm]

Urrrm... this is an XM fourm, not a Xantia one... Try FCF...




Anyway, awesome project David! Im sure she is a pleasure to drive!!

[David Hallworth]

She is indeed Paul. Will need to let you have a drive in her next time we meet!

Looking forward to a catch up weekend after next as I'm bringing my S2 down to Telford.

The journey home from Welwyn Garden City wasn't that much better

Dad left home at 3am in his Range Rover, the newer one that's only done 8000 miles. He arrived there just before 10. I went to meet him in the Activa and we had a coffee. He then followed me to BL Auto's where he had a closer look at the Activa and was very kindly shown around the collection of SM's and DS's by Barry.

We then hitched up and loaded the Activa onto the trailer and at 13:00 we headed for home. We decided that for a change we'd come up the A1(M) and avoid the M6 as we'd be hitting somewhere around Birmingham at rush hour.

We were just south of Doncaster in the Range Rover and all of a sudden this almighty noise started. Luckily we were in a slow moving part of the road where it's just dual carriageway doing about 30-40 mph. We dived immediately onto the hard shoulder and came to a stop.

Whilst getting out of the car I noticed that the rear near side tyre on the Range Rover had completely blown out.

This tyre still had 7mm of tread on it and had only covered around 8000 miles since the car left the factory.

Whilst trying to change the wheel, the wheel on the car was to hot to touch so we had to let it cool down a little before taking it off.

When spinning the wheel there appears to be a screw in the tread which is annoying but I'm not sure it explains the total failure of the sidewall.

As far as I know, a screw in a tyre would cause a gradual loss of pressure. This in turn would cause the tyre to run soft and could cause it to blow out as it gets hotter I guess. However, the tyre pressure monitoring on the car should have detected this and flagged an alarm.

Luckily, as I said, we were only doing 30-40 mph when it failed so there was no damage done to the car and we were able to stop immediately upon hearing the noise. We can't of travelled more then 50 - 60 feet after the noise occurred yet the way the sidewall on the tyre has failed though is pretty spectacular. The entire outside wall is destroyed. There's nothing left of it.

David.

[citroenxm]

So I beleve! Look forward to that very much.. is cheryl comming with you? think my 24v is mot ready now..

[David Hallworth]

I don't think Cheryl's coming, a friend of mine from work was thinking of coming for the weekend though.

David.

[Vince]

Wow David the activa looks amazing in that colour

Although i like the look of range rovers it would appear that your trips would have been less frought if the range rovers were the ones being trailered and the beast activa doing the pulling

I recently drove Will's series 2 V6 24V Xantia....what a great engine they are....in a super clean xantia body i bet your a very happy man