Snotter thread - 1997 Citroen AX 1.0 Spree
Discussion
I had a 205 and an AX and both had rattly release bearings, neither were ever changed though over 000's of miles. The gearbox oil leak is probably the driveshaft oil seal, I remember changing those on both of my cars, easy enough to do. They always seemed to be prone to knackered driveshafts these French hatchbacks, I seemed to be forever changing them with equally knackered ones from the scrappy until I bit the bullet and bought refurbs from GSF!
Worst case is the release bearing breaks up and you have no clutch (though trying to operate it with next to no bearing could lead to forks in the finger springs while running, resulting in much breakage.
If it's squealing it's pretty much on death's door. The can rattle or chatter for years, but squealing is not good. Last time I had a Saxo doing that, I found it had seized solid! Clutch on an AX is pretty easy and cheap to do though.
And yeah as others have said, the leak will be the driveshaft seal. Euro Car Parts used to do them for a fiver. Do both sides when you do the clutch. Jobbed!
If it's squealing it's pretty much on death's door. The can rattle or chatter for years, but squealing is not good. Last time I had a Saxo doing that, I found it had seized solid! Clutch on an AX is pretty easy and cheap to do though.
And yeah as others have said, the leak will be the driveshaft seal. Euro Car Parts used to do them for a fiver. Do both sides when you do the clutch. Jobbed!
Me and a mate changed the clutch on my AX over a weekend in December back in 2004 in Derby uni halls of residence car park back when I was a skint student with nothing more than axle stands to gain access, was bloody freezing and had idiots throwing things at us from a great height at one point! If we managed it under those circumstances I'm sure you will cope just fine.
Also did the rear shoes and both brake cylinders at one point or another. Being a skint student taught me a lot about car maintenance!
Also did the rear shoes and both brake cylinders at one point or another. Being a skint student taught me a lot about car maintenance!
Went to change the rear brakes/wheel cylinders and the pipes/hoses are pretty crusty/perished so I'm going to be doing a bigger brake refurb than I planned.
Doesn't really make sense to do work like this to such a worthless car but I've decided to just use it as a project to tinker with / learn how to do things on
Doesn't really make sense to do work like this to such a worthless car but I've decided to just use it as a project to tinker with / learn how to do things on
We had one of these, exact same model in a sort of Turquoise colour. I think they are actually 903cc. 4 speed? Ours was.
The previous owner bought it new and drove it to Poland and back twice and we drove it to Orkney and back once (all from west London). We did have to have the head skimmed once but other than that it was reliable for the three of four years we had it. When we traded it in the dealer said he'd never seen another with anything like the same mileage and he couldn't believe how tidy it was.
There's not much metal in them mind you.
The previous owner bought it new and drove it to Poland and back twice and we drove it to Orkney and back once (all from west London). We did have to have the head skimmed once but other than that it was reliable for the three of four years we had it. When we traded it in the dealer said he'd never seen another with anything like the same mileage and he couldn't believe how tidy it was.
There's not much metal in them mind you.
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