1991 Citroen BX GTi
Discussion
Following on from this thread in the French Bred section, here's some more pictures and blurb about my new acquisition.
1991 Citroen BX GTi - ZX-97-FG (NL)
Colour is "Gris Dolmen"
277,500km (14/2/2012)
Totally standard. Previous owner did a load of maintenance on it and had owned it for around 18 months. Bodywork is OK but there are a couple of not TOO serious rusty bits. Front bumper must have been replaced at some point and resprayed badly as red paint is showing through under the silver/grey.
There's a reasonable list of things which would need doing to make it nicer, such as:
- replacement gear linkage. Lever is very sloppy, ball joint on the linkage is so worn that it sometimes pops off! This leaves you in neutral with a gear lever connected to thin air
Thankfully a 10 second fix by the roadside but I'm not sure I can live with it long term
- moisture getting into the boot. Under the carpet is a little damp and a couple of things I'd left in there for a few days were too. Unsure of source.
- rear washer very feeble. Haven't bothered looking deep into it but suspect a leak between the pump and the sprayer.
- front bumper repsray
- engine mount replacement. They are quite obviously worn out, you can feel the jolt when going on and off the throttle.
Its age and mileage mean it's not in its prime anymore. But it is a comfy drive and has a decent amount of poke so I'm happy so far
Photos to counteract all the words:
That's all for now
1991 Citroen BX GTi - ZX-97-FG (NL)
Colour is "Gris Dolmen"
277,500km (14/2/2012)
Totally standard. Previous owner did a load of maintenance on it and had owned it for around 18 months. Bodywork is OK but there are a couple of not TOO serious rusty bits. Front bumper must have been replaced at some point and resprayed badly as red paint is showing through under the silver/grey.
There's a reasonable list of things which would need doing to make it nicer, such as:
- replacement gear linkage. Lever is very sloppy, ball joint on the linkage is so worn that it sometimes pops off! This leaves you in neutral with a gear lever connected to thin air
Thankfully a 10 second fix by the roadside but I'm not sure I can live with it long term- moisture getting into the boot. Under the carpet is a little damp and a couple of things I'd left in there for a few days were too. Unsure of source.
- rear washer very feeble. Haven't bothered looking deep into it but suspect a leak between the pump and the sprayer.
- front bumper repsray
- engine mount replacement. They are quite obviously worn out, you can feel the jolt when going on and off the throttle.
Its age and mileage mean it's not in its prime anymore. But it is a comfy drive and has a decent amount of poke so I'm happy so far
Photos to counteract all the words:
That's all for now
Edited by LeoZwalf on Monday 18th February 14:41
gforceg said:
Some of those photos are very nice. Could the moisture in the boot be coming from the washer nozzle pipe? A split somewhere?
Could be I suppose but I don't think so. From the washer I would expect a puddle; I had the boot open yesterday whilst operating the washer and saw no leak. The damp in the boot feels more like moisture, I reckon bootlid seal or light cluster seals.vrooom said:
very interesting car. May I ask how much you paid for it?
You may €625Mastodon2 said:
Save it, restore it's glory. It's a cool car from a long dead era, the likes of which we'll never see again.
In an ideal world I would love to. I'll have to see how things pan out as to how much I do to fix it up. bmthnick1981 said:
These old Citroen's are really growing on me, so much so I bought a book on XM's the other day!
Don't start looking at DSs then whatever you do. They are to die for! *drooool*OP said:
- moisture getting into the boot. Under the carpet is a little damp and a couple of things I'd left in there for a few days were too. Unsure of source.
- rear washer very feeble. Haven't bothered looking deep into it but suspect a leak between the pump and the sprayer.
Could these be related? Maybe every time you use the rear washer you're adding more water to the boot!- rear washer very feeble. Haven't bothered looking deep into it but suspect a leak between the pump and the sprayer.
Fantastic cars! My father ran one of these in the early-90s when I was a young lad, which itself replaced an earlier BX GT. Super comfy and fab seats, with one of the coolest spoilers ever, too. His was Moonstone Blue metallic, very similar to the Sierra Cosworth colour in fact.
Sadly BXs of any ilk are becoming rare in the UK - how is it where you are?
His was Moonstone Blue metallic, very similar to the Sierra Cosworth colour in fact.Sadly BXs of any ilk are becoming rare in the UK - how is it where you are?
SaucyBoy said:
Cool choice mate. I had two of these in the 16v variety when I was 17. Awesome car and took a lot of abuse. Well I was young and had no mechanical sympathy lol. The 16v had the Pug Mi16 lump in it and went like stink at the time. I'd defo have one again as a daily : )
Thanks, it wasn't really an educated choice and I'd never hankered after one. Just needed something light and wanted something interesting, up this popped GTi 16v is quite a car for a 17 yr old, well done!ArtVandelay said:
Brilliant car, had a hankering for one last year due to my parents having a BX preview or premium (can't quite recall) which had a GTi-esque body kit on it.
Congratulations
I'm FAR from a BX expert (BXpert??) but I think it was called Preview. If you want one, get one fairly soon as values are starting to go up.Congratulations
Pothole said:
OP said:
- moisture getting into the boot. Under the carpet is a little damp and a couple of things I'd left in there for a few days were too. Unsure of source.
- rear washer very feeble. Haven't bothered looking deep into it but suspect a leak between the pump and the sprayer.
Could these be related? Maybe every time you use the rear washer you're adding more water to the boot!- rear washer very feeble. Haven't bothered looking deep into it but suspect a leak between the pump and the sprayer.
Maestro Turbo said:
Fantastic cars! My father ran one of these in the early-90s when I was a young lad, which itself replaced an earlier BX GT. Super comfy and fab seats, with one of the coolest spoilers ever, too. His was Moonstone Blue metallic, very similar to the Sierra Cosworth colour in fact.
Sadly BXs of any ilk are becoming rare in the UK - how is it where you are?
Nice username His was Moonstone Blue metallic, very similar to the Sierra Cosworth colour in fact.Sadly BXs of any ilk are becoming rare in the UK - how is it where you are?
Ex 420 GSi turbo owner here They seem pretty rare here too. There's a huge Citroen forum for Netherlands but I'm not really so sure how many of those guys are running BXs. Certainly haven't seen any/many on the road here but you know what it's like, as soon as you get a new car you start seeing them everywhere.
Nice tip Rob, I will check that. There was a reasonably sized puddle of water under the rear seat last week after some rain so I'll bet I've got the same problem as you describe.
Since my last post on this thread I have had some problems. There was a cheeky misfire high up the revs which gradually got worse over the course of a couple of weeks, ending in the engine not starting at all. I had just left work and it cut out, dead as a dodo. Pushed it back to work's car park and it sat there for over a week while I gradually brought more tools from home every day and whittled down where the problem was.
Turns out the fuel pump was dead. Local car parts place quoted €166 for a new one, found online for €103 - both the same model by Bosch.
In the process of fault finding and before I noticed the lack of fuel pressure, I also replaced the distributor cap and rotor arm. They were not too bad but cost about €15 so not expensive. Also did the fuel filter at about €10 before realising it was the pump.
With the new pump, the engine is much more eager. It must have been tired for a long time, possibly years but none of the previous owners noticed it. Probably it wasn't misfiring but the top end of the rev range was weak - this is now cured.
The warmer weather seems to have improved the ride too. Around freezing temperatures I think the LHM must start to thicken up. This slows the response of the suspension, it's much more floaty now.
That's it so far. There's a real feeling that I'm just waiting for the next thing to go wrong. So far I don't feel I really trust the car due to so many unknowns.
Since my last post on this thread I have had some problems. There was a cheeky misfire high up the revs which gradually got worse over the course of a couple of weeks, ending in the engine not starting at all. I had just left work and it cut out, dead as a dodo. Pushed it back to work's car park and it sat there for over a week while I gradually brought more tools from home every day and whittled down where the problem was.
Turns out the fuel pump was dead. Local car parts place quoted €166 for a new one, found online for €103 - both the same model by Bosch.
In the process of fault finding and before I noticed the lack of fuel pressure, I also replaced the distributor cap and rotor arm. They were not too bad but cost about €15 so not expensive. Also did the fuel filter at about €10 before realising it was the pump.
With the new pump, the engine is much more eager. It must have been tired for a long time, possibly years but none of the previous owners noticed it. Probably it wasn't misfiring but the top end of the rev range was weak - this is now cured.
The warmer weather seems to have improved the ride too. Around freezing temperatures I think the LHM must start to thicken up. This slows the response of the suspension, it's much more floaty now.
That's it so far. There's a real feeling that I'm just waiting for the next thing to go wrong. So far I don't feel I really trust the car due to so many unknowns.
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