1983 Citroen BX 16TRS - For the love of cars!

[Cylon2007]

OK late to the party but read through the whole thread, well it's snowy/slushy and cold outside. Great thread.
I owned 2 BX's a 16TZS in light blue and a beige 14TGE both G plates.

You are right about the 1.6's being an interference engine as i snapped a cambelt on mine which bent 2 valves in the process. I rebuilt the engine but managed to fit the headgasket the wrong way round which meant the oil feed to the cam was blocked, yep the cam nipped up stripping the 'teeth' off the new cambelt. Luckily the valves survived. A new haed gasket and some careful use of a fine fine and 2400 grit emery paper cleaned up the cam bearing surface (I was very skint at the time) and it ran fine for another 20k miles before I sold it when I got a job with a company car.

2 months after I sold the 16TZS I was made redundant so the co car had to go back. I needed a car pronto for the beige 14TGE was picked up for £500 (1999) with full MOT and 6 months tax. I ended up contracting so put 40k miles on that car in just over 12 moths. In that time I serviced it, put a new gear change rod in when the orignal broke leaving my stuck in 3rd gear (that was fun), repalced all the brake discs and pads for £40, the local Citroen dealer was having a closing down sale.
Apart from the above it was faultless (colour aside) averaged 40mpg over the time I had it and when I sold it 14 months after buying it I got £750 for it, the only car I've ever made money on.

Always rated the suspension and brakes even though folk who knew no better always took the piss until they drove one. The plastic bonnet and tailgate where different as well.
I have thought about buying one again but I don't have the space or access to a decent garage to do a resto so it's nice the see them being saved.

Good work OP carry one.

[B'stard Child]

Citroen BX makes SOTW

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

I linked to this thread for those that had some love for the BX

Quite a lot of hate in there mind be careful

[Kitchski]

That's as far as my thread ever got (June 2020). A year later, I guess I'll have to write an update!

[Cambs_Stuart]

it's a great thread, I'd love to see an update.

[Mr Tidy]

Kitchski said:

That's as far as my thread ever got (June 2020). A year later, I guess I'll have to write an update!

I really hope you do!

I've really enjoyed reading about your exploits to date and your writing style is just great.

[cavebloke]

Wonderful thread. Best I’ve read in ages. Your love/hate relationship with bolts is the perfect distillation of working on cars. Can’t wait for the finale. Keep up the good work!
Simon

[Spinakerr]

I think OP might be focussed on a certain SM-shaped distraction at present! Either way, updates with even new photos of the car in the same state would be welcome.

[anonymous-user]

Much enjoyed your latest adventure to pick up that blue thing with the Citroen.

So what was the fuelling issue in the end?

[Kitchski]

Hi all!

Apologies for radio-silence, not my intention!

As some know I went all out and created a YT 'channel'. There's a playlist dedicated to what happened next to this car, but the short version is that I got it on the road in May (rather hurredly) and it spent 5-6 months as a daily driver! There's a P.O.V. drive video of it in the playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wifn7ZiPaAM&li...

Thanks

[lost in espace]

Kitchski said:

Hi all!

Apologies for radio-silence, not my intention!

As some know I went all out and created a YT 'channel'. There's a playlist dedicated to what happened next to this car, but the short version is that I got it on the road in May (rather hurredly) and it spent 5-6 months as a daily driver! There's a P.O.V. drive video of it in the playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wifn7ZiPaAM&li...

Thanks

Brilliant channel, worth it for the SM content alone!

[Kitchski]

Update time! (for the last time on here)

I realise I've kinda stopped with these threads now since I moved on to doing YouTube videos instead, but there's just not the time to do both sadly. Plenty of others on here, though!

Sad to say that I sold the BX a couple of weeks ago. I did a video version of this thread (not quite as in-depth, but it still ran on for nearly an hour!) So if anybody here enjoyed the read, this one puts it into visual context a bit more:

https://youtu.be/YMlX_PmTx-E?si=Wc5n59dhv0dxKoBt

Was a tough day seeing it go, but it's gone to a very good home so overall I'm happy. I covered 6500 miles in it in approx. two years and five months.

Onwards and upwards! Thanks for all the kind words.

[Swervin_Mervin]

I watched most of this last night Rich - it's a great vid!

I have to say there were so many parallels with my childhood in it. Dad had, I think, an A-reg 16TRS in red when they first came out (it was definitely a 16 something in red). I hated it though as it replaced a Renault 30 which we all loved so dearly, so I never forgave it! I too was naming cars practically before I could talk, usually shouting them out from my booster seat int he back of my mum's breadvan Polo, so your Escort story gave me a chuckle.

The 16TRS was followed by the GT Digit in '85 which hung around until '94 I think and which my dad put c200,000 miles on - God I loved that car! That was joined in '89 by a 17 DTR Estate which, in '95, became my first car.

I wasn't cool by any stretch, but it's funny how often people would rather get a lift in my BX when it came to the crunch...