My new project - Saxo VTS
Discussion
Evening all.
Here's some backstory on this one...I have lately been perusing the classifieds, autotrader, ebay, gumtree and so on looking for cars in the sub <1k bracket which might be decent enough for me and a couple of mates to use as a project car, give some TLC and a damn good track thrashing as well.
Yesterday evening I spotted an alright looking Saxo VTS that had just been listed about 100 miles away, slept on it, justified myself that if me and my mates split 3 ways for the project it would cost me less than the PlayStation 4 I had been eyeing up and should provide us with some reasonably nippy, french, lift-off oversteery fun. I've never owned a french car so thought this would either make or break my opinions on them
This morning I made a call to the seller, who told me a lad was going to bring his VTR down as a P/X tomorrow, so if I got there before him I would have first dibs. Few calls to my mates and I'm in the car with one of them, Sussex-bound.
First impressions were good - car looked pretty clean, bit of lacquer peel on the front bumper and a scrape down one of the sills but nothing serious. Alloys looked alright too. Tyres have tread but apart from one Kuhmo the others are all cheapy numbers which may or may not provide any grip at all in the wet so no doubt 4 x decent rubber is on the cards very soon. Engine bay looked fairly tidy, apart from the worst located pod air filter I have ever seen. Then I found the stack of paperwork of all the receipts - certainly had some money spent on it. Cambelt, water pump and a brand new clutch all done in the last 6 months so thats a plus!
We then took it for a drive - Gear change was very very spongy but we did eventually find first gear and went from there. It pulled well, drove fairly well and then we tried to stop...oh god where are the brakes?!! Yeah, coming from a car with some fairly hefty brembo calipers on the front, I wasn't overly impressed by the appointment I had to make to stop the car. We survived and made it back, and decided that we were morons and should buy the car.
V5 filled out, taxed and insured and we were on our way home, my mate bravely volunteered to drive the Saxo back. I noticed that he couldnt keep up with me on the A21 so slowed down and let him catch me up. He then pulls up next to me to tell me that he lost 5th gear. Oh dear. Nurse it back at a slower pace all the way to Southend. By the time we got back to his house, he had lost 2nd, 3rd, 5th and getting into 1st is a pig but can be done. He was having to leave in 1st then change immediately into 4th to make it move. Initial thoughts from the interwebs and our fast-frog loving mate is that the linkages are all knackered so have duly ordered some fresh ones which we'll try and get installed at the weekend.
Enough waffling here's a picture (sorry its crap and only one). I'll sort some further pics out when we finally get it nursed over to mine and give it a bit of a scrub.
Details:
Citroen Saxo VTS 1.6i 16v
120,000 miles
stacks of service history, past MOT's, receipts, etc.
Fabric interior with broken A/C
Awful brakes (seriously, they are sh*t!!!)
Chav-cannon exhaust - braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap
Aftermarket head unit although sadly no massive sub in the boot (just kidding)
First plans are to:
Fit new linkages so we can hopefully get it moving properly again
Clean it up, its a bit manky.
Go through McDonalds drive-thru listening to some extreme garage
Oh and the price, £880. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that, aside from the minor setback with the gears I reckon its a pretty solid little number to tinker with!
Cheers.
Ant
Here's some backstory on this one...I have lately been perusing the classifieds, autotrader, ebay, gumtree and so on looking for cars in the sub <1k bracket which might be decent enough for me and a couple of mates to use as a project car, give some TLC and a damn good track thrashing as well.
Yesterday evening I spotted an alright looking Saxo VTS that had just been listed about 100 miles away, slept on it, justified myself that if me and my mates split 3 ways for the project it would cost me less than the PlayStation 4 I had been eyeing up and should provide us with some reasonably nippy, french, lift-off oversteery fun. I've never owned a french car so thought this would either make or break my opinions on them
This morning I made a call to the seller, who told me a lad was going to bring his VTR down as a P/X tomorrow, so if I got there before him I would have first dibs. Few calls to my mates and I'm in the car with one of them, Sussex-bound.First impressions were good - car looked pretty clean, bit of lacquer peel on the front bumper and a scrape down one of the sills but nothing serious. Alloys looked alright too. Tyres have tread but apart from one Kuhmo the others are all cheapy numbers which may or may not provide any grip at all in the wet so no doubt 4 x decent rubber is on the cards very soon. Engine bay looked fairly tidy, apart from the worst located pod air filter I have ever seen. Then I found the stack of paperwork of all the receipts - certainly had some money spent on it. Cambelt, water pump and a brand new clutch all done in the last 6 months so thats a plus!
We then took it for a drive - Gear change was very very spongy but we did eventually find first gear and went from there. It pulled well, drove fairly well and then we tried to stop...oh god where are the brakes?!! Yeah, coming from a car with some fairly hefty brembo calipers on the front, I wasn't overly impressed by the appointment I had to make to stop the car. We survived and made it back, and decided that we were morons and should buy the car.
V5 filled out, taxed and insured and we were on our way home, my mate bravely volunteered to drive the Saxo back. I noticed that he couldnt keep up with me on the A21 so slowed down and let him catch me up. He then pulls up next to me to tell me that he lost 5th gear. Oh dear. Nurse it back at a slower pace all the way to Southend. By the time we got back to his house, he had lost 2nd, 3rd, 5th and getting into 1st is a pig but can be done. He was having to leave in 1st then change immediately into 4th to make it move. Initial thoughts from the interwebs and our fast-frog loving mate is that the linkages are all knackered so have duly ordered some fresh ones which we'll try and get installed at the weekend.
Enough waffling here's a picture (sorry its crap and only one). I'll sort some further pics out when we finally get it nursed over to mine and give it a bit of a scrub.
Details:
Citroen Saxo VTS 1.6i 16v
120,000 miles
stacks of service history, past MOT's, receipts, etc.
Fabric interior with broken A/C
Awful brakes (seriously, they are sh*t!!!)
Chav-cannon exhaust - braaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap
Aftermarket head unit although sadly no massive sub in the boot (just kidding)
First plans are to:
Fit new linkages so we can hopefully get it moving properly again
Clean it up, its a bit manky.
Go through McDonalds drive-thru listening to some extreme garage
Oh and the price, £880. Rome wasn't built in a day and all that, aside from the minor setback with the gears I reckon its a pretty solid little number to tinker with!
Cheers.
Ant
LeeThr said:
Looks good, I've got this to use a track/road rally car...
WP_20150907_13_19_24_Raw by LeeThr, on Flickr
WP_20150907_13_19_33_Raw by LeeThr, on Flickr
WP_20150907_13_19_40_Raw by LeeThr, on Flickr
Basically the same car in a different frock. Needs a few bits doing including a rear axle, exhaust & a box of gears, but all easily changed, there ideal for this sort of thing just because of how easy they are to work on, and can be made even easier to work on with simple things such as relocating the battery to the boot etc.
Hope yours brings you lots of fun
Thanks man. That 106 looks awesome! I can't believe how cheap the parts are for this car already, and it does look like it'll be fairly easy to work on too. Advantage of having a fairly basic car I suppose!WP_20150907_13_19_24_Raw by LeeThr, on FlickrWP_20150907_13_19_33_Raw by LeeThr, on FlickrWP_20150907_13_19_40_Raw by LeeThr, on FlickrBasically the same car in a different frock. Needs a few bits doing including a rear axle, exhaust & a box of gears, but all easily changed, there ideal for this sort of thing just because of how easy they are to work on, and can be made even easier to work on with simple things such as relocating the battery to the boot etc.
Hope yours brings you lots of fun
RCBRG said:
do you know why the air con feels broken? because it doesn't have it....
fantastic car. i absolutely loved mine, far far more fun than a 15 year old £1k car has any right to be
That would be that then! fantastic car. i absolutely loved mine, far far more fun than a 15 year old £1k car has any right to be
What I actually meant in my dazed and confused state at 1am last night was that the heater blowers don't work at all. So will probably look to fix that!Loads of people have said what a hoot they are to drive so I'm looking forward to getting it sorted! Cheers.
LeeThr said:
If you need any help feel free to PM me, i've pulled plenty of pugs/citroens apart and put them back together, including the JP4S conversion on a SAXO.
Parts are very cheap for these compared to most others, but also some are starting to become a bit harder to get hold of due to the age of these.
And regards the aircon, it was only the right hand drive one's that didn't have it, LHD 106/saxo had aircon, they couldn't fit it on the RHD because the wiper motor gets in the way.
Thanks man, appreciate it! Do you have any recommendations for a brake upgrade or cold air feed replacement? There is a 'carbon' CAF on ebay for £50 which looks okay but then again sometimes a stock airbox is best? I also hear that Pug 206 GTI calipers are a worthwhile upgrade but would be good to get some recommendations.Parts are very cheap for these compared to most others, but also some are starting to become a bit harder to get hold of due to the age of these.
And regards the aircon, it was only the right hand drive one's that didn't have it, LHD 106/saxo had aircon, they couldn't fit it on the RHD because the wiper motor gets in the way.
I've spent a pretty penny today and taken another couple of pictures;
10 litres of oil
10 litres of coolant
new thermostat
oil & fuel filters
new bulbs
wipers
My new linkages should be here tomorrow so probably break out the tools at the weekend!
Thanks for the tips folks.
As we are running the 15" VTS alloys I think we are going to go with some 206 GTI-180 calipers and carriers (one being broken near us), with braided lines and fresh discs, pads and fluid and a 306 GTI-6 master cylinder.
As for the induction kit I'm going to order this one;
http://www.passionauto.co.uk/products/citroen-saxo...
I would have used a stock airbox with a decent K&N filter but because the car doesn't have one, only a pod filter, I would need to source an airbox and then buy the filter for it. Might as well go for the cold air feed for the moment, if it doesn't turn out to be that great I've not spent loads of money on some ridiculous induction kit.
And my new linkages turned up today so I think a 'car day' on saturday is a go. The linkages are X8R ones with locking pins so I shall take your advice and do it from the bottom.
Cheers!
As we are running the 15" VTS alloys I think we are going to go with some 206 GTI-180 calipers and carriers (one being broken near us), with braided lines and fresh discs, pads and fluid and a 306 GTI-6 master cylinder.
As for the induction kit I'm going to order this one;
http://www.passionauto.co.uk/products/citroen-saxo...
I would have used a stock airbox with a decent K&N filter but because the car doesn't have one, only a pod filter, I would need to source an airbox and then buy the filter for it. Might as well go for the cold air feed for the moment, if it doesn't turn out to be that great I've not spent loads of money on some ridiculous induction kit.
And my new linkages turned up today so I think a 'car day' on saturday is a go. The linkages are X8R ones with locking pins so I shall take your advice and do it from the bottom.
Cheers!
Edited by Spantney on Thursday 31st December 17:21
Me and my mates managed to get a couple of hours on the car yesterday before rain stopped play - only problem with not having a garage 
Good news was that it was definitely the linkages - one was completely gone! All that remained of it was what was left of the ball joint on one end. We've now got some uprated linkages with the locking pins on there...not a terrible job but a bit fiddly, got it done in just over an hour.
upload an image
We actually have 6 gears again which is nice. Took it out for a quick blast last night and I was actually quite surprised with how nippy it is, although the driving position and the fact the pedals are really close together is taking a little getting used to, probably doesn't help I have size 11 feet. Also, the tyres are really really bad in the wet
We also picked the uprated calipers up:
free upload
image hosting 5mb
I believe they are Bosch calipers off a standard GTI not a GTI-180 as I initially thought but they still look like a decent upgrade. I have also ordered a 306-GTI6 master cylinder so my job for this week is to source some new pads discs and braided hoses. Forgive my naivety but if I get braided hoses for the 206 calipers should the rear ones fit on the standard Citroen calipers on the rear?
We still have to give the car a full service and coolant flush but we are heading in the right direction with it (I hope!).
Cheers,
Ant
Good news was that it was definitely the linkages - one was completely gone! All that remained of it was what was left of the ball joint on one end. We've now got some uprated linkages with the locking pins on there...not a terrible job but a bit fiddly, got it done in just over an hour.
upload an image
We actually have 6 gears again which is nice. Took it out for a quick blast last night and I was actually quite surprised with how nippy it is, although the driving position and the fact the pedals are really close together is taking a little getting used to, probably doesn't help I have size 11 feet. Also, the tyres are really really bad in the wet
We also picked the uprated calipers up:
free upload
image hosting 5mb
I believe they are Bosch calipers off a standard GTI not a GTI-180 as I initially thought but they still look like a decent upgrade. I have also ordered a 306-GTI6 master cylinder so my job for this week is to source some new pads discs and braided hoses. Forgive my naivety but if I get braided hoses for the 206 calipers should the rear ones fit on the standard Citroen calipers on the rear?
We still have to give the car a full service and coolant flush but we are heading in the right direction with it (I hope!).
Cheers,
Ant
Edited by Spantney on Sunday 3rd January 14:44
Thanks for all the extremely helpful replies all, its helping a french car noob greatly! MuZiZZle if you could PM me any bits you have for sale as and when that would be much appreciated!
I think we've identified the calipers we have are from an early model 206 GTI so are using the pads with the round ends, and require the smaller disc offset. So armed with you guys information too I'll order all the bits tomorrow including the brake lines. I picked out 306 GTI6 master cylinder up from Argos yesterday too so we should hopefully have everything ready to go for next weekend.
Unfortunately the guy who sold me the calipers binned the carrier bolts so I think I'll have to pop down to Peugeot near to me and see if I can order some fresh ones.
Been battling with the weather a bit today but managed to get a few jobs done!
This was the air filter it came with;
free image hosting
That has now been swapped out with my awesome ABS plastic, I mean 'carbon' induction kit.
upload pic
picture share
The box didn't actually come with any instructions so it was a bit of guesswork - eventually worked out you needed to relocate the PAS fluid reservoir to mount the bloody thing. Any case, its on, sounds inductiony and as f1nn warned, the filter is a bit on the small size so may uprate to a larger one shortly.
Next up was a well overdue service! My new Halfords ramps and extensions made short work of getting it up in the air (how I've survived this long without ramps I don't know!)
image hosting sites
Didn't really take too many pictures of the service as, well, its a bit boring but here's one I got from underneath the car!
screengrab
Full set of new sparks, new oil filter, nice new 10w-40 oil too. Purring like a kitten now.
Also a few little jobs completed. Replaced the halfords special blingtacular gear knob and torn gaiter with a nice proper saxo one (you can also see the car is quite manky);
free upload
Also got some nice tailored car mats off ebay for 20 quid so chucked those in and replaced the tealights in the headlamps with some decent BOGOF'ultra brilliance' bulbs from halfords. Nothing close to Nightbreakers but much better than the El-cheapo bulbs in there before. My neighbour who is a bit more savvy with wiring than me also fixed my heater blowers for me which was nice of him!
Few more jobs identified aswell - one fog lamp is completely obliterated and hanging off its housing so I've ordered a fresh one from a breakers for a tenner, and the rear exhaust hanger is sagging like a wizards sleeve, so will need to get some fresh hangers in too.
Onwards and upwards!
Cheers
I think we've identified the calipers we have are from an early model 206 GTI so are using the pads with the round ends, and require the smaller disc offset. So armed with you guys information too I'll order all the bits tomorrow including the brake lines. I picked out 306 GTI6 master cylinder up from Argos yesterday too so we should hopefully have everything ready to go for next weekend.
Unfortunately the guy who sold me the calipers binned the carrier bolts so I think I'll have to pop down to Peugeot near to me and see if I can order some fresh ones.
Been battling with the weather a bit today but managed to get a few jobs done!
This was the air filter it came with;
free image hosting
That has now been swapped out with my awesome ABS plastic, I mean 'carbon' induction kit.
upload pic
picture share
The box didn't actually come with any instructions so it was a bit of guesswork - eventually worked out you needed to relocate the PAS fluid reservoir to mount the bloody thing. Any case, its on, sounds inductiony and as f1nn warned, the filter is a bit on the small size so may uprate to a larger one shortly.
Next up was a well overdue service! My new Halfords ramps and extensions made short work of getting it up in the air (how I've survived this long without ramps I don't know!)
image hosting sites
Didn't really take too many pictures of the service as, well, its a bit boring but here's one I got from underneath the car!
screengrab
Full set of new sparks, new oil filter, nice new 10w-40 oil too. Purring like a kitten now.
Also a few little jobs completed. Replaced the halfords special blingtacular gear knob and torn gaiter with a nice proper saxo one (you can also see the car is quite manky);
free upload
Also got some nice tailored car mats off ebay for 20 quid so chucked those in and replaced the tealights in the headlamps with some decent BOGOF'ultra brilliance' bulbs from halfords. Nothing close to Nightbreakers but much better than the El-cheapo bulbs in there before. My neighbour who is a bit more savvy with wiring than me also fixed my heater blowers for me which was nice of him!
Few more jobs identified aswell - one fog lamp is completely obliterated and hanging off its housing so I've ordered a fresh one from a breakers for a tenner, and the rear exhaust hanger is sagging like a wizards sleeve, so will need to get some fresh hangers in too.
Onwards and upwards!
Cheers
MuZiZZle said:
if possible get a standard airbox for it, trust me!
Will keep an eye out if I get source one from a breaker. My other cars don't have induction kits on, I just needed something to replace the manky old filter on the car!Done a few more little jobs this weekend, although it was so cold I didn't brave doing the brakes.
Fitted the new foglamp, and swapped both fog bulbs out for matching ones so thats one potential MOT failure crossed off the list!
picture uploader
Also scored an OEM Clarion CD player head unit with a code dirt cheap so I ripped out the crappy barely functioning aftermarket unit and put that in. Also purchased a wet and dry vac, gave the car a bit of a spruce on the inside although didn't get round to properly wet vac'ing it. Still much better than the grot it was before.
screenshot windows 7
Its pretty filthy on the outside so thats a job for another day
uploading pictures
Also cleaned up our new 206 GTI brakes , gave them a lick of paint aswell (first ever DIY refurb I've done). Now have our new discs, HEL braided lines, 306 GTI6 master cylinder and 206 GTI carrier bolts so fingers crossed all systems are go for getting it all swapped out now.
image hosting websites
There is a suspicious grinding noise from the passenger side rear arch when under heavy load or hard acceleration so any pointers what this could be would be appreciated. I'm potentially thinking wheel bearing. Other than that though, loving the car
Work has been progressing with the Saxo although not as quickly as I'd hoped, mostly due to having a pretty busy life!
I took the Saxo up to the PH Essex meet at the lodge back in February and on the way there it started developing an utterly horrific noise from the front, which got worse as you drove quicker and only subsided under 20 ish mph or if you were under full bore acceleration. A quick google quickly diagnosed the issue as one or both drive shafts being completely mullered. So a replacement set was duly ordered for the quite reasonable sum of £80.
I'd never done a driveshaft replacement before but I'm glad we took it on and did it ourselves, even if we hit a few snags along the way. Whatever monkey had done some work down there before had absolutely destroyed the pinch bolts holding the lower ball joint onto the hub, and as such I had to order some replacement ones from Citroen. The drivers side drive shaft has an intermediate bearing and we just could not free the old shaft from the gearbox, no matter how much we swore at it. We threw in the towel one Sunday and came back to it the following weekend, gave the bearing housing a few taps with a hammer and POP, out comes the driveshaft.
Here's a picture of the old passenger side driveshaft, just because;
gif upload
While we were doing the job, it appears someone had completely mangled the nut holding the drivers side drop link in place to the strut, and the drop links themselves on both sides were not in the best of health, so again some fresh ones ordered up and fitted. Had to make use of a nut splitter to free the old ones off the struts. Yesterday we put it all back together including the new pinch bolts, drained the old gearbox oil and refilled with 2 litres of new, and put the wheels back on. Horrible grinding noise gone!!! Yay.
images hosting
And as the weather was nice yesterday, she even got a once over with some shampoo and a microfiber and is fairly presentable at the moment! Here's a warm/hot hatch group shot ( the Cooper S is my OH's)
images
Onwards and upwards!
I took the Saxo up to the PH Essex meet at the lodge back in February and on the way there it started developing an utterly horrific noise from the front, which got worse as you drove quicker and only subsided under 20 ish mph or if you were under full bore acceleration. A quick google quickly diagnosed the issue as one or both drive shafts being completely mullered. So a replacement set was duly ordered for the quite reasonable sum of £80.
I'd never done a driveshaft replacement before but I'm glad we took it on and did it ourselves, even if we hit a few snags along the way. Whatever monkey had done some work down there before had absolutely destroyed the pinch bolts holding the lower ball joint onto the hub, and as such I had to order some replacement ones from Citroen. The drivers side drive shaft has an intermediate bearing and we just could not free the old shaft from the gearbox, no matter how much we swore at it. We threw in the towel one Sunday and came back to it the following weekend, gave the bearing housing a few taps with a hammer and POP, out comes the driveshaft.
Here's a picture of the old passenger side driveshaft, just because;
gif upload
While we were doing the job, it appears someone had completely mangled the nut holding the drivers side drop link in place to the strut, and the drop links themselves on both sides were not in the best of health, so again some fresh ones ordered up and fitted. Had to make use of a nut splitter to free the old ones off the struts. Yesterday we put it all back together including the new pinch bolts, drained the old gearbox oil and refilled with 2 litres of new, and put the wheels back on. Horrible grinding noise gone!!! Yay.
images hosting
And as the weather was nice yesterday, she even got a once over with some shampoo and a microfiber and is fairly presentable at the moment! Here's a warm/hot hatch group shot ( the Cooper S is my OH's)
images
Onwards and upwards!
Edited by Spantney on Monday 2nd May 18:29
Gassing Station | Readers' Cars | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff