My bodged Citroen BX 16v
Discussion
I see some really good threads in this forum so I thought I'd add one which is hopefully as good a read as the others! I'm about to undertake a fair amount of work on the old bone, and opinions and advice are always appreciated if anyone can share their knowledge. Threads like these keep me enthused to cary on with it too....and I need enthusiasm to approach it at the mo! So it's a bit of a readers ride/ongoing project thread.
I've owned my BX about 6 & 1/2years now. For some reason I'd always hankered after one, even in school when my other mates were into Imprezas and Skylines! I've always been a Citroen fan as I've pretty much grew up in BXs and XMs and got hooked. My first car was a beige 1989 1.4 BX, which at the tender age of 16 I set about tuning up, passing my test and promptly breaking it.
I sold an 18 month old Saxo, left my boy racer days behind and in June 2004 paid the princely sum of £770 for my 14 year old Citroen with a weak syncromesh on third gear and an exhaust that rattled when the suspension dropped to it's lowest setting.
[i]Quick BX 16v info:
The BX GTi 16v, for those not really into BX's (I imagine that's the majority of people on here!) was launched in 1987. The Citroen BX itself was a mid-sized 5 door hatch (also available as an estate) which was more famous for it's impressive if not slightly boring diesel models. It still used the hydropneumatic suspension system that scared off so many, as found in the DS, GS and CX models. It was simplified in the BX however....MacPherson struts up from with semi-independant trailing arms at the rear. Struts/rams replaced springs and spheres replaced shockers. The brakes and power steering ran off the same system, with a series of valves and regulators diverting and maintaining pressure. The car features an anti-dive system, which prevents the nose of the car from diving at all, yet retains full suspension movement. It also regulates braking pressure to all four discs depending on load, yet obviously retains the same ride height. After it was launched in 1983 ('84 in the UK) it was offered with some well-equipped, if slightly dull 1.4 and 1.6 models followed by a diesel. The 19GT offered in 1985 wasn't exactly a Bahnstormer with it's 1.9 8v, carb-fed engine, but did make a good cruiser. The Sport was offered overseas with a twin carb version of the GT's engine, before the GTi came out in 1986 using the 205 GTi 1.9 engine. The mental 4TC Group B model is well worth researching, it's a great read and was a great flop!
The BX 16v used the first French twin-cam multivalve engine to go into mass production, a unit it shared with the 405 Mi16 ph1, which was launched 8 months later, making the BX GTi 16v the first French production vehicle with a twin cam/MV setup. It was marketed more as competition for the forthcoming Renault 21 Turbo, Ford Sierra XR4i, BMW 318iS and Vauxhall Cavalier SRi130, aswell as the yet to be announced 405.
The engine itself was an all-alloy 1905cc 160bhp/133lb ft unit, with a compression ratio of 10:4:1 and a specific output of 84bhp/litre, which was pretty good at the time and combined with a kerb weight of 1060kg it made pretty decent power to weight figures too. Although generally adored by the those in the Peugeot circles, it is not that well known and the model as a whole wasn't well recieved in the UK. For a start it cost £3,000 more than the BX 19 GTi 8v model, and aside from some sideskirts, slightly beefier seats, thicker anti-rolls bars, wider wheels and a slightly stiffer setup of the hydropneumatic suspension, it differed little from the normal GTi. I guess the idea of a liquid/gas suspension squishy French hatch with an unrefined screaming twin-cam engine (in an already fairly noisy, unrefined car) and short gearing didn't make alot of sense to people, while the others couldn't work out where the extra £3k went. It was the engine.
It used all manner of expensive production techniques, and the head itself was based on the one used in the 205 T16 Group B rally car. The rocker cover is magnesium alloy, the head is a twin-port design on the exhaust side and it boasted a larger valve area than practically any other twin-cam of the era, and not too far off the mark today. Check out Puma Racing's website for the specs if you're interested in numbers! Word is PSA lost out on every unit they produced!
In late 1989 the BX GTi 16v simply became the BX 16v. It gained bigger fibreglass bumpers, a wraparound 'whale tale' type spoiler and anti-roll bars that were thicker still. The alloys were now anthracite with a polished rim and in 1991 the engine was fitted with a knock sensor to allow it to run on unleaded fuel without drama. In 1992, the engine was de-tuned to 148bhp by lowering the compression ratio using dished pistons, and tamer camshafts. A year later it was killed off completely (along with the Citroen BX) and replaced with the 155bhp 2.0 iron-blocked unit found in the ph2 405 Mi16, aswell as the Xantia 16v, 306 S16 and ZX 16v.[/i]
6 months into my beloved BX ownership, I suffered a fate shared by many who've been racing the engine while attacking a sharp corner....something you should really avoid doing in an XU9J4 powered car that doesn't have a baffled sump! I managed to create an oil surge, pumping all the oil into the head (so much that the rocker cover nigh-on burst!) and running the bottom end dangerously low (at about 7300rpm!). Result was a bent crank and completely ruined big end bearings. I had the crank reground, lightened and balanced, the bores honed, the flywheel refaced & balanced and rebuilt it with new bearings, thrust washers and piston rings. 4 years later I stripped the head off and took it apart to sort out the noisy tappet I'd had since the rebuild. This turned out to be a bent valve (one inlet, even though it's neighbour was fine!) which had been banging away like mad. I lapped in a good replacement and refitted the head, before a bit more f
king careful about how I put it down and handle it this time!
In 2006 the car was used in a fairly low rent TV production called Used Car Roadshow. Here is a terrible quality clip of the brief feature:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVWmmo_c0hA
Fast forward to 2009 and I've got twin baby sons and a TVR Chimaera fighting for my attention. The BX it sitting around doing sweet FA.
2010, or more specifically a couple of weeks ago looms and I decide that I could actually use the BX now, as I'm now working more locally and using an old car that drinks like a fish isn't really an issue if you barely clock up more than 8 miles a day!
So far I know that the following need doing:
1) Coolant leak behind suspension HP pump.
2) Brake doseur valve (a valve in place of a brake master cylinder) is leaking to the return side interally and losing braking pressure.
3) Undersealing.
4) Sidelights wiring needs attention.
5) ABS light on, suspect faulty wiring as all sensors give correct resistance.
6) General tidy-up.
So bring it out onto my little ramps to get under neath and have a nosey:
All seems well until I see this. I know there are one or two patches on the car which are starting to rust, but BXs are generally pretty good at holding it off. This bit worried me:
So I started to poke it:
aholeS!!!!
This little lump fell out, which I at first thought was lead but now realise it's probably chemical metal or something like that:
It left a nice hole in the scutter tray underneath the rear washer bottle, and as I suspected a small hole behind the dashboard. Great!
As time progressed I found more and more lumps of crap. I'm now figuring that the car has either rotted really badly in one area, yet remained fine it pretty much all the others, or it's been in a smack at some point. Either way, my BX has been bodged! Someone in the past didn't want to weld this lot up because it would have meant removing the dash. Scary thing is I've had the car all this time and it's taken ages to manifest itself.
The entire lower box section of the A-piller has started to rot badly from inside. The panel housing the door hinge is starting to come away:
Time to remove the dash:
To get a good look at this:
Suspension turret looks worrying too:
So it's hydrualic resevoir out, and suspension sphere off so the suspension strut can be removed:
To (try) and repair this whole mess by plating all the holes back to thick, strong metal (could be easier said than done on the A-pillar), I've got my mits on a nice thick bit of steel perfect for the job:
Theres the first bit ready to plate the rotten edge of the inner wing:
This is my first attempt at welding a car body, so be gentle!
The lower panel blew through on it's left hand side so I had to build it all up again. Luckily this piece is completely hidden and it seemss to be nice and strong, so this was a result!
So this is how she looks at the moment:
Amazingly, the nearside front corner seems to be mint! Normally this is the worst area....on the offside, mineral oil/LHM generally spills out of the res so the inner wing is nicely oiled from under the bonnet. The nearside tends to pick up the st in the gutter and rot out quicker, yet on this car the nearside is very good and needs no welding at the moment, just repainting! The middle and rear of the car.......who knows!
I've owned my BX about 6 & 1/2years now. For some reason I'd always hankered after one, even in school when my other mates were into Imprezas and Skylines! I've always been a Citroen fan as I've pretty much grew up in BXs and XMs and got hooked. My first car was a beige 1989 1.4 BX, which at the tender age of 16 I set about tuning up, passing my test and promptly breaking it.
I sold an 18 month old Saxo, left my boy racer days behind and in June 2004 paid the princely sum of £770 for my 14 year old Citroen with a weak syncromesh on third gear and an exhaust that rattled when the suspension dropped to it's lowest setting.
[i]Quick BX 16v info:
The BX GTi 16v, for those not really into BX's (I imagine that's the majority of people on here!) was launched in 1987. The Citroen BX itself was a mid-sized 5 door hatch (also available as an estate) which was more famous for it's impressive if not slightly boring diesel models. It still used the hydropneumatic suspension system that scared off so many, as found in the DS, GS and CX models. It was simplified in the BX however....MacPherson struts up from with semi-independant trailing arms at the rear. Struts/rams replaced springs and spheres replaced shockers. The brakes and power steering ran off the same system, with a series of valves and regulators diverting and maintaining pressure. The car features an anti-dive system, which prevents the nose of the car from diving at all, yet retains full suspension movement. It also regulates braking pressure to all four discs depending on load, yet obviously retains the same ride height. After it was launched in 1983 ('84 in the UK) it was offered with some well-equipped, if slightly dull 1.4 and 1.6 models followed by a diesel. The 19GT offered in 1985 wasn't exactly a Bahnstormer with it's 1.9 8v, carb-fed engine, but did make a good cruiser. The Sport was offered overseas with a twin carb version of the GT's engine, before the GTi came out in 1986 using the 205 GTi 1.9 engine. The mental 4TC Group B model is well worth researching, it's a great read and was a great flop!
The BX 16v used the first French twin-cam multivalve engine to go into mass production, a unit it shared with the 405 Mi16 ph1, which was launched 8 months later, making the BX GTi 16v the first French production vehicle with a twin cam/MV setup. It was marketed more as competition for the forthcoming Renault 21 Turbo, Ford Sierra XR4i, BMW 318iS and Vauxhall Cavalier SRi130, aswell as the yet to be announced 405.
The engine itself was an all-alloy 1905cc 160bhp/133lb ft unit, with a compression ratio of 10:4:1 and a specific output of 84bhp/litre, which was pretty good at the time and combined with a kerb weight of 1060kg it made pretty decent power to weight figures too. Although generally adored by the those in the Peugeot circles, it is not that well known and the model as a whole wasn't well recieved in the UK. For a start it cost £3,000 more than the BX 19 GTi 8v model, and aside from some sideskirts, slightly beefier seats, thicker anti-rolls bars, wider wheels and a slightly stiffer setup of the hydropneumatic suspension, it differed little from the normal GTi. I guess the idea of a liquid/gas suspension squishy French hatch with an unrefined screaming twin-cam engine (in an already fairly noisy, unrefined car) and short gearing didn't make alot of sense to people, while the others couldn't work out where the extra £3k went. It was the engine.
It used all manner of expensive production techniques, and the head itself was based on the one used in the 205 T16 Group B rally car. The rocker cover is magnesium alloy, the head is a twin-port design on the exhaust side and it boasted a larger valve area than practically any other twin-cam of the era, and not too far off the mark today. Check out Puma Racing's website for the specs if you're interested in numbers! Word is PSA lost out on every unit they produced!
In late 1989 the BX GTi 16v simply became the BX 16v. It gained bigger fibreglass bumpers, a wraparound 'whale tale' type spoiler and anti-roll bars that were thicker still. The alloys were now anthracite with a polished rim and in 1991 the engine was fitted with a knock sensor to allow it to run on unleaded fuel without drama. In 1992, the engine was de-tuned to 148bhp by lowering the compression ratio using dished pistons, and tamer camshafts. A year later it was killed off completely (along with the Citroen BX) and replaced with the 155bhp 2.0 iron-blocked unit found in the ph2 405 Mi16, aswell as the Xantia 16v, 306 S16 and ZX 16v.[/i]
6 months into my beloved BX ownership, I suffered a fate shared by many who've been racing the engine while attacking a sharp corner....something you should really avoid doing in an XU9J4 powered car that doesn't have a baffled sump! I managed to create an oil surge, pumping all the oil into the head (so much that the rocker cover nigh-on burst!) and running the bottom end dangerously low (at about 7300rpm!). Result was a bent crank and completely ruined big end bearings. I had the crank reground, lightened and balanced, the bores honed, the flywheel refaced & balanced and rebuilt it with new bearings, thrust washers and piston rings. 4 years later I stripped the head off and took it apart to sort out the noisy tappet I'd had since the rebuild. This turned out to be a bent valve (one inlet, even though it's neighbour was fine!) which had been banging away like mad. I lapped in a good replacement and refitted the head, before a bit more f
king careful about how I put it down and handle it this time!In 2006 the car was used in a fairly low rent TV production called Used Car Roadshow. Here is a terrible quality clip of the brief feature:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVWmmo_c0hA
Fast forward to 2009 and I've got twin baby sons and a TVR Chimaera fighting for my attention. The BX it sitting around doing sweet FA.
2010, or more specifically a couple of weeks ago looms and I decide that I could actually use the BX now, as I'm now working more locally and using an old car that drinks like a fish isn't really an issue if you barely clock up more than 8 miles a day!
So far I know that the following need doing:
1) Coolant leak behind suspension HP pump.
2) Brake doseur valve (a valve in place of a brake master cylinder) is leaking to the return side interally and losing braking pressure.
3) Undersealing.
4) Sidelights wiring needs attention.
5) ABS light on, suspect faulty wiring as all sensors give correct resistance.
6) General tidy-up.
So bring it out onto my little ramps to get under neath and have a nosey:
All seems well until I see this. I know there are one or two patches on the car which are starting to rust, but BXs are generally pretty good at holding it off. This bit worried me:
So I started to poke it:
a
holeS!!!!This little lump fell out, which I at first thought was lead but now realise it's probably chemical metal or something like that:
It left a nice hole in the scutter tray underneath the rear washer bottle, and as I suspected a small hole behind the dashboard. Great!
As time progressed I found more and more lumps of crap. I'm now figuring that the car has either rotted really badly in one area, yet remained fine it pretty much all the others, or it's been in a smack at some point. Either way, my BX has been bodged! Someone in the past didn't want to weld this lot up because it would have meant removing the dash. Scary thing is I've had the car all this time and it's taken ages to manifest itself.
The entire lower box section of the A-piller has started to rot badly from inside. The panel housing the door hinge is starting to come away:
Time to remove the dash:
To get a good look at this:
Suspension turret looks worrying too:
So it's hydrualic resevoir out, and suspension sphere off so the suspension strut can be removed:
To (try) and repair this whole mess by plating all the holes back to thick, strong metal (could be easier said than done on the A-pillar), I've got my mits on a nice thick bit of steel perfect for the job:
Theres the first bit ready to plate the rotten edge of the inner wing:
This is my first attempt at welding a car body, so be gentle!
The lower panel blew through on it's left hand side so I had to build it all up again. Luckily this piece is completely hidden and it seemss to be nice and strong, so this was a result!
So this is how she looks at the moment:
Amazingly, the nearside front corner seems to be mint! Normally this is the worst area....on the offside, mineral oil/LHM generally spills out of the res so the inner wing is nicely oiled from under the bonnet. The nearside tends to pick up the s
t in the gutter and rot out quicker, yet on this car the nearside is very good and needs no welding at the moment, just repainting! The middle and rear of the car.......who knows!
) so i will follow this with a fair bit of intetrest, and as it's a Citroen, probably a fair bit of amusement at the effort you will go through.
. Think it's great that you're saving it as opposed to using it for parts or weighing it in 
Had an 8 valve one for about 6 months years ago.
Had the usual suspension issues and sadly couldn't afford to repair them so I sold it.
It was an excellent motor at the time, the first car I'd ever had with central locking and electric windows and I'd have a valver like the OP without hesitation.
Had the usual suspension issues and sadly couldn't afford to repair them so I sold it.
It was an excellent motor at the time, the first car I'd ever had with central locking and electric windows and I'd have a valver like the OP without hesitation.
Mate, good on you. I love these BX GTis, when I was about 10 my dad bought one off a friend of his (a silver 8 valve car, I think it had an 'eclipse' badge on it - special edition maybe?) and I used to absolutely love going in it. At the same time he had an E34 525i saloon, and the good old BX with is suspension used to be able to carry more speed around the corners down our road than the BMW, the way it hung on really was a marvel! Wouldn't mind one myself actually but they're rare now and good ones are very rare indeed! Best of luck on the repairs buddy 
Chunkychucky said:
Mate, good on you. I love these BX GTis, when I was about 10 my dad bought one off a friend of his (a silver 8 valve car, I think it had an 'eclipse' badge on it - special edition maybe?) and I used to absolutely love going in it. At the same time he had an E34 525i saloon, and the good old BX with is suspension used to be able to carry more speed around the corners down our road than the BMW, the way it hung on really was a marvel! Wouldn't mind one myself actually but they're rare now and good ones are very rare indeed! Best of luck on the repairs buddy
If you want rare, find one with air conditioning.... I've never seen one on the UK and only a couple on the continent.Nice to see there are some BX lovers hidden on here! I don't really want to call it a project, it's not a big enough job and almost insults some of the things others do with their cars! But I don't think I'll just be doing the MOT work and hopping in it somehow.
I'm hoping the rest of the car isn't reflected in the front O/S corner. I know there is bubbling at the base of the C-pillars where they meet the dog leg, but this is pretty common and hopefully I can just treat it and dress it up.
The real restraint at the moment is time, or lack of it! Not sure I'll get a chance to look at it over the weekend, and by the time I'm back from work it's too dark to do anything.
I'm hoping the rest of the car isn't reflected in the front O/S corner. I know there is bubbling at the base of the C-pillars where they meet the dog leg, but this is pretty common and hopefully I can just treat it and dress it up.
The real restraint at the moment is time, or lack of it! Not sure I'll get a chance to look at it over the weekend, and by the time I'm back from work it's too dark to do anything.
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