Keepers: One owner’s life-long adventure with his Lotus Elan Yet another new noise
John’s Xantia is currently piling on the miles, so the last thing he needs is another worrying racket from it
2000 CITROËN XANTIA 1.8 16V AUTO
I have no rhythm to my life at all; sometimes I’m working from home for two or three weeks, then I’m away on the road for a week or more. That’s usually in the Xantia, which is still as comfortable and quiet as any modern car, albeit sometimes a little lacking in power. It does still have ice cold aircon, though.
It recently went to North Yorkshire and back twice in a ten-day period on trips to manage the restoration of my Austin A60 Cambridge, which has been based up there with specialist Steve Turner. During the second of these, it developed yet another of what, of late, has been almost characteristically weird noises. It manifested itself this time as a sort of cling-clang-clonk. A three-part noise that was always the same, but it seemed to occur randomly.
Short of time and worried that a trip to London later in the week was going to, at the very least, make it worse and possibly even leave me sitting on the M40, I managed to persuade Dave at Citroën Stirchley (0121 433 4335) to have a look at the car.
This time the answer was fairly easily found – a torn CV joint gaiter, which had passed the MoT not long before and been renewed 18 months or so earlier. It must have been damaged by a stray stone or similar. The now dry CV joint had started to wear quite quickly over that 500-mile trip, loaded down with Austin A60 doors. Luckily, they are still available so I left the car with Dave to do the job, thankful that I would probably be able to use it later in the week.
It came back its usually quiet self but the following week, I then managed to get myself in a slight pickle with it and in the process learn something about fluid-suspension Citroëns. I live near the top of one of the hills that Birmingham is built on and parts of the city do flood when you get very heavy rainfall, as we have recently.
I got caught out in these flash floods on three separate occasions in two days, so I raised the suspension, drove around the assembled panicked individuals blocking the road then lowered it again. I didn’t really think about it at the time.
A day or two later I noticed fluid under the car, dipped my finger into it and realised it was LHM, the pressurised fluid that gives the Xantia its suspension, steering and brakes. Of course, the immediate reaction is to start the car, see how long it takes to pressurise and then top up the fluid before jacking it up to find the leak.
To cut a long story short, I went through this process three times, and it pumped up fine, but each time I failed to find the leak that I was convinced I had because of the fresh LHM on the drive. Following an under-car jet wash and another failure to find the leak, I sent it to the long-suffering Dave. He looked for the leak, tested the system and said that there wasn’t one.
Consultation provided the likely explanation, though. When the suspension is jacked up and driven the fluid can go into an overflow which, if it’s a little too full, actually dumps some fluid out. Of course, mine had done that and, convinced that there was a leak, I had been over-filling it ever since…
’It returned to its usual quiet self. Then I got myself in a slight pickle…’