All change on Alex's fleet
Regular readers of this diary will note that there have been some changes to my current fleet at the top of this page. Most significantly the Lotus Elise has gone – having enjoyed driving the car enormously for the past year and realising an ambition held since I read road test reports of the model over 20 years ago, it made sense to move it on and create some space in the garage for current project cars. I have also managed to acquire another Xantia Activa, and whilst I’m not adverse to collecting rare French cars from the 1980s and 1990s, the need for two Activas did not strike me until I discovered that the Dante Red one I got earlier in the year was going to need new front suspension top mounts because the originals were perilously close to failure. This presented a problem as the parts are no longer produced. Initial enquiries suggested that some companies in Europe may be able to remanufacture the originals, but clearly this was going to be an involved job and the car would be out of action for some time.
Having mulled this over for a while, I happened to be reading the classifieds of my monthly Citroën Car Club magazine, (a section I really ought to stop looking at as inevitably it results in me buying another car,) when I read an advert for a 1997 Activa which had been in the same ownership since 2004. I started thinking that it would be good to have a road- going example which could be enjoyed whilst the 1995 car was off the road.
ABOVE: The new pre-made sections of pipe needed some adjustment to fit neatly in the mounting brackets.
Having struck a deal with the owner, I collected the car from West Yorkshire a few weeks later and thoroughly enjoyed the drive home, the lack of roll in corners combined with the supremely comfortable hydropneumatic ride providing a unique driving experience.
In amongst buying and selling vehicles I have also completed the work on the BX estate and returned it to the road as my regular winter transport. At the end of my previous diary I was still waiting for the new rear brake caliper-to- doseur valve sections of hydraulic pipe to arrive from the supplier in the Netherlands, so once these were delivered I could get on with that job. Whilst the new pre-made sections appeared
to largely follow the same contours as the originals, both sides needed some adjustment to fit correctly in the retaining brackets and this took quite some time to get right.
Once I was satisfied that the hydraulic pipe sections were secured in the brackets and not fouling the bodywork anywhere, I fitted the hydraulic unions first to the brake calipers and then to the doseur valve, securing them carefully with an 8mm pipe spanner to around a quarter turn beyond finger tight. The next task was to top up the LHM reservoir as some fluid was lost when renewing the pipework and calipers, after which I could start the engine and allow the hydraulic pump to circulate the fluid and pressurise the