66 replies to this topic

[The Otter]

 

My parents had one of these when I first took interest in cars. The susp drops when you park, so no wheel clamps can be put on if I remember correctly?

 

Mine had one from new, had a recurring habit of emptying it's hydraulic fluid over the road and the suspension staying down when you turn the engine back on!

 

 

 

Mine takes a good while to get itself back up again whenever I start it up, hoping it's nothing to worry about! Moves nice and smoothly when it does get going though, and such a comfy ride  I know a guy that knows these cars inside out, so if there are any big problems then I've got a good contact   If it's still going after all these miles and years I'll hope it's had any big issues ironed out by now, and it's been well looked after mechanically so I'm not too worried about it for the forseeable future!

[Ben_O]

My Mum had a BX years ago. I used to use it all the time. Had some fond memories of it oddly enough! There is nothing like going round a corner at a relatively high speed and the car staying perfectly level instead of falling out of the seat!!

I remember I worked at an accident repair centre at the time and some burk came in after filling his diesel car up with petrol so he paid us to drain it and I ran the BX on it for a fortnight with no major issues!!

Ha Ha good times

 

Ben

[crazypainter]

I have one of them in grey sat in a garage!

[The Otter]

Haha, seems there are a fair few of you with fond memories of BXs. 

 

I have one of them in grey sat in a garage!

 

Ooh, what model is it? Got any plans for it? 

 

Now, for the exterior. It's covered in lots of scratches and little dents, which is perfect because then I don't care if anyone in the supermarket car park puts another dent in it   There's loads of bits of mould growing on all the exterior plastics, along with a nice chunk of green fuzziness on the underside of the spoiler, but I'm slowly getting rid of that with a bit of vinyl/rubber cleaner. Once I've cleaned up all the plastics I'll have a go with some boiled linseed oil to try and make them a bit black again, gotta hate grey plastic!

The spoiler is devoid of some of its lacquer.



The roof is devoid of almost all its lacquer.



As mentioned previously, it had roof bars on when I bought it. Comically, when I took them off the aerial did this.



It flopped straight on to the roof, as the front roof bar had been keeping it in position   It could be propped up completely straight, but it would then just fall over and make you jump when you started driving and heard a tinny smack on the roof.

So, I "fixed" it with some blu tac.





Taking the roof bars off also revealed rather obvious patches where the bars have been on a while, not that it really matters at the moment when the rest of roof looks as bad as it does, but I'll still try and polish them out sometime anyway.



It's got cracked rear light lenses, this one being the worst.



Also, the GB sticker you can see above has turned in to a flaky piece of brittle plastic and looks a bit crap, so I'll try and get that off sometime. It might mean I need to repaint that satin black part of the panel, but all of the satin black bits around the doors are pretty faded anyway and starting to turn white, so it could do with a bit of a black recoat all over.

Now, a quick look under the bonnet at the only major rust I can find. It's a little flaky on this side, but not too bad.



This side is a bit softer unfortunately.



Yep, that's a hole.



Still, nothing compared to a Mini so I'm not bothered by it at all! A day with the welder should see it looking good as new.

Ooh, a diesel engine...



One other thing to note is that all four tyres are different brands, I've got a Dunlop, a Pirelli, a Firestone, and a Nexen. So one day I might get it an actual matching set of tyres, but they're all legal and they all hold air so it's nothing to worry about for a while.

Well, that's the overview of the car done, the next updates shall be me fixing all the niggly little things. Fun reading huh?   

Thanks for reading!

The Otter

Edited by The Otter, 18 June 2013 - 10:44 AM.

[Moggyton]

It is fun to read! A full respray and it would be brand new

[freshairmini]

It is fun to read! A full respray and it would be brand new

and a waste of money haha. Why did you buy this car, it is truely awfull!

[paul_s]

My parents have always had Citroens. First car I remember was a beige BX hatch like this, A reg (they bought it a few months before I was born). 

I remember them having a TZD estate, I'd forgotten about all the luxuries like the felt coin tray! 

Does yours have 'remote' central locking? I remember it was infra red and virtually useless..

[MrBounce]

My friend had one of the early ones - a BX16TRS. It had the really weird switchgear in "pods" instead of column stalks. Took a while to get used to. Nice car though (in 1992) I am guessing it is long gone now...

Edited by MrBounce, 18 June 2013 - 04:24 PM.

[crazypainter]

Mine is a 1.9RD has done like 170k not rotten and one owner from new (my old man) like I say its sat in a garage and we are unsure what to do with it, you interested?

[Timtom]

These are cool :) My friend had a diesel xantia till he crashed it into someone.. though before that he forgot to put Antifreeze in and had a permanent leak and no heater! 

 

I have a renault 21 estate and its in much worse condition than this (and Petrol so only 33mpg!!)   But i did get it free so can't complain too much.. 

[The Otter]

Does yours have 'remote' central locking? I remember it was infra red and virtually useless..

 

Nope, I think mine (TXD) is the model just below top spec (TZD), so it doesn't have the really fancy features, but the central locking on the key still works fine which I'm happy about   It's funny, I've got remote central locking on the Mini but not on this 

 

and a waste of money haha. Why did you buy this car, it is truely awfull!

 

That's why I like it so much, it's awful and cheap and flimsy and so very French - that's what makes it different and interesting! Mint BXs are just starting to become valuable now (over £2k for really really good ones) so who knows, maybe they'll rocket up in value soon  (I can dream  )

 

 

Mine is a 1.9RD has done like 170k not rotten and one owner from new (my old man) like I say its sat in a garage and we are unsure what to do with it, you interested?

 

If you would have asked me before I'd bought this I might've been interested haha, but unless I got it for free then I doubt I could justify clogging up my dads drive with two old Citroens  Unfortunately it's only really worth scrap value without tax and test, but at least the 1.9RD is one of the more desirable engines/models so somebody out there might give you around £150 for it if it's in good condition otherwise. If you've got the time then breaking it for parts would probably be the best way to make some money, these cars are getting rare now and there aren't many places to buy spares. We get spoilt with Minis, being able to essentially build a whole new car from off the shelf bits from Minispares 

 

 

These are cool :) My friend had a diesel xantia till he crashed it into someone.. though before that he forgot to put Antifreeze in and had a permanent leak and no heater! 

 

I have a renault 21 estate and its in much worse condition than this (and Petrol so only 33mpg!!)   But i did get it free so can't complain too much.. 

 

Not many Renault 21s left around, hello obscure old French car friend 

[Timtom]

 

 

These are cool :) My friend had a diesel xantia till he crashed it into someone.. though before that he forgot to put Antifreeze in and had a permanent leak and no heater! 

 

I have a renault 21 estate and its in much worse condition than this (and Petrol so only 33mpg!!)   But i did get it free so can't complain too much.. 

 

Not many Renault 21s left around, hello obscure old French car friend 

 

 

 

 

Aha! Thanks :) 

[Ben_O]

I always fancied a CX estate! now that's an obscure French car!

Mind you my first car was an early Citroen AX 5 door TRE so top of the range!! Now that was weird compared to the stuff my mates drove. It had the single spoke steering wheel and very quirky styling inside and out. I loved it though!!

[paul_s]

I've always quite liked the CX too. Again, my first car was an AX, but a 3 door Debut: 954cc engine, 4 gears, tape player only had fast forward, and a clock instead of a rev counter. Sounds familiar....

 

I'll be watching this to see how it progresses :)

[mini13]

the BX gti16v was immense! 170hp std and pretty aerodynamic with good handling.

 

wiring on these is a nightmare, all the wires are yellow.... now colour coding except a few black earth wires.