Fred Cisin said:
BTW, have you ever replaced the brake master cylinder
on one?
Yes. Very recently, in fact. The scratches in my forearm are still
Wasn't the finest example of service accessibility!
It's been 30 years since I did one.
The guy who designed that particular system went on to work for Citroen.
In particular, he designed the fuel system for the Citroen XM 2 litre
fuel-injected models, with the filter mounted on top of the rear subframe,
Or maybe the Citroen BX cooling system pipework? The idiot didn't put
drain plug on the radiator, the only way to drain the system is to take
off the bottom hose. And the only way to do that is with your head right
under it. I have had several face-fulls of antifreeze (it tastes
horrible!).
The BX clutch cable is painful too, on UK models. On the European ones,
it's easy, but on the UK ones (RH drive), it goes through the bulkhead at
the timing-case end of the engine. Which means there's almost no space to
get to the self-tapping screws that hold the plate/rubber gaiter in
place. When I did a clutch change on my father's BX, that was the part
that caused me the most problems -- removing the transmission, although a
fairly long job involving pulling the driveshafts, uncoupling some of the
hydraulics, etc) was straightforward.
He also designed the placement of the suspension
centre spheres, the ones
that switch in and out under control of the ECU. They need replaced every
The BX spehres (no electronics, so just the normal 5 spheres, one on each
suspension cylinder, one on the pressure regulator) are easy. The Front
ones come off from the top, the accumulator (at least on Diesel models)
comes out from under the front bumper (lift the car on the suspension as
hight as you can, put axle stands under the side members, then
depressurise the hydraulics), the rear ones come out from under the car
-- it's easiest if you take the wheels off first. The best tool I've
found for remocing them is a _good_ oil filter strap wrench -- the Facom
one with the screw tensioner, for example.
-tony