2002 Xsara VTS

[Ben_w]

Finally found a radiator for the Xsara. Came from Peugeot Parts in Leeds from one they broke a few years back. A but dusty from being sat on the shelf but all good.

So with the radiator finally here, it was time to get on with it.

First job was pull the silver car forward to the back of the breaker to give me room to jack it up and get the wheel off. This was because job 1 was to swap the bottom hose out back to the original. All done in just a couple of minutes.

I then decided that as I had everything off and available, I'd do the front brakes too. Everything came off easily, and the new disc put back on. The carrier needed much cleaning of crud to enable it to fit over the new disc but once done, fine. Until I came to bolt it back up......oh. Hello Mr Mysterious 6mm ish gap between carrier and hub mounting face.



Took it all back off, checked and the put it all back on. Gap still present. Knowing it has had a new hub at some point, I used the hubs from the breaker and then the hubs from the Ph1 breaker I still had as a sense check. Gap still there. I'm beginning to suspect the discs are wrong by this point.

Put it all down, went inside, made a brew and did some checks. Service box, for once, was not very useful. All it did was confirm overall disc diameter of 283mm. Eurocarparts website was much better. It suggested there were two disc fitments for the Xsara. One with a disc height of 28mm, one with a height of 34mm.........hmmm, 6mm difference.

The discs are wrong, frustratingly. At least that's all it is so I chucked the old gear back on, put the wheel back on and dropped it back on the floor.

Raidator finally fitted although those French definitely designed that bottom hose connection on a Friday. You need the hands of a small child to get in to fit the clip that holds the pipe in place. Eventually, I got it done.







With that all done, there wasn't much else to do, other than fill with coolant........

First two litres in and all good. Nothing coming out where it shouldn't be. At this point I opened the three bleed points and air started coming out. Quickly added the next 3ltrs and then carried on until the rad bottle was full.

Figured I needed to start the engine at this point. Battery was flat so I jumped it off the wife's car. Once it finally started, the engine mgt light was on, with the display above the radio was saying airbag fault (yes, because the seat isn't connected yet) and Anti-pollution fault (need to look into that some more....).

I revved it slightly which helps getting the coolant round. I put all 9ltrs in and once the bleed points were streaming coolant steadily and not blowing air, they were closed off.

I continued to let it idle and get up to temp. It got hot enough for the fans to kick in and I let them cycle in and out several times just to be sure.

I was about to turn it off at this point when I noticed a strange noise. It sounded like it was knocking but when revved slightly, it all but disappeared. It sounded very much like it was knocking but from the left hand side of the engine. A quick listen and feel about revealed the noise went when i pressed on the timing belt cover. That quickly bought about and end to the days proceedings. Raidator fixed, other bits not now fixed. You couldn't make this up. Perhaps the Xsara is objecting to being stood for 3 months.

So tomorrow will be about having the cambelt cover off to see if I can figure out what's what. Spoke with Carl who suggested it might be the belt being loose. Given the car is fitted with the auto tensioner, I'm a bit concerned.