Lastsoul
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 9, 2005
- Messages
- 2,180
- Location
- Finland
- Car(s)
- MX5, 406 Coup?, 106 Rallye, Porsche 924, X300 Six
This was a bit random. I wasn't planning on getting a third car, and I've never been a fan of this one. There is only one thing I care about, but I'll get back to that later.
On tuesday an old friend from high school posted on Facebook "If anybody needs parts for Xsara Coupe, or the whole car, just ask". I had a faint memory of the car he had, so asked him about the details. Twenty minutes later I had bought the car.
So what is it? Well I'm not 100% sure yet, as it was pretty rapid process and I didn't check the car almost at all. Things I know: 2001 Citro?n Xsara VTS. That means it's got the awful facelift-nose instead of the boring original one. Some previous owner has changed the rear lights to Altezza-styled carbage items. Summer wheels are dark grey Mille Miglias. They probably double the weight of the car, and make the ugly nose look pretty decent in comparison. It's got rather low 151k kms on the clock. I'm not sure about the standard equipment, it should have AC, some amount of airbags and remote locking seems to work. Ask frankiess about the interior quality and you'll see grown up man weep.
So why the hell I bought it? Well, first of all it was cheap. No, I don't mean it was couple of hundred euros below market value. It was about one quater of it's potential value, and being ten years old Citro?n they're not exactly expensive on the first place. Yes, there was a reason for the price. Rear axle, a common problem on old PSA hatchbacks, has "a bit" of play. Enough to make passenger side wheel to touch the sill in some occasions. Refurbished one is about 600 euros. Oh, and wiring harness for the two cooling fans has gone full french. Engine keeps temperature nicely, but apparently there is a total ALAAAAAARM GENER?AAL going on the dashboard once the engine reaches working temperature. Price for such a harness is also 600 euros. I'm pretty sure both of those problems can be solved much, much cheaper when doing the work myself.
There is only one year difference between my parents 406 Coup? used as a towing car and my VTS. I'm pretty sure the beauty genes were not shared evenly at the design process? Oh, and as you can see the weather was pretty horrible, I'll take better pictures later.
So, it's broken and ugly? Why did I buy it?
Raison d'?tre:
It doesn't look very special, and compared to something like Honda B18C it isn't. It's XU10J4RS, last of variation of the long-lived XU-series engine that powered number of PSA products from the eighties to the beginning of this millennium. The XU-engine was fitted to the 205 GTi in 1.6 and 1.9 variations, then it got nicely flowing DOHC head on the 405 Mi16, where thanks to a rather long stroke and 7400rpm rev limit it achieved the highest ever average piston speed at the time.
My 406 has a very similar engine producing 132 bhp. Block is the same, as is the basic cylinder head. It's not as nicely finished, and lacks the free flowing intake and stainless 4-1 exhaust manifold and much aggressive cams. With these differences the engine fitted to the VTS makes rather nice 164bhp and revs to 7400rpm. Not great numbers compared to Hondas, but it has pretty even torque curve and I've heard it's rather characterful engine in a good way. With new cams, new software and some small items on the intake side you can get 195bhp. As stock it especially comes alive with the close ratio six speed gearbox, which was fitted to the excellent Peugeot 306 GTi-6 and Rallye, but naturally not to the cost-cutted Xsara cousin. Thanks to the long life of the XU-engines, this one can be swapped to many older cars making it pretty desired one. These engines usually go for about a double I paid for the whole car...
So, I've bought a reasonably nice engine fitted to a mediocre car. What am I going to do with it?
1. Fix it and sell it for profit
2. Fix it, strip it and drive the hell out of it.
3. Swap the engine to my daily driver 406. Peugeot never made successor to the 405 Mi16, why not to do it myself?
4. Find engineless 205 GTi and swap the engine to that. Now that would be fun.
5. Fix it and keep it as my daily driver. It has 200k km less than the 406.
Anyway, I've about four months to think about it, as the car is sitting outside and it's way too cold to do anything.
Oh, and before I forget:
On tuesday an old friend from high school posted on Facebook "If anybody needs parts for Xsara Coupe, or the whole car, just ask". I had a faint memory of the car he had, so asked him about the details. Twenty minutes later I had bought the car.
So what is it? Well I'm not 100% sure yet, as it was pretty rapid process and I didn't check the car almost at all. Things I know: 2001 Citro?n Xsara VTS. That means it's got the awful facelift-nose instead of the boring original one. Some previous owner has changed the rear lights to Altezza-styled carbage items. Summer wheels are dark grey Mille Miglias. They probably double the weight of the car, and make the ugly nose look pretty decent in comparison. It's got rather low 151k kms on the clock. I'm not sure about the standard equipment, it should have AC, some amount of airbags and remote locking seems to work. Ask frankiess about the interior quality and you'll see grown up man weep.
So why the hell I bought it? Well, first of all it was cheap. No, I don't mean it was couple of hundred euros below market value. It was about one quater of it's potential value, and being ten years old Citro?n they're not exactly expensive on the first place. Yes, there was a reason for the price. Rear axle, a common problem on old PSA hatchbacks, has "a bit" of play. Enough to make passenger side wheel to touch the sill in some occasions. Refurbished one is about 600 euros. Oh, and wiring harness for the two cooling fans has gone full french. Engine keeps temperature nicely, but apparently there is a total ALAAAAAARM GENER?AAL going on the dashboard once the engine reaches working temperature. Price for such a harness is also 600 euros. I'm pretty sure both of those problems can be solved much, much cheaper when doing the work myself.
There is only one year difference between my parents 406 Coup? used as a towing car and my VTS. I'm pretty sure the beauty genes were not shared evenly at the design process? Oh, and as you can see the weather was pretty horrible, I'll take better pictures later.
So, it's broken and ugly? Why did I buy it?
Raison d'?tre:
It doesn't look very special, and compared to something like Honda B18C it isn't. It's XU10J4RS, last of variation of the long-lived XU-series engine that powered number of PSA products from the eighties to the beginning of this millennium. The XU-engine was fitted to the 205 GTi in 1.6 and 1.9 variations, then it got nicely flowing DOHC head on the 405 Mi16, where thanks to a rather long stroke and 7400rpm rev limit it achieved the highest ever average piston speed at the time.
My 406 has a very similar engine producing 132 bhp. Block is the same, as is the basic cylinder head. It's not as nicely finished, and lacks the free flowing intake and stainless 4-1 exhaust manifold and much aggressive cams. With these differences the engine fitted to the VTS makes rather nice 164bhp and revs to 7400rpm. Not great numbers compared to Hondas, but it has pretty even torque curve and I've heard it's rather characterful engine in a good way. With new cams, new software and some small items on the intake side you can get 195bhp. As stock it especially comes alive with the close ratio six speed gearbox, which was fitted to the excellent Peugeot 306 GTi-6 and Rallye, but naturally not to the cost-cutted Xsara cousin. Thanks to the long life of the XU-engines, this one can be swapped to many older cars making it pretty desired one. These engines usually go for about a double I paid for the whole car...
So, I've bought a reasonably nice engine fitted to a mediocre car. What am I going to do with it?
1. Fix it and sell it for profit
2. Fix it, strip it and drive the hell out of it.
3. Swap the engine to my daily driver 406. Peugeot never made successor to the 405 Mi16, why not to do it myself?
4. Find engineless 205 GTi and swap the engine to that. Now that would be fun.
5. Fix it and keep it as my daily driver. It has 200k km less than the 406.
Anyway, I've about four months to think about it, as the car is sitting outside and it's way too cold to do anything.
Oh, and before I forget:
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