Just had a question from a gentleman who is traveling to the Citroën Rendezvous in Saratoga Springs, NY on Father’s Day weekend. He wanted a list of everything he should do to make his Citroën 2CV safe for the trip. This is my advise… a list of thing to check and do.

Electrical:

• check all lights and signals and make sure they all work

• head lights, hi and low beam

• signals

• brake lights

• flashers (if you have them)

• marker and plate lights

• check wipers

• check horn

Tires:

• check for wear

• check pressure (also spare)

Suspension:

• lubricate knife edges

• jack up front of car

• grab front wheels at 9 and 3 positions and check for play (tie rod and steering rack wear)

• grab front wheels at 12 and 6 position and check for play (king pin wear)

• jack up rear of car and turn rear wheels and check for any strange noises (wheel bearings and brake drag)

Body:

• check that all body panels and make sure that all fasteners securing them are tight

• make sure top is secure when it is attached at windshield

• check tightness of wheel lugs (check owners manual for torque)

Under the hood:

• check engine oil level

• check transmission oil level (should be right up to side fill plug)

• check air cleaner (make sure all is snug secure)

• check the belt for wear and tightness

• check battery connections and make sure posts are clean

• check brake pad thickness and parking brake adjustment

• check all cables and linkages for clearance and wear

• check to make sure there is good clearance between the fuel line and the exhaust pipe and manifold. (this can often be very close and even dangerous.)

• make sure hood secondary latch lines up and hood completely closes

• check under car for exhaust leaks with the engine running

Pack the following tools and parts:

• small socket or wrench set containing 8mm to 21mm  sizes

• screw drivers both Philips and straight blade

• wire connectors and crimper

• some extra wire

• electrical tester

• electrical tape and duct tape

• extra fan belt.

• proper brake fluid for vintage of car ie: brake fluid or green fluid

• 2 spark plugs and a set of wires

• set of points and condenser (unless you have a 123 ignition installed n the car)

• spare light bulbs for every light on the car

• jack,

• lug wrench,

• flashlight

• nitrile  or vinyl gloves and cheap pair of coveralls.

That should probably do it without bringing the kitchen sink. Hope this helps.

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On the Citroen SM with 3.0 Liter Maserati engine and 3 speed automatic transmission, it is very important to remember this. If you remove the torque converter for repair, it’s possible when reattaching it to the engine to attach the torque converter to the crankshaft pulley in any one of four positions, only one of which will be correct.

Mounting the torque converter up in the wrong position will cause the timing hole in the bell housing to not line up with the timing mark on the converter housing.

To prevent this from happening, it is very important to set the position of piston No.1 of the motor at TDC . After you do this, position the converter so that the timing mark lines up with the peephole in the bellhousing.

Always remember to check twice and do once.

Take care of those Citroën SM engines they don’t make them anymore!

Later, Denis

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This was a question that recently was sent in to me, and I covered it a bit in the article that I wrote about removing the Citroen D Model fuel tank, but I will go into greater depth here.

What I will be explaining here is the removal of a fastener from your vintage Citroen . Most of these fasteners will be 25 plus years old, and you are perhaps removing them for the first time since the Citroen was new.

Depending on the location and the vintage, and of course where a fastener has spent it’s life, can have a great deal to do with how difficult it might be to remove when you want to take it apart.

When I say location, I mean if the fastener is located under the dash of your Citroen or holding the front bumper on will make a great deal of difference as to how you want to approach removal.

If the Citroen was ever run in the winter on salty streets, or for that matter lived in the  humid eastern part of the U.S. or the drier western part will also make a huge difference.

If the fastener is located inside the Citroen interior and did not see any corrosive damage, it should be relatively easy to remove. But, if it spent it’s life on the outside, or even worse if it spent it’s life in a location such as the exhaust system of your Citroen where there is a constant change in temperature as the system heats up and then cools off, then you might be in for a challenge.

Several things can be done to help in the removal of a stubborn Citroen fastener and here they are:

• Shock
• Heat
• Penetrant
• Lubrication
• and lots of back and forth movement.

1. Shock: This is something that may not appear at first to be helpful, but can add up in the end. What you want to do is find a way, if possible and space permits,to give a couple of good solid blows with a punch or drift to the end of the fastener head. Be careful to not slip off and mess up or deform it and make it so a wrench or socket will not fit on it. I personally find that this is a very good practice to do when removing Citroen engine head bolts, especially when you have two dissimilar metals at work.
2. Heat: Another way you might want to try if you have a small flame torch and that is to heat up the fastener. This is especially useful when you are trying to remove, and have good access to, a nut that you want to remove. Heat up the Citroen fastener until it is glowing hot. Try to just heat up the nut as much as possible and not the bolt. Once it is glowing be careful not to burn yourself and get a nice (preferably 6 point) socket or box end wrench on the nut. Now, see if it will loosen up at this point. Here is where you really have to use your judgement and take things easy because if you meet any resistance you want to back off and reheat the nut. If I get any movement from the fastener at this point I usually back off and turn it back towards tightning the fastener .
3. Penetrant: Spray a good quality penetrant on the threats and start to work the fastener back and forth tightening and loosening.  With each tightening and loosening you make a little more progress towards removal. This will sort of make the fastener act like a tap or die depending on whether it is a nut or bolt. The fastener will slowly work it’s way through the rust and as you continue to spray penetrant on, things will hopefully wash the threats out, lubricate them and make things easier to remove. The main thing I want to stress here is take it easy. If you meet any resistance stop and think about the problems and time you will waste if you snap that puppy off and have to try to extract the remains of the fastener by the use of a bolt remover, or worse yet have to drill things out. Sometimes that will just happen and you will have no choice but try things easy first to avoid that if possible.
4. Lubricate: When you do get things apart, using products like Never Seez to coat the threads of the Citroen fastener when you replace it will prevent the fastener from being frozen and difficult to remove next time.

Put your comments in the box below,  because I am always open to new ideas for Citroen fastener removal that I have maybe never tried before.

Thanks,

Denis

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• How To Unstick Rusted Nuts and Bolts (howcast.com)

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Question

Please advise how to access the fuel tank sending unit on a 1956 Citroën Traction 11BL. Either I have lost the electrical connection or the ground, or maybe the float has sunk to the bottom of the tank. I have toyed with the assumption that since I have filled the tank with gasoline, the meter which is calibrated in liters of essence does not recognize the liquid which now fills the tank and therefore the gauge reads empty. Any and all advice sincerely appreciated.

Citroën Tech Tip

Thanks for your note. On a 6 volt system you always want to look for the ground to be the usual problem when something electrical does not work.

The sending unit operates by resistance in a coil of wire that the connection in the tank slides up and down on. When the tank is low with fuel, the connection is at the bottom of the coil with many windings. The higher the float goes in the tank, the fewer windings on the coil and thus the less resistance electrically. This makes your gauge on your dash head toward full. It starts off at about 1.5 volts and raises to the full 6 volts when the float is to the top and the tank is full.

If you have an electrical tester you want to gain access to the connections to the sending unit. This will be on the floor of your trunk under the floor mat. There should be a little trap door to gain access to the unit on the trunk floor.You will need a volt meter

of some kind, and a jumper wire preferably with an alligator clip on each end.

Disconnect the coil wire on the car, so that no damage happens to the ignition points, and then flip on the ignition key. Find the wire that is feeding power to your sender by touching the negative on the tester to a good grounding surface of bare metal in the trunk area. Then hook the positive end of the tester to one of the electrical wire ends leading to the sender. Once you find the positive connection you now know that you are at least getting current back to the sending unit.

Now make sure the connections are clean on the sender unit, and hook the jumper wire I mentioned that you needed to the other tab or screw connection on the sending unit. Clip the other end of the jumper wire to a good ground and then go see if your fuel gauge is working.

This is what I have found, over the years, to be the most common cause with Citroen Tractions and early Citroen D Series cars with 6 volt systems… A bad ground.

If that does not solve your problem, what I have found in rare cases is the cork fuel sender float in the tank has become water logged (or in this case fuel logged). Sometimes the new reformulated fuel can cause this to happen.

If that is the case you will need to remove the sending unit from the tank, and either replace it or find some type of coating to apply to the float that will stand up to fuel and seal the float.

Oh yes, and the next time you want to run your car, don’t forget to re-connect the coil wire.

.

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Recently we have gotten several questions about Citroen CX brakes. Most often it is a case of the person replacing the pads on their front brakes, but not having replaced the rotors.

Here is the situation with this and any other modern car out in the real world when getting brake work done today. If you don’t want your brakes to pulse or chatter after you replace the pads, you have to replace the rotors also.

The manufacturers really don’t give you much tolerance to work with to turn or resurface the brakes anymore, so this is the best thing to do if you want to eliminate the chance of brake pulsing after you go to the work of replacing the pads.

This issue sort of popped it’s head with the late U.S. speced Citroen DS cars. Brake squeal and pad glazing was a problem, so the pads were made out of a harder and more aggressive compound, and the rotors were made from a softer metal. This got rid of the squeal and glazing for the most part, but it meant that rotors wore out much faster. This problem continues with the Citorën CX models that are in this country.

What you have to remember, is that as that rotor gets thinner and it’s mass is less, it does not have the same capacity to shed off heat that is built up during braking. It therefore warps easier, and things just get worse from there.

Turning or resurfacing the the rotor usually has very short term benefits, especially if the rotor is fairly close to it’s specs recommended by the manufacturer. Plus, a lot of mechanics feel that the metal has a bit of a memory, and it is only a matter of time after resurfacing and the rotor will be back to it’s old ways.

I know it is an additional expense to replace the rotors when you replace the pads, but if you really want to enjoy the high power braking that these systems demonstrate, then reach into your pocket and grab the change for an extra set of rotors when you replace your brake pads

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Yep, this is a rant.

Ever have a classic Citroen that you are working on and go into a modern day auto parts store looking for a set of spark plugs for it?

Here is how it goes, you walk in and let’s say for example you have been working on a 1972 Citroen SM and you want a set of Champion 415 spark plugs? You go to the counter and there sits a 19 year old. His hands are poised over the key pad of the store computer. You ask him: “Do you sell Champion Spark Plugs”? He answers: “Yes we do”

You now ask:” Great, would you have 6, Champion 415 in stock”? To this the store clerk answers: “What kind of car is that for”? To this you answer” What difference does it make I gave you the part number” Now the clerk gets a very strange look on his face and tells you that unless he knows the make and model of the car he will not be able to look it up.

Now here is where it really gets funny in this particular case. You finally tell the clerk that the spark plug that you have given him the part number for is used on a 1972 Citroen SM. He next asks : “How do you spell that”? With your blood pressure slowly rising you spell out C-I-T-R-O-E-N. He then asks: “who makes that, Pontiac, or Oldsmobile”?

At this point you hold your tongue and politely explain that, that is the name of the car company, and would you please just look up and see if you have any Champion 415 plugs in stock? To this he answers that he has never heard of that car and unless he can find a listing for it on his computer he can’t find the plugs for me.

Remember if you can, back in the old days when you went into an auto parts store and 4 guys sat behind the counter on bar stools and each had a set of parts catalogs clamped into a 7 foot long binder in front of him. If you knew the part number for the part you needed he might take a quick glance at a catalog and then get off his stool walk back to the shelves in the back of the store and emerge with your part. It was pretty easy stuff, with very little anxiety.

Now, I was thinking that I need a bottle of Armour-all. No particular one of my cars in mind to use it on. Think it would be safe to say I could get it at my local auto parts store without too many questions?

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Question

I have problem with my Citroen CX 25 turbo 2 rear brakes. Front work perfect, but rear not! I changed 3 brake valves and same result. All spheres have proper pressure, so I have no idea how find solution.

Citroen Tech Tip

One thing that we have noticed lately here at Citroen Tech Tips is that quite a few people having trouble with bleeding down the rear brakes in most any of the Citroëns with Hydraulic suspension.

What has to be realized is that the rear brakes don’t come into use on these cars unless there is a good bit of weight in the rear because of the brake proportioning system.  This system puts most of the braking force to the front wheels because most all of the weight of these cars is biased toward the front of the car. Plus these cars for the most part have their rear brakes fed by the rear suspension.

The typical situation we hear about. is a person has done some brake work on the car and the system was opened up, or they had a brake accumulator that ruptured or leaked nitrogen into the system. They work on the system and then take the Citroën out for a ride and notice that the rear of the car dives down every time they apply the brakes. An attempt is made to bleed the brakes but no fluid comes out of the rear brake bleed screws.

How to properly bleed down the rear brakes on a Citroën with hydraulic suspension.

First safely put the Citroen up onto jack stands, or on a lift. With the engine running put the Citroën in the highest suspension position. With an assistant applying the brakes in the car bleed the front brakes.

Now come to the back of the car and bleed the rear brakes. It is very important to have a Citroën with hydraulic suspension in it’s high position when bleeding the brakes or you will not get the rear ones to bleed down. This  means even when you have it elevated and the wheels are hanging, because when the wheels are hanging the rear brakes are completely shut of hydraulically unless the suspension is in the highest position.

Good luck and be safe when doing this procedure. Hope this Citroen Tech Tip helps.

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Question

My car is an 1987 Citroën CX that has an intermittent stall when the engine is hot. It starts straight away from the ignition switch. It doesn’t happen all the time.

Citroen Tech Tip:

The most likely cause is a bad ignition pick up sensor on the flywheel. We recommend everyone carry a spare with them. Because this is a very frequent problem an owner should always carry a spare.

One other area you should check on with a car like this with electronic fuel injection is the condition of the air intake manifold, hoses, and connections.

An air leak in this area can cause all sorts of drive-ability issues, as the ECU tries to adjust and readjust the fuel mixture to compensate.

Hope that this Citroen Tech Tip helps you,

Denis

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Question

How do I remove the exterior rear door handle on a 1972 Citroën D-Series?

Citroen Tech Tip

Got this question in recently and thought we would answer it here on Citroen Tech Tips since it is not the first time the question has come to our attention.

I am at a loss as to how to access the outside rear door lift handle assembly for removal. While attempting to press out a small dent surrounding the outside door lift- handle using a lever through the window glass slot I dislodged one of the “bobby pin” shaped flat springs from the backside of the handle. So I not only need to replace that, I also still need to remove the handle to finish the dent removal. Any information will be sincerely appreciated.

To take a 1972 or later Citroën D-series door handle off you will need a combination 8mm wrench, a small punch, a door panel remover, or putty knife, a flashlight and a mirror.

We have included some pages from the parts book to more easily describe things. Have the window in the full up position for this procedure.

8-983/7 shows the Citroën door panel that you need to remove, but first you want to look at plate:#7-961/1. This shows the window crank #5 that needs to be removed first. What you will want to do is push in on the door panel around the window crank to compress the spring #13 around it’s base. When you compress the spring this will expose the shank of the window crank.You may have to turn the crank slightly to see the cross drilled hole in the
crank that has a pin in it. Here you may get lucky and have the pin drop out when you compress the handle, but if not you will need to use the small punch or even a finishing nail to push it through.

Once the crank is removed you can then look at plate #8-983/7 to see how the #8 clips are arranged that need to be carefully popped out with the panel remover or putty knife placed under the panel and carefully pry. Be careful not to tear the Masonite panel that the clips are mounted in.

Carefully work your way around the edge of the panel and remove it.Under the panel you will see what we
Ike to call: “windows” that are through the back side of the door. These are closed off by pieces of plastic, unless someone else has been in there before you and failed to put them back. Here you will want to remove several of these plastic closing pieces close to the back end of the door where the exterior door handle is located.

Now, looking into the door with the window rolled up, you should be able to see the door latching and lock mechanism. You may have to use a flashlight and even a mirror of some kind to see the back side of where the exterior door handle is mounted.

Referring to plate #7-861 you should see a backing plate #12. This plate has two 5mm bolts with 8mm heads that hold it to the back side of the exterior door handle. You will also see in plate #7-861, a pinch bolt #13
that holds linkage #11 in place. Be sure to get a marking pen or some type of marking device to mark the location of this linkage where it goes into the latch mechanism so that when you slide it back into the latch mechanism it is in the same position as when it was removed. If this is not done the adjustment of the door to open from the inside and lock will not be correct.

Once you have marked the linkage position loosen up the 8mm headed pinch bolt so the linkage is loose.

Now move to the two 8mm headed bolts that hold the backing plate #12 to the back side of the external door handle. Remove these bolts and the door handle should be able to be removed from the outside of the door.

Putting it back in should be the reverse. Make sure to check the latching and locking of the door before you close things up. Another thing to remember is to reinstall the plastic on those door “windows” we described before. Here an all purpose contact cement can be used. These pieces of plastic are vital to sealing the door off from water getting to and warping the Masonite door panel backing.

As far as the “Bobby Pin” clip that you spoke of, we are not exactly certain what you were referring to. With the backside of the door opened, if it fell down into the bottom of the door you should be able to find it and figure out where it went in the mechanism.

Something we forgot to mention is… you might want to keep a few bandages around for those cuts you’ll be getting from some of the sharp edges inside the door. They are treacherous.

Good luck with removing your Citroën-D series exterior door handle. We hope this Citroen Tech Tip has helped. Please leave a comment below if you have any suggestions.

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The Citroën CX introduced in 1974 was the the replacement for the Citroën D Series. It was the last car that was designed by Citroën before Peugeot took them over. A wonderful riding and quite car, the CX was made through 1989 and was then replaced by the Citroën XM.

Over the years working on the Citroën CX  one thing we found that needed attention was the rear suspension trailing arm bearings.Where the D Series car was equipped with very large tapered roller bearings for this function, the CX had light weight, (by comparison) needle bearings.

What would happen over time is these bearings would start to wear and begin to freeze up. This would cause the rear axle not to move up and down freely, and in extreme cases the axle would start to dislocate and cause the alignment to change with extreme tire wear being the result.

That amounted to quite a problem. You see these axles when they are worn in this manner can be very hard to remove and replace the worn out bearing. So what we started to do when a Citroën CX would come into the shop that had rear axle bearings still in good shape was a bit of preventative maintenance in the form of greasing the bearings.

Now to you died-in-the-wool Citroën CX people out there this might sound a bit extreme, but it sure worked for us. This was to locate a spot that was accessible on the bottom of the axle housing where the bearing is housed. (see arrow on parts drawing) Here we would drill and tap a hole into the hollow portion of the housing to accommodate a grease fitting. (As a side note when doing something like this you want to apply some grease to both the drill bit and the tap so that the chips and the filings you make will stick to the grease and not go into the housing).

Once this is done and the grease fitting is threaded in you can apply some grease into your Citroën CX axle bearing housing with your grease gun. You will find that the housing will take a fair amount of grease to fill it up, but use your better judgment and do not pump too much grease into the bearing housing and blow out or damage the bearings .You will know when you start to get a bit of resistance to the grease gun.  After this a pump or two at each service should keep the bearing in good shape.

Another option is to try and get higher up on the housing and then get some gear oil into the housing. You will want to have a plug to plug up the hole after you do this. Either way will get some lubrication into the bearings and that is what you want to do.

Good luck and always remember to wear some eye protection when you are drilling into this material. The use of a variable speed drill will also give you much better control of what you are doing with this project. Stay safe.

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