The Mercedes Club organized a late spring evening ‘topless’ drive up the Old Pacific Highway to the Central coast. I had forgotten what a nice drive the Old Pacific Highway is, certainly nicer than the F3/M1. I took the 250SE, and it was the oldest car there, the best representation being from the R107, in particular the 380. I also discovered...
I recently attended a JDCA drive to Bulli organized by the Grand Tourers Register (i.e. XJS, New XK). The drive started in Southern Sydney and took the grand pacific drive through the royal national park. Unfortunately the event organizers Jag (a lovely XJS convertible) developed an issue and had to pull out of the event, but overall it was a very nice...
There is a blog I look at from time to time called “Aussie old parked cars” where the author takes pictures of interesting cars he/she sees in daily use around Sydney. In particular, most of the photos are around North Sydney and Neutral bay, an area I am quite familiar with. One entry that stuck out to me was a W108 300SE, a...
When I got it, the DS had threadbare blue carpets. The previous owner also had a blue DS, so I suspect at some point he upgraded the carpets in that car and the blue ones were in better condition than the carpets in the red car. In addition it had marine carpet on the box sills which for a DS Comfort should...
Today was one of the regular tech days organised by the Citroen Club. I always enjoy the tech days, even if I am not doing much to my car – you can see the other cars, talk to the other members and sometimes learn how to do things by watching what other people do. One of the tricks I learned today was simple...
Previously, I had removed all my suspension spheres to check their pressure. Their pressure was checked at the Citroen Club tech day, and found to be acceptable. Given I had the system de-pressurized, I also wanted to change the DS accumulator sphere. The accumulator acts as a store of system pressure. This means that the pump does not...
Central to the Citroen DS hydraulic system is a set of ‘spheres’ that hold hydraulic pressure. The spheres have an internal diaphragm so they can contain gas on one side and hydraulic fluid on the other. One is used for each wheel to provide the suspension, as the gas forms the ‘spring’ and the amount of fluid in the sphere controls the ride...
The 280CE came over to the garage to continue the items on the major service, namely: New Spark plugs Transmission fluid and filter Rear end fluid change Brake fluid flush We used NGK spark plugs as they offer non-resistor plugs that are easy to find. The original spec for these cars called for non-resistor spark plugs, which are much harder to find now....
I have tried a few times to get the rear trim that sits between the C pillars to not fall down on to the parcel shelf. My first attempt was to use the correct clips, however the trim would fall down over bumps. My second attempt, was a 3M product, which is sort of like Velcro and sold in little squares at...
after checking all the connections, the Retrosound Model 1 is now back in the E-Type and I also replaced the cigarette lighter while I was at it. The cigarette lighter had rusted internally and was no longer working – and on longer drives the battery in the GPS was not cutting it. Replacing the cigarette lighter was fairly easy, although the replacement...
I attended the Mercedes Club Concours this year. It was a lovely day, 18c and a great turn out of cars. Also got to talk to some interesting people and hear about their cars. Unlike the last time I went in 2012, the older cars are starting to come back, they seemed to stay away for a few years, for one reason or another....
The Retrosound Model One I have in my Jaguar had stopped working – symptoms were that the display was lit up in every possible place (i.e. like a digital watch showing 88:88). This had happened before, and the cause turned out to be one of the 12v lines was not connected. The Model 1 uses two 12v and a ground – one...
It was time again for another service for the DS. Last time, the gear oil in the transmission was quite dirty so even though it didn’t need to be done again, I thought it would make sense to change the oil in there too. I also had a tip from the forum that using Castrol VMX with the Nulon gearbox additive makes...
The brakes on the E-Type have been somewhat problematic since I got it. When the brakes got hot, they would not always release fully. Over the last 4 years I have tried a number of things to fix the problem but it has always come back to some extent. When I still had the car in the USA, it was worse,...
The 280CE had been performing well on the road after being put back into service, but the most obvious issue was that it never got up to operating temperature. Running too cool is not good for the engine and also results in higher fuel consumption. As they say, overheating an engine might kill it instantly, but underheating it will kill it slowly....
The DS door contact switch that controls the interior lights based on the doors being open or shut had disintegrated, which meant that the interior lights were always on. Not the most helpful feature if you want to be able to restart the car after leaving it parked. The actual switches are easy to remove and install, but the problem is that since...
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