Hi, My name's Phil Chidlow and I've been around a bit in car group and club circles, mostly it has to be said Cirtroëns... (Obviously I make no apologies - it could be worse 
). At the beginning of 2014 I finally bought my first 75. I say finally, it's because when my dad was alive the year before we'd been out and were jointly admiring an MGZTT in the carpark. Now admittedly it was a V8, but essentially I decided I needed a tourer in my life. I have always had a soft spot for the BRG/sandy leather interior combo in most things (if only my Citroen XM had had that interior) and a - what seemed cheap to me - 2003 75 Tourer CDTi auto Connoisseur in that lovely green and a luxurious looking sandstone leather interior popped up on ebay one cold evening in January and I pressed the button. Now, if I had known then, what I know now (and this goes I guess for many things in life!) I wouldn't have done it... But, I was now going to have to make the best of it.
Don't get me wrong, the car was on the surface a corker with very little wrong with it cosmetically except for a couple of small dents on the front edge of the bonnet and a scrape on a rear corner, and the interior was good. But - to put no finer point on it - the sellers (it was a family car) were economical with the truth and contrary to what they insisted was the case (oh, can't find the service history - it'll turn up though) it hadn't been loved and cared for regardless of cost.
I have bought and sold many, many cars over the years on ebay and generally found it OK. Same here, I thought. But to cut a long story short, the car - for all its faults - grew on me and only once stranded me when a front spring snapped ('they all do that sir').
So what have I done/had done to bring the car up to scratch? Quite a lot is the answer but 90% of it seems to be the stuff that always tends to need attention on these cars. From fan housing, fan motor, resistor, condenser, air con regass, intercooler clean and loadsa o-rings, Bosch MAF (Mass Air Flow Sensor), PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation Valve), plenum drain hole clearing, thermostat, filters and so on to parking sensors and airbag warning lights and the bonnet release, to replacing all springs, a smattering of bulbs, bushes, links and brakes, and exhaust back box - oh, and a rear tailgate switch... and probably more that I've forgotten. There was more: a new set of tyres on its 16" Unions and a re-map and EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve) bypass... followed recently by a hydrogen manifold/engine clean (which means it doesn't chuff out half as much soot as it did after the EGR was bypassed)....
It's now expected to do 1500 miles in a week in France. If it lets me down I think I will be both unlucky and frustrated but hopefully, I think it's OK. It certainly seems to be happy. (Although I will just have a quick check of the engine mounts
)...
One think - and an unusual byproduct of it's transformed performance maybe: pulling away stupidly quick at a roundabout once the low oil pressure light came on and the engine lost power and stalled. Started up again fine and off I went - if a little red-faced! Did it once more but since then I learned to not floor it when pulling out of tricky junctions.
Anyway I'll post some pics (it's just had a new windscreen so I haven't washed it for a couple of weeks but this weekend it'll get some TLC) when I can.
). At the beginning of 2014 I finally bought my first 75. I say finally, it's because when my dad was alive the year before we'd been out and were jointly admiring an MGZTT in the carpark. Now admittedly it was a V8, but essentially I decided I needed a tourer in my life. I have always had a soft spot for the BRG/sandy leather interior combo in most things (if only my Citroen XM had had that interior) and a - what seemed cheap to me - 2003 75 Tourer CDTi auto Connoisseur in that lovely green and a luxurious looking sandstone leather interior popped up on ebay one cold evening in January and I pressed the button. Now, if I had known then, what I know now (and this goes I guess for many things in life!) I wouldn't have done it... But, I was now going to have to make the best of it.Don't get me wrong, the car was on the surface a corker with very little wrong with it cosmetically except for a couple of small dents on the front edge of the bonnet and a scrape on a rear corner, and the interior was good. But - to put no finer point on it - the sellers (it was a family car) were economical with the truth and contrary to what they insisted was the case (oh, can't find the service history - it'll turn up though) it hadn't been loved and cared for regardless of cost.
I have bought and sold many, many cars over the years on ebay and generally found it OK. Same here, I thought. But to cut a long story short, the car - for all its faults - grew on me and only once stranded me when a front spring snapped ('they all do that sir').
So what have I done/had done to bring the car up to scratch? Quite a lot is the answer but 90% of it seems to be the stuff that always tends to need attention on these cars. From fan housing, fan motor, resistor, condenser, air con regass, intercooler clean and loadsa o-rings, Bosch MAF (Mass Air Flow Sensor), PCV (Positive Crankcase Ventilation Valve), plenum drain hole clearing, thermostat, filters and so on to parking sensors and airbag warning lights and the bonnet release, to replacing all springs, a smattering of bulbs, bushes, links and brakes, and exhaust back box - oh, and a rear tailgate switch... and probably more that I've forgotten. There was more: a new set of tyres on its 16" Unions and a re-map and EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation Valve) bypass... followed recently by a hydrogen manifold/engine clean (which means it doesn't chuff out half as much soot as it did after the EGR was bypassed)....
It's now expected to do 1500 miles in a week in France. If it lets me down I think I will be both unlucky and frustrated but hopefully, I think it's OK. It certainly seems to be happy. (Although I will just have a quick check of the engine mounts
)...One think - and an unusual byproduct of it's transformed performance maybe: pulling away stupidly quick at a roundabout once the low oil pressure light came on and the engine lost power and stalled. Started up again fine and off I went - if a little red-faced! Did it once more but since then I learned to not floor it when pulling out of tricky junctions.
Anyway I'll post some pics (it's just had a new windscreen so I haven't washed it for a couple of weeks but this weekend it'll get some TLC) when I can.
