Citroen ZX Petrol/Diesel Binnacles | Technical matters | Back Room Forum

Tue 27 Aug 2002 13:05

Citroen ZX Petrol/Diesel Binnacles - Rusty

My K plate 1.9 Turbo D Citroen ZX has a duff speedo, but I've got hold of a complete binnacle assembly from another car. It has an extra oil pressure gauge and the rev counter red lines higher so I reckon it's from a Petrol but the speedo is calibrated to 150mph so I reckon at least that part of it is right. It's quite a pain of a job getting to the binnacle as the steering wheel and a sizeable chunk of the dash has to come out just to get to the speedo cable. Does anyone know if things like the connections will fit and a petrol rev counter work on a diesel if I just try a straight swap, or shall I just transplant the speedo head alone into my old binnacle?

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Tue 27 Aug 2002 20:28

Citroen ZX Petrol/Diesel Binnacles - Rusty

OK - I've now attempted it and take the general indifference and lack of replies to my original posting as an implied "You're thick mate" and with good cause - having tried it I realised what I should have known all along if I'd only thought about it, petrol tacho will never work as on a diesel it runs off the alternator and not the ECU. It's a real pain in the a$$e job just to realise that you're as daft as a brush, live and learn I suppose. However, I now have another question. The speedo head on the alternative binnacle I had was the same unit so I connected it to try it and experienced exactly the same problem - at low speeds the needle was everywhere. I tried driving around with no binnacle whatsoever and found that I could even see how irregularly the end of the cable was turning. So the problem lies either in the cable or in the gearbox itself where the cable drive comes from. Does anyone know if this is a known ZX problem, where does it lie and how do i go about sorting it?

Cheers all,

Russ

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Wed 28 Aug 2002 08:00

Citroen ZX Petrol/Diesel Binnacles - Ian Cook

Rusty

Sorry I can't help, even though I've owned two ZX diesels. If you don't get any response from this forum then try:
www.andyspares.com and check into their Citroen forum. Jon Wood (their moderator) is quite knowledgeable on Citroens.

Ian Cook

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Wed 28 Aug 2002 08:17

Citroen ZX Petrol/Diesel Binnacles - RichardW

Rusty,

Rev counter on a Citroen diesel actually operates off a crank senser on the flywheel, but never mind - petrol and diesel are not interchangeable (unless you're good with electronics!).

As to the jumpy needle - it'll be the cable almost certainly. You could try squirting some WD-40 down the top end of it, and there may be a mid joint inside the engine compartment somewhere, which you can split, and apply more lubricant. I would suspect however, that you need to replace the cable - which can be a 'mare (don't know about ZX's - depends on the routing).

Richard

(My BX's speedo is so wobbly it overreads by about 15MPH at m-way speed, so I just use the rev counter instead...!)

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Wed 28 Aug 2002 17:50

Citroen ZX Petrol/Diesel Binnacles - Rusty

Cheers guys. I'll just have to eliminate options step by step. I'll change the cable next. The tricky part is getting to the back of the binnacle, but I've done that now so I know how to go about it. I know a jumpy needle seems a petty thing to bother with but it annoys me, it's a pristine example and the first car I've ever owned without any irritating niggly things wrong with it (had dirty Fords before) and so i might as well sort it out!

Thanks,

Russ

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Sun 20 Oct 2002 04:08

Citroen ZX Petrol/Diesel Binnacles - louis

Hi would you have any idea why my 1.9td zx has a rev counter that cant stay still, at certain speeds it wobbles more than others but it always wobbles.

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