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Looking at a 96 ZX Aura TD estate tomorrow - anyone had any experiences of these?
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Had two - one without catalyst (120mph indicated, 45mpg, very lively, definite 'turbo' feeling) one with.(105 indicated, 39mpg, definitely 'slow' feeling)
Flimsy feel but great handling, prone to annoying suspension faults (and you thought Citroen hydraulics were bad... now try their 'dry' suspension! - wheel bearings, drop links, front struts, strut top mounts, 'p' bushes (wishbone bushes but more expensive and a swine to fit... better buy new arms) Front discs. All within the 72k I had them... wheel bearings and 'p' bushes last no more than 30k.
Desapite all that, they are cheap to buy (wonder why!) great fun, good handling. Single front wiper is madly irritating. Oh, and the rear subframe 'self-steer' mountings go, creating a clunk under braking that will have you checking the spare wheel carrier, exhaust etc until you remember that these bushes go with unfailing regularity - not a bad job to DIY, but 4 hrs or so dealer labour and 4 bushes at £25 each or thereabouts.
Change coolant every 2 years, or it'll eat its own head gasket and heater matrix (which is the first item installed by Cit - the rest of the car is assembled round the heater matrix! - well, that and the dashboard bulbs, which are a happy days work...:-). Make sure you do the coolant change correctly, bleeding it as per the book, or your car will overheat and destroy its head....
Always run them on Michelins, they're designed together.
Get a good one and it'll do 250,000 miles... but not without a lot of TLC on the peripheral stuff.
Buy your bits at Andyspares (now part of German, Swedish and French) (or GSF, which is an easier search term to explain to your missus!)
Against all the 'interesting' traits... a good one will also cover ground in the real world as fast as almost anything else I've driven... you just don't slow down for corners, they stick like glue despite the self-steer rear subframe initially feeling like a flat tyre!
Have fun!
Neil
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Agree with everything Neil says here, especially the rear subframe mountings. Took ages to work out what they were.
I had bought a P reg Aura TD Estate with delivery milage only - turned out that the dealer (Arnold Clark) had bought a job lot of them direct from Citroen who had registered them then left them in a compound.
Great car, great flexibility for kids, bikes etc, stereo can be replaced very easily (just need to buy a blanking plate as it is a unique fit stereo). Great power, great mpg and they are the only alloys that I know that look more like wheel trims than alloys! However, it does make them easy to clean - no thin spokes to try and remove brake dust from.
Good luck - I actually saw my old one last week on the motorway, 5 years after I had traded it in and it still looked great.
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Thanks all - much appreciated!
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Apologies for completely hijacking the thread ...
I've had a ZX 19TD SX estate for over four years and until today I had no idea this rear subframe self-steer gubbins existed. Show's what I know !!
A friend described it this morning when I was talking about the car, then I saw this thread just now. Remarkable coincidence.
I tow a long single axle trailer quite often with the car. Is the self-steer system likely to be affecting the stability of the combination? How does it work? Should I be asking this in Technical?
GJD
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Hi... If you don't know you've got them, they're probably okay, because like opportunity, they knock! (Unless of course you've spent 4 years wondering what that knocking noise was!) They're basically metal/rubber/metal sandwiches which mount the rear axle to the body - and allow the cornering forces generated by turning to move the rear axle slightly so as to 'rear steer' and make the car more agile. If the car/trailer combination feels okay, it probably is - however if you wanted to check these bushes, visit 'AndySpares Discussion Forum' site (don't know how to paste links, sorry!) for a full explanation.
The usual clues- the car handles evilly, and/or produces a clonking/knocking noise from the rear, esp. under braking and over rough surfaces. When you take the bushes off, they invariable look and feel okay, yet new ones cure the fault!
Neil
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Thanks for the info Neil. No unexplained knocking noises yet ;-) Google will find the link for me.
GJD
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Aren't there threads in the Back Room archive somewhere about the well-known exploding 1.9 diesel (sometimes puts a rod through without warning at about 50-60k miles) fitted to ZXs and Pug 306s between 97-99? The attempted (and so far unsuccessful) legal action against PSA by French owners is still making headlines in the magazines over here.
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There are, but oopnorth is looking at a 96 model. No reports of this failure pre 97/98 MY.
Car-By-Car Breakdown reports : "Rod through bock failures in 1997 and 1998 XUDTs.
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