The Triumph Dolomite Club - Discussion Forum

I've been offered a Citroen Xsara Picasso for £60. The previous owner (I'll call him Calum) bought it after his wife (Emma) ruined their 12-plate Seat Ibiza by driving it through a puddle and getting the elctrics wet (£4K worth of damage). Emma didn't get on with the Picasso (she thought it was big compared to the Seat) so they bought a Megane and lent the Picasso to a neighbour who subsequently suffered a breakdown. I've had confilcting information on what was wrong. Emma & Calum were going to scrap the car and when I asked about the car they offered it to me for what they would get for scrap. The car is quite straight and doesn't appear to have any rust. I got hold of the key last night and the engine starts but has some ticking from the top end at idle so it would benefit from an oil change. The clutch pedal feels fine (it is hydraulic), there are no nasty noises, I can get it into gear without any problems by the car barely moves once you let the clutch out (I tried it in 1st and reverse). This points to a slipping clutch so my plan is to pull the gearbox off and check the condition of the clutch before I start putting any money into it. If I go ahead and order a replacement clutch, I want to have the old one to compare to avoid getting the wrong one. The car has MoT until October and if I can get it drivable again, I should be able to sell it on for a profit. I wasn't after another car but somebody asked me if I wanted to go halves on a project and this looked to be ideal but he's pulled out on me so I'm going to go it alone. I've got a couple of photos so I'll put them up once I've got them out of my phone.

I don't know which way this will go so prepare for me to be eating my words!

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Toledo Man

West Yorkshire Area Organiser & forum moderator
Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8.00pm at The Old Brickworks, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford, BD11 1EA

1972 Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L - Now for sale)
2003 Volvo XC90 D5 SE (PX53 OVZ - The daily driver)
2009 Mercedes-Benz W204 C200 CDI Sport (BJ58 NCV - The 2nd car)
1991 Toyota Celica GT (J481 ONB - another project car)
Former stable of SAY 414M (1974 Toledo), GRH 244D (1966 1300fwd), CDB 324L (1973 1500fwd), GGN 573J (1971 1500fwd), DCP 625S (1977 Dolomite 1300) & LCG 367N (1975 Dolomite Sprint) plus 5 Acclaims and that's just the Triumphs!

Check my blog at http://triumphtoledo.blogspot.com
My YouTube Channel with a bit of Dolomite content.

"There is only one way to avoid criticsm: Do nothing, say nothing and BE nothing." Aristotle

I was under the bonnet of my my neighbour's Citroen Picasso too last weekend, it also sounds tapperty at idle but the engine runs well,

they were investigating a terrible noise which appeared a few minutes after the air con was turned on. I traced it to the electric fan, the bearings in the motor had gone, easy to change and cost £50.

I also have experience of changing the micro switch in the tail gate.

good luck with the gearbox, sounds like a good project for £60.

Malcolm

An old French car for less than £100, what could possibly go wrong?

Seriously, save your time and money and spend it on your Dolomite.

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Mark

1961 Chevrolet Corvair Greenbrier Sportswagon
1980 Dolomite Sprint project using brand new shell
2009 Mazda MX5 2.0 Sport
2018 Infiniti Q30

£60, not a major gamble, I would say see what you can do without too many spares,
if the project is going to cost you more than your sell price (if working) strip down
and sell on Ebay, and then the rest for scrap metal.

Don't forget to declare off road and put in the garage, otherwise you will have road tax as
well to pay, and remember car insurance.

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NRW 581W Sprint


On the motorway no one can hear me sing!
Construed as a public service, self preservation in reality.

Ferrous scrap is up to £70/tonne this week, so if you are only paying them £60, you can always get your initial investment back.

Not much to lose in my opinion, but then I did buy that shed of a 1500 last week!

Do it. Pull the box out and look at the clutch. If its on the rivets get one and fit it. Cheap and cheerfulls are often the best car to own.

Tony

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Membership 2014047

Firstly, is it petrol or diesel? Petrol ones have very little value but take the back seats out and you have a cheap and useful parts hauler.
The clutch is not too awful a job on these and the box is not massively heavy but be prepared for the release bearing to have broken up and taken the clutch fork and the bearing carrier with it. This is endemic on Citroens and Pugs with this box, my factors do a kit to replace these bits for about half the Citroen price and offer it every time I order a clutch for one. The last one I did (a 307SW diesel) a couple of weeks ago the clutch was £58 +vat and the sleeve and fork kit £22 + vat
One word of advice, go the extra mile and remove the O/S driveshaft from its carrier bearing, don't leave it in and then try and align 2 shafts at once, it just isn't possible - trust me I know! You have to slacken, almost to removal, 2x11mm nuts on the inside of the carrier then push through and twist the bolts 180 degrees and drift the bearing free towards the O/S (after splitting the lower b/j of course) Don't forget to drain the oil first!

Steve

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'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

It is too good to scrap but I know I'll get my money back should I decide to weigh it in and at that price it is worth a punt. Calum & Emma are family (Emma is one of my good lady's daughters) and one of Emma's brothers said that the car drove great prior to the clutch failure.


Tony, the first thing I will do is pull the gearbox off before I put any more money into it. It isn't intended to be a keeper. I just want to save it and make a few quid along the way. It has the 1.8 which is the best of the petrol engines. The 1.6 is a bit underpowered when fully loaded and the 2.0 is thirsty. The plan is to service it, smarten it up and to fix every single minor niggle to get the best possible price. This will depend on what I find once I remove the gearbox.

Steve what you've advised me has proved that removing the gearbox before committing to any further expenditure is indeed the right move. Thanks for the tip about the OS drive shaft. It goes without saying that if I replace the clutch, I'll be changing the release bearing as well. I'm no stranger to transverse boxes. I've changed the clutch in 3 of my Acclaims and the Picasso isn't much different.

_________________
Toledo Man

West Yorkshire Area Organiser & forum moderator
Meetings take place on the first Wednesday of the month at 8.00pm at The Old Brickworks, Wakefield Road, Drighlington, Bradford, BD11 1EA

1972 Dolomite 1850 auto (NYE 751L - Now for sale)
2003 Volvo XC90 D5 SE (PX53 OVZ - The daily driver)
2009 Mercedes-Benz W204 C200 CDI Sport (BJ58 NCV - The 2nd car)
1991 Toyota Celica GT (J481 ONB - another project car)
Former stable of SAY 414M (1974 Toledo), GRH 244D (1966 1300fwd), CDB 324L (1973 1500fwd), GGN 573J (1971 1500fwd), DCP 625S (1977 Dolomite 1300) & LCG 367N (1975 Dolomite Sprint) plus 5 Acclaims and that's just the Triumphs!

Check my blog at http://triumphtoledo.blogspot.com
My YouTube Channel with a bit of Dolomite content.

"There is only one way to avoid criticsm: Do nothing, say nothing and BE nothing." Aristotle

Looks in better shape than expected, I am sure you'll
have it sorted in no time.

_________________
NRW 581W Sprint


On the motorway no one can hear me sing!
Construed as a public service, self preservation in reality.

You thought it had more Picasso

Jeroen

_________________
Classic Kabelboom Company. For all your wiring needs. http://www.classickabelboomcompany.com

Yep

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NRW 581W Sprint


On the motorway no one can hear me sing!
Construed as a public service, self preservation in reality.

How is the Dutch have such excellent humour, whilst being so close to Germany?

Alun thank you i think. A specific kind of humor is only used in my small region. There are many Dutch that don't fully understand what we say. I think the reason for that is that our part of The Netherlands is a bulge into Germany.

Jeroen

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Classic Kabelboom Company. For all your wiring needs. http://www.classickabelboomcompany.com

The bearing comes as part of the clutch kit, there not being a concentric slave cyl. but check carefully the condition of the bearing guide tube and the clutch fork. It is encouraging that the clutch is quiet though, total bearing failure is usually accompanied by horrid noises and vibration in the pedal.
My son in law recently bought a 55 plate silver 1.8 petrol Picasso with a long test for £700. It does have a bit of shake in the clutch pedal which presages bearing failure but is otherwise fine. So I doubt you will get rich off this 02 model but you should turn a small profit. I agree about the engine choice, I have (or the wife does) a 56 2.0 petrol VTR model, not what I would have chosen personally (the car or the engine) but she insisted on a Picasso and this is the only model that comes with automatic trans which is all she is licenced for. Ours is very high spec and goes very well but the trip computer says the average fuel consumption is 27.2 mpg, not helped by the fact that it either does very short trips or long, high speed motorway blasts and nothing in between. Between us, we are also making the "adaptive" transmission schitzophrenic!

Steve

_________________
'73 2 door Toledo with Vauxhall Carlton 2.0 8v engine (The Carledo)
'78 Sprint Auto with Vauxhall Omega 2.2 16v engine (The Dolomega)
'72 Triumph 1500FWD in Slate Grey, Now with RWD and Carledo powertrain!

Maverick Triumph, Servicing, Repairs, Electrical, Recomissioning, MOT prep, Trackerjack brake fitting service.
Apprentice served Triumph Specialist for 50 years. PM for more info or quotes.

So a sixty quid car and a 100 quid for bits and you have a car worth at best a monkey and a hard sell too...

Your time must be cheap and I could think of much better ways to spend it...but good luck all the same.

I'd have already nicked the battery and bulbs, swapped any decent tyres and see if the stereo comes out and weighed it in....

Jonners

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Note from Admin: sadly Jon passed away in February 2018 but his humour and wealth of knowledge will be fondly remembered by all. RIP Jonners.