barcelona

Went round a mini roundabout today and there was a nasty scraping sound. Sounded like the mud flaps scraping on the floor. I've got mud flaps on the front, but there was no way it was the mud flaps - they must be a foot from the ground. The car was fairly full, but I've certainly had it fuller before. Went over a couple of speed bumps and heard nothing. It's just going round sharp corners. Any ideas?

I've got the Haynes manual that includes the hdi engine, but the radio in my hdi is different to the one described in the Haynes manual. The book shows two screws that need to be removed to allow the radio to slide out. On my hdi, these screws do not exist. There are no visible screws, because there is a black facia in the way whose arms join the radio where the scres should be. I don't want to force anything in case I break it. How do I remove the radio in an Hdi?

I've covered a 1000 miles or so on a couple of occasions and worked out that my 2000 Xantia Estate Hdi Forte 90bhp diesel is only doing about 40mpg. I only really use it to go up and down the motorway. It's moderately full when I do use it - stuff for a family's few days away. I drive fairly conservatively (young baby in the back). I average about 90mph on the motorway. I'm really surprised what a low return I'm getting. The book says 40 urban, and 60 motorway, averaging out at 49. Is someone stealing diesel when I'm not looking? Has anyone else accurately worked it out? What sort of return are you getting? Are the official figures carried out under unrealistic conditions? Should I just shut up, get a life and forget it?

Oh dear, the waterproof silicone didn't work!!! What should I use to get the job done properly? As my old man is always fond of saying, "If a job's worth doing....."

Fixed it! The rear door now works from the central locking. The lock button was a bit of a bugger to sort out though...

The window winder just pulls off - easy when you know how... Managed to get to the wires via the rubber hosing/conduit that goes from the actual car and then into the rear door. Got to the hosing/conduit by removing the bottom part of the seat belt mechanism at the bottom of the door. There were two sets of wires that had come apart. Almost as if they had been cut. Must be from years of wear and tear from opening and closing the rear door. Will try and fix it the same way I fixed a boot locking/unlocking problem recently. I will use a couple of splice type things bought from Maplins, in order to rejoin the wires.

Can't quite get the trim off. Basically the window winder handle is preventing it coming off. Obviously I need to take the winder off but I don't want to bust it. How do I get it off? There appears to be a cover over the spindle bit, but I can't seem to get it off. Managed to have a feel of the wires behind the trim. Everything seems to be ok unfortunately. Will try and see if there's a current going to the locking mechanism once I get the flaming trim off.

As an addendum to the above the lights in the boot area that are supposed to come on when you open the boot weren't working a few day ago. As it's a new car to me I was going to change the bulbs in the first instance to see if that was the problem. Actually I would have checked there was power getting to them first with a meter reader. It occurred to me that when I was fixing the boot locking problem that there were one or two wires that were also a bit chewed up and exposed. I went back and taped them all up and hey presto, the boot lights started working whenever I opened the boot. Excellent! Only three small electrical problems to go now: 1 Driver side rear door can't be operated by central locking 2 Driver side internal light doesn't work (could be bulb?) 3 The backlight for the time/temperature display takes about half an hour to work.

On that note, I've just waterproof siliconed the whole thing. Ain't nothing getting through it now. Cheers.

I took off the trim on the front door of a Xantia a few years ago and remember what a pain the lock was to get back in place. I think I'll give it a go this weekend. Any idea if the rubber hose/conduit stuff joining the car to the car door is easy to get access to?

Xantia Estate Forte Hdi W reg This model does not have electric rear windows. I can't lock or unlock the driver side rear door locking mechanism from the central locking - both with the key and with the plip. I can manually open it by simply flicking the lock up or down on the rear door itself. I have previously had a problem with my tailgate not unlocking. This was the result of wires that had come apart that has been resolved. The wires that came apart were situated in the rubber conduit that joins the tailgate to the body of the car. I can see that the previous owner replaced the rear door button about a year ago and that did not resolve the problem. There is a 4 inch rubber conduit that connects the rear car door to the car. Obviously there are a bunch of wires in there that I want to have a look at. It looks a bit tough to open. Can the conduit be easily prized apart? To get the door trim off it looks like there are 2 screws embedded in the arm rest. Is it as simple as that? Are there any common places for the central locking to fail?

Wahey fixed it. The snap lock connector things were a bit big so I used some splice type things. Basically joining the wires together through a metal connector which you then tighten with a pair of pliars. The whole thing has a small plastic casing. Boot works a treat now. Have also glued the plastic membrane down. I probably shouldn't have, but I used "no nails" cos that's all I had to hand. I'm gonna put some silicone round it for good measure this afternoon. Thanks for the advice Colin.

I don't have access to a heat source/hot air gun. I had a little root around the internet and came up with these. http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?Module...O&U=strat15 They're called snap-lock automative cable connectors. I've got no idea how big they are but at £2 for ten I think they're worth a try. It's important they're not too big cos there's not much room to play with and have to fit in the rubber conduit stuff whilst constantly being pulled at when the tailgate is opened and closed. At a push I could always follow the wire back to its ulimate connecting point in the tailgate but that seems a bit fiddly. Definitely prefer the idea of these snap-lock things at the moment. As long as I can get the thing working I can always re-do it if it packs up 6 months down the line...

Took the trim off. Clearly the guy who fitted the new lock mechanism last year hadn't re-glued the plastic membrane. Hence the wet boot. When I get the lock mechanism sorted I'll glue it down with waterproof silicone. Think I'm getting warm with the boot locking mechanism. Some of the lock mechanism wires wend their way into the car from the boot via some rubber conduit stuff about 4 inches long. You can see the rubber conduit when you open the boot. There's one tube on the right and one of the left. The one on the right (driver side) carries the lock mechanism wires. A lot of these wires have been chaffed/chewed a lot. Probably because the original tape that was protecting all of the wires seems to have worked itself off after years of use. Two sets of wires have completely come apart. I figure all I need to now do is re-attach these 2 wires. It's gonna be a litle bit tricky cos there's not much slack on the wires cos they're obviously all bound together just out of reach. Any suggestions as to how one might re-connect these two sets of wires?

Think I found the link - it was http://pdftown.com/Citroen-Xantia-Service-Manual.html But it doesn't seem to work anymore. You mentioned sending a PM to Dave Walling. Sorry, but what's a PM? Don't think it's too stiff - I can move it fairly easily, but it can do no harm to put some white grease on it. Whenever I use the central locking there's no sign of life if I stick my ear on the boot locking mechanism, which makes me think it's a wiring problem. As previously posted, I'm goona take the trim off and have a good look the wires. And whilst I'm at it, will try and sort out my other problem, which I've got a feeling is not altogether unconnected - a wet boot! I'm probably gonna take off the trim without the manual - how hard can it be? I've read that I'll need a T20 and a T30 Torx star bit.