The wonky £1K citron Citroën

[GingerMagic]

It's up to the current owner to renew the lease to make the property more attractive - if they are prepared to extend the lease as a gesture of goodwill then I can't see the whole freehold Vs leasehold being an issue.

A 999 year lease will certainly sort you out, and it means of you come to sell in 10 years you still have 989 years left

Do you know who the freehold is?

[rwb]

Looks like it's normal for brick terraces in Oldham to be leasehold. Haven't got any more details yet.

£36 for a local solicitor to copy my passport and driving licence. Would have been cheaper to just go to Oldham in person. But it would be 5 hours.

Clutch and DMF organised for the 407. Spent £650 on AutoDoc (should be getting 10% cashback) for clutch, DMF, bolts, gearbox oil, and rear discs and pads which were an MOT advisory -- I can sometimes feel the uneven application of force in certain situations -- and a brake pedal switch for the C6.

Tried configuring the ride height on the C6 in Diagbox but it failed, so that's just made a bad situation worse. I can't make any sense of the parameter measurements, so it's not clear to me exactly why it's upset. Found some reasonably priced height sensors and brackets so I think I'll just have to throw those at it and see what happens. Fortunately Mechanic is a former Citroën tech and is excellent -- although I think he was glad to see the back of it last time.

I think I've got an LDS puddle at the front driver's side -- although not big enough to account for the ~litre I put in, and IIRC there is a joint underneath the tank that's a common culprit...
Couldn't see a water puddle, though.

Still got a clunk when taking up drive. Initial guess is that it's a bush or joint in the suspension.

[Doggy]

Sounding positive on the property front but there doesn't seem to be an end in sight for the C6's wallet-sapping capability.
Just a thought - won't the move to Oldham put your friendly Citroen tech beyond economic range?
Guessing you're going to get him to do the 407 clutch/dmf?

[Welly]

The Citroen of wonkyness just won't stop fighting you will it? I mean, what does it want from life? being parked up somewhere with a nice view and a cup of warm LHM? this thing needs sending out there for active waftyness You will get there but it must be frustrating sometimes.

I won't pretend to understand about the leasehold thing, is Oldham built over an enormous sink hole or something? if everyone else has the same agreement then there's nothing to be concerned about.

I'm currently waiting for (yet another) set of drop links for the Volvo from that Autodoc, they're being dispatched from that Germany

[rwb]

It turns out that leasehold is a thing around Manchester and Liverpool; it's normal for the area.
Probably too late now to get it done before Chrsitmas, so I'm expecting to be commuting from Telford and staying in the Travelodge

Got very sloshed at the office Christmas party on Friday and was probably a but of a twat. I actually can't remember -- that's not just an excuse. I do remember walking through a field and over a fence from the pub to the hotel I'd booked and I seem to have sustained minor injuries.

Getting worried about whether I'll be up to the new job. Although I really haven't over-sold myself and maybe not being worried would be a sign of arrogance. On the other hand they let slip that they'd had trouble finding CVs in Oldham -- presumably all the kool kidz (which has never been me) want to work in central Manchester, and the recruiter has checked a couple of times whether I really am going to turn up.

The claim on the suspension is that the bracket that the sensor connects to gets bent and needs to be replaced.
They're £7 so I've got some of those and the link rods, and even found a new sensor on eBay for 20% of what Citroen ask for them.
However, I'm not convinced because I can't find anything in live data (Diagbox) that proves to me why the car is upset.

Tried to pry the link rod off (ball joint) but it wasn't having any of it so I've come in to vent on here for a bit.

Really ought to put some front pads on it too. Thought I had a clamp to push the caliper pistons back, but either I can't find it or I don't actually have one.
Might just have to go back to Sean after he's done the 407.

[Doggy]

Don't sweat too much over first impressions at your new job. Bear in mind you have experience form elsewhere, which human nature implies you're automatically more competent than anyone they know already. (It's how consultants get away with it).

Just for the sake of clarity, was this your current/previous company office Xmas party?

Top marks for getting bladdered this early in the festive period.

[Welly]

New job anxiety?

We're all fearful of 'being found out' aren't we?

Folk in some of the highest positions worry over how they got there and if they'll ever be rumbled...

One thing I've witnessed in my 30 year career is that arse holes, knob heads, bitches and cows all get the good jobs, they're not particularly good at said jobs but they think they are, and can make themselves sound like they're the best thing ever......oooh and they're good at getting the people that actually do the work to do their work too.

The workplace is a funny thing, you can spend your whole working life believing you're doing something good and then when you finish it does anyone really care?

[rwb]

It was the party for the current place.

The guy I was having the discussion with (he was calling me an arrogant bastard, and I can see why he thinks that because I don't have much patience with stuff that doesn't work (such as big French cars?)) offered an apology on Monday morning. We're probably just as bad as eachother, so I like him now.

Intended to have a third attempt at this height sensor today but it was raining. And now the front indicator isn't working.
On Sunday I found the DRL bulb melted onto the housing so I smashed that out and checked the indicator and it was working.
The bulbs aren't supposed to be replaceable -- you're supposed to get a £30 unit from Citroen, but AliExpress seems to have some so I've ordered some -- but they're probably crap and won't fit and will last a week or something.

It's a bit depressing thinking about all the projects I have going that will wither and die when I leave.
But I think the game there now is to whack-a-mole on bug fixes and keep one's arse on the seat until it finally goes tits up.
It's like they're sitting in a puddle of their own sh*t and they don't mind because they're used to it.

Got an e-mail from AutoDoc to say the clutch and DMF for the 407 I ordered last Monday have shipped. Shambolic. So now I'm worrying whether that'll get done before Christmas.

And it doesn't look like Oldham house will be sorted before the end of the year so I don't know what I'm going to do. The main problem is the cat! She's used to having someone around all the time; as it is I now get a right bollocking when I've been out all day.

BTW: did you see me on SkyNews?!

[Doggy]

It was the party for the current place.

That's a relief

It's a bit depressing thinking about all the projects I have going that will wither and die when I leave.

Be a bit like when I retired, many said the wheels would fall off but I guess they didn't. Once you turn the page it all becomes irrelevant.
Be proud of your achievements, shrug shoulders, move on.

BTW: did you see me on SkyNews?!

Say, What?

[rwb]

Broken 3 of the 4 clips off the bulb holder so it looks like a new one of those is in order anyway.

Was frosty this morning so didn't dare open the C6 -- pillarless doors like the 406 coupe. Then it started raining and by the time it stopped it was dark so that's my excuse on the height sensor for today.

So I had another look at the bit I can do: Diagbox. I've been concerned that I couldn't find evidence of why it's upset. Anyway, I've now found that the front right sensor is reporting a noticeably different voltage to the other three (about half as much again), so I think that adds weight to the hypothesis that that's the one. I got stuck last time at getting the link arm off; there's a small ball joint at each end. A plastic forked trim pry tool wouldn't shift it and given my propensity for breaking stuff that "just unclips" I gave up before onset of the inevitable. Although I still find it implausible that a new bracket will fix it.

Then there's the problem of reprogramming the heights. You have to measure from the ground to specific locations on the subframe. Citroen have a special tool, but I think it should be possible with two steel tape measures: one to measure the total length (tape plus box) of the other.

The mortgage broker seemed to get a bit of a bee in her bonnet that my solicitor was accusing them of not having provided the proper mortgage offer so she sprang into action today and has chased solicitors, agents, and sellers. Nevertheless, done this year is looking unlikely...

[rwb]

Indicator is holding up.

Have entered some numbers into Diagbox that has stopped the suspension error, so that'll do for now.
I subtracted the sensor values from the standard measurements.
(I didn't fancy rolling around on the floor in the cold and we to actually measure.)

In the mean time 407 went to Mechanic on Wednesday for clutch and DMF and he's still fighting with it. Subframe bolt is spinning so hasn't been able to move the gearbox far. So goodness knows what that's going to come out at now.

[Doggy]

Nice move with the suspension work-around, hopefully that will do the trick for now.

I can only vaguely remember watching the gearbox removal/refitting on the 406 - over 6 years ago - and the 407 may be very different. My guess is he'll have to cut/drill the head off the offending bolt and drop the subframe to get the remains out.
'We' changed the 'box by only undoing one side of the subframe and loosening the other to make (just) enough room to get it out - made the clutch/dmf swap a 5hr job instead of the 11 hours Peugeot stated. Hope you get it sorted soon without huge expense.

[rwb]

New front pads on the Citroen today. Discovered the bleed nipple has been bust off on the driver's side.

Needs rear drop links but can't work out how to lever the weight of them.

[rwb]

I think all this change is too much for me. I'm back to walking round the house looking for him and crying like I was in March.
I think that getting back to work and back into the routine and the silly Citroën was just a way to occupy and distract myself and ignore what happened.

I think I have to call it all off and beg for my old job back.

[steve_earwig]

Mate, I really do feel for you. Christmas is a really crappy time of year for anyone who has lost someone, all you can see everywhere is images of loved ones gathered together, so if you've lost someone close it really twists the knife. Plus, being off work gives you more time for the loneliness to get to you.

I think that getting back to work and back into the routine and the silly Citroën was just a way to occupy and distract myself

There's nothing wrong with wanting to occupy your mind, otherwise you have too much time to dwell.

and ignore what happened.

It's called coping, you can't possibly ignore the nightmare you've been through, all you can do is move forward one day at a time and keeping yourself busy, keeping your mind occupied, is the healthiest way to pass the time.

I think I have to call it all off and beg for my old job back.

This depends on your circumstances I guess, if you can get your job back then it's a brilliant safety net but you need to work out if you really can't cope, or are you panicking because you've had the rug pulled out from under you and are feeling insecure. Could you try again in the future?