The Citroen DS cooling system is somewhat unique in that it relies almost exclusively on pulling air through ducting to cool the radiator. Most cars have a grille where the faster the car moves, the more air is pushed over the radiator. On modern cars this is the grille below the bumper. It is only at idle they only rely on pulling air through the radiator. The Citroen DS has a large plastic fan attached to the camshaft pulley. That fan sits behind the radiator and then pulls air through based on engine speed. The DS21ie and all DS 23 […]
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After my Citroen DS was painted, there were a couple of cosmetic things wrong with the car that were far more noticeable. One of them was the DS window rubbers and felts. The previous owner had used generic units, and they didn’t fit all that well. Proper reproduction units are available, which are the right size and use the standard mounting points. I didn’t get a chance to take before and and after photos, but the new DS window rubbers and felts look much better. As well as the proper window rubbers and felts, the correct mounting hardware is […] The Retrosound Model 2 radio in my Citroen DS has been playing up. It would randomly adjust the volume on its own, mostly down. The practical effect of this was not being able to listen to the radio. A while back I removed the face of the radio to take a look and the wire from the volume knob to the radio looked chafed. The face of the radio is separate from the main unit as there is not enough room in the DS to install it in one piece. Retrosound sell replacement shafts so this seemed like a […] My Traction Avant is now sold and is migrating north. Like many before it, it is crossing the tweed for a new life in Queensland. My experience selling the car wasn’t too bad. I advertised the car on carsales.com.au and in ‘The Chevrons’. ‘The Chevrons’ is the magazine of the Citroen Club of NSW. In the end I had four interested parties and four offers. One of them was quite silly, but the rest of them were at least in the ballpark. The winning offer was from carsales. I didn’t bother advertising on Gumtree, it seems better for cars less […] UPDATE: 30/4/19 – This car is now SOLD. My Traction Avant Light 15 is for sale. It will go up on carsales in a couple of weeks. The asking price will be $22,500. The Light 15 was built in 1954 in Slough. As an English built Traction it has more luxuries than the cars built in Paris. It also has 12v Lucas electrics. More than $20,000 has been spent on the car over the last couple of years including work on the engine/gearbox, front end rebuild, valve adjustment, new fuel pump. The best thing about the Traction Avant is […] A couple of months ago my DS had one of the front suspension boots replaced to cure a bad LHM leak. When this was done, it was apparent the bushings in the steering rack were worn. Since the front of the car was apart, it made sense to order these parts and then have them fitted before the front was put back together. I ordered the parts a few months ago, but for some reason Franzose sent them by the slow boat. This was rather irritating as the DS has been sitting partially assembled for months. Some of these repairs […] As my DS has a NOS bonnet, I did not want the hot engine to damage the paint. The Citroen DS under bonnet insulation not only protects the paint, but also reduces noise. I was also told that I was missing two brackets that help hold on the insulation. I was able to purchase a good used pair of the brackets and have some help to get the bonnet off to install the insulation. It comes in three pieces so is quite easy to install. As can be seen in the picture, it does not cover the whole bonnet, as […] After all my hassles with the DS wiring, I wanted a better solution. Not only were the existing bullet connectors old and brittle, but their colours had largely faded. Instead of replacing the bullet connectors with new ones, I decided to use multi-wire plugs. In this case, Deutsch connectors. Instead of eight wires on one side and six on the other, there would be a couple of simple connectors to unplug each time the wings are removed. On the DS, the wings are removed for many service jobs, so they come off every year or so.
I had […] My car show season normally kicks off with the French car show. The show is timed for Bastille day, so always occurs mid July. It was a lovely sunny day for the 2018 French Car Show, so the turnout was great. This was in contrast to 2016 (the last one I attended) where poor weather kept the numbers down. I took the DS for the first time since 2014. It was looking great in its new paint job, the Rouge Massena really coming alive out in the sun. I’ve noticed that since DS values have more than doubled over the […] Today I attended to a few more minor adjustments to the DS. I plan to take the car to the French car show in mid-July which is a good deadline to complete the most outstanding items. The first was the bonnet catch cables. When the car was painted, the cables were not routed correctly. There is a channel for them to go through in the front wings. Not being in the proper place puts more pressure on the cables. I doubt it is enough to break them but it is worth routing them properly. The next was re-fitting the spare […] | |||||
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