I had wanted to check out the Grand Pacific Drive for a while, and had a few hours free the other day so took the 250SE. The 250SE’s transmission linkage was still playing up, so I didn’t make too many stops (as I didn’t want to crawl under the car and reset it every few times I put it into park), but once you...
Even on winter days, the DS had been getting a bit hot under the collar. Granted, D’s have never been the coolest running cars, and the heat of the Australian summer can tax them and their passengers, but they should easily cope with most days, especially outside the summer months. I had a few problems – the water pump was leaking and getting...
The 280CE was leaking quite badly, and it looked like it was coming from the water pump. I ordered a pump and not have finally started on the replacement. First job was to drain the coolant – which wasn’t in bad condition, disconnect the radiator, and remove it. The radiator is easy to remove with four metal clips that can be prized...
The 450SLC’s gear stick had become more and more floppy, and given my experience with the 250SE, I thought it was better to take a look and potentially fix the issue than have it totally fail on me. The gear selector bushings are a common issue on these cars. Looking under the car, by 1977, Mercedes had gone to a better design. As...
This month’s Shannons Auction had a few cars I wanted to drop by and see. The first was a W111 Convertible – A manual 220SE. The car looked nice from the photos and the price range seemed a bit low to me. ($54,000-$60,000). The car is nice for that price – I would rate it at a nice driver condition – the leather is...
The DS from what I can gather had been run on rainwater by the last owner – not sure about prior to that, but I do know it was in South Australia for a while, which has hard water. In any case, it looks like it was actually run on ditch water.
There are plenty of interesting classic cars out there that I are fun to own, and drive on the weekend. My E-Type is one of those for example. Not so many can be realistically driven every day though. In my opinion, the Mercedes-Benz range from the 60s is one of those who can. I just saw an interesting story of a...
French vs German
After using yet another bulldog clip to temporarily move the car, I went to look in my parts cupboard and found that I had two of the upper bushings from my old 250SE Coupe that came with some parts. They looked like the right part and had a 112 part number, so seemed correct. Like the lower one, it was quite an easy fitting....
Like most W111, my 250SE has a column shift. This means that there is a fairly complex set of linkages to connect the column shifter to the auto transmission. After I had used the 250SE as a wedding car, one of the bushings for the linkages broke, so today my job was to fit the new ones I had ordered. This isn’t...
The Putty road is one of the better driving roads close to Sydney – so much so that it is the favorite haunt of many Motorcycle clubs. (the ones that actually ride bikes, not the ones that sell speed). I’ve driven it a couple of times in the E-Type, and once in the 450SLC, but never in the DS. Given it is quite...
This evening the Citroen Club organized a night drive to La Perouse. It was a lovely warm evening, perfect for taking the DS out for a drive. The meeting point was Harry’s Cafe de Wheels in Tempe, which is a bit of a Sydney institution selling pies etc. Despite living in Sydney most of my life, I had never actually been there....
A few months ago I had started polishing the DS using Auto-glym paint pro and the cheap Chinese polishing machine I bought on eBay. I achieved good results on the roof, but overall there was much to do. Today I used stage 1 on the bonnet and front wings. Took a few hours but much better than before. In the first photo you can...
The Citroen Club were invited to see a preview of the cars up for auction by Shannons next week. This months auction catalogue was a bit of ‘something for everyone’, ranging from a nice looking Wolseley with an estimate of $4,000 to $6000 to a Ferrari Dino 246. My picks from this auction were: An immaculate looking BMW 635csi for $12,000 to $15,000. ...
Today I managed to make my second Citroen Car Club tech event. Today was bucketing down with rain, so my intention of regassing my spheres went out the window as I didn’t feel the need to lie down in puddles to remove them and the lift was otherwise occupied with an old caddy. Nevertheless it was good to get to the event see...
On a recent trip to the Hunter Valley I was looking for ways of avoiding the F3 and its traffic. On the way there, I went via the Putty Road. On the way back, I took tourist route 33 then over Wisemans ferry. View Larger Map The route is nice with minimal traffic, good winding roads and scenery. As you drive along...
The vinegar flush I tried yesterday removed a lot of silt from the DS radiator. Each of the bottles I captured the old coolant in had a fairly decent layer of sediment in the bottom the next day. Despite the flushing, the radiator still looked dirty, so I used the bottle of Wynn radiator flush as well. It also removed a fair...
The only warning light in the Citroen DS I wasn’t sure worked was the temperature warning. You can test the bulb by pressing the button, but that doesn’t testing the sender and the connection. Today, I found it does work, and that my temperature gauge is pretty accurate; The DS overheated today and I was greeted with the little temperature light and the...
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