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Sammy's C6 nicknamed Jax |
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smihaialex
 
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  Member No: #1031
Location: Bucharest |
Hi there, I'm Sammy and I recently becam the proud owner of a C6 (my dream car)... I've been a fan of Citroën since I first saw the DS on TV, then became estranged during the dark era of the manufacturer (didn't care for any of the BX to Xara models), and then fell in love again when its revival began in the early '00s, a little bit shy at first, with the C3 and then in full effect with the C4 and especially the C4 Coupé VTS. In fact, my first car, which I bought brand new (and still own) was a decently loaded Metallic Black (Noir Obsidien) C4 Coupe VTR nicknamed Tux. Back to the matter at hand, my C6 is a Thorium Exclusive with a 2.7 litre bi-turbo diesel V6 and brown Claudia Alezan leather interior. It came with the 17" Rivazza alloys instead of the standard 18" Roccastrada - perhaps a minus in style, but definitely a plus in tyre and drive-train savings, especially on the incredibly potholed Romanian roads... It was initially owned by some German guy who first registered it in late 2007, but took very good care of it. Despite it not being exactly brand new and the relatively high mileage, the car looked and felt (and smelled) just perfect. I wouldn't have bought it otherwise. However, despite its looks, it had a couple of technical issues (some I knew about when buying, some I didn't know about): - broken water pipe (I knew about it) - broken hydraulic steering pipe (didn't know about it) - 2 broken hydractive 3+ suspension pipes (didn't know about it) - 2 broken TPMS sensors (knew about it) - 3 broken LDWS sensors (knew about it) - broken electrochromatic interior rearview mirror (didn't know about it) - broken boot closing mechanism (didn't know about it) - broken superior and inferior articulation thingies - I don't know how they're called in English but in Romanian they're called pivots (didn't know about it) - the brake pads needed immediate replacement (didn't know about it) - front wheel bearings (knew about it) - depleted battery (didn't know about it) It also needed some cosmetic updates to restore it's tip-top condition: - missing HUD settings knob (knew about it) - interior B pillar ornament - where the seatbelt height adjustment setting is, needed replacing as the cloth trim was damaged by the seatbelt rubbing against it (knew about it) - steering wheel buttons - the writing on them had been worn off (knew about it) - the alloys were not in the best shape (knew about it) I fixed almost all the problems at the local Citroën Dealership & Service. Prices were high, but I benefited from a national campaign, giving 20% off on parts for Citroëns 3 years or older. It still was close to EUR 4.000 with fluids and everything, but I'm happy I did it. The only thing that I didn't fix is the internal electrochromatic rearview mirror... I want to fix it but they can't seem to figure why it won't initialize, and it costs EUR 300 to replace it, and right now, I really can't afford to spend any more... The battery - didn't buy it from Citroën - I bought it from a Varta dealer - got the 75 Ah Silver (E38)... Smaller than the standard, which I was surprised to see was also a Varta  But the thing that I'm probably most excited about - I had the alloys completely restored at a local powdercoating custom shop. I took advantage of the opportunity and also slightly altered the original silver colour making them a slightly darker perlescent light titanium. I didn't want to make ant drastic changes - I'm not a fan of the tuning trend, I believe a car is most beautiful as close to as when it left the factory as possible, but I am a fan of minor modifications that even the manufacturer would do... For instance, I love how one of the C6owners members painted the roof black on his C6 giving it the Charleston flavour... That's something that I'm also thinking of - I think it would look great on my Iron Gray C6, but when I asked, no one recommended this change because the car has a sunroof and the paint job would require taking the sunroof off the car and they might ruin it in the process...  I definitely wouldn't want that... The alternative would be to do it using that special black foil they use for advertising cars or tuning - what do you think - what would you recommend?Now, coming back from tuning land, the only important thing that remains to be done is to put the new winter tyres on the alloys - I got an excellent deal on a set of Eurowinter HS449 Falkens... Do you have any thoughts on these tyres?!? The only thing that I based my purchase on was the 2012 AutoBild Winter Tyre Braking Test where these Falkens came in 5th out of 42, behind more expensive Contis, Michelins and other premium tyres like that... I could have also gotten the Marangoni Meteo HPs at a decent price? What would you have gone for - the Falkens or the Marangonis?!? Conclusion, love the car... can't wait to take it out of the repair shop after the extensive repairs that it sustained - Thursday is the day my tyres arrive and that's the earliest possible day for us to be reunited. Thanks for reading. Can't wait to hear your thoughts... Sam PS: I'm thinking of getting a set of 18" Roccastrada alloys for use with summer tyres so if any of you are selling yours or know a place where I can get a set for a decent price, please let me know... FYI Citroën sells them for EUR 325 a piece, so EUR 1.300 per set i would pay half that for a very decent set, less than half for a set that would also require restoring through rolling repair, sanding and powdercoating... Again, thank you.
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C6Dave
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    Member No: #1
Location: Northumberland |
Welcome Sam, the Falkens are a good mid range alternative on the summer tyres (ZE915) which I and others have used. I can't comment on the winter ones as I have no experience, but 5th out of 42 isn't a bad rating when you compare the price to others. |
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Gobxoy
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  Member No: #786
Location: Essex |
  And wow bought your Dream Car, and spent what you needed to bring it up to the standard the C6 deserves. Black foil best option IMHO as removable if done carefully, lasts about 6 years if top quality (3Ms) Not sure about fitting 18" wheels if the roads are poor, others have reported slightly better ride when going from 18"s to 17"s. How about posting some pics when the referbed wheels are on. Where are the superior and inferior things located? Nice and thorough report, and no moaning. Magic. Shame some others don't have the same enthusiasm.  |
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smihaialex
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Member No: #1031
Location: Bucharest |
Thanks for the kind words guys. Will post pics as soon as I take it out of the shop. I presume sometime next Wednesday... Can't wait! I was supposed to get it this Wednesday, but the tyres didn't arrive 'til yesterday and also, they found another broken water pipe. As with everything else, I'm having it replaced with the factory original. The part will arrive next Tuesday... In the mean time I can tell you that the restored wheels look amazing... These powdercoating guys really know what they're doing. Oh, and of course I'm not moaning - I had my up and down moments, but I definitely looove the car, can't wait to have it fully restored and functional, and in the mean time I'm taking the time to enjoy my company car - an '09 Diesel Automatic 5 Series Beemer which is definitely a solid car, but it's no C6, I can tell you that... PS: The superior and inferior things are the ones in the attached pics... I wonder how they're called in English?!? in Romanian they are called "pivots", "rotulas" or more generally "articulations". Thank you, Sam  
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Gobxoy
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Member No: #786
Location: Essex |
Dude we call them - Click Here - Before fitting you may want to look at the grease nipple mod? - Click Here - that Gmerry has figured out? |
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smihaialex
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Member No: #1031
Location: Bucharest |
Ball joints it is, thanks @Goboxy! So let me get this straight... That ball joint mod makes the car quieter? Excellent job! In other news, it seems that tomorrow I will be reunited with Lex (my C6) and hopefully, on Friday, after 7 weeks of being apart I will take my first long trip with it visiting my folks for the week-end (well, not that long, but longer - 200+ miles or so)... Can't wait! Sam PS: I hope that this time I will not be disappointed... Last time the car was in shop, they didn't exactly give it the royal treatment, if you know what I mean. I sincerely hope that this time there'll be no signs of foul play - no scratches on the body or alloys, no dust or dirt, no nothing... Keep you posted. |
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smihaialex
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Member No: #1031
Location: Bucharest |
Hey friends, Quick update: got my car from the Citroën shop & it is absolutely awesome... The only problems I found were: 1. a scratched alloy - got a ±30 quid discount for that 2. no plastic caps on the wheel valves - they fitted them immediately 3. a couple of plastic pins that are used to secure the plastic protection under the hood missing - bought them and fitted them this morning 4. the round HUD setting button that I had ordered and payed for hadn't been installed - they got it and I installed it on the spot... Drove last night up until about 1:00 am. I couldn't get enough of it. My office 5 Series BMW seems like an ancient carriage by comparison The C6 ride is smooth, soft & distinguished. The fact that I'm running on 17" alloys w 225/55 R17 brand new winter tyres also helps (I think). Still a couple of things to be dealt with: 1. LDWS not working 2. Height adjustment on the driver's seat not working Details: Regarding the LDWS, it seems that the LDWS button in the dashboard is faulty, and I decided to replace the entire command block - it's not that expensive (±30 quid). Quick question here: what is the button immediately at the right of the LDWS button supposed to do? I'm talking about the first button, the one with the pictogram representing a dot and some waves emitting from it - like a WiFi or a radio wave thing. Regarding the height adjustment on the driver's seat, I can definitely say that the command and the motor are working. I could tell, because when pressing the up and down arrows you hear the soft click and the seat moves slightly upwards/downwards, but only for a quarter of an inch or so (a few millimetres) and then it stops abruptly like there is some mechanical thing blocking it... What could it be? Here are some pictures of Jax... In the last two, you can see the restored alloys with the new, slightly darker, titanium-like colour       |
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C6Dave
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Member No: #1
Location: Northumberland |
The button is to turn off the volumetric alarm inside the car if for instance you leave a dog inside. Land Departure only works at something like 50mph+ (80 kms) if you don't indicate and to be honest, soon gets very annoying so you will end up turning it off |
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BruceB
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  Member No: #234
Location: Hampshire |
smihaialex wrote ... Regarding the height adjustment on the driver's seat, I can definitely say that the command and the motor are working. I could tell, because when pressing the up and down arrows you hear the soft click and the seat moves slightly upwards/downwards, but only for a quarter of an inch or so (a few millimetres) and then it stops abruptly like there is some mechanical thing blocking it... What could it be? Could be as simple as dirty contacts. Years ago I was quoted extortionate sums (£140-ish each, plus labour. I recall the total figure being over £500, >15 years ago) to replace the electric seat switches on my Range Rover. Because the fault was intermittent and only in one 'plane', I thought the problem could be fairly minor. I spent a few buttons on a can of WD-40, and sploshed the lot into the two casings. Mirabile dictu, the switches both worked perfectly in all planes for the remaining 3 years of my ownership. Admittedly, the car did reek a bit for a few days but, hell, the saving and the sense of achievement and 'up yours' to the dealers! |
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Gobxoy
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Member No: #786
Location: Essex |
C6Dave wrote ... Land Departure only works at something like 50mph+ (80 kms) if you don't indicate and to be honest, soon gets very annoying so you will end up turning it off Plus only turn on late at night when  to wake you up  Oh nice pics |
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Stealth
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  Member No: #986
Location: Sydney |
Congratulations on joining the C6 squadron Sammy. I too recently acquired my used 6 recently and have set about rectifying a few small items the previous owner had been a bit careless about. While I had previously owned several Xantias, I skipped the last C5 range but bought a top of the line C4 with panoramic roof, which I loved for three years. Then I bought an E350, needing something more appropriate for highway driving, and almost lost the will to drive entirely. Awful ride, don't be tempted to go for the larger wheels on your 6, the 18 inches on my Benz looked great but felt and sounded awful. Driving my 6 has restored my love of driving. It's simply the most divine car and it feels like a special occasion every time I drive it. Good luck with your restoration and regards from down under. |
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smihaialex
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Member No: #1031
Location: Bucharest |
@Stealth: thank you! Regards from Romania... I totally agree - it does feel like a special occasion when you drive a C6 - I personally feel the need to dress up... However I'm a bit disappointed... Not in the car but in the shop that repaired it... Let me tell you why... It is now 20 minutes past midnight in Romania and me, my wife and our dog - a cute Westie named Scottie (Scottish) are stuck in the middle of nowhere, some 50 miles outside Bucharest and are using our Jax as a motel until the platform truck gets here... The car cannot go anywhere on its own because it looses all of its cooling liquid... It didn't do this from the start - everything seemed to be just fine, until, after overpassing some trucks and reaching almost 100 mph, we suddenly felt the air coming inside the car get cold... I knew from previous experience that this might mean that there's no coolant in the system, because the heating radiator is powered by the warm cooling liquid after it has passed through the engine... Anyways, within seconds the STOP Engine temeperature too high signal showed up on screen and I had to stop - steam was getting out from under the hood... Luckily, I had a couple of liters of distilled water in the trunk - I poured that in and did a couple more kilometers until I reached a gas station, and this is where we are now... I find this to be too big of a coincidence - the service guys replaced two pipes in the cooling system... No further comment. Any thoughts? |
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theguardian
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 Member No: #645
Location: reading berkshire |
this is no way in reflection on your car but my dog is called jax. so good luck with it. |
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cruiserphil
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 Member No: #38
Location: Celbridge |
Sammy, I posted a reply in your other thread "C6 Heating Question." Regards, Phil C. |
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smihaialex
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Member No: #1031
Location: Bucharest |
Hey @theguardian, Jax is a great name! Thanks for sharing @cruiserphil: thank you! Got the car to the Citroën repair shop on a platform, got home at about 2:30 am, got up at 7:00 am and by 8:00 am I was there. They were already on it. I sincerely hope they fix it properly this time. I have no doubt that it was something they did wrong - it's waaay too big a coincidence... Anyway, I know this is in no way a reflection on the reliability of the C6 in general, and I'm hoping this won't be something that's constantly happening with my car in particular either. However, it is hard to trust repair shops & your car when something like this happens... Keep you gents posted on the developments. And on that note, a quick question: do you think that I might have done some damage to the engine - I just pored in some distilled water, waited for it to cool down a bit and drove a couple more miles to the nearest gas station - I couldn't just leave it there, in the middle of the road. Besides, doing that would have also been unsafe for me & my family. The entire time I was monitoring engine temperature, drove very slow 20-30 mph and stopped when the STOP Engine temperature too high sign came back on... Cheerios, Sammy |
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