MY CITROEN EXPERIENCE:


I've bought my BX on May-1998, it was one of the three BX's in town and I almost had no experience on BX's at all. So what I had to do is go to Citroen Service in town and ask them if I should buy this BX, they checked the car and said "there's a coupla minor problems which could be fixed in minutes and I should absolutely buy this car if I like Citroen BX's". So I've trusted them and bought the car for 4250$'s. She was a white BX15TGE (BX16RE in some countries) as you can see on the pictures and body was (Still is) almost immaculate. Then the my BX adventure had began. Of course I didn't intend to spread my story here, I want to share my experiences with this page, please feel free to object, add or contribute to my ideas by E-mailing me.

WHAT TO CHECK FIRST, WHEN BUYING A BX?

-*-BODY-*-
Check the body first, first need to check is if the car had a wreck if yes try find out if the chassis effected from wreck, if the answer yes again forget about that car unless they are giving away or selling it for a dime. Because all the balance and integrity of the car effected and chassis works are mostly unsuccesfull, I mean you can not get the 100% balance back ever again in most cases.
Wrecks without effecting the chassis are acceptable if the look and feel of the car is acceptable for you. If there is such a case don't ever forget to talk a bodyworks mechanic first. Don't trust someone else or another kind of mechanic. The other question is the *rust* Check fo the rust, look what Malcolm Gray-Stephens from the list says where to check for the rust because those are the first rusting spots:

1. Front door top hinge + triple skin area above it at base of windscreen
2. Seam exposed when rear door is opened over the wheel arch (about 30 degrees from vertical)
3. Estates/brakes crack their roof!
4. Light rust behind rear bumper
5. Rear subframe seems to gently go
6. Front subframe bottom - especially Mk1s
7. Door bases.
8. Any repair work!

Do not forget the have the mechanic check the chasis for rust it's a common DS problem not BX but who knows? If chasis is rusted you'll be in real trouble.
Before buying the car it would be a good idea to show the car a bodyworks mechanic and ask him if there will be expenses for the body and if yes ask *HOW MUCH?* Do not forget checking the door rubbers. They are easy and cheap to repair but if there is lost parts there will be winds in your car on high speeds.

-*-HYDROPNEUMATIC SYSTEM-*-
This is the best part of your car that will give you different feel and lot more comfort from any other car. You are (or will be) feeling lucky to have such a system: aaannnd good news: Hydropneumatic system is very easy to maintain as far as you use right and original parts and do not mind replacing bad parts with new originals immediately. This way you will have the Citroen joy and costs will be not much for maintenance in the long term.
Whats is the Hydropneumatic system on a BX? It's a pressurized oil system that will rise and float your car and also will give power to your brake system. In the regular BX there are 8 running parts for the whole system excluding the LHM Reservoir, pipes and the distributor for the LHM (The special oil for the hydropneumatic system, green oil). Those parts are 1 central sphere (Main Accumulator)(63bar), 2 front spheres (55bar), 2 rear spheres (40 bar). (Bar values are different in some models). 1 High pressure pump which is heart of the hydrolic system which it won't get bad if you clean the LHM regularly and change the LHM in about for every two years or every 30k km's, (20k miles)(About 4 liters for whole system), 1 pressure regulator which is attached to central sphere, distributes and balances oil pressure and finally 1 brake compensator which will give you enough pressure for the brakes. If you would like to see how the hydropneumatic system works on a citroen with animated pictures click here.Thanks Toaph.

How to check if the hydropneumatic system is ok?
Aha! Good question, the first sign of a bad hydropneumatic system will be more pressure regulator clicks than normal. If your pressure regulator is clicking more than every 40 seconds most probably your central sphere is gone or there are some other problems in your hydropneumatic system. Have the all sphere pressure checked in a Citroen service, checking them easy except removing old spheres, there are special tools on a decent Citroen service for removing spheres and checking their pressures, once they are removed checking the pressures and re-installing them will take just minutes. Also if the brake compensator is bad you'll hear a periodic hissing sound (tss tss tss, yes! :-) ) but if the LHM level is low and air is running in the system you'll hear the same sound too so you better learn and check the proper LHM level. You can also start the engine and look the car is raising less than 30-50 seconds to it's normal level, how'bout driving the car and checking if the brakes are ok? But this way do not forget you are testing the whole brake system including the brake pads. If your car running idle on a flat ,straight surface and you hear clicks of pressure regulator more than 50 seconds your hydropneumatic system is probably ok or suffering from *minor problems* (Mine clicks on more than 4 minutes right now. So do not forget your high pressure pump will rattle just before the clicks do not worry about them and try not to mixed up with pressure regulator click. You can also ask your mechanic (assuming you are a Citroen newbie) to check LHM filter in reservoir to find out how the ex-owner treated your hydrolic system before.

-*-ENGINE MATTERS-*-

Citroen BX engines are actually are no different from a regular car engine, but I should say few things about the engine check.
Since BX production had ended in 1994 our engine will be most likely around in 100k km's maybe even around 200k km's. When buying a car I first check the exhaust if it's smoking, on petrol cars we should see no smoke or just a little (Please try to distunguish between water steam and the burnt oil, when petrol burns perfectly there will be two afterproducts after burning: water and CO2, especially in the winter when the car is cold even in the summer you could see the steam if you look carefully). I check the engines first by a primitive and effective way. I open my palm through the exhaust 10-15 cm away and keep it 4-5 seconds, then I smell my palm (I do this after at least 5 minutes started the car, cold engines can not burn the petrol effectively). New engines with no problems should smell a waterish petrol but not much, but if the engine is hot enough and your palm smells like a petrol Refinary and your stomach turns over from smell or even oiled, that means the car needs an engine overhaul soon. But things are not white nor white such as these two cases above, after a coupla experiences you'll see better what I mean. Another test is accelerating the engine to about 3000-3500 rpm (A friend should do that) and removing foot from the gas pedal suddenly while you're watching the exhaust, you should see no smoke at all on new engines, an an average ran engine you could see a very light bluish smoke for a 2-3 seconds, mostly 5 seconds, but exhausted engines smokes more than 5 seconds or smoke color would be black. In this case your cars engine is weared out. Please do not forget bad advance timing or carburettor adjustments could cause false results in a negative way. After all this is a primitive engine burning effectiveness test ain't it?
You should absolutely have your car lifted and checked for oil leaks, damages, or even wrong installed parts (Mostly pipes in BX case). Oil leaks could be chronic pain in your pancreas, it's not so easy to stop them unless your mechanic knows what he really doing. Another must: Cylender head cover must be inspected if it's damaged from inside and outside, that would cost you a gasket (It's not much) but even you decide not to buy that car you won't have the thrills of if the gasket damaged from heat or situation of the parts visible by removing the cover.
Compression rates: It's very easy to measure compression measures check the Haynes manual if your mechanic doesn't know about it if the rates are in between acceptable values. If the engine is acceptable by you lets move over most vital parts of any car in the earth.

-*-BRAKES & TIRES-*-
Since BX front disks are very fast on wearing out (This is the price of the one of the most effective brake systems on earth, you'll be surprized if you try to brake in a decent BX, fasten your seat belts, if you are new the BX's please be careful and be gentle on brakes), you should check them out if they need immediate replacement. Surface of the disks must! be examined if they are flat (No small bump rings). If not they need to be replaced soon, mostly unflat vawy disks ruined by very hard brake pads. Don't use them, try to get information about several brands and don't forget BX brake disks and pads are compatible with Peugeout 405 disks and pads as well as many other parts. Since Peugeout or third party part sellers are cheaper you should always consider those parts by a little suspicion. Brakes and tires are always matter of life. No need to tell you must inspect carefully the brake pipes, calipers, *PISTON's* and springs, they are not more expensive than your life.And try please not to buy un-original brake pads or disks other than Citroen or Peugeout, because they are bad and too hard for your brake disks, in my experiences.
TIRES and WHEELS are second important part of braking system and they will effect your driving comfort too. First of all you must definitely learn your correct size of your tire. Even brand new cars don't have the correct sizes sometime (surprized?). Please do not even think about getting a low quality tire, they will save you nothing plus they'll decrease your security level. Actually tire type should be proper the geography you live, In Scotland you should consider to carry rain tires all the time, in Norway you'll need snow tires along with regular tires I can bet on it. There is a good tire&wheel site in US, you can learn a lot about tires and wheels if you click here. If you consider bigger tire sizes than it's suppose to be don't go too far just increase one size not more, consider wider tires will contact the road more, this will decrase your comfort and will give hardship on suspensions for sure. (For instance my original tire sizes are 165/70/14 and I'll give it a try to 175/65/14 tires on fronts first. 185's seems too tight for wheels). What are those three numbers? The first one is width of the tire, second number is the percentage of the width/height ratio, so one of my engineer friends calculated 165/70/14 and 175/65/14 tires are not so different on height and outer diameter. (Outer diameter of second tire is 1cm longer than first tire). Do not forget very different outer diameters will confuse our speedometer and km counter also. Finally the third number is inner diameter of the tire which should be exactly the same with your wheel. You can change your wheels to 15' but do not forget just mm's remains between the fender and the tires. IMHO it's dangereous unless you have your fender changed or re-shaped on your car.
Wheels are important also, you should know that, there is an offset on wheel which gives you proper traction and balance with your tires. Unfortunately most tire shops doesnt know the offset concept or intentionally ignoring it. Thumb of the rule is: a wheel with proper holes and bolts and size does not mean it is a proper wheel unles you know the offset of the wheels exactly. Try to learn the exact value of your wheel offsets. If you live in a area with bad roads do not choose the light alloy wheels, they are hard and if you hit a bump they will cut the tire, with ordinary steel wheels you will have more chances to keep tires intact because they bend and can be corrected again.

EngineOilBible {Synthetic Oils can be compounded with very low pour points. This gives good cold-cranking performance. They may also be compounded with slightly lower viscosities at lower temperatures (while still meeting SAE specifications). This helps to reduce friction, and results in less wear, and better fuel economy. synthetics provide an excellent alternative to conventional oils - especially if better performance is required. It's your choice! (Richard G. Golembiewski, P.E. RIS Technical Editor)}
Flushing oils. These are special compound oils that are very, very thin. They almost have the consistency of tap water when cold. Typically they are 0W/20 oils.

Look what Mr. Gabor DEAK JAHN told me after I bought the car, it applies before buying cars too. Thanks a lot again Mr. Gabor. (You can communicate with him in the list (www.citroen.mb.ca) which you can find the site in the my main Citroen page. *************************************************************************
A few things are absolutely necessary. Replace (or have it replaced) the camshaft belt, unless you know the previous owner personally and can trust him/her if he/she says that it was done very recently. The belt is relatively cheap but the damage it can cause, should it fail in service, can be catastrophic (might completely destroy the engine).
Also, replace the radiator filler cap. It is cheap and its spring loses its strength over time, leading to engine overheating and possible engine damage.
Replace the liquids. Engine oil is straightforward. I would suggest fully synthetic oil, the price difference today, although still present, is not that huge, and its temperature range and stable viscosity help to keep your engine in good condition. Of course, if the engine is consuming too much oil, this wouldn't be an economic solution, but excessive oil consumption is a failure that should be repaired anyway. Just for your information: mine, about the same age as yours, does _not_ consume oil. I hardly ever top it up between regular oil changes (the recommendation would be 10,000 kms, however, I change it about every 7-8000 kms).
When you have the coolant drained, do not forget to check the cooling fan temperature switch (screwed into the radiator, bottom right) whether it makes and brakes at the specified temperatures. Also, a cheap part, easy to replace, and tends to go wrong over time, causing engine overheating.
If you have the service records and they show that the transmission oil and LHM are not yet near the end of their expected life, you can leave them alone. Spark plugs and air filter are also natural candidates for renewal (but clean them at least). Check the condition of the brake pads and disks. Although the front pads have a warning lamp in the instrument panel, don't count on it--after ten years, they will probably be out of order. Check the rubber bellows on both ends of the driveshafts: if they start to crack, they can be replaced for peanuts. If they stay open for a while and allow the grease to escape and dirt to enter, it will be much more expensive.
Steam clean the engine and transmission. Note that older fuel injected cars are often very hard to restart after cleaning. Go to a reliable shop where they seem to know that they have to remove or wrap some parts before they are often very hard to restart after cleaning. Go to a reliable shop where they seem to know that they have to remove or wrap some parts before they start to steam clean. Drive the car for a week or so and carefully check for leaks at hoses and gaskets. Tighten the retaining clips of all rubber hoses.
Test the suspension. Run the engine in idle, height position in normal, wait for the height to stabilize. Push down the bumper: the car body should go down softly about 10-12 cm and while you still push it down, after a few seconds, it should lift you back to normal position; then release it suddenly, then it jumps up and after a few seconds again, it should drop back to the normal position). If it is stiff, check the pressure in the spheres (including the main accumulator). The hydraulics should tick every at least 40-60 seconds. If you still have patience, go methodically through every connector in the car, disconnect, clean and treat with WD-40 and reconnect. Don't forget to clean the grounding points as well. This can help avoid many annoying problems in the future.