Today I injected one container of Xado Auto transmission paste to hydraulic system. The car up-down 10 times, steering lock-to-lock 30 times, and to the road.



Surprisingly big effect. Hydraulic suspension is now much smoother, steering is more precise, and even brakes work with better "feel".

Am I crazy? It is a hoax, is it?

Well, let me tell you something. There are 100's of these "metal conditioners" and even many of these "ceramic coating systems" now on the markets, and almost none of them work.

Almost.

Xado is the original factory that provided ceramic coating powder for USSR military, and Russian railroad, beginning from 80's. This stuff was used in tanks, jet engines, trains.

Why did I use the auto trans paste? Well, first of all, it has the right (smallest available) particle size that will not glock the electrovalves. Secondly, it has high content (enough for 5-8 L hydraulic fluid) in single package, so it is economical. And the carrier oil used is compatible with LHM hydraulic fluid.

From experience with engines and gearboxes I assume that effect will wear out little bit during first 500-1000km, but the end result still will be much superior to the original condition of hydraulics. Wesa can maybe tell more about this ceramic conditioning in hydraulic systems.

My experiences are limited to using only a local brand RVS. I have tried it to many purposes from hair cutter to multi-megawatt wind turbine gearboxes. Always positive gain has been quite clear. In Citroen hydraulic I have used normally one set of power steering revitalization package but the effect has been quite small. Last autumn I put in to my xm's hydraulic one bigger set (meant for motor treatment). I did not mixed gel to oil as instructed, but I shared 2/3 directly to suspension cylinders and 1/3 to oil reservoir. First and almost immediate effect was a decreased suspension struts friction in front. Secondly I noticed increased cut-in period of pressure valve. Late winter I measured with warm engine 2 min 1 s period between cuts on idle. I drove approximately 10 000 km until I changed the oils. Now after oil change in summer it is around 1.5 min. Before operation it was 20-30 s. Car rising speed feels also a bit faster. When I changed the oils I noticed there was some gel bites in the bottom of reservoir which were not dissolved. So It's really preferred to mix the oil as is instructed. On the filters there was bit more dirt (looked very thin aluminum powder) than normally but the oil itself was very clear. I'll prefer mix the gel to lhm and use a smaller quantitys per time. Some blocking in the activa's valves might be unwanted surprise when cornering by 1,2g and speedometer stands in 140..
I'll prefer to do the treatment in warm or hot day and add stuff to warm engine/oil. Immediately after that do several car jumping up and down and lot of steering wheel turnings as ds-jekkeri was done. Then it's good to drive actively in bumpy road one hour doing couple of stops and jumping to get a fresh mix to cylinders. Its unclear to me how well ceramics gets in the alu or brass surfaces, but to pump, cylinder pistons and steely valve parts should gain it. The oil quantity of the treated system is not a right way to measure needed gel content but the area of the treated surfaces.

"I have tried it to many purposes from hair cutter to multi-megawatt wind turbine gearboxes. Always positive gain has been quite clear"

This cannot be described better

Next corrected problem: ES9J4 engine's ECU decided to keep idle at 1000rpm, all the time, engine warm and even without aircon.

After reading numerous pages of french documentation, the following info emerged:

MP7.0 in this engine has following idle modes:

- normal idle, 650rpm
- normal idle with aircon on, 750 rpm
- idle when steering is turned while parking 850 rpm (activated via manocontact in steering hydr.circuit)

and...

- idle when battery charge is low, up to 1000 rpm!

Lexia reported ECU internal voltage of only 12.0 volts when running, which triggered the "charging idle" mode. Reason was corroded connectors and fuse legs in engine bay fusebox - I cleaned all fuse legs and their sockets with oxydizer remover spray, and voila! The engine runs nice 650rpm idle again.

So corroded fuse box can cause abnormally high idle on this engine model.

In light of recent discoveries regarding how different Activa is from any other Xantia - or any other Citroen for that matter, I have decided to name the car Xactiva and make matching emblems from titanium. Here is the crude sketch of the new emblem that will be the only one in this autovehicle:

Small update: Xactiva is finally in welding process, both sills are being restaured to perfection with known Estonian maestro. Pics to be posted soon...

... would be easier to build a new car... Current status:

http://youtu.be/DvQf1yC3T2Q

Activa has been almost totally restored regarding body structure. Work continues.

This is one of those rare restorations of year model 1999-2000 cars - usually only much older cars gets restored.

The master plan is to make Activa better than new. It is difficult because of official unavailability of many Activa V6 parts - but I will find NOS parts to all those difficult places in time.

In the end of the video, there is a canister I wasn't able to recognize right away... Anybody know what it is?

Its most likely fuel vapors purge and recycling canister. It has coals cuts inside and its recommended to check coals condition because it should be dry. At same time you can blow to return hose back fuel tank to make sure its free of dirt and particles.

Interesting read, especially as I've just bought a V6 Activa that hasn't seen much love. Any updates on this project?

About the grip of the Activa... this is my second V6 Activa, and I used the previous one a lot for track driving. Activa system makes it relatively easy and safe (predictable) to drive fast, but I wouldn't say that it's cornering abilities on the track are superior compared to real sports cars. But as a daily driver on the road it's very hard to beat.

The reason it's still at the top of the Swedish elktest list is because it involves many quick consecutive direction changes which causes "regular" cars' suspension to oscillate and eventually lose more and more grip. I don't think they have tested other active suspension cars? And as the test is done with maximum allowed load/cargo on the car, hydropneumatic suspension already has the advantage of keeping the car at optimum ride height. If they would measure outright lateral acceleration of a single corner the Activa would not be at the top. Probably quite high up on the list though.

The project car in the thread at it's current status:



Near perfect original condition, 90% done. Total cost of the car is at the moment, roughly: 1500 purchase price + 500 transport&registration to EE + 5700 to repairs, restoration and parts + 1000 to original (mint condition) rims + new michelins = 8700 eur. If you calculate in the advanced Yes-US (Jeesus) Audio System, total sum in well over 10.000 eur NOT including tens of hours own time spent. For a 15-year old Xantia! I must be crazy, all my rich friends tell me, driving themselves the alikes of serie I mustangs, Zils, old cabrio-mercs, Maserati Boras... Little do they know what is important and what is not.

I just ordered new suspension balls all around from sphere-shop.co.uk. Some of original kugels from Citroen are NFP, so I decided to try out these IFHS spheres, let's see if they last a year or three.

As a side note, surprisingly big part of the restoration project was removing the aftermarket cruise and aftermarket alarm system installed (by some DIY I think) in Sweden sometime in 2000's. Horrible, just horrible. Tens of split wires and bad connections around the car, etc...

This car will never be a daily driver, I drive it maybe 2000-3000 km/year max. A little known fact is that there are less than 100 serie II V6 Activas (final, best incarnation of Activa) remaining globally, so this is MUCH more rare car than any SM or DS Cabrio. From sales viewpoint, I would be hard pressed to get 2000 euros from this car if I had to sell it, nobody with money cares about these cars because they look like "normal 20 year old xantia". The ones who know expect to get theirs for 1000 euros and then they spend next 3 years hunting for parts. So this specific Activa will be impossible to sell for any reasonable price (which should certainly be over 10.000 eur) forever, I think.

Igor, I would be very interested to know, if it is not a big secret, how much did you pay for your Activa and how much you expect to spend on parts to make it perfect?

I have to thank you for all your effort what you have done for this Xantia. It´s great to see that it rolls again in good condition because I was really close to make an offer when it was for sale. I just had no idea how much work it would have and especially how difficult and expensive to get the parts would be. Any other "emotional connection" to this spesific example I don´t have but a great project it has been to follow.

When I had my test drive with Igors previous V6 Activa I realized the amount of feelings when driving it. Propably this is the same fuzz what you have been talking too. It´s small amount of cars which can wake you up in the same way, atleast if we exclude supercars with totally different price tag. Therefore I would wish that you keep updating this post and especially with videos. Once again, thank you!

Awesome, stunning, beautiful! More pics of the car please when the summer arrives!

Nice job! There are not many guys how will spend so much money for Xantia, even Activa!

The French Chevronnés magazine (http://www.chevronnes.fr/) just published the price guide for all Citroën models.
The prices for Xantia Activa's were remarkable high, here are few examples:

They say a value for Xantia V6 Activa is even more than a CX 25 GTi Turbo 2!
The indicated prices are for cars in "normal condition".

So maybe this money was an investment for the future? Then it is not so easy to restore Activa, it is better to do now.

Where did you get that number of existing S2 V6 Activas? About 1300 were originally made if I remember correctly, total of 2474 with S1 and S2 combined.

V6 Activas in moderate un-restored condition seem to have asking prices between 2000-4500€ at the moment in Germany and France. Haven't seen really good ones advertised for ages. Some pretty horrible ones go for under 1000€.

I paid 1800€ for this one (in Finland). To make it perfect would certainly take a lot of time and money, but the only Activa specific issue seems to be worn roll corrector rods and guides... rods are NFP but I got a pair from French Activa Club who are making them now. So it shouldn't take a fortune to make it mechanically sound. It will need a new timing belt in the near future though, and A/C has not worked for at least two years, so it might need a new compressor. Cosmetically it's pretty bad both inside and out, but not much rust (not visible anyway).

BTW, a set of original Venice wheels in very good condition were on sale in France for 200€ with good tyres. They had sold the day before I sent my inquiry...

And thanks for the update, great to hear it's alive and well.

On production numbers, I might be wrong - I remember reading few years ago that total production for S2 Activa V6 was something like 212 or 232 cars, and more than half of them have been estimated destroyed in crashes. Now it seems Conservatoire Citroen has announced official numbers and indeed it seems the official production was 1358 units for S2 Activa V6, much more from what I remembered. If at least half of them have been lost to accidents (VERY common for Activas) or rust, it is possible more than 600 cars remain. Hopefully it is so! This would mean that there were about as many original DS Decapotables and Xantia S2 Activa V6's.

Daytime view from perspective most people see it:

Cruising with the gang

https://youtu.be/qnvZMu3Grng

Misbehaving speed sensor in differential casing freaks out the whole car. Engine and activa-system too. Surprisingly speed info provided from ABS is not used in this car for speed sensing - separate sensor is in "nice" place.

Removal, part one:

https://youtu.be/n0CPe7C9pUE

From underside it is very easy to reach...

Interesting, are we speaking about the same car? Sensor under intake manifold and connector between intake manifold and gearbox, in 5 cm high "cave"?

My hand in the picture reaching for sensor.

Jasu is most likely correct! The sensor I removed with huge work is RPM sensor that reads the teeth in flywheel - I removed the wrong sensor. Nicely done...