Citroen BX Which Models and When

[120L]

I'm still looking for a prospective long distance tourer that can be put on NSW Conditional Rego!

The criteria are comfortable, economical and handles well. Air-conditioning a definite plus.

So I thought I might seriously look at the BX.

Advertisement

Can anyone tell me which models where available during which years?

Were diesels ever sold here?

How is the spare parts situation, timing belts, CV joints etc...

Regards

Alan

[Ken W]

Hi Alan,

On limited internet at the moment. I will write you a story when I get home tomorrow night. Only diesels in Aust are private imports.

I would go a BX TRI 122, or BX TZI or a BX 16Valve but each have their idiosyncrasies.

Cheers, Ken

[JBN]

I had two BX19 TRi 122 cars. Great handlers and comfortable. Both were 4 speed ZF automatics. The hatch is superb. Being a square car, the hatch take a 8' X 4' chipboard sheet. The Xantia can't. Being a much lighter car than the Xantia, it is a better handler. The only weak points in the design is the power steering splitter and the heater.

The heater has a plastic tap inside the car, with the plastic connections protruding into the hot engine compartment. On the later cars, the rubber hoses were clamped on to the plastic connection. These were invariably broken if the heater hose needed replacement. The control for the heater had a rheostat of a cardboard disc with some aluminium foil pasted on. Pathetic. Once age and the Australian heat got to it, no heater.

The hydraulics are very easy to work on. Same big aluminium LHM reservoir as the CX, situated low down so one doesn't bend and break the return lines. Much better design than the Xantia which has a high mounted reservoir with pre-bent rubber return lines sneaking up the firewall from who knows where. When the rubber gets old, it breaks. Replacing same would be easy with the engine out but a real pain otherwise, particularly on a Hydralastic vehicle. The BX was simpler and the low down reservoir means there is less stress on the return hoses when renewing the LHM. Only weak point is the power steering divider.

Last of the single spoke steering wheel cars.

John

[JohnW]

We had a BX19 TZi Estate - same engine as the Peugeot 205GTi. Superb car and the octopuses are available. Criticisms? The dashboard plastic is dismal, and the heater rheostat and piping isn't ideal but there are no doubt work around solutions.

There's a diesel Estate somewhere in Perth, or there was. Private import.

I just loved it to death. We moved it on (well, our daughter did) when it really was one car too many and it swallowed huge amounts of musical gear for the next owner, who also loved it. It is currently U/S with a broken manual gearbox (really!!).

[forumnoreason]

U/S. under surveillance?

[JohnW]

U/S. under surveillance?

Unserviceable....

[120L]

Thanks for your replies and I look forward to the more detailed outline from Ken W.

I showed my son the BX last night and we talked things over. At the moment we need a practical classic, comfortable and air conditioned that's great for long trips and the BX fits perfectly.

We will be getting one more classic in a few years when we can get rid of the Nissan Patrol we have and that will be a Peugeot 504.

This will mean we have one car from each of the big French Manufacturers. I've moved on from British cars.

So I'm looking for a 1988 or earlier BX. I don't want an estate. I live in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney so cars in NSW are obviously more convenient to look at and buy. Saying that interstate is not out of the question.

Regards

Alan

[UFO]

My first Citroen was a BX TRi (auto) which was a great car. The A/C was freezingly cold when it worked - probably had I replaced the TX valve it might have actually been revived.

Not much goes wrong on them that others haven't mentioned.

They ride better with a load and are a bit jiggly if it's only a driver on board.

Ours did some big trips including Wollongong - South Aus - return and was good on fuel.

Remember to register a car as a classic (historic rego) you need to be a member of a recognised car club in NSW - so I suggest - if not already, that you join CCCNSW. You can drive the car up to 60 days per year PLUS advertised club events. You must sign the log sheet at the start of each day's driving.

[jaahn]

Hi
We had a BX 19GT Sauvage, 1986. Great car and looked real good too with the Sauvage dress-up kit.
Was a high mileage car when we got it but had been maintained as necessary. It went for quite some years with minimal work and was a pleasure to drive. My wife loved it. I put a clutch in it and did the spheres I think. Had more Ks when we sold it and was going well and looking good. It needed a bit of body work then but quite OK and fixable. It had a lot of extras you would not expect at that age either.
Carby and unleaded motor but apart from fiddling the timing to suit poor batches of unleaded occasionally it was no problem. With higher octane unleaded common now there would be nothing to worry about there. I will dig out a picture of it ??
Jaahn
Look here ! Ain't Google wonderful. Easier to find there than in the house !!
BX Sauvage

https://www.flickr.com/photos/anders...ey/3588641152/

and here are some other BXGTs,

https://hiveminer.com/Tags/bx19gt

[DoubleChevron]

Try to find a 16 valve and put the standard spheres on it (for ride quality). The reason I say 16valve is the BX is the most excruciatingly agonizing car I've ever owned or driven. The driving position is simply hell. I would always end up with leg cramps and an aching back. You see the accellerator pedal is in an impossible position to keep your foot on. The seat height and spacing from the pedals is shithouse.

My wife would get out of the car in agony whenever it had to be driven any distance as well. I bent the shit out of the accelerator pedal to try and get it at a height that was "less agonizing" ... In desperation I even fitted a Renault Fuego seat to it. It was much better, but still awful to drive for any distance. Sad really, because the car itself is bloody brilliant with it's ride quality and handling.

The BX 16valves looks to have the seats used in the CX GTi Turbo, so hopefully its driving position is FAR better. the seats certainly will be brilliant if they are the same as the CX's.

Try test driving one, and see if you end up holding your foot hovering off the floor or in a really awkward position on the accellerator. You might be ok, as some people don't have the same issues we did. (we had two BX's ... both were shithouse, but the 1600TRS auto was better as it was so gutless you held your foot much further down on the accelerator to hold speed.. so didn't have to hold your foot as high).

The BX really was the first poogoe/citroen with decent ventilation. They "poogoed" it too much though. The dumbed down the hydraulics and fitted struts that tend to bind .. and leak. Dumbed down the steering and put a crappy poogoe low pressure rack in it (rather than a proper citroen fully powered rack). As it's only "power assissted" its an add on ram that will fracture the hydraulic lines when the bushes flog out. It also has a hydraulic device that generates low enough pressure for the steering rack ..... that leaks and is probably NLA.

Basically anything "real citroen" ... ie: pre-PSA takeover the parts are being made for somewhere in the world ( with possibly the exception of some GS parts). As soon as you hit BX/Xantia ... "the fragile plastic era" that continues today. You are in for all sorts of grief when you work on them.... As you keep breaking plastic bit around stuff you are trying to repair.... And just try finding replacements. Even the dipstick is bloody plastic (try finding one of them now ... ).

BX's plastics disitigrated in the sun .... Really really disintigrated badly. There must have been no UV stabilisers used. The main thing to look for if purchasing a BX .... is good interior plastic. As you will not find any to replace a broken up interior ( it would be 15years ago we ran one... and it was almost impossible to find decent plastic interior bits back then... it would drive you bloody nuts... everytime you touched something ... it owuld just break. right down ot the little levers that fold down the back seat ... snap ...).

seeya,
Shane L.

[gerrypro]

Blunt, but Honest!

[Ken W]

We have had a lot of BXs in the family. I started off with a BX 16TRS manual which was OK for power until the air con compressor cut in. There was also a carby and pollution controls that needed quite a bit of upkeep but the dash display and switch layout was very citroen.

I then moved up to a BX TRI 122 that had a very heavy clutch which eventually fractured the clutch pedal box and turned out to be because the release bearing had become trapped in a groove it had worn in the pressure plate spring fingers. A new clutch and some welding fixed that. However this engine had some gremlins. Sometimes when hot it would not start, other times when you wanted some power, you would press the accelerator down and the engine would bog down. I found I had to apply accelerator slowly to get reasonable power. This issue was repeated in the TZI I bought to replace the 122 after I wrote it off. I think the DKZ engine has a piston ring problem in that the grooves in the pistons have too small a tolerance and when the engine gets hot, the rings bind and the engine loses compression or goes into massive blow-by and they use a lot of oil. I sort of ameliorated this by doing an engine flush at each oil change but this lasted only about 1000km and the issue returned. Another manifestation of this issue was that the engine would go really well when warming up and then feel sluggish when running at normal temp. There are some of the engines that are reported to be OK, usually if they have been driven hard from new.

We have 4 x BX 16 Valves in the family and they do not seem to have this problem. It is a pity that they dropped the compression rating on the Australian Versions from 10.4 down to 9.5 because they also lost a lot of low speed torque but at least they don't use oil and are relaible performers. You need to replace cambelts on these every 5 years though and make sure not to over tighten them.

More to come.

[JohnW]

Interesting re the engines Ken. Our TZi had had the valve stem seals fixed by the previous owner and at 230,000 km or so used no oil and had none of those symptoms when hot. Who knows? I guess unless you buy new, you don't really know what abuse an engine might have had.

Just such a pity about the plastic!!

[DoubleChevron]

Interesting re the engines Ken. Our TZi had had the valve stem seals fixed by the previous owner and at 230,000 km or so used no oil and had none of those symptoms when hot. Who knows? I guess unless you buy new, you don't really know what abuse an engine might have had.

Just such a pity about the plastic!!

Yes ... none of ours had those problems. My wife drove it the most ... So it was certainly "exercised hard" whenever driven The thing literally dissolved around us (plastic)... the running gear itself was still fine.

The only real problem we had ... was it was so hideously uncomfortable to drive

seeya
shane L.

[JBN]

I can't say that the BX was uncomfortable. When I first got the Xantia, I was wishing that I had kept the seats from the BX to put in it. After a CX, all cars seats are uncomfortable. I have a bony bum, but fortunately my brains are in my bum, so generally I enjoy sitting.

John

[frog]

Drove BX's for 10 years - haven't found any of them uncomfortable. The seats are much better on long trips than my current Subaru.

[FedGrapes]

The BX seats feel slightly too curved in shape for me, but wonderfully comfortable! Better cushioning than anything else I've owned, including a 505 STI. I'm a 6ft bean pole for reference.

[JBN]

I am also a 6 foot beanpole.

John

[DoubleChevron]

I am also a 6 foot beanpole.

John

Me too ... I found them absolutely crippling. As did most people that drove the car. Alan S never had a problem, but I think the person he sold his first BX to couldn't drive it 'cos it was crippling to sit in. I think it must depend on your foot being able to rest on the floor if its on the accelerator pedal. I always ended up with my foot hovering 1cm above floor level to use the accelerator.

seeya,
Shane L.