Citroen BX Christmas Quiz

[Anonymous]

The first of many....
I will post solutions to any unanswered questiions later.

1. What do the double chevrons of the marques badge represent?

2. What does the 'LE' stand for in the 19GTI Bosch LE2 fuel injection?

3. Why is the offside BX drive shaft in two pieces, with a support bearing, yet the early BX14s (the ones with the integral gearbox) are not? (its not just price)

4. What purpose were the original CV joints designed for (think naval)?

5. Why does a BX fan (cooling) have two operating speeds?

6. What's the worst possible mechanical repair job on a BX?

7. What sort of gas does a suspension sphere contain?

8. What used to keep getting nicked from underneath Peugeots and Citroens when parked and was a subject of BBC's Watchdog in the early
90's?

9. Why didn't they turbocharge the BX19RD, but the 17RD was ok to turbo, according to Citroen UK in their press-release?

10. Which feature of the CX only just scraped through UK legislation?

15. What's the purpose of the shims under the steering rack mountings?

[RobC]

1. Because ABS only applies above a certain speed (5 mph or summat isn't it?)

5. To save wear on the alternator?

[Mike P]

3. To keep the rotational twist caused by the torque down? (I know what I mean but don't think I've described it right )

Mike P.

[Jezziebx16v]

4 ... propeller shafts on boats/ships

Jez

[Timmo]

i thought what on earth has a c.v joint got to do with your belly button! loL!
i suspect jezzie is on the right course with that one! assume its due to the position of the engine on the ships and hte length of shaft needing a bend to exit the ull at the right angle hence the joint??

[Vanny]

1. Because ABS only applies above a certain speed (5 mph or summat isn't it?)

depends on the system, but its around 15 to 20 mph making ABS totally pointless for the largest percentage of low speed impacts (something like 80% of all vehicle to vehicle impacts are at 20mph or lower).

I'm with the trail of thought that ABS should be removed from cars and a big metal spike installed on the steering wheel, should get people to pay attention to the road.

[Anonymous]

1. Because ABS only applies above a certain speed (5 mph or summat isn't it?)

5. To save wear on the alternator?

1. Correct, at speeds below 5MPH it switches off, unless its going through its anti-lock routine which it then does at about 2MPH if my memory from a Citroen corse back in'89 is correct.
5. Yes I believe this is one of the reasons, but another one according to Introduction to Engine Technology by Heisler, is 'to protect the engine from thermal shock'. I think this means that the two speeds protect the engine from a sudden rush of much colder coolant from the 'rad meeting
a very hot engine. Unless other people know better??

[Anonymous]

4 ... propeller shafts on boats/ships

Jez

No, think more on the line of vessels that go beneath the waves. I think the inventor was a Czech called something like Rzeppa (pronounced 'Sheppa' I think)...Tobytronicstereophonic

[thanuttiscotsman]

yup i would guess submarines as they would need them to be able to turn at any reasonable speed.

rossco

[Anonymous]

yup i would guess submarines as they would need them to be able to turn at any reasonable speed.

rossco

Yes, Nuttiscotsman, specifically they were developed for the conning tower so that it rotated at a constant velocity in proportion to the angle the control was set at. A naval engineer would give a more eloquent description.

[Anonymous]

3. To keep the rotational twist caused by the torque down? (I know what I mean but don't think I've described it right )

Mike P.

Yup, as the driveshafts on the larger BX's are of an unequal length, there would be a problem with torque steer on acceleration. The split-length of the longest shaft solves this trait. Earlier BX14's had same-length shafts, so avoiding this. It took some other makers years to catch up.

[Mike E (uk)]

1. They are the teeth on Andre Citroen's own design of gear cog.

2. Luft Electronic, ie Air measuring electronic control.

5. to reduce noise & power consumption. It also helps prevent cycling when the fan keeps turning off and on.

6. Any job under the car when you have no garage,it is cold, dark & raining, you urgently need the car next morning, and you have neither the parts or tools to do the job with your wife telling you should have bought a newer car........

7. Nitrogen

8. Spare wheel

[Anonymous]

1. They are the teeth on Andre Citroen's own design of gear cog.

2. Luft Electronic, ie Air measuring electronic control.

5. to reduce noise & power consumption. It also helps prevent cycling when the fan keeps turning off and on.

6. Any job under the car when you have no garage,it is cold, dark & raining, you urgently need the car next morning, and you have neither the parts or tools to do the job with your wife telling you should have bought a newer car........

7. Nitrogen

8. Spare wheel

Well done!

[Vanny]

1. They are the teeth on Andre Citroen's own design of gear cog.

The double helical gear was NOT designed by Andre, i've not seen any evidence that Andre ever designed anything himself just brought designers technology and ideals together. What he did do was combine the design of a Polish gear maker with either German or American production tools (i forget which) in order to mass produce perfectly accurate, perfectly reproducable double helical gears. The same designs and possibly the Citroen made gears are still used in big ben and where used in the rack and pinion steering of the Titanic!

The logo does however decend from the double helical gear design! Still think there one of the most impressive things to have machined, i mean stoping half way throguh and changing direction, not easy. Originally the Polish gear maker was doing them by hand

[Vanny]

9) dont know what the official line is/was but i suspect it wasn't feasible at the time due to the size and mass of the pistons, i suspect that the significant differences between the 1.7 and 1.9 would mean a need to finely balance the 1.9 more so than the 1.7, and techniques weren't available! The real reason of course was that by the time the R&D team had caught up they wanted to keep the 1.9TD for the Xantia, i mean if you could buy a 1.9TD Estate BX off the line, why bother with a Xantia diesel at all?


10) i guess Diravi but havent a clue