h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the interests of balance(and because I love these cars to death + am therefore biased + will gladly admit it), I'd just like to point something out.

As far as the petrol engines goes, this contributor is under the impression that the Renault 1.7 petrol engine was used in Citroen BXs. WRONG - this was used in ....Renaults 9/11/21s etc.(surprise,surprise) and the Volvos he mentions (somewhat modified).

The "uniformly dreadful" petrol engines were, with one exception, the almost exact counterparts of the engines in such "ahem - unifomly dreadful" cars as the classic Peugoet 205 (in 1.6 and 1.9 form), the underrated 309, and very-well-liked 405. The only real "dog" (arguably) was the original gears-in-sump 1.4 which had first seen the light of day in the Peugeot 104. This was then replaced with the 1.4 TU engine since used in the Citroen AX,ZX, Peugeot 106, 205, 306...

The XU-series engines, and their diesel cousins (8 million plus units), are still produced (if my memory serves me correctly), or have only just been superceded. Peugeot and Citroen have been part of the same PSA organisation for many years, and have shared engines since the BXs appeared. In fact, the XU engines appeared in the BX first in 1982/3, well before they appeared in such Peugeot cars as the original 205 GTi.

What DID happen with the petrol engines was that the autochoke mechanism which the market demanded at the time tended to age badly, and were widely misunderstood. Once they'd been misadjusted a couple of times, the petrol consumption tended to spiral downwards. This was easily fixed in both Citroens and Peugeots by a manual choke conversion kit (still available today).

Injection versions of the SAME XU engine were restricted to the the performance option, the GTi, until relatively late in the model's life. The enginewas further developed into the one used in the indecently fast BX 16v GTi. Strangely enough, many 16vGTi engines have ended up in other cars, in the quest for greater speed.

Save the BX - and drive a future classic!

I knew they were in the Peugeots, because I have driven them - I obviously forgot to mention this. The 405 was satisfyingly quick, but terribly prone to burning out valves I believe. I know of several which had reached the level of one gallon per thousand miles oil consumption before 100,000 miles - which probably says more about the way reps drive 405s than about the engines themselves.

Ahh, a breath of fresh air, someone who knows what he's talking about.
Thank you.

--
A 16v BX owner