Loose ends

I was tying some loose ends today. Not that I'd run out anytime soon. One of them was tying down the battery box. I decided to do it this way for now and maybe change it later. Hopefully the inspector won't have a problem with this approach. Then again, it's not a huge issue, if I have to go for a more permanent fix. The thick black wire in the picture grounds the battery box into the chassis. It's not very pretty, but gets the job done. Another little thing to tidy up later, if there's time and interest.

As is usually the case with French cars, my Xsara also had it's spare tire under the boot, outside the car. I believe it's not required to have a spare wheel anymore, a lot of new cars don't, so I figured I'd take it out. It was a full sized wheel with sturdy mounting system, but I was still suprised to find out the pile of crap came in at a hefty 20 kg! Very nice weight savings indeed. Almost half the weight of my batteries.

I also picked up the Power Steering pump which had the piece from the old pump fitted into it's now stubby pipe, making it compatible with the plumbing in the car. This is to me the most favored solution since now I can keep buying Xsara plumbing and 307 pumps as long as I like, if they break.

A problem surfaced regarding the VAG vacuum pump. I don't know if it's by design or if the pump is broken, I'm guessing the latter, but once I got everything put together and running otherwise fine, the vacuum would escape through the hole in the pump which it uses to blow out extra air from the vacuum side. Bloody annoying. I took the cap of the pump and found a couple of seals, which seemed fine, and nothing else broken either. Maybe I can find a one-way valve that would keep the vacuum from escaping? That would fix the issue. The vacuum relay I got from ebay works as advertised.