Phil - you've brought back some bad memories there of virtually the only time I've had to lay up a BX for a while while unsuccessfully trying to source bits. That 3-way elbow or "collector" is in a pretty hard-to-reach spot. But what surrounds it is what presented a problem to me (not the plastic).Philhod wrote:There is a 3 way elbow in the water pipes. The later ones were plastic and those buggers tended to crackand leak water
There's a short tapering diameter ribbed hose on the later models that feeds into this, and Citroen took a few goes to decide on the diameters each end. When this hose went on a K_reg TD I had, the RP number changes around that car proved pretty ambiguous for trying to source a replacement. Plenty of things on that car, it seemed, were one-offs or short-term parts.
What was available wouldn't fit, and couldn't be modded (if I remember rightly). I went though a few attempts at ordering before giving up.
In the end, I think I used a cut-down version of the similar (unribbed) tapering-diameter pipe that normally fits from the thermostat pre-open return to the steel pipe heading round the back of the block. By this time, with all the fitting/refittting, some other water pipes started to disintegrate, so those had to be replaced or repaired as well...
Just thought I"d mention it, in case someone else is unfortunate enough to hit this problem. I think the pipe is still in situ on the back of that lump, now in the doc's barn.