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2002 Citroen Xsara VTS - another old French bird!!

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Discussion starter · #541 ·
So, after a weekend of looking, asking and finding, I've another project in the offing for the Xsara.

My friend with the other Xsara popped over Saturday and bought me:

A) 24 bottles of Henry Weston's and,
B) A much better head unit for the Xsara.

The ciders were for numerous fixing jobs I've done on his, the headunit, as he had a couple spare. As I looked at it, I started to think.....could I connect my phone to it via Bluetooth? And then, if I could, what else could I do? Within 5 mins, I'd got the spare centre fascia and the tape measure out.....



Now, the std tech offering in the Xsara, is, frankly, in comparison to my GTD, prehistoric. A Tuner/cd player and a little display showing date/time/temp and a couple of other bits.



The Golf, is all lovely and sexy and touch screen and integrated and just ace.

The cogs continued to turn......touchscreen.......Bluetooth......sat nav.......and then it struck me:

Raspberry Pi.

Frantic googling suggests building a touch screen multimedia centre for the Xsara is not a figment of my imagination and is perhaps more than possible. Talking with a couple of IT expert mates who know about this stuff (who got very excited at the idea) and it's game on.

So, my plan, is to replace the Citroen display and std headunit, with an 8" touch screen which will then be capable of doing all the multimedia stuff (Bluetooth, phone Integration, DAB etc) run Google maps, RCA output for the amps so the install still works, emulate the Citroen display so it will show the stuff the display did, etc. There may be other bits I yet add but who knows.....let's see where this goes. Bluetooth, GPS, RCA, DAB and other required modules are all available, it's just about the coding.

So, the first thing for me to do is source an 8" touchscreen. They are about, but it's not a common size. 8" pretty much fills this space left by removing the headunit and Citroen display so I'm busy sourcing the screen. That's the first job, getting one and making it fit the console. The gap at max is 210mm wide by 120mm tall. Most 8" screens I've found will fit within that and I can modify the Xsara surround to fit, or possibly make a new one from fibreglass.

Once that's done, we can then start on the computing side of things. If anyone here is into this kind of stuff, please feel free to contribute or point me in the right direction....
 
#543 ·
Ben_W said:
So, after a weekend of looking, asking and finding, I've another project in the offing for the Xsara.

My friend with the other Xsara popped over Saturday and bought me:

A) 24 bottles of Henry Weston's and,

B) A much better head unit for the Xsara.

The ciders were for numerous fixing jobs I've done on his, the headunit, as he had a couple spare. As I looked at it, I started to think.....could I connect my phone to it via Bluetooth? And then, if I could, what else could I do? Within 5 mins, I'd got the spare centre fascia and the tape measure out.....



Now, the std tech offering in the Xsara, is, frankly, in comparison to my GTD, prehistoric. A Tuner/cd player and a little display showing date/time/temp and a couple of other bits.



The Golf, is all lovely and sexy and touch screen and integrated and just ace.

The cogs continued to turn......touchscreen.......Bluetooth......sat nav.......and then it struck me:

Raspberry Pi.

Frantic googling suggests building a touch screen multimedia centre for the Xsara is not a figment of my imagination and is perhaps more than possible. Talking with a couple of IT expert mates who know about this stuff (who got very excited at the idea) and it's game on.

So, my plan, is to replace the Citroen display and std headunit, with an 8" touch screen which will then be capable of doing all the multimedia stuff (Bluetooth, phone Integration, DAB etc) run Google maps, RCA output for the amps so the install still works, emulate the Citroen display so it will show the stuff the display did, etc. There may be other bits I yet add but who knows.....let's see where this goes. Bluetooth, GPS, RCA, DAB and other required modules are all available, it's just about the coding.

So, the first thing for me to do is source an 8" touchscreen. They are about, but it's not a common size. 8" pretty much fills this space left by removing the headunit and Citroen display so I'm busy sourcing the screen. That's the first job, getting one and making it fit the console. The gap at max is 210mm wide by 120mm tall. Most 8" screens I've found will fit within that and I can modify the Xsara surround to fit, or possibly make a new one from fibreglass.

Once that's done, we can then start on the computing side of things. If anyone here is into this kind of stuff, please feel free to contribute or point me in the right direction....
Click to expand...
Very much looking forward to this Ben. Got the inner geek in me all excited!!

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
#548 ·
Ben_W said:
Raspberry Pi.

Frantic googling suggests building a touch screen multimedia centre for the Xsara is not a figment of my imagination and is perhaps more than possible. Talking with a couple of IT expert mates who know about this stuff (who got very excited at the idea) and it's game on.
Click to expand...
I'm doing something similar with a Pi 3B+ and I'll be using crankshaft which will give me android auto. Pretty much everything you need to know is here :

https://www.reddit.com/r/crankshaft/

Ben_W said:
So, my plan, is to replace the Citroen display and std headunit, with an 8" touch screen which will then be capable of doing all the multimedia stuff (Bluetooth, phone Integration, DAB etc) run Google maps, RCA output for the amps so the install still works, emulate the Citroen display so it will show the stuff the display did, etc. There may be other bits I yet add but who knows.....let's see where this goes. Bluetooth, GPS, RCA, DAB and other required modules are all available, it's just about the coding.

So, the first thing for me to do is source an 8" touchscreen. They are about, but it's not a common size. 8" pretty much fills this space left by removing the headunit and Citroen display so I'm busy sourcing the screen. That's the first job, getting one and making it fit the console. The gap at max is 210mm wide by 120mm tall. Most 8" screens I've found will fit within that and I can modify the Xsara surround to fit, or possibly make a new one from fibreglass.

Once that's done, we can then start on the computing side of things. If anyone here is into this kind of stuff, please feel free to contribute or point me in the right direction....
Click to expand...
I'm going with the official Pi 7inch touchscreen. With the bezels it is the perfect size for a double DIN head unit and fits perfect.
 
Discussion starter · #549 ·
SunnyBoi said:
I'm doing something similar with a Pi 3B+ and I'll be using crankshaft which will give me android auto. Pretty much everything you need to know is here :

https://www.reddit.com/r/crankshaft/

I'm going with the official Pi 7inch touchscreen. With the bezels it is the perfect size for a double DIN head unit and fits perfect.
Click to expand...
Don't suppose you have a link to the screen you are using do you please?

Thanks
 
Discussion starter · #555 ·
wrxmania said:
That's a job I quite fancy myself on the cars - straightforward and cheap enough?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Yes, it didn't cost me anything, mainly because I had the stuff I used lying about already.

Deox C tank, grinder with wire brush, some Electrox primer and then used up a can of silver high temp exhaust paint left from my beach buggy days.

The back plates were a bit of a pain to remove, mostly because Citroen used stupid Torx head bolts to hold them on, which get full of crap and go rusty etc. I also had to unplug the ABS sensors so as the wiring threads through the back plates but in the grand scheme of things, a pretty simple job, on the Xsara at least.
 
Discussion starter · #556 · (Edited)
You can never own enough 3 dr Xsara:s in silver can you?

No? Good, that's what I thought...:lol: or at least what I told the wife.

So, there I was, minding my own business, not looking at cars at all.....nope, I was lying on the bed, minding my business, not doing much.

Bing. Facebook messenger. Who's that I thought? Turns out to be an old 306 circles friend, sending me a Facebook marketplace post, for a 03 Ph2 Xsara VTR with 79k on the clocks.

For £100.

Yes, £100.







Safe to say, I now own it. It's way to cheap to pass up for that money.... I'm picking it up next weekend. It's a 110bhp 1.6, 16v lump, it starts and drives but has no MOT because it needs brakes. That's no issue because I'll trailer it home.
 
#558 ·
No pics for me either bud. It's the n+1 theory used by cyclists. Meaning that the number of bikes you want is always more than the number you have.

You're just applying that to Citroen Xsaras. Lol

Sent from my SM-G950F using Tapatalk
 
Discussion starter · #560 ·
Andyblue said:
Wow, seems like an absolute bargain :thumb:

What are your plans for it ?
Click to expand...
It's a breaker Andy......few bits I need, if the front bumper is as good as it looks, I'll have that. Some boot trim I need, as mine has a couple of broken clips thanks to ham fisted me so rattles a little. There will probably be more but I've already thrown it up on the Xsara Facebook page and have people wanting stuff.
 
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Ben_W
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