French Car Forum

Just gone and changed another Xantia's totally dreadful strut tops a week
ago. Thing is, in the failing light I managed to find an O ring - I'm not sure if
it was off the replacement top or left on the original piston of the main strut...
I believe it's the very top one and it hasn't leaked AFAIK but IS it a matter of
time; how much fluid would normally run out from the scavenging pipework?

Found the local filmstar wages scrapper had a VSX with a perfect condition
pair of strut tops last week - 25quid each plus the dreaded VAT. They look
brand new so I had to buy 'em - early Xmas pressie for myself

Guess what I'll be fixing over the imminent holiday period...
Seem to be hemorrhaging cash at the moment - bah humbug!

All the best for Crimbo everyone!! Not long now!

Andrew

Hohum - another one;

http://tinyurl.com/yzyrar

"citroen xantia SX TD mot till august 25th 2007 spares or repairs,
must see very good car needs front strut!!!"

Ebay item number: 170067847576

Andrew

I've seen the new strut mountings and the old broken mountings. The new mountings have metal bottoms while the old ones have rubber bottoms. So it seems that if ever the new ones break, the metal bottom will at least support the car for a little while longer instead of just bottoming out.

as fare as im aware there is no diferantsas,what normaly kills them is the rubber which is moulded all over the metal parts of the strut top perishes and let the wet in between the rubber surface and the metal,rots the metal away,bongo your stut shoots its self up through your bonnet
regards malcolm

I pressed the round bottom where the gaiter hangs, its solid metal in the new mounting and rubber for the old.

LeeDJC wrote:Pics of my new strut top as promised:

LeeDJC - any reason the pics have gone awol - wanted to keep a copy for my reference and the hosting for them has gone!!

Andrew

I wonder how long it takes before someone actually gets badly injured or worse when one of these lets go in a big bang forcing Citroen to actually do something...

The car's YET ANOTHER on ebay - this one's only covered a modest 64k miles too! Do other non Cit cars' suspensions fail this badly!?

Andrew

My article on this in relation to XMs was published in the Citroenian a few years ago, and in that I wrote that other cars with McStruts do have this failure from time to time. However in these other cars (in Aus, Holdens, Mitsubishis and the like) there is a bloody great spring on the under side of the wheel arch holding it all together.

Where is the spring in a Cit? On top!

So in a non Cit if the strut mount rubber, or in the UK case, metal fails, then the spring takes the load while the top of the strut just bangs around and makes a bad noise.

As far as I know, and has been reported to me by dealers and repairers, the failure of Cit struts as pictured usually happens at low speeds and most often with the rubber failure when the car is being reversed out of a driveway as the rubber is at maximum stress as it is going in its reverse direction and is twisted with the steering. I have heard of others that have just failed at the starting of the car as the suspension starts to take up load.

all of these i have fixed its been the metal parts inside the rubber which have rotted through,what i have seen so far is the rubber perishes water gets inbetween the rubber and the metal rotts and bongo,i also belive this could happen at any speed and direction,even in a staight line
regards malcolm

You have a point here Craig; my Xm was pulling away from standstill
from the road side accelerating reasonably hard when it popped - there
was a small amount of steering angle but not to a large degree. I must
say it scared the hell out of me as I thought I'd struck something low
down out of my line of vision almost like a post etc due to the way the
bonnet folded up in front of me. The rubber seemed to be the main culprit
on close examination though the metalwork wasn't rustfree - a bit of an
anomily as every subsequent failure I've seen has been the metal
shoulder plate as Malcolm has said.

The XM had good spheres fitted and this was certainly my first knowledge
of this kind of failure back about 4-5 years ago although sadly, I've seen
a load since - a Xantia VSX I actually purchased for no real money (with
a BRAND NEW MOT) simply BECAUSE OF THE STRUT FAILURE was bodily
damaged where the driver swerved violently at speed as he overreacted
to the popped strut wiping the side of the car out - he said it was a real
"brown trouser moment"...

I live in a very twisty hilly ( ) part of the world with fantastic
roads and sometimes ponder whether I'd ever be found, lying upside
down off the bend in the big hedge somewhere for days after my "off" as
a result of a strut boing phutt. Whilst I regularly check the struts of the
many Xantiae and Xm I drive off and on, I simply can't trust them. The
only answer seems to be multiple AND expensive purchase of new ones
which cannot reasonably be £ justified!! Guess I could drive like a boring
slow paranoid git like the other 80% of the drivers round these parts
instead...

No coincidence then that I drive my CX's more than I have been in the
recent past.

Andrew

So there are 4 different types of strut tops:-

1:- One for early basic versions without PAS.
2:- One for the rugular run of the mill Lx/Sx Petrol or Diesel, Antisink or Sinkdown (like my 93 model)
3:- VSX models (and Hydractive?)
4:- V6 Models?

Am I right in thinking though that a 98 (series 2) petrol strut top/mount mid trim level would fit my 93?

Hi Sturdy, how's things!?

I would put my neck out and suggest the V6 model will have hydractive
anyway, so the VSX type will do and probably would fit an Activa too.
The Standard sink/anti sink type would be the same from start to finish
on a saloon non-hydractive - I would certainly check/try this option - as
a matter of fact, I'd even suggest the estate MAY be the same once the
hydractive/non hydracive type is matched.

Andrew

Sturdybloke wrote:So there are 4 different types of strut tops:-

1:- One for early basic versions without PAS.
2:- One for the rugular run of the mill Lx/Sx Petrol or Diesel, Antisink or Sinkdown (like my 93 model)
3:- VSX models (and Hydractive?)
4:- V6 Models?

Yep, thats about it.

The non-PAS models have a different castor angle - this is built into the shape of the strut top. AFAIK there were never any Hydractive 2 non-PAS models.

The difference between 2 and 3 is that the taper at the end of the shaft where it goes into the strut top is different. (Can't mix Hydractive 2 and non-Hydractive 2 struts and strut tops)

I've heard that the V6 models have a strut top that is unique to the V6 model - I don't know what the differences are except that they're not compatible with the other models. (Probably just heavier construction since the V6 is so heavy!)

Am I right in thinking though that a 98 (series 2) petrol strut top/mount mid trim level would fit my 93?

Yes, I believe so, as long as they were both Hydractive 2, or both non-Hydractive 2.

I replaced the struts (not strut tops) on my '97 Mk1 Xantia with good second hand ones from a wrecked 2001 Mk2 Xantia and they were compatible with the existing strut tops.

The only difference I'm aware of based on year is that around '95 the diameter of the bolt hole on the strut itself where the rollbar droplink attaches was increased, I don't think there is any difference in the strut top.

Regards,
Simon

Thanks guys, you cleared things up for me. Off to look for a decent SH pair for the moment (just to get the car through the test).

Alright Andy, hows the CX going? Once the car passes the test (thats if and when), I will pop down and you can have a look at it and give me a expert view.

I've checked mine as a result of reading this thread. Top side seems O.k but part of the collar underneath broke off (near side) broke off in my hand. Whats my solution, struts seem O.K. Can I purchase strut tops including under-collars separately ?