French Car Forum

i understand were your comming from Richard,

im standding in the middle of the M 25 waitting to be run over by a No. 9 bus
, HE HE HE,

i have sent Vince a pm regarding the avalibilaty and price from GSF as i think i would be going that route as well
regards malcolm

Hope GSF can supply these at a good price as I would like to do the near side on mine. The rubber has come away and is flapping around, it does look a bit rusty under there. It would need to be in the next week or 2 as we are all off to Norway on the 14th Aug.

gav425

I realise it's easy to say, and hell I know myself the usual circumstances,
but the safety, reliability and useabilty of your Xantiae need to be weighed
against the limitng factor of just going out and fitting a new strut top
= COST!!

In a worst case scenario, a real road trip/holiday would be ruined and
could develop into a farce should you have one fail on the run - for
peace of mind at least; a through examination of the top, particularly
around the strut top at the wheel arch circular cut out from inside the
engine bay would be my area of attention and obviously the underside
collar - the flappy loose rubber covering may now actually stop trapping
moisture against the vulnerable metal underneath - it needs as much
thickness of metal there as possible!!

All the best,
Andrew

Going to do my tops tomorrow.Need to because new job Monday needs reliable vehicle,and they need doing!
I ordered new gaiters but they're on back order !.The original gaiters are intact but I could only fit one back on when I recently greased the struts but I did read on here that that was due to the tops going oval.Is there any scope to use a cable tie to secure?Any advice please
Thanks
Isisalar

There may be a small but still significant enough difference between the
diameter of the old and new gaiter which prevents any interchangeability
between both types of strut and gaiter. It's obviously a concern that these
items aren't in any kind of stock quantity/back up - bit poor of Citroen's
part really if they've changed the design of the top enough to require a
bespoke new gaiter and then not sell it!!

It's really a job you only really want to do the once to each side and I think
it'd be difficult to justify undoing everything pretty much to scratch again
to fit another gaiter when it does arrive; did the dealer give any idea how
long the new part would take = I cannot imagine the car is going to tip the
balance in another few days although there is Sod's Law to contend with.
A cable tie may well work fine but it's not exactly a confidence inspiring
solution that sounds like it'd last a while.

At the end of the day, it'll be down to how much of a difference there
physically is between the old and new gaiter. To try and help as we don't
have measurements of the old and new gaiters handy, the only other way
to look at this is to measure the collar of the new strut top and compare it
will an original which fortunately I have beside me as a new old stock item,
where the widest diameter of the collar where the gaiter clips around is
95mm...

Take your time tomorrow and don't forget TO REFIT the inner rubber cone
bump stop = OK!???

Andrew

I'll have a rummage around for the old gaiter that I had to discard on fitting
a nice clean new one and get as accurate a measurement as I can; it is a
bit wobbly!

Andrew

A cable tie may not work on the gaiter. The gaiters must be free to rotate around the collars of the strut and and top mount otherwise they will "wind up" and fall down on steering movements.

On my first Xantia, I had huge trouble keeping one gaiter in place and it was because the bottom of it was stuck fast on the strut and unable to rotate due to a build up of road muck.

In extremis, you might get away with a cable tie on the strut top end but not on the lower strut end.

They are a 'mare to get over the collar on the strut top

Jim i dont think they are ment to move at the top end, from memmery i think the bottom end almost just sits in place, so it is almost cetainly this is were the free movement is allowed

regards malcolm

citronut wrote:Jim i dont think they are ment to move at the top end, from memmery i think the bottom end almost just sits in place, so it is almost cetainly this is were the free movement is allowed

regards malcolm

Absolutely correct Malcolm, it's the bottom end that needs to be free to rotate although, due to the nature of the gaiter material, they do rotate on the top collar as well although, as you say, they don't really need to.

I've never seen the gaiter stuck on the lower strut collar in the past nor
particularly loose either; not in the way they're a PITA to get fixed on the
strut mount bracket. I'd be most surprised if there was anything more than
minute twist or flex on the gaiter as much as longitudinal pull on the gaiter
'hips'. The strut head will rock fore/aft on lock to lock that's all!

Cannot find my old gaiter to measure the diameter, yet!!

Andrew

Andrew
the strut body moves all the way left and right when you steer, but the ram shaft just tilts a bit which is why the strut top moves a bit
regards malcolm

Of course!! Had a bit of a doh! moment there didn't I!!

The WHOLE strut swivels with the hub with the bottom ball joint/arm, track
rod and anti roll drop link keeping it in shape so the gaiter will need to move
somehow bearing in mind the top isn't turning the same amount!! The inner
piston will be busy twisting inside the ram too as it's fixed on the strut top.

Hadn't thought of this before!

Dammit, what's wrong with double wishbones and a proper ram on the top
arm as per CX D and GS...

Andrew

i quite agree Andrew
this is why the BX/XANTIAs and on suffer with suspension faults never seen on earlier citroens like DS,CX and Gs, as there is a lot more strain on the strut/ram with hydraulic Mc ferson strut type citroens

regards malcolm

Actually managed to refit the old gaiters to the new tops.It was a bit of a struggle but managed it eventually.The old ones were suprisingly elastic given their age.Managed to push them up with a large screwdriver and rotate as necessary,they seem to be still in place after a week,but I'd still be happier if I'd been able to replace with new.Interestingly my Citroen dealer also said that this was the first time he had supplied strut tops,and a guy at GSF who said he used to work at Citroen had also no experience of this problem.Weird.

Here are pictures of both side of mine.

Nearside:



Offside:


What does anybody think of the two of them?

Any chance of a rescue?

Its all wet as I just gave the car a wash.
gav425