Xantia TD throttle cable

This is the Forum for all your Citroen Technical Questions, Problems or Advice.

Moderator: RichardW

Post Reply
pete_wood_uk
Posts: 180
Joined: 22 Apr 2004, 13:08
Location: Cambs, United Kingdom
My Cars:

Xantia TD throttle cable

Post by pete_wood_uk »

My Xantia TD throttle cable got very stiff, so I started to take it apart to see if it could be lubed, and it snapped. Excellent, I'd much rather it snapped on my drive than during an overtaking manouevre.
So I now have the £30 kit of parts from Citroen and am wondering what to do with it?
My cable comes all the way round the engine bay and via a strange cylindrical device clipped to the side of the airbox. It appears, from what I felt when pulling at the cable, to contain a return spring. The cable has snapped inside the cylindrical thingy. The cylindrical thingy has no obvious means of getting it to pieces without breaking it.
Someone must have done this before. I did a search for "xantia throttle cable" here and people just talk about putting the new one in, with no mention of the cylindrical thingy at all.
Have I missed something obvious? The Ikea-style diagram that comes with the citroen cable kit does show the cylindrical thingy, but doesn't make it at all obvious what I'm suppose to do with it.
Many thanks
Pete
pete_wood_uk
Posts: 180
Joined: 22 Apr 2004, 13:08
Location: Cambs, United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by pete_wood_uk »

Oh dear. I was hoping that someone would know what this big cylindrical insert into the throttle cable is, and how to get it to bits. Shall I just try brute force?
Cheers
Pete
pete_wood_uk
Posts: 180
Joined: 22 Apr 2004, 13:08
Location: Cambs, United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by pete_wood_uk »

Well, I'll answer my own posting here just in case anyone's interested. The cylindrical thingy (this may have been obvious to everyone else, but wasn't to me) is not an additional return spring but in fact functions as a pierce of compressible cable outer. This soaks up any excess throttle movement as the pedal is mashed to the floor, and prevents the strain being dumped straight onto the throttle arm of the pump. As you push the pedal, the pump goes to full travel, then as you keep pushing the pedal down, the cylindrical thingy compresses. Neat, once you spot what's going on.
I didn't spot it until I'd taken the cylinder apart, which meant breaking it slightly, but it seems eminently repairable with a hose clip around its outside to hold it together :-). I'm still not sure, though, that I'd have got the new inner through *without* taking it t pieces, it seems a little fiddly.
Anyway, job done.
Cheers
Pete
jack.dempsey
Posts: 116
Joined: 05 Mar 2003, 17:57
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars: BX TZD @ 250K miles (J reg),
Xantia TD @ 165K miles (R reg),
Xantia 2.1 TD (R reg)
and tow a caravan with them all (not at the same time)

Post by jack.dempsey »

Perhaps if this device had been fitted to the BX there'd be fewer instances of the broken pedal box syndrome.
Or maybe Citroen learnt from the BX experience - hold on what am I saying !!
ACTIVE8
Posts: 2317
Joined: 16 Nov 2004, 16:49
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:
x 6

Post by ACTIVE8 »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by pete_wood_uk</i>

My Xantia TD throttle cable got very stiff, so I started to take it apart to see if it could be lubed, and it snapped. Excellent, I'd much rather it snapped on my drive than during an overtaking manouevre.
So I now have the £30 kit of parts from Citroen and am wondering what to do with it?
My cable comes all the way round the engine bay and via a strange cylindrical device clipped to the side of the airbox. It appears, from what I felt when pulling at the cable, to contain a return spring. The cable has snapped inside the cylindrical thingy. The cylindrical thingy has no obvious means of getting it to pieces without breaking it.
Someone must have done this before. I did a search for "xantia throttle cable" here and people just talk about putting the new one in, with no mention of the cylindrical thingy at all.
Have I missed something obvious? The Ikea-style diagram that comes with the citroen cable kit does show the cylindrical thingy, but doesn't make it at all obvious what I'm suppose to do with it.
Many thanks
Pete
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
What year is your Xantia ?
pete_wood_uk
Posts: 180
Joined: 22 Apr 2004, 13:08
Location: Cambs, United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by pete_wood_uk »

1997, as seen in my signature. Anyway, mystery solved by taking things apart and (only partly) breaking them :-)
Pete
ACTIVE8
Posts: 2317
Joined: 16 Nov 2004, 16:49
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:
x 6

Post by ACTIVE8 »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by pete_wood_uk</i>

1997, as seen in my signature. Anyway, mystery solved by taking things apart and (only partly) breaking them :-)
Pete
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Yes, doooh I should have noticed it in the signature part, my mistake !
Does this type of throttle cable only apply to the T.D. [?]
Post Reply