Bent wishbone

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johnlyn
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Bent wishbone

Post by johnlyn »

This is a job that I am not looking forward to doing, I recently decided to go flying and off roading (not intentionally) in my 95 Xantia and think that i have bent the wishbone as the N/S/F wheel seems to be pushed approx 1 inch back where i hit the edge of the road before going down an embankment with some force. How difficult is it to change the wishbone and are there any problem areas as it looks like it would be pain to fit. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
bernie
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Post by bernie »

If you get a new wishbone complete with bushes, It'll take no more that an hour to fit.
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Post by adamskibx »

This brings back horrible memories of when I hit a rock in my BX 14. Your lucky its the wishbone, it was the subframe that went first on the BX.
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Post by oilyspanner »

Not too bad a job, I would be tempted to look in a breakers yard for a Xantia sitting on top of another car, access is then easy and you will have all of the bolts and a dry run before you touch your own car.
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Post by johnlyn »

Oilyspanner
I have got one from a breakers (£25) - just waiting for delivery. Will advise how I get on, or you will be hearing from me screaming for help.
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Post by bernie »

As it's s/h check carefully it's not bent and the bushes have very little movement. Oh and you'll need a ball joint breaker
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Kowalski
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Post by Kowalski »

I was looking at the wishbones on my Xantia (since I had the wheels off) and came to the conclusion that they are VERY heavily made. Make absolutely sure that it is the wishbone that is bent because although the subframe is heavily made, it is absolutely feable in comparison to the wishbones.
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Post by Mandrake »

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

I was looking at the wishbones on my Xantia (since I had the wheels off) and came to the conclusion that they are VERY heavily made. Make absolutely sure that it is the wishbone that is bent because although the subframe is heavily made, it is absolutely feable in comparison to the wishbones.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
My Dad bought his Xantia knowing it had had a small prang in the front right that needed sorting out, and much to our surprise the lower wishbone was indeed bent (nearly 20mm too short across the diagonal) and yet the subframe where it mounts was perfectly ok. I refused to believe it at first, but it was true.
Guess they don't make things as strong as they used to.... I still remember a head on collision that I had in my GS at 50Km/hr which totally smashed the the from bumper etc up and wrapped it right around the engine, and yet after I bent the guard away from touching the wheel, I drove it home.
After stripping the front off for panel beating I found there was absolutely NO damage to the suspension or the suspension geometry, even the wheel alignment was perfect. [:D] I guess thats one advantage of a suspension sub chassis that doesn't rely on the body for support...
On a second occasion I managed to drive the left half of the car into a metre deep culvit on the side of a metal road, and once again destroyed the front bumper and undertray, and again the suspension survived intact without even wheel alignment needing doing.
The strength and integrity of the GS/CX suspension sub chassis are an order of magnitude better than the BX/Xantia IMHO... (but I guess they were too heavy/expensive or took up too much room for a transverse engine layout, or they would have kept using them...)
Regards,
Simon
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

As a follow up to Simon's post I'd say it's not the wishbone here - unless it's a vintage with a sheet-made wishbone.
Xantia & BX wishbones do not bend. They snap - because they are made of cast iron.
Had an "incident" with my diesel BX years ago. Slipped in a curve (frosty weather) at speed and hit the start of the safety kerb w/ RHS front wheel. Snapped wishbone and bent subframe as well.
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Post by johnlyn »

On closer inspection i have noticed damage to the sub frame, N/S/F leading edge has had a knock, phoned insurers to get estimate done at garage, praying now they dont write it off! Must be a nightmare of a job to do? And might have to do it if i get the option to buy it back...
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Post by Kowalski »

Nightmare of a job? No.
If the subframe mounting points haven't been damaged / bent / moved you could replace the subframe with one off a scrapped car. I think the insurers are likely to write if off in any case, the cost of the labour to put it right would be a good proportion of the value of the car, if not more than it.
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Post by Mandrake »

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

As a follow up to Simon's post I'd say it's not the wishbone here - unless it's a vintage with a sheet-made wishbone.
Xantia & BX wishbones do not bend. They snap - because they are made of cast iron.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Sorry Anders,
But are you saying that I'm mistaken about the bent wishbone ? Or perhaps that I imagined it ? [;)]
It's not a sheet metal arm, its definately a cast arm, and I'm as surprised as you that it bent, but I saw it, and the arm that replaced it, and it was definately bent 20mm out of shape.
(Measured from the balljoint to the furtherest mounting bush)
The whole reason it was replaced was because the right hand wheel was visibly further back than the left, and the car was pulling to the right.
Obviously the mounting subframe should be checked for alignment too, but to say its not possible for the arm to bend just because its cast iron is nonsense. (Are you even sure they're cast iron ?)
Regards,
Simon
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Kowalski
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Post by Kowalski »

I thought the wishbones were forged steel which will bend to some degree. The wheel has quite a bit of leverage but they are heavilly made.
Cast iron has no place in car suspension which has to put up with bumps and impacts, at times cast can be like glass.
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

Forged ! <font color="red"><i>NOT</i></font id="red"> cast ! Sorry - I did a mistake here [:I]
Still on my BX it snapped [8)]
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Post by oilyspanner »

Even if the subframe is damaged its not the end of the world to replace it, almost all mechanicals remain in situ (at least on the BX ) and the Xantia is very similar.
Stewart
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