Remove Xantia Alternator

doncrut · Post by **doncrut** » 04 Apr 2006, 13:06

Re: 1998 Citroen Xantia Estate 1.8i LX 16v with aircon not Hydractive.

Have never looked inside a Citroen engine compartment before and am a bit intimidated by the amount of components, pipes & wires surrounding the alternator on all sides - nothing like the Haynes manual!!

I have already taken off the aux belt together with the lower alternator mounting bolt and am now looking at how to remove the upper mounting bolt and electrics from the alternator and then how to manoeuvre it out.

Looking down into the engine compartment I cannot even see how the electrics are attached or where the upper mounting bolt is.

The top of the alternator is covered by the hydraulic pump with seemingly umpteen mounting bolts. The front of the alternator is covered by a bracket (rounded to the front curvature of the alternator) carrying the 2 pipes & 1 hose between the pump and the rest of the hydraulics. The right of the alternator is covered by a huge intet manifold with the oil filter underneath it. Under the alternator is the aircon pump with complex pipework.

I don't know how to get at the remaining mounting bolt or which direction to manoeuvre the whole alternator out.

I have never removed hydraulic or aircon sytems before and am a bit scared of the dire written warnings. All help gratefully received.

Post by **KennyW** » 07 Apr 2006, 19:36

Hi Donald,
I'm not sure re the 1.8i but on my 1.9 TD the following applies
Re the Alt. you will have to remove the bolts holding on the hydraulic pump but you will not need to disconnect the pipe work.
Obviously show care when moving pump to the side! this will give you access to the upper bolt.
The electric cables are on top of the Alt and are easily removed.
No need to remove Air Con. Comp.
The fun is still to come in getting Alt out of engine bay.

Other members of the forum will be able to advise further

Regards,
Kenny

doncrut · Post by **doncrut** » 08 Apr 2006, 19:02

Kenny

Many thanks for your very useful reply. I have succeeded in removing the alternator now after much pain.

Your info was essentially correct and I outline below my experience to help anybody else in this predicament standing in front of the engine.

I did eventually manage to get the nut off the right hand end of the upper mounting bolt with some devious round the bend socket work. But withdrawing the bolt leftwards was a different matter. The bolt head was hidden immediately behind an idler pulley on it's left which in turn was very close to the wheel arch on it's left. I eventually removed the pulley by Allen keying 3 small bolts from it's well-hidden mounting plate.

But then the long mounting bolt could only be slid about halfway leftwards before hitting the wheel arch. Because the left bolt eye on the alternator mounting was cut out, it should have been possible to pull the alternator forward despite the bolt only being withdrawn halfway. However I found it impossible to achieve enough force to do this.

So I had to undo the top screw from the right engine mounting and jack-up the whole engine to withdraw the complete mounting bolt above the wheel arch. After what had gone before, this was relatively straight forward. Even with both mounting bolts removed a surprising amount of force was needed to withdraw the alternator forwards out of it's mounting eyes.

As you said, the key to removing the alternator was to release the hydraulic pump from above it and the hydraulic pipes from in front of it. Unscrewing 2 bolts removed the pump, but the metal hydraulic pipes were rigidly attached to a mounting bracket running top-to-bottom across the front of the alternator. The bracket had to be removed, entailing the removal of the underneath aircon compressor (without disconnecting it), together with all securing clips on the 3'- 4' of pipework between the pump and the accumulator.

This enabled the hydraulics to be moved forward enough (without being disconnected) to withdraw the alternator downwards and leftwards below the wheel arch.

I am not looking forward to fitting a new alternator.

john alexander · Post by **john alexander** » 08 Apr 2006, 19:18

Hi there I've done this twice on a 1.9td and only removed the plastic intercooler pipe and the oil filter,never had to go near the hydraulic pump Regards john.