stiff front suspension on xantia

rolphy1975 · Post by **rolphy1975** » 11 Aug 2007, 20:17

hi. couple of questions.

1. my dad has a 1996 xantia 1.9 td estate and the front right suspension feels very hard compared to the left. he has changed all the spheres but this side is still very firm, just wondering if anyone had any ideas.

2. same car different problem, when driving the car at about 40 mph the car shakes until 50-55 mph is reached

, the shake seems worse if it is being given a bit of throttle but at 50-55 mph it goes away. the car has recently had an m.o.t and nothing was picked up and the tyres have all been balanced but made no difference. any ideas greatfully received!

Post by **Peter.N.** » 11 Aug 2007, 20:35

Has he changed the spheres since the problem occured? It sounds as though one has a punctured diaphragm.

Vibration at certain speeds is nearly always due to unbalanced or faulty tyres. Can you tell if its coming from the front or back of the car? the only other possible cause that I can think of is worn drive shaft joints. It could be that although you have had the tyres balanced that one is out of round due to ply seperation. Try jacking up each wheel in turn just off the ground and spinning them while looking at the gap under them and see if there is any variation.

rolphy1975 · Post by **rolphy1975** » 11 Aug 2007, 22:20

the suspension was stiff on the drivers side before he changed the spheres, hence why he changed them but it did not make any difference once changed.
he has driven citroen for as long as i can remember, has had gsa specials, a number of BX and xantias and also drives a 2001 C5 2.2hdi(lovely motor) but has never had this problem before.

as for the shake/vibration. it is more middle to front end of the car and can be quite violent, he suggested that it could be driveshaft bearing or possible gearbox? and like most of us doesnt like to pay garages an arm and a leg for jobs which he can do as a fairly competent home/d.i.y mechanic

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 11 Aug 2007, 23:03

A severe vibration upon acceleration could be the driveshaft CV's or the
lay shaft idler/intermediate bearing though I'd have a long hard look at
the bottom engine stabilser link and the MOT rarely picks these up as a
failure. Changing it is a real pain as the driveshaft and the oil need
disturbing just to get the whole expensive casting changed IF you don't
fancy the task of removing the old bush and fitting another...

I DON'T THINK IT CAN BE THE TYRES AS THE BALANCING WOULD
HAVE PICKED UP ANY PROBLEMS ALREADY!

Andrew

mezuk04a · Post by **mezuk04a** » 11 Aug 2007, 23:08

I noticed some kind of shaking on my zx on my motorway journeys at a particularly speed, then it was handed over to my mother and over time got much much more worse until I was a passenger in it and was just slightly concerned about it when the noise began to be large knocking noises, rather scary actually.

It ended up being something like the engine mounting or a gearbox mounting, once replaced the problem had disappeared.

So that may be something to look into, as it only occured for me at a certain speed, but a year later with my mother it was constant and scary.

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 11 Aug 2007, 23:17

On the stiff movement that is handed to just the one side it does point to a
duff sphere - I've had new replacement pattern spheres go before BUT if
it was the same BEFORE & AFTER the sphere change it would point to a
damaged strut inner piston - this is possible when the sealing on the ram
has perished due to the top gaiter drooping down from the strut top.

Andrew

rolphy1975 · Post by **rolphy1975** » 13 Aug 2007, 20:45

my dad does have got a strut that is good kicking around in his shed so maybe we will get that changed and see if a difference is made on the suspension, if we get it changed i will post again to say if this has worked or not!