Rear suspension is squeaky

Martin Beevers · Post by **Martin Beevers** » 19 Aug 2009, 11:33

Hi again,

My rear suspension squeaks when driving and more noticeably when I get out after parking up. I can make it squeak by pushing down on the rear wing to force settlement of the suspension.

I have been told by a mechanic that there are sealed bushes in the rear suspension components that just cannot be greased because Citroen in their wisdom, never thought of fitting said bushes with nipples.

I am guessing the bushes in the trailing arm are causing the noises.

Has anyone had this problem before? And is there a trick to lubricating these bushes.

95 Xantia 1.9 TD SX

Thanks Martin

Post by **CitroJim** » 19 Aug 2009, 12:32

Hi martin,

I very much expect this to indicate the early stages of the trailing arm bearings failing. If you catch it quickly there'll unlikely be any damage to the arms themselves.

You may see the back wheels have developed some negative (/ \) camber if you sight them from a distance.

The bearings are rather puny-looking for what they do and not being able to grease them does not help

GSF do the bearing kits for about £70 'ish. I've not done them (yet) although I'm told it's not too much of a job. There are plenty of posts on here to describe the job. It's the same job as on the BX and C5.

uncle buck · Post by **uncle buck** » 19 Aug 2009, 13:04

Hi,
Is the Xantia rear axel the same sort of set up that would be on the ZX?

I ask as I fitted grease nipples to the axel tube on my ZX & on a 309 I had.
I drilled into the axel tube between the outer & inner bearing, then fitted a screw in grease nipple. I could then pump in a load of grease, as the trailing arm shaft is inside the tube the grease will spread out along the length of the tube quite quickly...I put approx 1 tube of grease in per side before I could feel the resistance on the grease gun so I sort of knew the tube was then full, a couple more pumps & that was the job done.
I'm sure the grease helped the trailing arm bearings as the ZX did have a bit of negative camber but I never had any bangs or squeaks.

Cheers.

Post by **CitroJim** » 19 Aug 2009, 13:09

No, the Xantia rear arms are fundamentally the same as a ZX in principle but there is no tube. The ends of the arms are attached to "U" channels on the rear subframe with big bolts going through the bearing centres and holding the whole lot together.

The bearings are taper rollers rather than the needle rollers in the ZX and part of the replacement task is to ensure the bearings are correctly preloaded. There are shims and a spacer to achieve this.

uncle buck · Post by **uncle buck** » 19 Aug 2009, 15:27

Sounds a better set up than the ZX, shame there is no grease nipples though.

Cheers.

Post by **Paul-R** » 19 Aug 2009, 16:54

Pleides have a procedure to make replacement bearings last longer.

It involves packing with grease and heavy oil and was posted here recently. I've had a search but can't find it unfortunately.

falling-out-with-my-car · Post by **falling-out-with-my-car** » 19 Aug 2009, 22:20

if you jack up the offending corner at the rear and push the wheel in and out from the back of the wheel you can usually feel if the radius arm bearings have any wear/slack in them, they may not have and could go on for a very long time even if the wheels have negative camber.

I have one in negative camber at the moment but there is no play in the bearings at all yet. I wasnt aware that damage to the arms could occur as a result of negative camber, I shall be fitting a recon arm anyway apparently they last longer than replacing just the bearings according to pleidaies.

once the play occurs it will fail an MOT.

regards nigel.

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 19 Aug 2009, 22:44

Unless you disconnect the anti-roll bar I'd have thought it would be quite difficult to detect wear in the bearings unless the wear was very excessive to the point of damaging the arm. Replacing the bearings isn't that bad a job TBH.

Martin Beevers · Post by **Martin Beevers** » 20 Aug 2009, 20:57

Thanks for your thoughts fella's,

The car has only just passed an MOT by the way, so was thinking that the bearings can't be that badly worn.

I will have a go at replacing the bearings soon. And maybe look into filling the trailing arm with oil via a tapped hole. Will have a proper investigation when I get the old girl apart.

I will be checking for negative camber in the morning.

dnsey · Post by **dnsey** » 20 Aug 2009, 21:30

If there is negative camber, it's unwise to leave things as they are, even if there's no detectable play. Apart from potentially affecting handling, alarming tyre wear can occur. A former BX of mine wore both rear tyres through to the wire on one side within 1000 miles (they had almost new tread on the other side); attempting to shake the wheels revealed no movement, but the bearings were absolutely shot when I came to replace them.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 21 Aug 2009, 19:22

The full kit seems to be getting expensive these days.
You should be able to get away with replacing just the bearings and seals.

Prices Feb09: GSF Car parts.
N42350 REAR ARM BEARING................7.25
N42362 REAR ARM BEARING SEAL.......1.25

I replaced the rear arm bearings on both sides of my BX and found that two of the old bearings had disintegrated and one of the outer shells had split. According to reports the rear arm bearing housing can be damaged if you leave replacement too long.

Here is a link to the procedure for the BX some of which may translate to the Xantia
http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~ynar/bxorg_a ... /m07e.html

Martin Beevers · Post by **Martin Beevers** » 21 Aug 2009, 21:39

Thanks for that info David. Quality link...

I also read on here that I may have to shim the bearings in place. Is this right? And if so can someone post a link to the thread on how this is done?

Maybe I'm jumping the gun a bit, normally things aren't too bad once I get into the bones of a job. Just a bit concerned.

I was quoted today £38 +Vat, each side by GSF for the kit. I like the idea of just buying the bearings and seals. What is in the kit that I won't need then? The mind boggles...

Martin

Post by **CitroJim** » 21 Aug 2009, 21:54

This is the contents of the kit Martin..

Bearings, seals, spacers, ground axle, through bolt and nut. In short, everything you could possibly need bar the arm itself!

David is quite right, providing yours has not gone too far, the bearings and seals should be all you will need.

ellevie · Post by **ellevie** » 21 Aug 2009, 23:16

Don't worry about the shims --- simply reuse the old one if indeed there is one fitted. The shims are simply used to compensate for manufacturing tolerances. The kit does not include shims.

If you study the Citroen service documentation you will see that there is a special Citroen tool which is supposed to be used to determine the correct size of shim to be fitted. The aim of the procedure is to ensure that the spacer or axle, on which the bearings and thrust bushes are mounted, does not protrude beyond the thrust bushes as indicated on the diagram below.

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 22 Aug 2009, 07:42

Personally I'd buy the kit unless you've found a better way than I have of removing the first bearing from the arm as on every occaision I've changed the bearings the plastic sleeve gets mashed up as it obstructs access to the lip of the bearing making it all but impossible to apply the force necessary to push the bearing out.