Xantia rear suspension arm bearings (2.0 16v VSX 155 BHP)

[sbraud]

Dear All

After 16 years of relatively unexpected trouble free motoring my ‘94 built (registered ’95 on M) Xantia 2.0 16v VSX 155 BHP needs it’s rear main suspension arm bearings replacing. Not sure if I’m going to have time to do the work so have placed my details on the For Sale forum.

Should I push on and take her off the road to do the work, my question is can I still source the bearing/bushes to rectify the / \ rear wheel alignment or is it time to call it a day?

Thanks,
S

[Hell Razor5543]

The parts are still available. I have just done a search on Euro Car Parts website, and found these (based on the details you put up).

http://www.eurocarparts.com/ecp/c/Citro ... f0d&000807" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This kit would do one side, so you need to get two sets. I don't know how long it would take, but if you like the car you probably would want to keep her going. I feel certain that the experts would be able to let you know how to do the job, and (possibly) a better source for the parts.

James

[trucker1]

go for it done my c5 bushes recently in 4 hours never done them before but all nice and quiet now lol

[citroenxm]

Theres only ONE thing that may well cause you much grief!

The R clip that holds the strut end into the arm has a very common problem of siezing inplace, and very useually breaks when tring to remove.. Id start a week or two applying loads of plug gas penetrating oil to start the freeing off if at all..

Other then that, the job is not bad to do...

[Mandrake]

I did the rear arm bearings on my 1997 2 litre VSX, its not that difficult really I think it took me a few hours, and that was with me just finding my way around the job having never done it before.

I did it in NZ where car under bellies don't rust much so the R clip didn't give me any grief, the main snags I ran into were the ABS sensors and actually drifting out the old bearings.

The ABS sensors have to be either removed from the hub or disconnected. Mine looked well rusted into the hub so I thought the chances of them breaking on removal were quite high, so I opted to disconnect the cable instead. Only trouble is the location of the plug is above the subframe below the floor pan so it takes long bendy fingers to be able to disconnect it. On the left hand side you have to drop the exhaust off its mountings to reach the plug. Once that is done however the cable can be extracted from the bodywork, and withdraws through a hole near the pivot of the arm where a rubber grommet holds it in place, allowing the arm to be fully removed without removing the ABS sensor from the hub, which I think is preferable to trying to remove a rusty ABS sensor.

Drifting out the old bearings can be tricky, some people apply a weld to pull them out however I did mine without a welder, the trick to that is you have to destroy and remove the old plastic spacer tube first - a large flat blade screwdriver and a hammer will do the trick, except for the ends there is a gap between the plastic tube and the inside of the arm, so if you angle a screwdriver into the middle of the tube and hammer you'll easily make a hole in the plastic tube, make a few such holes then just bend and work it around to crumple up the plastic tube at which point you can remove it with the bearings still in place.

Once removed you can use a standard circular drift to knock each bearing out from the opposite end as there is sufficient lip on the bearing shell now exposed. As long as you do it a little bit at a time and keep moving around so that it stays straight its not difficult to get each bearing out.

A few tips -

1) Before putting the new bearings and plastic tube in, CHECK that nothing has fallen into the hollows in the arm. How do I know this ? Because that car STILL has a small washer loose inside the right hand rear arm that makes a little tinkle over harsh bumps. The arm is hollow from the middle of pivot right down to the far end, so things can fall into that hollow while the plastic tube is removed...

2) Be careful to take note of where the bearing preload shim is located and remember to refit it - it's a shim on the end of the arm pivot that adjusts for variations in the mounting gap in the suspension chassis. Also don't mix up the shim between left and right hand sides as they are most likely different.

3) If you disconnect the roll bar from both arms at once you must first slacken the height corrector clamp or you will bend and damage the height corrector linkage by allowing it to rotate too far. This of course means that you must then go through the height adjustment process when finished. A better way in my opinion is to simply remove one arm at a time, then refit the first and clamp it back to the roll bar before unbolting the 2nd arm from the roll bar. This way there is always one arm attached to the roll bar preventing excessive rotation - the bonus is that you don't need to readjust the ride height afterwards, it will be exactly the same...

[addo]

You can unclip the "dogbone" for similar surety with the height corrector setting.

I've never seen comment on the shimming; whether it's to be preloaded or what.

[Mandrake]

You can unclip the "dogbone" for similar surety with the height corrector setting.

I've never seen comment on the shimming; whether it's to be preloaded or what.

Yes you could unclip the dog bone I suppose, the only thing is if its a bit worn it might push it over the edge to the point where it starts to pop off by itself, as its under a lot of strain with rusty UK height corrector linkages...

There is definitely a shim there, mine had them and it was specifically pointed out in the Citroen service manual that I had at the time. The shim matches the car not the bearings, so stays with the same side of the car when the bearings are replaced.

The preload on the bearing is just the tightening of the main bolt, the reason for the shim is that before the bolt can load the bearings the suspension chassis bracket must squeeze together a bit - too much gap and you just end up clamping the chassis mounts towards each other with no preloading on the bearings at all...so the shim just takes up the slack so that the bolt starts to clamp on the bearings straight away with minimal bending of the mountings...

[addo]

I have new shims of all sizes, in the nice little plastic bags. Only been putting off the job for a year.

[Mandrake]

I've attached some pages from the Citroen service manual regarding the rear arms and shims etc... the forum doesn't seem to allow PDF attachments (Jim ?) so I've had to zip them.

Data - Rear Axle is probably the most useful and mentions the shims, Rear Axle Shim Evolution describes their introduction, presumably part way through the Xantia production run, although it doesn't mention an RPO number. I've also attached the removing and refitting pages for the original poster, although to be honest they're not that great and miss out a lot of useful info describing only the stuff that's obvious... All three files are for Non-Activa Mk1 Xantia's, although I suspect Mk2 is the same.

[Hell Razor5543]

If you haven't got any, I know that Euro Car Parts also do Plus Gas, and it costs £4.99 for 400ml. Some branches do a larger can, but I don't have a price.

[sbraud]

Thanks hell razor, addo, citroenxm and Simon for all the help, advice, pictures and diagrams – very much appreciated!

I’ll have a look through all the info to familiarise myself with the job in hand

Many thanks,
Steve