Xantia rear strut clip removal

[Xantidote]

Oh, I thought the idea of sub-frames was that you grew the plants in them

[CitroJim]

I thought growing subframes in your garden was a good plan.

I was hoping to get a nice crop of spheres off it but it never really flourished Steve. Not enough sun I guess..

I never did get to look at it today. I ended up driving around a big lawn on a ride-on mower. Great fun

[RichardW]

You missed the most important thing - how does it ride now ?

Much better Some of the patches which the council have put 'in' the road (I use the word advisedly as they always seem to finish up 1/2" proud) and which used to cause the whole car to jump in the air it just floated over. Not perfect by any means, but since the heights are all wrong that is not surprising.

I was thinking of putting a thread in handy hints and tips, referencing this and Chris's thread, and earlier ones, and putting in some more info on the job.

I thought about making a puller for the clip too - provided the ring is still intact, then it should be possible to put a u-bolt through it, and drill 2 holes in piece of angle bar long enough to straddle the hole in the inboard side of the subframe, then tighten up the bolts to see if it will pull out. If not enough room for a u-bolt, then perhaps two eyebolts and a piece of bar through the ring. Worst that can happen is the ring / pin snaps and you have to take the arm out anyway

[c.morewood]

"I thought about making a puller for the clip too - provided the ring is still intact, then it should be possible to put a u-bolt through it, and drill 2 holes in piece of angle bar long enough to straddle the hole in the inboard side of the subframe, then tighten up the bolts to see if it will pull out. If not enough room for a u-bolt, then perhaps two eyebolts and a piece of bar through the ring. Worst that can happen is the ring / pin snaps and you have to take the arm out anyway"

I'll try that on the next one!!

[Mandrake]

You missed the most important thing - how does it ride now ?

Much better Some of the patches which the council have put 'in' the road (I use the word advisedly as they always seem to finish up 1/2" proud) and which used to cause the whole car to jump in the air it just floated over. Not perfect by any means, but since the heights are all wrong that is not surprising.

Excellent

I noticed the first time I visited that the front height of your Xantia is too high by quite a lot, I don't recall what the rear looked like though. I find that the ride height really needs to be within +/- 10mm for optimum ride quality, especially when you consider that dog bone slack and sticky linkages introduces a bit of hysteresis in the height correction as well...

if you want to get all technical about getting the height just right, have a look at the images I posted in this thread:

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =3&t=44115" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When I checked mine the front was spot on, (with only 8mm of hysteresis) but the rear whilst at about the right height on average had 35mm of hysteresis between upwards and downwards height corrections, so it really needs the linkage sorting out... Normal hysteresis is about 10mm or less...

I've also been thinking about your damaged cylinder, I wonder if prolonged long distance driving with the rear right sphere punctured caused a chunk of the cylinder to be literally blown out ? It's too much of a co-incidence that the sphere on the side that was damaged was completely punctured and squirting oil when removed but the left hand one wasn't.

My Dad who was a Citroen mechanic back in the days of the DS and GS told me that driving a car with punctured spheres could often lead to a cracked cylinder as the alloy cylinders can't take the strain of hitting a large bump when there is nothing to absorb the shock - the hydraulic pressure is literally trying to explode the cylinder. Combine that with a bit of weakening from corrosion around the lip and it could be enough for a corroded or cracked chunk to let go...

[RichardW]

It's always been high at the front and low at the back this one, Simon - and it seems a common affliction of estates for some reason. It gives a bit of a false perception when parked though I think, as the AS valve closes pretty quickly, and the height corrector is a bit slow, which can lead to the front not correcting before the AS valve closes, and leaving it high - it then drops when re-started. Front is maybe 20mm high, and rear the same low. Rear seems to be correcting well though - it had seized up a while back, and I liberally dosed it in oil, so it seems to be working. Perhaps I will risk adjusting it

The flat sphere probably didn't help things, but the cylinder was well corroded all round, so it was only a matter of time before it let go. Musing on rear suspensions the other day, I realised that Xantias rarely seem to need rear arm bearings, whereas BXs used to eat them for fun - and C5s seem to have a reasonable appetite. It seems likely to me though that the corrosion issue is going to become more common, and there are going to be more tales of woe around that pin.

[RichardW]

Combination thread created in handy hints and tips http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 11&t=44218