Xantia strut tops

[gxantia]

Update on my sickly MK1 Xantia. I brought hydra-active strut tops, but fortunantely the seller sent the wrong side. So I returned them, and got some salvage parts of the correct type. Put them on by dismantling the entire front suspension, not that difficult if you have access to a windy gun. This has left me with two problems, the first is gearbox oil. The front drive shaft fell out, the gearbox oil escaped. Not entirely sure how to get it back on. Second problem is the allignment of the strut, does hole for the LHM fluid in the strut itself (top hole), have to be orientated a special way?

I took the oppotunity to weld up the back end, which was bloody difficult. First there was a small fire, the only other car I have welded is a Triumph Dolomite, and that didn't come with loads of hidden flamable sound proofing. Oddly considering it was a BL car from the 70's, no one place had rotted as bad as the nearside back corner of teh Xantia.

Be warned they rot inside out in that area. If you see a paint blister there, odds are you have lost the wheelarch, and part of the boot panel. Still I have managed to replace all that with new metal. Still a bit of a bodge, structurally pretty good, appearance not so great. Time to break out the filler.

[sparksie]

Yup.

I'm a few weeks behind you with mine.
I found it while fitting a freebie tow bar during the winter and decided to ignore it until the weather improved. Guess that's gotta be any day now

[gxantia]

Yup.

I'm a few weeks behind you with mine.
I found it while fitting a freebie tow bar during the winter and decided to ignore it until the weather improved. Guess that's gotta be any day now

I found it a few years back and bodged it. First with chicken wire and filler. Waste of time, just accelerates the rot. Next bodge with to use a metal plate for the wing and a second one for the wheelarch. Rivetted in. That lasted OK, and slowed the rot. Final bodge is attack it with snips, and power tools. Cut the lot out and weld it. Not easy, limited access, loads of stuff to catch fire, and a ton of paint and other stuff to get rid of before you can weld. Call it a bodge, because it is quick and dirty welding. Really it needs a metal plate fitted flush to the wing, and seam welded in.

Alas I need the car, so it had to be lap welding, and with the complicated shape of the wing, it isn't flush. Still it is going to require much less filler than the rivetted solution, the repair is strong and the rot is gone.

[Hell Razor5543]

Make sure that when you get the gearbox oil you only get BV 75W80 oil (which you can get from most Citroen/Peugeot dealerships for £8 per litre). The gearboxes used in the Xantias are VERY picky, and using anything else will cause it to fail. A full gearbox needs 1.8l. Look in the N/S/F wheel arch at the end of the gearbox and you should see there are two bolts with different (larger) heads than the others. The higher of the two is the level/fill hole. You are meant to be able to top up the oil through this point (but only if you have an oil pump with a long thin stem), but I have found it much easier to add the oil through the reverse switch hole. Make sure that the car is level, and on level ground. Remove the air filter box, and you will be able to access the reverse switch. Unlatch the cable (check it first to see how it is latched), and remove the reverse switch. Undo the level bolt, and put a drip tray underneath. Top up the oil, until you get a slight trickle from the level hole. Now put everything back together.

Re the strut top, look on page 15 of the following post. While it is for an Activa, it should still be relevant;

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... &start=210" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;