Lexia or new Jack

[elma]

I'm really struggling to decide with this and have all night to worry about it as I need to put the money in the bank.

Situation is; I have 2 Hydractive Xantias, one is off the road awaiting a clutch change and the other is on the road but the suspension is stuck in hard at the front and I'm really not sure about the rear.

If I get the Lexia I can sort out the suspension

If I get the support beam I can get the gearbox off the estate ready to put in a clutch.

[xantia_v6]

I voted for bar because you should be able to fix your suspension without a lexia.

[les]

I think I had one of those really lucky days last year when I did the clutch on the 98 desire. I used a small jack and block of wood uner the sump. Box fell out and fell back in in one go if only all jobs went like that ,just over 7 hours with a small break for tea. I vote lexia as I have the air bag light on and will be in Llandudno in about fur weeks.

[citronut]

arnt there any DIS-LEXIA owners near'ish to you elma, if so i would suggest the beam,

although how many times are you likely to use the beam against the DIS-LEXIA

[elma]

Paul is nearby. I could ask him to look at the red car and get the bar. I wouldn't be able to take the estate to him though and I have a 307 with the em light on thats chucking out white smoke in my care.
I've oscilliscoped the car already and have a number of suspicions about the lack of soft mode on the red one, I don't think I can progress further without lexia though.
Number of beam uses hard to say, but I play with cars a lot.

[citronut]

the beam makes a world of difference to removing/fitting an east west gear box,
i wished i'd bought one sooner than i did, although i have had mine a few years now,
it dont work on cars with a very short sloppy bonnet though, as it wont sit on these wing rain channels/ledges

[addo]

Mechanical tools ahead of electronic kit, any day. You can drive a car with jiggly suspension, can't drive one with a busted drivetrain.

[Mandrake]

A Lexia is not particularly useful for diagnosing the hydractive system.

There are no active tests like forcing it into hard or soft modes, all you can do is read fault codes and check inputs, but input/sensor problems with the hydractive system are quite rare - 9 times out of 10 the fault is an electrovalve.

Mine is intermittently sticking in hard mode at the front too - it already had the diode mod a long time ago, and I've cleaned the connector on the elecrovalve recently and that seemed to help a lot but I'd say about 1/4 of the time it's still stuck in hard mode at the front. (You can notice by the car fidgeting back and forth in the "roll axis" as you travel over uneven surfaces)

This seems to be a really common problem (I've had it as an intermittent fault on all 3 of my Xantia's) and I'm beginning to think the source of the problems (once diode and electrovalve are ruled out) is a problem in the actual hydractive control block causing the shuttle valve to stick. Possibly gummed up with chewed up pieces of o-ring or metal filings...

[elma]

Thanks for the input, I think the majority is right and I'll go with the bar.

Mechanical tools ahead of electronic kit, any day. You can drive a car with jiggly suspension, can't drive one with a busted drivetrain.

Addo that sounds like the sort of advice I'd give, I couldn't go against it.

[Stewart(oily)]

I have an engine crane and I have found that the best thing for gearbox removal/refitting is the crane and a rope sling with a trolley jack and a block of wood supporting the sump, sometimes the engines seem to slump rearwards, a length of rope pulling the top of the motor forward can help to line it all up, never had a Hydractive Xantia, but have you exhausted all possibilities re sticking linkages on the suspension, I have not needed anything more than a Multimeter to fettle my Xantia, though a Lexia to program the key would be nice.