help trying to find a spring and buy in pair needed?

[chinkostu]

The only reason i wish i did is because the other side snapped a few months after changing one.

[dei9]

Well I will change both as both need changing, the drivers side one is all over the place, so I guess that's broken and has moved about and lost it's shape. So the final answer is to change both anyway, it does seem safer, especially that I escort my kid in the car. Thanks everyone.

[chinkostu]

If you feel like it, take both struts and new springs to a garage with a compressor. Friend of mine had one mounted in a vice and its brilliant

[dei9]

You mean a press? If so why, I haven't opened up one of these things up before.

[qprdude]

A spring compressor probably.?

[chinkostu]

You mean a press? If so why, I haven't opened up one of these things up before.

Sorry, basically its a vice mounted spring compressor! Much quicker than the sticks

[BX]

http://www.micksgarage.com/proddetails.aspx?pid=5066625

http://www.micksgarage.com/proddetails.aspx?pid=1253246

There is free delivery if the order is over a certain amount.

[dei9]

That's an amazing find BX, cheers. If this was reddit I'd give you gold.

[dei9]

You mean a press? If so why, I haven't opened up one of these things up before.

Sorry, basically its a vice mounted spring compressor! Much quicker than the sticks

I know someone who can lend me spring compressors. Do u have pics of such a device? This is confusing me now. So does the strut come off as a one piece without needing to compress the spring. And I compress the spring to remove it? Or vice versa?

[chinkostu]

You mean a press? If so why, I haven't opened up one of these things up before.

Sorry, basically its a vice mounted spring compressor! Much quicker than the sticks

I know someone who can lend me spring compressors. Do u have pics of such a device? This is confusing me now. So does the strut come off as a one piece without needing to compress the spring. And I compress the spring to remove it? Or vice versa?

Its usually possible to remove the strut in one piece without compressing the spring. However some cars you need to otherwise it extends and bottoms out the wishbone.


The reason i mentioned the compressor is because its faster, you can compress the spring much faster than using the sticks but does obviously involve the strut being off the car.


One of these essentially http://www.cartoolstore.co.uk/sykes-pic ... r-08390000" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[addo]

Being a Xsara you should be able to remove the strut as a unit.

If it's stubborn, remove the lower ball joint after loosening the strut to hub carrier clamping and removing the driveshaft nut. Remove and hang the caliper out the way, ditto for your ABS sensor. Now you can remove the strut with the hub carrier by sliding it off the driveshaft splines and lowering out of the wheel arch.

Then the strut may be slipped readily from the hub carrier and worked on. It's just a lot easier to pre-loosen this as mentioned, where you have the mass of your car as a backstop against hammering to wedge the clamp area free.

[dei9]

Ahhh I see, so strut comes out, put that in the vice, compress the spring remove top mount, remove spring, open clamp, new spring, reassemble.

How much time should I budget for this work?

And those links BX have from Mick's garage, are the top mounts exactly the ones I want? Are they generic across many Citroen cars (as it seems to be)? Can I just buy the bearing? Rather than the whole mount?

And the springs, must be quite generic right?

Thanks everyone.

[chinkostu]

the bearing should just pop out

the mount listed is for a ZX but i'm not 100% its the same as the xsara EDIT: servicebox lists it as a fitment for the xsara1 but not the xsara2, maybe an improvement on the facelift?

however cross referencing the bearing thats on a110 Xsara brings this up

Information about the search

10 document(s) found for AX
16 document(s) found for BERLINGO VP
19 document(s) found for BERLINGO VP (M59)
16 document(s) found for BERLINGO VU
19 document(s) found for BERLINGO VU (M59)
3 document(s) found for C15
9 document(s) found for C2
30 document(s) found for C3
20 document(s) found for C3 (A51)
8 document(s) found for C3 II
15 document(s) found for C3 PICASSO
4 document(s) found for C3 PLURIEL
26 document(s) found for C4
18 document(s) found for C4 (B7) - DS4
1 document(s) found for C4 CACTUS
1 document(s) found for C-ELYSEE
18 document(s) found for DS3
18 document(s) found for SAXO

so i'm guessing its a fairly common fit for the bearing and they're quite cheap

if the strut comes out without too much hassle from the hub and droplinks its usually a fairly quick job. we managed a wheel bearing on an older saxo in about an hour including removing and refitting the strut so i'd imagine it shouldn't take much longer to do the spring. doing the springs on my 206 made me want to scrap the car though!

[dei9]

Well as long as the weather is dry I have patience. If it rains we'll I'll lose my rag a bit. But I'll give it a good shot.