My Xantia Estate 1.9 D turbo went drag racing!

[chinkostu]

Thanks al, i always forget to mention that!

I did my rear pads with the standard jack, nervewracking!

[Deanxm]

My experience has always been that the height corrector valve itself will not get gummed up or defective itself so unless it's leaking don't even bother touching it, the Xantia has a rather complex linkage arrangement and if not lubed every now and again gets sticky, coupled with wear this can pop the dogbone clip off or snap it if left unchecked, get it on axle stands or ramp and bath it in solvent then while working it spray with penetrating oil and finally spray grease, check the dogbone is in place and not distorted.
It could be that the ride height is also set wrong, its a bit odd the back is too high and the front too low.

D

[Stickyfinger]

Looks more "Carlos Fandango" that way

[stupidxantia]

Most things are done on axle stands with this car as not got access to a ramp.
Hope not to have to adjust the height settings and it's just the above piece is snapped or fell off. would imagine I can get one from citroen no worries still even if they do want to charge £99 for it it's worth it for working suspension at the end of it all.

I will post as to my progress as and when I do the job, surely not going to be impossible to get it all working again (I hope)

[CitroJim]

So it's fairly straight forward to get the front one off then? lol

It looks like it is in a cradle and the last time I was under there I really couldn't see the 3 pipes, or a way the darn thing would fit through the gap either. Everything on this car is so cramped in ... almost like they built the car and then fitted the engine as an after thought!

No, they started with the heater matrix and built the car around that..

No, honestly, the height corrector cradle assembly will come out but it is a bit of a puzzle...

It's easier on a non-hydractive car and much more difficult on an Activa where it is hemmed in but Hydractive and Activa bits but it is still possible.

One thing you'll find about all jobs on a Xantia is that generally although they look impossible at first look they are in fact just possible to do with a bit of thought and puzzle solving...

[stupidxantia]

Looks more "Carlos Fandango" that way

if this never gets fixed the reason for height issue is now "because carlos fandango" ... At least that has me in the right mood to have a go at this today

[stupidxantia]

O.k folks, been under the car today with the following items:

- Camera
- parts cleaning solvent spray
- white lithium grease spray

In happy news the front corrector dog bone link is intact and still connected. I have taken 2 photo's and it's the best I could get in the space there is available!
These are both before I cleaned and greased the springs, dogbone and linkage (please excuse the dirt)





As you can see it was all really dirty around that part. I can say that the dogbone is now white and the sprigs are clean and lithium greased!
The only thing this has changed is the lever action between "normal" and "intermediate", The action is now very smooth and light. However to get into "high" and "low" settings is still a little stiff

How does the car sit now then ??? Well in short pretty much as it did before but the ride is a little smoother than it was before!
Here is a picture as it stood after cleaning on the "normal" position on mostly level ground ... to me the rear looks to sit slightly lower than before but that would be the only real difference.


Am I missing something else obvious? Oh I also put some LHM on the front struts but they still creak sometimes and went dry nearly immediately after doing them. From lowest setting to normal driving setting the suspension still takes an age for the nose to lift and usually needs a nudge up to intermediate to get it to go, Front isn't staying stuck in the high setting anymore though, guess that's a bonus then!


Any further thoughts as to the issue, are the height settings off or is something else broken do we think?

Graham

[falling-out-with-my-car]

You could try cleaning out the LHM tank checking the levels again to see if they have changed since your
lubing session. do some citroen aerobics, with the engine running sit on your drive and lift the suspension and lower it about five times do this once a month to maintain suspension comfort.
The rear end looks a tad better now but harder to see without the front end in the picture as well.
The xantia does have a slight angle to it from rear to front end. Ahh moved the slidy thing at the bottom of the page yep it does look better now. I know what you mean about the speed sensation mine to is an estate 1.9td and it never fails to surprise me just how fast she goes and how comfortable and quiet she is at speed. I can actually feel the seat pushing me forward as the car accelerates.
Have you got a 8mm inline non-return valve fitted for running on veg oil? I still have mine connected up I had loads of air bubble issues running on veg and added an 8mm non-return valve it improved things a lot. I fitted mine on the supply line that connects to the bottom of the fuel filter housing. I also replaced the standard squeezy bulb with an electric fuel pump and rigged this up to a 12 volt dc remote control switch, and put the keyfobs inside the car, when the engine was cold on initial start up I activated the electric fuel pump to drag the veg up from the tank until the engine had warmed up then I switched off the electric pump. no air in the fuel any more. its a bit of a struggle to get veg oil up the fuel lines from the tank especially when outside temps get down to less than 10 degrees C at night. This is one reason why some people fit larger fuel lines when running on WVO or SVO.

[stupidxantia]

LHM tank was last cleaned about 8 months ago when she had a full system flush (my brother did it using only Total LHM and no cleaner) as the old LHM was nearly black and the filters had not been installed correctly by a previous owner!

I had not thought about fitting a secondary electric pump to assist with the veg oil feed, that truly is a fantastic idea sir! I am lucky that I don't suffer with air bubbles in the lines on starting or idle running on veg (not that I have seen anyway) but if I do indeed have a fuelling issue then maybe the electric secondary would be a good way for me to go also maybe the larger diameter lines to help the whole situation. I do not have an inline none return fitted that I am aware of .

I have been pondering a lot about the suspension heights the last 24 hours as it really annoys me that it doesn't sit right! I have searched the internet far and wide and found only one thread about the heights which included a post from the late citronut stating that the rear height should be 1 finger between top of tyre and arch, front height should be 3 fingers between top of tyre and arch. This topic also discussed the adjustment of the front height with the clamp on the Arb, So after thinking things over for a while I have decided to have a look at this in better detail tomorrow. Just to see if someone has messed this up in the past.
The front height at the moment is between 1 and 2 fingers from top of tyre to arch which is too low by nearly an inch, However the rear is tons better and is very close to where it should be now! The corrector has had allot of cleaner put on it which removed loads of dirt, The height adjuster in the car moves more like it should and the height corrector mech has plenty of white lithium grease on it now ... seemingly it isn't sticking so the only thing left in my mind is to have a look at the clamp on the Arb to see if she is out of adjustment! Fairly confident that this can be achieved with the ramps we have or even careful use of axle stands and a jack as I now know what I'm looking at .. Will report when I have done a little more with the old bus!

Graham

[Raul]

First time I removed the front hight corrector I got it back without problems. But second time I did this I could not put it back altough I tried many hours. I gave up and loosened the clamp on the anti-roll bar. So next thing to do was to set the ride hight. I have a haynes manual but when I tried to measure the dimensions mentioned in the book( from the ground to the centre of the wheel and etc) and set those according to the manual then I realised that the surface of the ground has to be absolutely perfect and level and a simple ruler is not up to this kind of job. I gave up and used the wishbone outer lower end 8mm below the subframe reference. I am not sure that is the correct way to set the ride hight but according to the materials found in the internet that should be the correct whisbone position before tightening the wishbone bushes.

[Hell Razor5543]

A reasonable rule of thumb is that, on normal ride height, you should be able to get 4 fingers between the front wheel and wheel arch at the top of the wheel.

[CitroJim]

A reasonable rule of thumb is that, on normal ride height, you should be able to get 4 fingers between the front wheel and wheel arch at the top of the wheel.

Three sir, unless you have very tiny fingers!!!!

And one finger at the back...

[Hell Razor5543]

Oops! 3 it is then!

[CitroJim]

Oops! 3 it is then!

Or just two if you have hands and fingers that look like bunches of bananas!!!

[falling-out-with-my-car]

i suppose this does depend on you having brand new tyres on the car?
otherwise you might be able to get another finger in if the tread is significantly worn down?