1997 1.9TD Estate - A Tyre-ing question about handling

[CitroJim]

About to cut the bolt I think... It just won't come out...

That often needs to be done Sam... Put in the wrong way when he car was made

Not sure what sort of cover bolts would be on the Xantia but if it's the nasty torx ones.

It is the Torx ones... They're fine if you use a good quality bit and use a torque wrench I find...

[RichardW]

That was the trouble I had - even after I had cut a hole in the carpet underlay to mash the brake pedal down it still was half a head away from coming out. Try lifting the brake pedal first though, that might give enough. Or alternatively lever the LHS of the pedal bracket away from the pedal to give just a little more room to allow the chamfer on the end of the bolt to move round a bit and perhaps give enough room to get it out.

[Pug_XUD_KeenAmateur]

they're fine if you use a good quality bit and a torque wrench

on the subject of Torque Wrenches, a quick question...

having just treated myself to a brand spanking new Torque Wrench* and not-withstanding the fact that I've managed for donkeys years with a very similar one that's never worked which I often use in preferernce to my Breakear Bar...

...I was a bit surprised when trying it out to do up a wheel bolt (that I'd loosened for the purpose), it clicked well prior to where I thought it should

It seems a bit unlikely that my new tool's at fault, I've always found Silverline tools very good; maybe its the BoL's figure of 85Nm / 63 lb ft that's not to be believed...??

Steel wheels by the way, on my 405. I'm not into 'jumping up & down' on wheel studs, but I do like to give em a reasonably decent 'pull'. In this instance I got the old one out and done it up properly with that, about another 1/8 turn.

*https://www.manomano.co.uk/dynamometric ... 67-2569882

[beko1987]

All done!

Highlights included digging the foam off from under the brake pedal to make it drop another cm, and in the end I levered the far side of the clutch pedal bracket and dunk, the bolt head cleared! was happy with that! I also removed the cowling from under the steering wheel which helped with light, and a torch wedged behind the foam at the back of the footwell pointing up did the job there

TBH Everything else was as per the excellent guides from here, or a combination of trying peoples various suggestions until one worked. To get the clip on the cable I taped the spring and bush on the pedal, then I did it with the pedal off and laying at whatever random angle made it easier, then pushed the cable in the clip, then spent 10 minutes sodding about with the clip then fed it up into the pedal bracket. TBH the big pedal spring was quite easy. I then fitted the bolt the nice way round...

I also adjusted the clutch cable which took 90% of the massive dead space out of the top of the pedal, and moved the bite point down a bit, it feels a fair bit lighter now, although not 'feathery light' as people have alluded to on here.

But a drive around Marlow went well, it didn't snap straight off so I can try and drive home tonight! Will buy another clip in a mo just to have a spare!

Thanks to all your help on here, and thanks to the bloke I sold Amys old car to (who owns 2 xantias in various states of repair himself) who came all the way over to my mums just to help me out as and when he could, mainly handing me tools and pushing/pulling the cable from the engine bay or listen to me rambling or swearing, and he bought his ratchet spanners which were nice. He even showed me he had a sphere removal tool which will be incredibly handy to borrow when I do my spheres! I'll return the favour by helping him fettle his S2 1.8 which needs a new catalytic convertor and drop links. The MOT is up on the 20th though, so he bought our old car for £250 which has MOT until November just so he didn't have to rush and do it this week.

So far then, so good! We won't know for sure though until it snaps again, which it may or may not do...

[CitroJim]

On Torque Wrenches...

If you have another torque wrench you can compare the calibration of the two. It is quite surprising though that we mostly over-estimate torque when tightening things up... Some - mainly garage mechanics - more than others... I'm the opposite...

For peace of mind though I'd be keen to compare it to a known good 'un or you can do it empirically by tightening up a test nut using a two foot-long bar with a weight of say, 25 lbs hanging off the end of it..

The nut will then be torqued to 50 ft lbs and from there you can check the calibration of yours...

Sam, that's excellent news and well done Last time I did one I ended up lying upside-down in the footwell and nearly trapped myself in the car... Had the door shut on me I'd have been a goner!!!

[beko1987]

I put it in low before I started, a few times I had to slide out on my back as I got my head wedged in the undergubbins! Was a bit more comfy in low

[Hell Razor5543]

One of the forum members (Xaccers) has designed a DIY sphere removal tool that works well (provided the spheres are not biblically tight. Then it is a hammer and chisel job; I kid you not). Here is the link;

https://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/ ... hp?t=21850

[ekjdm14]

Jim, I certainly am guilty of overestimating torques (it's usually the fear of leaving it too loose that drives this!). Really, using a correctly sized spanner and one hand it should be very hard to overtighten a metric 8.8 bolt/nut without causing oneself considerable pain in the finger department but obviously most of us use other tools like ratchets making it easier to mess up.

However with wheel nuts/bolts I prefer to use a decent OE supplied wheelbrace (I find older Ford and Volvo items have served me well) and some PSA ones (although others have simply twisted to bits!). I find that the length of these, combined with my 220Lb weight is pretty much an ideal combination so I can stand on the end of the lever and "ride" it down until the bolt stops turning. No need to jump or monkey on them though, the technique has served me well for years on both steel and alloy wheels.

Small torque wrenches aren't all that expensive now and I do have a 5-25nm 1/4" drive jobbie somewhere. Shame I'm too disorganised to know exactly where that is lol

[beko1987]

Well the drive home was fine, no snapping noises although the bypass was awful, I think I annoyed several people by maintaining a nice 1st gear tickover to save 4 miles of 1st to 2nd to 1st to 2nd to 3rd to 1st... Sod em!

But now I wonder if the clutch is too heavy... What cars have I driven recently?

1.9td zx, was lighter, the bloke who owned my xantia at the time drove my zx once and remarked how lighter it was

14 plate horrible vw golf. Too light, took a few days to get used to the xantia again

Amy's 08 pez Zafira - a bit lighter than the xantia

Ive got until the end of March to decide wether to buy a clutch kit and whatever other bits I would need (something about bushes I read), and lob it in.

But then that's another £100+ on a car that already needs 4 tyres with balancing to cure a horrible wheel shake at most speeds , spheres, hydraflush then lhm, a wheel bearing and is quite rusty in non important places...

Might adjust the clutch out 1 thread too, the bite point is just above the middle, but better than it was, and there is no longer 5cm of free movement at the top of the pedal, more like 1cm just, then a nice bit of movement before the bite point

[ekjdm14]

It sounds like it's at that stage in a cars life, where it's around the nadir of it's value in the world and has been allowed to fester to some degree so that several fairly insignificant jobs have all built up to the car seemingly needing a lot to keep it going. But I ask you this-: if you take £100 for a clutch, £200 for new tyres (although £50 part worns would be feasible IMO) 30 quid for a wheel bearing and 150 spheres. Add in another ton for flush & lhm and we have a grand total of around 600 quid.

What could you get for that sort of money that would be as comfortable, reliable and economical to run as the Xant? OK maybe another, later Xantia but it'd still be an unknown quantity and you know what has & hasn't been done with this car so if it still fits your needs I reckon it'd be worth investing that sort of money in as long as the structure is solid. It's a lot to spend on a low-value car, but as said before the car has reached it's low ebb IMO and should start to creep back up in value soon, so with basic catching up on maintenance/consumables and a caring hand I'd call it a better bet than replacing it.

With any luck you won't need to do the clutch anyway, but even if you did that's it sorted for another 10 years or so in my eyes

[beko1987]

"as long as the structure is solid" hehe there's a massive hole in the passenger side rear door shut, driver's side is bubbling up...

Ill stick with it for now! If it's not disgraced itself by the end of March I'll buy it tyres (will get low cost new ones, they will last then), and fiddle with the suspension. By the time that's done, if the engine explodes the next day I go out and buy another 1.9td estate that needs an exhaust, spheres, cambelt etc and parts swap/re do the jobs I know, just to get my money's worth from the parts!

Also, from the forum I'm from, £600 would buy 3 or 4 cars... But your right, unknown quantity etc.

I keep mentioning March, that's bonus month at work, the one month of the year I can throw money at whatever car I own with gay abandon to get it up to scratch enough to last a year with relative ease! I'll probably lob it at the local nice garage by my work and hope they can do the wheel bearing in a day for £100 or so... They would have to see the hub anyway at the very least,just not with the rest of the car.

The front brakes squeal when coming to a stop too sometimes, but pads and disk have plenty of meat on, but it'll probably see new just incase the pads have glazed. Rears look fine and I'm not going near them as by a previous owners admission the bolt that holds the 2 sides of the caliper together stripped so it's been repaired with a long nut and bolt...

I shan't update every time it completes a journey, I'll post up when it doesn't! It needs a clean out inside now, the boots full of tools, the rear seat is covered in pages of clip change guide and the passenger footwell is full of all the bits of under carpet foam I tore out to drop the brake pedal a bit... That can wait though! Got a usb power supply to fit first

[chinkostu]

It's worth bearing in mind some of the other cars you drive have hydraulic clutches which are softer by design.

Well done though! As for maintaining it rather than changing out, Keep an eye on coolant changes so you don't end up having to swap the matrix or head gasket. I left mine festering with old coolant and i'm pretty sure it's what had the matrix off!

[CitroJim]

Sam, happy to hear all OK on the drive home...

[beko1987]

The coolant does need doing tbh, no idea when it was last done, probably with the waterpump 25k ago...

The drive in this morning was fine too! Hopefully this will continue! The bite point is a bit low to the floor though, lower than I would like anyway, I'll back the adjuster off a thread or two later

[beko1987]

It's worth bearing in mind some of the other cars you drive have hydraulic clutches which are softer by design.

Well done though! As for maintaining it rather than changing out, Keep an eye on coolant changes so you don't end up having to swap the matrix or head gasket. I left mine festering with old coolant and i'm pretty sure it's what had the matrix off!

I really need someone else who has driven/owns another 1.9td xant to take it up the road and see. Anyone passing Thame or Marlow anytime soon? You're right, I can't compare it to something modern as the way it all works is so completely different!