Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

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careca
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Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by careca »

Hi, so i got this Xantia 1.9td, from 1996, and when it gets to around 2k/3k rpm (depends on the gear) it starts to vibrate wildly, and when i say vibrate,
it's more like the whole car vibrates, the seats, pedals steering wheel, everything vibrates and the car continues to pull as normal, no lack of power at all.
This is only under load, so for example, at 100km/h stable speed, no vibrations at all, but if i step hard on the gas it starts to build up rpm and the more it's got the more vibration it does.
The most easy to exemplify is in 1st gear, i start to move, and as soon as it gets to a certain rpm vibrations start, car pulls all the same.

So what did i do? replaced the 3 motor mounts because i thought they had collapsed/damaged whatever, they were fine, and now it's got new ones so it can't be that,
doesn't vibrate at higher speeds as long as im at a stable speed,(well at 150kmh kinda does, but to be at that speed the engine has to be pulling hard) so no wheel balancing or tire problems, also does it in 1st.
Im lost, what can i do?

Best regards.
careca
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by CitroJim »

Welcome to the forum :)

As you have ruled out the engine mounts the next most likely candidate is a worn inboard driveshaft CV joint... They are hard to test in-situ as it only takes a tiny amount of wear to cause the sort of issues you have...

Also, check the RH driveshaft intermediate bearing... They can fail through water ingress...

I have known this once caused by bad wheel bearings... No noise but terrible vibration...
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by careca »

Hi, thanks for input. A bad wheel bearing without a grinding noise? that's a first for me, it has no play with the wheel off the ground. Also no vibration if not under load, a wheel bearing would make noise and vibrate more, the more speed the car has right?
I've checked the intermediate bearing by hand, there's no play, also no play in the driveshafts..
Im thinking about putting some straps to the engine to limit it's torque lean movement, and see what happens.
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by CitroJim »

Yes, wheel bearings would be constant. My only experience of this was on a Peugeot 205 that was thought to have a dead gearbox.. I bought it for £20 as a result... Two new wheel bearings fixed it. No noise, just vibration...

Inboard CV joints are notoriously hard to check excerpt by substitution...
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by ekjdm14 »

I would certainly be looking further into the CV joint & intermediate bearing as Jim said, and would much rather substitute known good/new parts there before going to extremes like strapping the engine down. This may or may not cure the symptom (vibration through the car) but if it did the root cause would remain unaddressed, the stresses would be directed elsewhere and maybe cause damage to the gearbox/crank or even crack the subframe over time.

Definitely rule out the known common causes before resorting to bodgery, I feel it's highly likely to be the inner CV or intermediate bearing. Hope this helps
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by elma »

Does the gear lever rock around when the car is vibrating?
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by careca »

elma wrote:Does the gear lever rock around when the car is vibrating?
No more than usual, and no more than when not vibrating.

I should record a video, maybe then you all can hear it and get a better "feeling" out of it.
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by elma »

No it's ok. Sometimes when the centre bearing goes the gearstick goes nuts, sometimes it doesn't.
I think you've gat a fairly accurate list to be ruling out with inboard cv joints, centre bearing and wheel bearings.
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by CitroJim »

The gearstick in Gabriel shakes around a bit but that does not cause any vibration at all.

In fact she's as smooth as silk...

In her case the cause is a slightly soft rear lower engine mount...
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by elma »

My gold one when I bought it all those years ago had a serious case of gearstick slapping which was down to the centre bearing. It was totally bonkers.
It was quite a bit more violent than the rattling the engine mounts caused in Red (another of my 1.9td Xantias). I haven't actually seen this happen again since but it was so violent it is quite unforgettable.
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by Peter.N. »

Another vote for the inboard drive shaft joints. I have only ever had this happen once and that was on a CX Safari, it had done 200k+ miles and it drove OK until the drives shafts got hot, the grease then melted and couldn't take up the slack due to the wear.

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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by careca »

Mine vibrates on cold and hot, only after certain rpms, even in first gear, i don't see how it can be due to the CV joints.
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by Peter.N. »

Does it do it with the car stationary or only moving?

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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by Stewart(oily) »

A friend and I spent ages tracing a similar fault on a high miler Xantia, eventually a driveshaft was the culprit, I have a pair of S1 driveshafts cluttering up the garage.
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Re: Xantia 1.9TD Vibration under load

Post by falling-out-with-my-car »

Careca

ignore any possibility of it being CV joints the chances are its not that. CV joints are incredibly strong.
I'd check to see if it vibrates between 40 and 50mph on accelerating, no vibration at high speed above 60mph if it does it every time shaking the cabin wildly
its definitely the drivers side drive shaft intermediate bearing.

"replace drivers side drive shaft"

my 1.9td xantia drivers side drive shaft was replaced three times because of intermediate bearing failure in 12 years.
and in all that time I only did 89k in total but I did a lot of towing of heavy trailers and hard acceleration to.

If you go for driveshaft replacement and the car has abs make sure you have the right number of teeth on the end of the driveshaft to operate the abs.
sometimes the ring gear can be removed and put on the new shaft but they often break up on removal because of corrosion.
replacement abs shafts can often be much more expensive that non-abs shafts. GSF do a shaft replacement deposit scheme you'll get some money back when you take the old shaft back for reconditioning and resale. make sure you get a new gearbox oil seal to its worth changing it just to be sure the gearbox doesn't leak when you put the new shaft in.

also check the bottom engine stabiliser mounting bush it is a perfect circle behind the sump and low down, they get soaked in oil sometimes and
the rubber delaminates from the alloy mounting, these are much harder to find these days and the main characteristic is a wobbly gearstick
especially on acceleration but this time more at much lower speeds.

good luck. my bet on your description is the drivers side driveshaft intermediate bearing.

regards.

Nigel.
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