Bought a Xantia off Ebay.....

BrianA · Unread post by **BrianA** » 21 Jul 2007, 21:10

Well then,I did the hard bits.
Spheres,the accumulator was dated 2004 and the two suspension spheres 2005 so either the guy was supplied old spheres or he has told porkies.
Anyhow the suspension is nice and firm now unlike the spongy mess it was before.

I had a look at the brakes and found that there have been new calipers fitted AND a new flexi pipe which was the one that was twisted.

All brakes bled now and the hose untwisted.

The indicator bulbs have been replaced by the ones that the guy very kindly left in the glove box was this a coincidence.

I can't get my head round the IMBALANCED brakes as both the front ones come on hard after the 4th click on the handbrake.

I supplied pictures of the headlight beam up against a gate....below

and from the front

I don't think they look too low what do you think?

And now for the GRAND BLEEDIN FINALE

The damn unsecure seat.

I saved this for the last job seeing as it seemed the easiest.

I don't weld or braze but I suppose it's the only way I'm going to get it done isn't it?

Still it'll be a nice car when it's done,eh?

Bri.

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 21 Jul 2007, 21:36

Bri,

Good work

Your insecure seat is a common problem

A very poor bit of design and very weak.

I had it on my 205 and on my old 405 after my 21st son used it for a few weeks

I repaired both cases by making up a long, narrow steel plate to hold the captive nut. This slides in underneath the seat mounting channel and is held in place with a couple of pop rivets. Next, I made up a "U" shaped piece of steel plate to slip over the top of the seat mounting and then down the sides.

I attached it using a number of pop rivets on each side and in both cases it has proved strong enough as the two plates form a sandwich with the mounting channel in the middle.

It really should be welded but that would be difficult there and would really need TIG welding as the seat mounting channel is very thin and there is a lot of stuff in close proximity that can suffer from heat damage unless you do a major strip job.

My tests indicated my repair was plenty strong. Both cars pass MOTs with it and I don't really think it compromises seatbelt performance in an accident as there are four seat anchor points and they're all rather weak

If this broken one was at the rear of the seat than perhaps welding would be a good idea but both mine, and I presume yours, are seat front mountings which don't compromise seatbelt strength at all.

If it is not clear what I have done Bri, I'll try to do a little sketch of what I did.

AndersDK · Unread post by **AndersDK** » 21 Jul 2007, 21:37

Ahah ...

The not so easy part then

Yes its a welding job. You are defo not the first Xantia owner to experience this problem. Its a known Xantia problem - as well as the torx screws parting their locations, so look there too ...

About the headlights : the beam should descend by 1% (10mm/m) to make it just about right. That is valid for both sides units. Besides the beam from each headlamp must not spread to the RHS from a line straight ahead the car.
Usually you can set the beam to a bit less descend, if you turn the beam a wee bit to the left.
(That would be opposite in LHD countries)

BrianA · Unread post by **BrianA** » 22 Jul 2007, 14:45

citrojim wrote:Bri,

I had it on my 205 and on my old 405 after my 21st son used it for a few weeks

If it is not clear what I have done Bri, I'll try to do a little sketch of what I did.

Cheers citrojim I think I understand but a picture they say,says a thousand words so I'd be grateful for that.

By the way how do you find the tme to fiddle around with Citroens whilst you're creating all these sons???

AndersDK · Unread post by **AndersDK** » 22 Jul 2007, 23:17

The seat support issue has been dsicussed before, with pics on the welding job submitted in the thread.
Try the search button.

Jim: mate, please sit down. You GOT to be tired

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 23 Jul 2007, 18:12

AndersDK wrote: Jim: mate, please sit down. You GOT to be tired

I am tired Anders, but not because of the above although I do have four children

Three gorgeous girls and one hunk of a son who is rather large and built like a brick outhouse, hence my experience in repairing broken seats in a variety of cars

The other day his company Vauxhall Astra broke down and he was offered a Nissan Micra as a loan car. He could not even fit in it