Xantia strut tops - views pretty please!

Unread post by **Rhothgar** » 13 Jan 2011, 17:06

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. Taken on old 3G iPhone - rubbish quality pics.

What do you reckon guys? Is this impending doom?

As you can see, one side is far worse than the other.

Is it an idea to take them off and make up new 'base plates'? Is there would be making a nice rubbery coating again for gravel to bounce off.

As anyone had a go at making new base plates? I noticed that there was a Polish company offering to refurb existing ones for £60 a piece on the forum.

Has anyone used them and if so what was the service like?[/img]

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 13 Jan 2011, 17:28

Prima-facie those don't look too bad. The fact the rubber is delaminating may not be a cause for concern. What will be a cause for concern is if holes can be poked anywhere in the basepate with a screwdriver. This is a test you must do and poke hard!

If the basepate looks like this:

then you have worries.

The basepate is bell-shaped and it's very important to check the integrity of the metal just below the dome. This are is normally rubber covered and if the rubber is all perished and cracked then there may be corrosion lurking underneath.

This example has rust under the (now peeled away) rubber below the dome:

But it is sound and not holed. It just needs some rust treatment on it and some protection...

If you find your tops pass these tests (absolutely no holes anywhere and all sound metal, despitre some surface rust) then I'd be inclined to remove them and rust kill any areas of rust and give the surfaces a thick coat of paint such as Hammerite.

The basepate cannot easily be replaced as it has rubber bonded to it internally.

Unread post by **Rhothgar** » 13 Jan 2011, 18:03

I think removal followed by electrolytic rust removal will suffice then.

Personally, I prefer Smoothrite to Hammerite. Many years ago I had an RS2000 Custom which I hammerited the floor pan on the inside on and the rust reappeared in the hammered finish.

It is my understanding that the hammered finish is created by solvents which evaporate but leave a thinner paint finish in those areas thus creating a hammered effect! Allegedly!

Just need to find some kind of rubberised solution to protect underside. I am sure there will be a building material that will see to that.

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 13 Jan 2011, 18:48

i personaly belive if the rubber is de/laminatting in a big way that to is cause for concern,

as it is the bonded rubber that holds the metal components together,

regards malcolm

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 13 Jan 2011, 19:03

citronut wrote:i personaly belive if the rubber is de/laminatting in a big way that to is cause for concern,

I agree Malcolm so do check the rubber by the green arrow in this picture for cracking and general damage:

A bit of delamination around the edges of the baseplate, so long as the baseplate is sound, is immaterial provided the delamination hasn't extended right across the baseplate and propagated up into the bell-shaped area.

Also, off the car, look at the top side on from all angles. If it looks like this on at the front:

It is in imminent danger of going pop. The dome can be seen to be sitting at an angle to the basepate. It should be square on to it...

This particular one started to get very worrying as I unscrewed the sphere from it.

xmexclusive · Unread post by **xmexclusive** » 13 Jan 2011, 20:36

I have 7 XM strut heads that are now remanufactured by KINGas in Latvia.
Hopefully they will be back here with a week or so.
There are some photos in another thread.
Very satisfied on the responses to technical queries and repair progress photos.
Taking into account the total cost (vat, transport, currency conversion and bank charges) it can work out closer to £100 per strut head for small quantities.
You also need to send the defective one over for remanufacture.
This looks like taking 2 to 3 weeks.
This is still very good value compared to new XM heads.
Citroen still supply Xantia ones for not much more and the old head is not needed for exchange.
I think the rust on my XM strut heads caused a bit of surprise as to the amount of repair work. When reporting on the weld repairs KINGas mentioned they may look at manufacturing new baseplates.

John

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 13 Jan 2011, 21:12

RE: Xantia tops.

The de lamination of the Xantia top is not a massive concern, but Id also like to back citrojim and agree as long as the metal is STILL very solid then theres not too much to worry AS LONG as they are treated. The rubber to done side looks ok, and not getting pushed out like they do on XM's..

Those tops look ok to me too....

Jim,
Tops Ive got look a LOT worse then your bad one, I should take a picture of it and post up how bad they can and DO get...

Paul

Xantidote · Unread post by **Xantidote** » 14 Jan 2011, 10:54

This info and photos are very useful, although I've already done mine on my 1995 S1; the nearside in 2009, and the offside in 2010.

In both cases, because the rubber protection was hanging down in the wheel arch, and some base plate metal could be seen delaminating, I attacked the base plate with a screwdriver, resulting in a hole in the base plate of each strut - convinced me they needed replacing.

Is it worth including the photos/comments of this thread in a sticky?

Unread post by **Rhothgar** » 14 Jan 2011, 12:21

I think there is already a Sticky on this subject.

I seem to remember that's how I found out about the problem.

I pulled the rubber down from mine when I realised it was cracked.

I think I am going to remove them and refurb them using electrolytic rust removal method and finding some rubberised paint solution.

The job does not appear to be urgent on mine and there is a guy selling a Silver bonner on Ebay anyway.

Once I do that, I will update post if I find suitable rubber solution.

xmexclusive · Unread post by **xmexclusive** » 14 Jan 2011, 13:28

The XM has bare untreated metal on the underside of the strut heads.
These live in the wheel arch and still do not suffer rust problems from the underside. They only rust from the top down. The cause is the failure of the thin layer of rubber on the top of the strut head which fails by peeling and cracking.
As a later design Citroen in their wisdom gave the Xantia strut head base a thin rubber layer top and bottom so its metal rusts from both the top and the bottom. The accelerated rusting is caused by the failure of the thin rubber.
It sits there as a flap and then sucks any available water in by capilliary action and keeps the rusting going. On the XM the underside has no permantent corrosion trap as it air drys rapidly. Both designs suffer badly from top rusting.
There is a myth about that says that later type XM strut heads do not suffer rubber peeling and rusting. Sadly I have found early stages of peeling and rusting on strut heads recovered from later cars (X reg).
I think that new strut heads from Citroen would last longer if the thin rubber was carefully removed before they are fitted.
Similarly rust treatment is better as a clean up and protective paint than trying to apply a underseal type layer. My reasoning is that better a thin layer that you can keep an eye on steel condition rather than another thicker layer that risks peeling and forming another hidden rust trap.

John

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 15 Jan 2011, 08:57

Paul wrote
"The de lamination of the Xantia top is not a massive concern"

i agree if it has only delaminated on the underside of the base plate,

but it must depend on how far the delamination has travled,

the rubber has to stay bonded to the metal were it goes up inbetween the two main metal components though,

even though all the tops i have seen die it has been because the metal has rustted away,

i also belive the deterioration of the rubber is firstly caused by the constant flexing it get every time you turn the steering wheel,

this cracks the rubber which then allows water in which then causes the delaination,

regards malcolm