I'm back! (And looking for a Citroen...)

[lexi]

Clean it up with wire brush and apply plus gas for a few days before attempting it.

Take a rummage over at Bills Tool Store for stuff Simon. It is in Bain St. at The Barras.........you will love it

[Mandrake]

Clean it up with wire brush and apply plus gas for a few days before attempting it.

I don't have any plus gas but I did give the sphere/cylinder junctions of all the rear spheres and the anti-sink pipe a good spray of LPS1 about a week ago, which is pretty much the same sort of stuff.

Take a rummage over at Bills Tool Store for stuff Simon. It is in Bain St. at The Barras.........you will love it

Noted. Will go take a look next month after pay day...

[Mandrake]

Job done!

After all the fretting about how difficult the rear strut spheres would be they came off with no difficulty at all. All a bit of an anti climax I did use the extension tube on the sphere removal tool, but probably didn't need it as they turned quite easily first time with the suspension on high, as did the rear hydractive regulator sphere. The spray of LPS1 a week ago (and another spray today) probably helped a lot as that stuff is great for freeing rusted bolts etc.

I had a look at the anti-sink sphere pipe and surprisingly the nut looked perfectly ok (probably the only one under the rear of the car that isn't badly rusted ) so I threw caution to the wind and found the nut wasn't that tight and undid easily so I've done the anti-sink sphere as well. The only slight snag was that the new sphere came with a sphere neck o-ring instead of a pipe seal, (Why ???) so I had to prise the old seal out of the old sphere and use that.

The only challenging sphere was the front hydractive regulator which was well and truly stuck. I could just get the sphere tool on it from underneath but even the extension wasn't enough to loosen it - it was just trying to bend the mounting bracket... but a few jolts from the lump hammer and it let go. Interestingly the regulator sphere was an original citroen one with the 3 dimples near the filler cap which I believe means its a long life multilayer sphere ? It may have in fact been ok if it was, as they last 10+ years without losing much pressure...(I'm wondering if I should hang onto that sphere...)

Now that the suspension moves at the back I see the rear height corrector linkage is a little bit stiff so the height correction sometimes overshoots a bit or doesn't return to normal from low or high etc, so I added more grease so hopefully it will free up now it's being moved through its range of motion...

The only thing I forgot to do was bleed the rear brakes, and its too late in the day to get everything out again to do it - the slightest touch of the brake pedal is now lifting the back right up, so clearly they need bleeding. I should have thought of that, as punctured spheres steadily bubble nitrogen into the system so tend to cause a rapid buildup of gas in the rear brake lines. (Especially a punctured anti-sink sphere) An easy job anyway, provided the bleed nipples aren't rusted...

One question I have, I took the air filter box out to gain better access to the front sphere (and found I didn't really need to) but upon reassembly I noticed that there is a port on the top of the air filter box facing backwards that doesn't appear to have anything to connect to it ? Right next to the large flexible pipe that goes to the butterfly valve.

I don't remember seeing anything connected there previously, and there are no loose hoses lying around, surely it isn't supposed to be like that ?

[xantia_v6]

Yes, the airbox top does have a spigot that goes nowhere (it is blanked off internally).

[Mandrake]

Yes, the airbox top does have a spigot that goes nowhere (it is blanked off internally).

Phew. That's ok then.

[Mandrake]

One other thing I forgot to mention - while most of the spheres were only 1-4 months old based on the date stamped on them, (with strut sphere pairs identical ages) the front hydractive regulator sphere AEP supplied me is a full 14 months old. I know spheres don't lose pressure nearly as quickly on the shelf, but should I be concerned about pressure loss on a 14 month old sphere ? I have no way to test it other than a bounce test, and it does seem softer than the previous sphere, but not by a lot. The rear of the car rides extremely well now, but the front doesn't ride quite as well as I remember my previous Xantia riding... although that could be due to worn droplinks rather than lack of gas pressure, as its mainly on very broken surfaces that I'm noticing it. A bit hard to judge really as its nearly 3 years since I drove my last Xantia, and the roads are FAR more potholed and broken here than back in NZ! (I'm waiting for an entire wheel to disappear into a pothole never to be seen again )

[lexi]

Could be droplinks although I have only changed those when clunking, which is when they are well past it.
Lemforder are best droplinks.

I find caliper brake nipples don't seize the same with Cits as on conventional cars.

The roads here have NEVER been as bad. 3 hard winters and lack of Public spending . When the economy was booming they were SEARCHING for potholes to be filled.

[DickieG]

One other thing I forgot to mention - while most of the spheres were only 1-4 months old based on the date stamped on them, (with strut sphere pairs identical ages) the front hydractive regulator sphere AEP supplied me is a full 14 months old. I know spheres don't lose pressure nearly as quickly on the shelf, but should I be concerned about pressure loss on a 14 month old sphere ?

Sphere's left on the shelf last for years without pressure loss, I wouldn't have any concerns about one just 14 months old.

[xantia_v6]

but the front doesn't ride quite as well as I remember my previous Xantia riding... although that could be due to worn droplinks rather than lack of gas pressure, as its mainly on very broken surfaces that I'm noticing it.

The brakes fitted to V6s and HDI 110s have a poor design that makes the pads rattle loudly over rough surfaces, making the ride sound much worse than it is. There was a factory modification to adding some spring clips to quieten them down. Search around here and you should find some photos of the clips.

[DickieG]

The brakes fitted to V6s and HDI 110s have a poor design that makes the pads rattle loudly over rough surfaces, making the ride sound much worse than it is. There was a factory modification to adding some spring clips to quieten them down. Search around here and you should find some photos of the clips.

If you hear a rattle at the front end which sounds like a worn droplink gently pull up the handbrake enough to just tension the calipers as the car negotiates corrugations in the road surface, if the noise stops you have three options, put up with the noise, try "loading" the caliper as you tighten it or buy/fit the clips below.

[Mandrake]

The brakes fitted to V6s and HDI 110s have a poor design that makes the pads rattle loudly over rough surfaces, making the ride sound much worse than it is. There was a factory modification to adding some spring clips to quieten them down. Search around here and you should find some photos of the clips.

If you hear a rattle at the front end which sounds like a worn droplink gently pull up the handbrake enough to just tension the calipers as the car negotiates corrugations in the road surface, if the noise stops you have three options, put up with the noise, try "loading" the caliper as you tighten it or buy/fit the clips below.

Errrr,

Surely the clips in those pictures are mounted backwards ? I can't see what they could possibly do as shown. I would have thought they would poke into the gap towards the right between the pads and the calliper frame ?

As for the noise, I'm not sure that it sounds like loose brake pads, it does sound a lot like a noise I used to have on my previous Xantia which I never eliminated or isolated, but always suspected was the large diameter steel hydractive feed pipe that runs under the battery tray banging against the bodywork when the wheel travels over broken surfaces. (This noise was not present in either of the non hydractive Xantia's we had)

In both hydractive cars the clamp on the inside wing has slipped and let the pipe come out of its plastic clips in the battery tray area and touch the bodywork. (The steel tube at the join between the steel and flexible hose part of the pipe has slid down out of the clamp an inch or more...)

I've only driven the car 15 minutes since fitting the new spheres so it will take me a while to evaluate the behaviour of the suspension on a variety of surfaces. (The tires aren't great either, especially the front ones which are hard and worn)

[DickieG]

Errrr,

Surely the clips in those pictures are mounted backwards ? I can't see what they could possibly do as shown. I would have thought they would poke into the gap towards the right between the pads and the calliper frame ?

The clips are correctly fitted as they only go on one way, the other way round and they'd be rubbing against the driveshaft ABS ring. What they do is place a side load onto the caliper to stop it and the pads rattling around, with the clips in place you have to push the caliper into place to get the lower bolt in, without the clip the caliper falls into position.

[Mandrake]

Errrr,

Surely the clips in those pictures are mounted backwards ? I can't see what they could possibly do as shown. I would have thought they would poke into the gap towards the right between the pads and the calliper frame ?

The clips are correctly fitted as they only go on one way, the other way round and they'd be rubbing against the driveshaft ABS ring. What they do is place a side load onto the caliper to stop it and the pads rattling around, with the clips in place you have to push the caliper into place to get the lower bolt in, without the clip the caliper falls into position.

I didn't mean turning the clip upside down so it touched the ABS ring.

I meant rotating it 180 degrees clockwise from the perspective seen in the photos so that the curved tip points to the right and nestles between the pad and the calliper frame. Anti-rattle springs have to push against the brake pad to do anything - I don't see any way that spring is touching the brake pad the way you have it mounted...

[DickieG]

I didn't mean turning the clip upside down so it touched the ABS ring.

I meant rotating it 180 degrees clockwise from the perspective seen in the photos so that the curved tip points to the right and nestles between the pad and the calliper frame. Anti-rattle springs have to push against the brake pad to do anything - I don't see any way that spring is touching the brake pad the way you have it mounted...

It's the only way the clip fits and is as shown on the "Info Rapid", turn the clip the other way round and IIRC it hits the disc and the caliper carrier obstructs the clip so that the mounting holes no longer line up. Having fitted them to three Xantia's with these calipers I can confirm they do stop the rattling.

[Mandrake]

Weird. I don't see the point of the curved springy bit then. Surely the whole thing is just working as a big flat washer under the bolt heads then ? Why not just a single piece flat washer with 2 holes in it ?