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

[lexi]

Clearing out in loft of garage I found a set of rear solid discs and pads. They must have been for a few Xantias ago.

Free if you want to pick up. They are Halfords brand............probably made by one of the main players.

[RichardW]

17mm spanner

This being Citroen Jim, I am pretty sure they are 16mm... I went to check the new bolts I have in the garage, but they weren't where I expected to find them

I'm pretty sure, Simon, that the pipes and bleed screws are 8mm head. Note that the calipers are not handed - if they are really bad on the back side, then just swap them from side to side on the car - all you need to do is change over the bleed screw!

[CitroJim]

17mm spanner

This being Citroën Jim, I am pretty sure they are 16mm...

You're right Richard Oddly I used a 17mm hex socket by accident last time and got away with it even though I kept thinking it was a poor fit

For some reason I've got 17mm for those bolts firmly panted in my mind...

[Mandrake]

I've had the 'filmy screen' causing a big fogging problem a couple of times, most recently on Rattiva II. Gawd knows what was on there but it took industrial strength solvent to shift it

I'm wondering if a leaking heater matrix with the heater controls turned to heat the windscren results in a fine mist of coolant contaminating the inside of the glass ? My previous Xantia had a slightly leaky matrix as well (which I never did anything about) and it was only ever the windscreen the fogged up, never the other windows...

The two through-bolts that secure the calipers to the trailing arm are high-tensile and love to snap. You need to exercise a special method of extraction as follows:

Wire brush the ends of the threads where they poke through the trailing arm and douse in Plus Gas (not WD40) Wait for it to soak in.

Use a 17mm socket on the end of a long breaker bar and use gentle but sustained force to just move the bolt. It will feel springy at first and this is the dangerous time. It's initially springy and then snap!

So what you must do is to only move the bolt a little each way initially. Undo just a tad, do up just a tad and repeat as you slowly undo and do up a little more each time. Don't rush the job and take it very carefully and slowly. And don't try to undo the bolts quickly just do it in very gentle stages.

The secret to having none shear on you is to have a set of spares on hand (Part No. 96 172 064 for the hatch) at a cost of £16.

If one snaps then the only way to see it out is to weld a nut on the stub of the thread poking out. It is far too hard to drill.

Right, you've scared me off the job for the moment I don't have a welder to recover from the disaster of snapping a bolt.

I did try both those bolts on the left arm with a normal ratchet and socket after applying some rust penetrant, one of them moved without much trouble, the other one was too tight for a medium length ratchet (it didn't give at all) so I didn't try any further and tightened the other one back up again.

Silly question here, but what is a "breaker bar" ? Do you just mean a straight bar drive in place of a ratchet ? Or are you suggesting to use a long extension drive to add a little bit of flexibility to reduce the risk of snapping the bolt ?

Once the calipers are off, remembering to replace the small 8mm through-bolt to hold the two halves of the caliper together, use a sharp cold chisel to remove the corrosion. Wire brushing or sandpapering won't touch it. Then reassemble with plenty of copper grease on the faces to stop it happening again for some time.

I was wondering what holds the two halves of the calliper together. I assumed it was just the two main bolts that did. As you can see I haven't removed a Xantia calliper before.

[Mandrake]

Clearing out in loft of garage I found a set of rear solid discs and pads. They must have been for a few Xantias ago.

Free if you want to pick up. They are Halfords brand............probably made by one of the main players.

That's a generous offer, are you sure you don't want to save it for your next Xantia ?

A few months of missing the V6 and I bet there'll be another Xantia in the driveway

[Mandrake]

17mm spanner

I'm pretty sure, Simon, that the pipes and bleed screws are 8mm head. Note that the calipers are not handed - if they are really bad on the back side, then just swap them from side to side on the car - all you need to do is change over the bleed screw!

The bleed screw is 8mm, I had no trouble with that, they were in good condition and fitted an 8mm spanner perfectly. The nut for the pipe is a long way off fitting an 8mm spanner, (it must be at least half a mm too big) so I guess its just build up of rust that might need wire-brushing or scraping off.

Hey thats a clever idea! I didn't realise the callipers could be swapped between sides, from what I remember the outer face of the calliper blocks is in good condition on both so that would mean only the surface of the arm would need chiselling to clean it up...

[CitroJim]

Simon, this is a breaker bar One of the most useful tools in your arsenal

I've broken a couple too

The beauty of a breaker bar is that it can be used to apply gentle high-torque loads to a bolt. Straining on a ratchet or short bar is more likely to snap them than applying gentle force from the end of a long breaker...

I have one like this and a ginormously long one (getting on for five feet!) for (un)doing hub nuts and swivel joints.

The 8mm bolt is the one that goes through the top holes in the disc pads to locate them. Pop that back in and it holds the caliper together a treat.

[lexi]

Clearing out in loft of garage I found a set of rear solid discs and pads. They must have been for a few Xantias ago.

Free if you want to pick up. They are Halfords brand............probably made by one of the main players.

That's a generous offer, are you sure you don't want to save it for your next Xantia ?

A few months of missing the V6 and I bet there'll be another Xantia in the driveway

You must be reading my mind I do miss a V6. The Vel is lovely but a different thing altogether.

It may be more likely that the next Hydro Cit will be the boring old C5 Diesel estate.......they do make sense and so many around.
You are welcome to do the calipers over here. Welder and many tools available. It is no problem.

[Mandrake]

You must be reading my mind I do miss a V6. The Vel is lovely but a different thing altogether.

It may be more likely that the next Hydro Cit will be the boring old C5 Diesel estate.......they do make sense and so many around.
You are welcome to do the calipers over here. Welder and many tools available. It is no problem.

Thanks for that, I'll be in touch sometime around late April early May, they're working well enough at the moment that it's not too urgent but I'd like to get them done, and certainly before MOT time.

By the way I thought you said the air conditioning didn't work ? We were out driving today in the heat of 23 degrees (yes it really was 23 degrees) and I decided to try the aircon button and surprise surprise its actually working. Not quite as well as it should be perhaps, but thats probably because the pollen filter is badly blocked and there is very little overall airflow... which causes the anti-freeze sensor on the evaporator (condensor ? I always get the two mixed up...) to keep tripping and cycling the aircon off and on to prevent damage from freezing...despite this there was very obvious cooling when turned on. Once the air flow is restored to normal with a new/cleaned pollen filter I think the aircon will be working just fine...

(And with a bit of luck we might actually need aircon this summer, if today was anything to go by...)

[Mandrake]

Simon, this is a breaker bar One of the most useful tools in your arsenal

Ok, that's what I thought it was, I just haven't heard it called that before. So that example you've linked to is the length your recommending for that particular job ? I might have to get a socket to go with it as I think my 16mm socket (or is that 17mm ) is 3/8 drive.

The beauty of a breaker bar is that it can be used to apply gentle high-torque loads to a bolt. Straining on a ratchet or short bar is more likely to snap them than applying gentle force from the end of a long breaker...

I see, yes that makes sense, as long as one has the restraint to not apply too much force to the end of a long bar like that...

I have one like this and a ginormously long one (getting on for five feet!) for (un)doing hub nuts and swivel joints.

That reminds me... does changing the rear disc on a xantia require undoing the main hub nut ? I haven't had any off but I have vague memories that there are just a couple of small locating screws with the wheel bolts themselves doing most of the securing of the discs ?

The 8mm bolt is the one that goes through the top holes in the disc pads to locate them. Pop that back in and it holds the caliper together a treat.

Ah gotcha. I guess its best not to split the callipers apart then if they're old and rusty to avoid leaks or problems with the seal between the two halves ?

[CitroJim]

Best not to split the calipers if you can help it Simon. If you do it's not a problem as the two halves are sealed by an O ring. Just make sure it's located in the groove and no worries..

To change the rear discs no need to touch the hub nut but you do need to take the caliper off. The disc is held to the hub via one special extended screw that ends in a hex head. The size of which is 5.5mm Get a little 1/4" drive socket for this and make sure it's a nice snug fit. 99 times out of a hundred the screw will come out fine using a good socket but using molies or pliers on it normally causes it to just round off and stay put.

Often, even after having the screw out the disc will be stuck fast to the hub through a thin film of rust. The answer then is to give the hub part of the disc some good whacks from a big club hammer and this normally brings about relief. Be careful when taking the disc off as the ABS sensor is close to the edge of it and it's vulnerable to damage if the disc flies off after a particularly energetic bout of hammering.

On front disc retaining screws I use an impact driver and achieve a 99% success rate. Using just a torx bit I get about a 10% success rate!

[lexi]

By the way I thought you said the air conditioning didn't work ?

Excellent. I probably said that as I hadn't even tried it Simon. Never tried the cruise either.
I never used the car much at all except for a few trips up Loch Lomond and tinkering around with.

Will keep in mind you are coming over . Impact drivers et all are here. You wont need any tools.
Be nice to see you......and the car.

[Mandrake]

Anyone know if this service manual CD/DVD collection on ebay that includes the Xantia is legit ?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CITROEN-C1-C2 ... 209wt_1097" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

When I say legit, I mean that it is usable and what it purports to be, not necessarily through "legitimate channels" as such (I ask because I have been burnt before with service manuals online, where they were not as claimed...)

Is this what some of you use for looking up part numbers etc ? I presume it will cover the V6 whereas the Haynes BOL does not ? (Not to mention Haynes is useless even for things it does cover) I miss my 200+ page photo copy of the genuine Xantia service manual I left back in NZ with my Dad, I stupidly didn't get around to scanning it before moving, except for a few excerpts. (It didn't cover the V6 anyway mind you)

In other news I now have a (mostly) working radio thanks to obtaining a radio code The CD changer and speakers work perfectly, the functioning of the cassette is unknown (old tech! I have no tapes ) and the radio sort of works - sometimes its fine, sometimes it makes a horrible screeching noise as it constantly flicks back and forth between mono and stereo. Most of the buttons along the top are a mystery to me without a manual. PTY? RDS ? TA ? EXM AST ? Yeah, real self explanatory those...

Also discovered yesterday that the heated seats work. Excellent. In fact one of the few things that doesn't work (apart from the alarm being unusably trigger happy) is the cruise control. I've checked the pipes around the vacuum controller under the front left wing but can't find anything wrong, they all seem nice and tight. Will have to follow Jims how-to soon and see if I can pin down whats wrong as I was pining for cruise control on a trip to Edinburgh and back yesterday...

[DickieG]

For parts listings, diagrams and prices register on http://service.citroen.com/where" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; you access the dealer parts computer and you can buy timed hours of access to service manuals.

[CitroJim]

All those buttons are a mystery to me too Simon and I'm an ex-radio engineer

I only know that RDS is a system that keeps the wireless tuned to a given station on FM as you motor around. It retunes automatically to the strongest signal in the locality for the particular station you want. It's also responsible for putting the station name in the display.

The TA button seems to be something to do with roadworks. If on then every now and again your chosen station will be interrupted by the most local one to tell you of a burst water main in some God-forsaken place you've never heard of. About as much use as a chocolate teapot...

PTY. Never tried it. perhaps it tells you the location of the nearest party?

My wireless needs are simple. If it can receive Radio 4 anywhere in the UK then I'm content.

Some MK2s had an aerial pre-amp that can fail and cause the problems you are having Simon. Sounds like the signal is weak. Does the display say 'searching' when that happens?

I might have a spare book of wireless words. If I have then I'll let you know...

All good luck on the cruise control. Most likely you'll find it's the brake switch. If it is, sometimes they can be provoked to work for a short time by carefully hooking your toe under the edge of the pedal and pulling it upwards. Do please only try this on a clear stretch of road... !