Xantia Flood damage

[bigraymaster]

After having to drive through some nasty flood conditions last night thought i had got away with a dislodged inner arch cover. Unfortunately today im having intermittent trouble with gear changes. It appears to be worse in the forward shift gears (1st, 3rd and 5th) where it refuses to go in so i have to chose one of the others. I have seen on here that it may be worth doing an oil change as water can get into the gearbox. Would anyone agree with this and is there anything else worth checking. I have a 74k 2000 110 hdi with sealed hyd. clutch release ml5 box. Is the oil change able to be done on the deck or will i need a ramp, also are there any diagrams (drain plugs, filler holes etc) or procedures on here to help. Thanks in advance.

[oneday]

i would change the oil and look at the gear change rods or cables to see if anything has got lodged in there. gearbox drain will be on the bottom some boxes dont have a filler plug so fill up through the breather hole after removeing the breather. put susspension on high and put axel stands under so it cannot lower on to you. if it has a filler plug it is usually behind the wheel arch.

[Hell Razor5543]

It is easier to refill the gearbox through the reverse switch hole. The reverse switch is mounted on top of the gearbox, under the air filter box (which you will have to remove), and you will need a 23mm spanner or adjustable wrench to remove it. There is enough space around the switch for an adjustable wrench (but not on the BE3 gearbox). Make sure you use the right oil, otherwise the gearbox will express its displeasure by coming apart internally! IIRC you will need Total BV75W80, 1.8L, and it is available from Citroen at less than £17 for 2L. They also should have the crush washers needed (2 off).

You don't need ramps, but IIRC you will need to take the nearside wheel off to get to the level hole. The Haynes manual doesn't have information on the ML5T gearbox, but if you search this forum there are images to help locate the drain plug and the level plug.

[CitroJim]

Change the gearbox oil ASAP as they can ingest water very easily and do. They're not well sealed around the gear-change shaft glands...

The level plug on an ML5 is functionally inaccessible. Just drain fully and refill with 1.8 litres of 75W/80 oil specifically recommended for Peugeot and Citroen gearboxes. Use nothing else at all...

As said, put a funnel on the end of a piece of tube to fill through the reverse switch hole - you'll need a 22mm deep socket to get the switch out...

[Taffyrhys]

I had the same problem in the spring with my S2 xantia estate HDI, i only went through a very small flooded road roughly 10m long and not very deep. Within half hour the gear change became very notchy especially from 3rd to 4th.

However i gave the gearbox an oil change with the Total gearbox oil and straight away the gearbox was back to normal with all the gear changes perfect.

I'm now very careful when going through flooded roads and would now stop the car and raise the suspension up, as it would get expensive changing the gear box oil every time i go through a minor flood.

Good luck

[handyman]

You should always use the higher suspension setting when going through flood water, its what hydro-pneumatic Citroens were designed to do!

H

[Citroenmad]

You should always use the higher suspension setting when going through flood water, its what hydro-pneumatic Citroëns were designed to do!

H

I've had my Xantia in high a few times to wade through floods today

[jgra1]

I was on the Somerset levels on Sat.. I went into one flood, on high, but bailed after about 20m.. I coudnt see an end to the water and it was alsmost at sill level..

[falling-out-with-my-car]

I don't havre this problem with my xantia at all I always raise the suspension and wait for other traffic to pass before using the centre of the road to pass and I go a lot slower to prevent water splashing to high in the engine bay.

You may find that there is a little corrosion on the nylon ball joints that lnk the gear lever to the gearchange arms behind the engine , if you could spray a little WD40 into the linkages you might find it frees up the gear change a bit more, these ball joints dont like water getting into them which can make the gearchange seem a little tight.

[Citroenmad]

I don't havre this problem with my xantia at all I always raise the suspension and wait for other traffic to pass before using the centre of the road to pass and I go a lot slower to prevent water splashing to high in the engine bay.

Yes, this is what I do too.

[Johnny Cogs]

Follow the bow wave, thats what I was taught =)

[handyman]

Follow the bow wave, that's what I was taught =)

Yup, too fast and you risk flooding the engine compartment as the water level following the bow wave will rise, too slow and the following wake can risk getting sucked into the exhaust and engine, causing hydraulic lock and bent conrods. Nasty!

What gets me are the prats who insist on entering the same puddle as you from the other direction! Never happened to me but I did witness an old dear, driving through a deep puddle quite correctly get completely soaked by a (-expletive removed-) speeding through from the other side. The moral is, close the windows.

Sheesh, I did not know that "tw*t" was expleteable.

H

[falling-out-with-my-car]

we made a funnel from a clear plastic bottle and a length of plastic tube we drilled a hole for the tube in the bottle lid aeroldited the tube to the inside of the lid screwed it back on the bottle and then we poke the tube through the gearbox breather on top of the gearbox which is made of black plastic and can be removed with a 19mm spanner.

it is the higest point on the box from which to fill it.

remember to measure the quatity of oil that drains out of the box as over filling it may cause damage to the box, oh and by the way add a tube of wynns Gear oil Treatment and Stop Leak to the new oil it will make your gearbox feel nice and smooth even in the coldest of mornnings.
I posted this up on the Citroen club site and a DS owner came back and said it inprooved his gear selection no end.

we use Wynns Gear oil treatement with stop leak on all our citroens these days and change the gearbox oil about every 3 years. it costs about £8 a tube in Wilcos car mart if you have one nearby.

One more thing the Xantia handbook does warn about going fast in the high suspension setting which is only intended for changing wheels as the only suspension you will have is the depth of the tyre wall the cars suspension locks completely rigid.

compared to the old Citroen BX the supension on an xantia is also very hard on the middle setting but you should be better off on the next height up from normal driving. maximum height will do damage to the car if you are going like the preverbial. at least this is warned in the xantia S2 handbook I dont know about the Mk1.

regards Nigel.

[bigraymaster]

Thank you for all the replies. Managed to pull in a favour and had the use of a ramp. Was hoping for signs of water in what came out but unfortunately there was none. Inspected the gear change cables, my set up seems to be a sealed plastic box underneath the gear stick. This has twin cables coming out of it that join to separate cables, that go into the box. These all seem ok as far as i can tell. The gear change immediately felt slicker but unfortunately the gear change problem came back when i tried fifth. It appears to be happening now in any gear not just the forward ones. When it happens i go for the gear and there is no crunching the lever just seems to stop a short distance before where the gear should be. I then either select another gear or try again and usually it selects it. The couple of times when i havent noticed it is not gone all the way in and i release the clutch the box does crunch. Ive had it suggested it could be the clutch worn and the flood water be nothing to do with the problem. Any ideas? I, ve never had issues before.

[c.morewood]

I spent weeks back in the spring trying to figure out what was wrong. Lubricating joints, changing the gearbox oil twice. It just gradually got better by its self.
I just know not to drive into big puddles!!
If anyone does find a solution please let us know.