Activa Control Rod bush/guides...heads up

[Stickyfinger]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321912802801

3D printed ....quite cheep

[Gibbo2286]

3D printed in PLA, PLA is biodegradable, starch based, I wonder what the useful life is going to be.

[Stickyfinger]

I wonder why would they use that type of material then , maybe all they have available Bulgaria ?

Would you say that they should NOT be used and what material should be used ?

[Gibbo2286]

I'm not sure, if the environment it's used in is suitable it could last a long time but out in the weather I'd think not. HDPE would probably be better.

[CitroJim]

Or Nylon66... The stuff I have made rear ram bushes out of in the past...

Even Nylon66 can be affected by moisture as it is slightly porous..

The items in the ebay link may be OK so long as they are kept regularly covered in grease.

Actually, they are not hard to make with basic tools and a pillar drill/lathe.. 3D Printing may be quicker though...

[DHallworth]

Hmm, I'm not sure I'd even bother with these. They are still currently available from Citroen so I'd rather stick to them then anything after market. When the OE supply dries up I'll start looking elsewhere.

Citroen's description is "2 guide set" and it retails at £16.10. A bit more expensive then eBay, but I'd rather spend the little extra, personally.

David.

[elma]

The printing on them doesn't look bad, the price is decent as well.
3d printing nylon is possible but its not as easy to print and the finish is worse. Pla is the cheapest material and prints quite well at a decent speed. It also is a bit springy. If springy isn't required I'd suggest colorfab xt as a decent material. It's a mixture of pla and and abs, bound with polymer. It's quite stiff, prints rapidly, relatively unreactive, requires minimal deburring and comes out smoother than abs or pla. The cost is greater, but only by a fraction.
If you can find a .stl cad drawing for the part I can print some in a range of materials for you to try out. Sorry no time spare to cad any up right now, if it needs doing give me a shout after Christmas. If you've got an stl I can print those parts in minutes though so no delay.

[CitroJim]

Gosh James, you may have a nascent business there - printing Xantia bits for us

[KP]

Being made from a softer material is probably a good thing as anyone who has replaced more than one set of guides will know if you look closely the guide rods themselves suffer wear from rubbing hard against the rubber/plastic guides. Having a softer and more sacrificial guise material is probably better long term to make the rods last longer especially as they are the part that's nfp...