Xantia 1994 M/T buzzing

[Kiwi]

Hi everyone,

You've been a fantastic resource as my father and I have been working on my car. Unfortunately we seem to have it a bit of a dead end on this one.

I have a 1994 manual Xantia 2.0i. I've found that above around 3k RPM there's a bit of a rattle/buzzing from the shifter, this is especially annoying when traveling at around 100km/h as I have to listen to this for 30 minute periods. The noise will stop if I push the knob slightly to the side while in gear.

My first thought was to inspect the linkage as the Haynes manual says, but honestly the directions don't seem to help much. There's no direct access to the base of the gearchange lever where it connects to the rod. There's a shield above the exhaust pipe, I didn't see any mention of this in the manual, it's also riveted in. So... we drilled out two of the rivets and had a look. It appears that even then the linkage is in a housing. I'm guessing we're doing this wrong at this point, so the project has been put on hold and I've come to ask you guys before we seriously mess things up. As far as I can tell, even if we fully removed the shield, the linkage is inaccessible due to the housing. Are we able to access it from above? If not, what's the best way of checking that linkage?

Here's a picture of just above the shield looking towards the shifter

Any help would be greatly appreciated, cheers.

[CitroJim]

Welcome to the forum Kiwi

Two suspects here. the first is the mounting of the gearchange bellcrank arm on the front subframe. It is bolted on with one 10mm stud (I think -from memory) and often works a little loose causing both a noisy and a bit of a sloppy change... The bellcrank is the bit that converts the fore-and aft motion from the gear stick into cross motion for the gearbox selectors proper.

The second suspect is the lower engine mount adjacent to the RH Driveshaft Inboard CV joint. Old oil leaks can rot it and make it all soft and squidgy...

[Kiwi]

Hi Jim, thanks for the suggestions .
I'll check those things out tomorrow morning. In the mean time though, I feel I should clarify that I'm fairly certain the noise is directly below the shifter, my guess was that maybe the bushing was worn out and rattling. I was hoping to have a look at it, is it as difficult as it seems?
Cheers.

[CitroJim]

Noise can travel...

I was hoping to have a look at it, is it as difficult as it seems?

Yes and no... The exhaust and cat have to be dropped to get at it properly and that, in my book, makes it hard

[Kiwi]

I had a look at the bellcrank arm mounting bolt, it was very tight. I had a look at that engine mount too, the rubber still seems very firm.
Discovered that the noise still happens in neutral too, so I wasn't going to have to drive to record it .
Shifter buzz
Please ignore the obnoxious gear knob, the last one crumbled off

[wurlycorner]

Well yep, that buzz would certainly drive you mad, that's for sure!
The source of the vibration will be somewhere else, but I agree it could be the bush at the bottom of the shifter that is making it so unbearable (it should damp that kind of vibration out).