Xantia tire wear

[kiwifrog]

Went for my 6 monthly WOF ( MOT to you guys ) and failed on rear tires on my 93 Xantia , they were brand new 12 months ago ( Chinese ) have done just over 9000 km on them and they are down to the canvas on the inside. Wof guy said I need to get my wheel alignment done but I didn't think there was any adjustment in the rear ? Tire pressures always checked at 32 psi rear , 34 psi front as per sticker in door shut.
My son was following me one day and he said my car has a bit of negative camber so is this causing the wear ?

[Hell Razor5543]

I would have a long hard look at the rear arm bearings.

[CitroJim]

I would have a long hard look at the rear arm bearings.

I'd certainly concur...

[Mandrake]

Wow, I've never seen it that bad. Have you had the camber measured on the rear wheels ? I bet there is loads of negative camber.

Is the ride harsh at the back ? I'd agree - the rear suspension arm bearings must be totally shot, get them changed ASAP before the remains of the bearings start gouging the bearing support housing in the arms - if that happens you'll need new arms as well and not just new bearings.

Suspension arm bearing kits are available which include the plastic spacer you'll need to replace. If you search the forum you'll find threads describing how to do the job - I've done it once myself and as long as the housing in the pivot of the arm hasn't been damaged and everything isn't badly rusted in general it's not a bad job. I did both sides in about 2-3 hours start to finish from memory.

[RichardW]

Took me about 6 hours just to get the arm out, battling with the rusted in ram pin - but in NZ with the absence of rust it should be easy enough! Note that if it's an estate there isn't a kit, and assembling the bits is a bit more difficult....

[kiwifrog]

Who sells the bearing kits over there, no one over here has them

[RichardW]

http://www.eurocarcare.net/rear-suspens ... r-kit.html
http://www.aepdirect.com/rear-arm-beari ... ory_id=754

[kiwifrog]

Thanks guys !

[wurlycorner]

Gsf still do the arm bearings but not the kit anymore by the looks.

[kiwifrog]

Just ordered 2 kits @ nz$112 all up with air freight, man you guys are lucky having these parts in your neighbourhood lol
Anybody got pix of the arms out of the car ?

[kiwifrog]

Removed both trailing arms today and found this, going to need new arms or get these welded and re machined,
both outer bearings are like this but inners are ok, more pix to come

[kiwifrog]

[CitroJim]

Oh dear! I think we can safely say they are a little worn...

[Stickyfinger]

Wow.....just wow

[Mandrake]

Good grief! Possibly the worst documented case on the forum. How many kilometres has it done, and in what part of the country ?

The only Xantia I've changed the rear arm bearings on was my 1997 2.0i VSX which I owned in New Zealand - it had done about 150,000km when I changed the bearings and to be honest they looked almost like new and turned out to not really need changing at all! My car spent most of its life in Northland though so wasn't subject to road salt etc and was an ex Japanese import not NZ new.

When I lived in NZ Alan Sklenars Citroen in Hamilton was my go-to supplier of second hand parts - he had an entire scrap yard full of Citroen's. I don't know if he's still in business though - last time I had dealings with him was nearly 10 years ago and I suspect he is at or well past retirement age by now!

But check the phone book for him and if he's still around give him a call. If he's not, I'm not sure where else in NZ you would try for second hand Xantia parts!

Edit: Looks like he's still around!

http://sklenarscitroen.weebly.com/