Once Again I Own A Xantia

[admiral51]

Well what can i say, a sucker for punishment or maybe i just know how good they really are

It is a MK2 2000 W plate HDI ( 90bhp) with 75k on the clock, has spent approx 10 years in Spain ( exported and imported by same owner ), interior is as close to mint as you can get apart from an after market stereo, so yes on the lookout for an original ( rocking horse ****) is easier to find i believe .
However the reason for the new thread is that for the last 6 months it has been owned by someone who did not understand what they had, engine wise it has been serviced but from my previous ownership of Xantia's the same problems are still present from when i got my first one back in 2007
Suspension is not great ( much better than springs though ), brakes are horrible, front dives rear rises ( has 11 months mot ), ride height is wrong both ends, LHM resembles a slightly darker shade than that of a pint of John Smiths, accumulator ticks like a second world war bomb,takes an age to rise and lower front end first then rear end, from memory i think both ends should go up and down as one and aircon does not work

However i am really pleased with my new purchase

All the faults have been covered over the years i have been a member on this forum, i have even posted how to do posts ( with help from previous posters )but that was years ago, so i will work my through the to do list and try and bring them "up to date".
There will be questions from me to you all as my memory is not as good as it once was but i will take pics and try to do things the right way.

Yes i will post pics of my new recruit but may not be for a few days

Colin

[Huskyxantia]

Is it silver ?

[white exec]

Plenty of Xantias (well, there used to be) in Spain which were bought on the back of previous highly-successful Citroens (C15, ZX...) and the owners never understood what they had bought (hydraulically), and just drove and maintained them (or not) like their steel-sprung cousins.

Down here - Andalucia - most Xantias have now disappeared, and those that end up in the scrapyards are immediately crushed, not even stripped. Little interest in them now, although plenty of 'conventional' cars of that era soldier on. My search a few years ago for some late Xantia bits took me through a dozen huge Malaga scrapyards before I found even one.

Sounds as if you need 5L of Hydraurincage for Christmas. If the fluid is that bad, it would be a good move to run the system on it for 2-3000 miles.

[admiral51]

Is it silver ?

Yes

[admiral51]

Have quite a bit to do but to be fair most of it is basic Xantia servicing but i tried HydraFlush before and found it was OK but since then i always stuck to LHM and changed it after 1-2k miles and then again after another 4 months.
An issue i have found is that the handbrake cables need to be replaced, well i think so based on the fact the handbrake travel is more than it should be. Not in the sense of clicks etc but the handbrake does not sit down on its stop if that makes sense, it is a bit floppy, had that before on a previous Xantia and i replaced the cables, for the life of me i cannot remember how to do it, need to trawl through my old posts, sure Jim was the one who told me how to change them and they are handed

[white exec]

New LHM has a cleaning action, but nothing like as effective as H'cage at shifting dirt.

[admiral51]

Good point need to rethink then

[CitroJim]

Well done Colin Welcome back to Xantia ownership!!!

[retrofrench]

I was wondering if this car would pop up on one of the forums! I’ve been after a Xantia HDi for a while and I found this car on gumtree just a few hours after listing. It then appeared on autotrader. I contacted the seller, we exchanged a few emails. It was clear he wasn’t overly familiar with hydropneumatic cars. Then he just stopped replying to me! I called (even though the ad said not to) emailed again and again as I was keen to see it during my week off but nothing. Very weird and really annoying. It was a part exchange at Pentons and sold on eBay back in July for £320. It sounds like it’s in perfect hands now. If you get rid of it - gimme a shout! I look forward to following your progress!

[Gibbo2286]

Have quite a bit to do but to be fair most of it is basic Xantia servicing but i tried HydraFlush before and found it was OK but since then i always stuck to LHM and changed it after 1-2k miles and then again after another 4 months.
An issue i have found is that the handbrake cables need to be replaced, well i think so based on the fact the handbrake travel is more than it should be. Not in the sense of clicks etc but the handbrake does not sit down on its stop if that makes sense, it is a bit floppy, had that before on a previous Xantia and i replaced the cables, for the life of me i cannot remember how to do it, need to trawl through my old posts, sure Jim was the one who told me how to change them and they are handed

That's actually a symptom of sticking calliper levers, not going back to their stops. maybe a look at them first before replacing the cables would be advised.

[admiral51]

My apologies for getting it from under your nose retrofrench, but i must admit it did take me a while to get hold of the seller, i also spotted it very soon after it was listed but Mrs Xant was insistent that i try and keep the C5 on the road ( more news on that issue in another thread )
You are not going to like this bit but it is like a new car inside and a few days of plusgas and citrobics the ride height is getting better, even the High to Low is getting both ends more in unison
Bad news Mrs Xant has driven it and looks like this one could be a keeper, i even have permission to source an original head unit lol.
If i do get rid i will give you first refusal

[admiral51]

Thanks for that Gibbo, will look at that before i go for the handbrake cable replacement.

Couple of other small issues , guess the list is gonna get longer lol
The brake pedal seems to be a little lower than the others, sounds daft but it seems a couple of mill lower than it should be, could that be related to handbrake/caliper issue ?
The weird one is the the headlining by the windscreen has come away, not drooping but enough to give a couple of mill gap and it does create a strange noise above 50, push it up by hand and the noise gets quieter, it does not go away as i need atleast one hand on the steering wheel and cannot reach to passenger side whilst driving lol.
guess it could have a windscreen replaced and had the headlining displaced .
But i still love it

[xantia_v6]

Is it just the headlining cloth loose, or the fibreboard backing?

The Xantia brake pedal always sits low, but does not have much travel. You can always adjust the height while doing the brake pedal spring modification.

Sometimes there is so much rust in the nylon pivot bush of the height corrector cradle that no amount of lubrication will free it up entirely. In that case the (rivetted) pivot must be dismantled, a new pivot pin made.

[van ordinaire]

I have commented before on the extraordinary disinterest in selling displayed by "vendors" who post on Gumtree.

[admiral51]

I have commented before on the extraordinary disinterest in selling displayed by "vendors" who post on Gumtree.

Yep it took me 2 days to get a response and that was on the auto trader ad, which was £5 lower than the Gumtree ad