Xantia II rear brakes, imbalance corrosion and, pipe leak,

[John Plum]

Thanks MyGlaren. I 've managed to get Dropbox working;

Beats me, I had their new 'shared links' on those pictures, and it didn't work. until I put my 'FCF-forum' pictures folder int the 'Public' folder ( i caught that from here above). This public folder was only available on pre 2012 accounts as standard.

[myglaren]

I mainly use Photobucket again. It did go very wonky for a while but seems OK again now.

[John Plum]

Oh, yes While I remember, I wondered about this aluminium to iron calliper corrosion build up. It's reported to build and push the calliper out at an angle. It had done so on mine too. I observed about a 5mm build up in some places. So how does this occur - does it stretch the strong calliper bolts?

[CitroJim]

It's good old electrolytic dissimilar metal corrosion John..

Yes, it can bend and stretch the bolts making them extremely challenging to remove.. Often so challenging they snap. There’s a few threads on this on the forum containing techniques - one quite recent.

Yours being an Estate has bigger rear calipers and bolts and that helps. There's a slightly less chance of them snapping...

[Hell Razor5543]

This post covers it quite well;

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =3&t=38467" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[RichardW]

John

Pretty sure I have a spare pipe for NS I'll check later.

Don't think about replacing with steel - it's almost impossible to get a nice bendy kunifer one in there! Replacement is not too bad - provided you can undo get the pipe out of the K splitter..... There are 2 clamps on the pipe, one either side of the spiral - one connected to the car, the other the roll bar. The one on the car is rivted to the pipe, so you need to drill the rivets out to recover the plate, and then bolt it back together around the new pipe. The other just clamps over the pipe. I would just cut the steel pipe into 2 or 3 pieces to get it out. New one is not too bad to feed in.

If I haven't still got the pipe, you can get one from Plaeides or eurocarcare - you will need to wind the spiral yourself, but it can be done round a scaff tube or other suitable sized round tool The rivets will already be drilled on mine, but the other clamp the bolt was rusted up so I cut the clamp off to get it off the car - will need to be (carefully!) cut off the pipe.

[John Plum]

Pretty sure I have a spare pipe for NS I'll check later.

That's be mighty fine Richard. Meanwhile I'll check citroen for price and availability. Get to me back soon on that, please.

I read those posts beforehand, and took the care advised when disassembling. Using plus gas, and a long breaker bar with slow and steady unwinding helped I think. I didn''t separate the hydraulic pipe, as this was thought unnecessary in posts, and just took it out of the plastic clip on the radius arm.
Movement of the pipe attached to the calliper has broken the pipe, but then the pipe must have been ready to break apart down there, at the bottom of its travel down the radius arm, covered in rust.

I also found that a little oxide build up had pushed against and into the edge of the rubber hydraulic seal on one calliper. Although I had no leak, there was a threat of that.

John.

[John Plum]

The citroen part , 4885 E1 HYDRAULIC TUBE LEFT, is £33.80 plus vat, and takes two days for the dealer to fetch, longer if on 'Back Order'… of which they'll let me know if it is when they request it from the Citroen warehouse.

According to the parts man , on his diagram he sees no seal in the K splitter… I don't know if this is true, do you?

[CitroJim]

There will be a normal 3.5mm rubber pipe seal in there John...

Same as on the caliper end...

[John Plum]

cheers for that Jim. That'll help - I need some more for stock.

[RichardW]

Found it John Yours for the cost of the postage if you want it - should fit in an A4 padded envelope if I bend it round a bit....

[John Plum]

Great stuff Richard. I guess that'll cost around £3 or £4 postage. Could you describe its condition? PM if you like, with your details for sending money etc and I'll send my address too.
John

[John Plum]

Got the brake pipe on, thanks to Richard for the part, with new seals. Started up with slack bleed nipple, but found no jounce, and upon investigation find a leak on the long pipe at the top of the k-splitter close to its pipe union; i.e on the pipe part number 4886 68 HYDRAULIC TUBE DIAM 4,5 LONG 3420. That is, number 13 in the diagram.
It must have cracked upon slight movement of the k=splitter when undoing the pipe union to the calipe feed pipe I just replaced (no 7 in diagram). There is rust there, just at the K-splitter, but the rest of the pipe is clean.

Could you tell me, please What must be done? How do I go about making a short join if that's possible?

[Hell Razor5543]

I know that citronut has the knowledge and tools to sort this out, as he did something similar for northern_mike back in March.

[John Plum]

Thanks.
I found a useful post where citronut helps out Northernfalcon:
http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 3&start=15
where they successfully patch a No 9 3.5mm pipe in situ, and get pipe sections from Pleiades.
Also found an BRAKE PIPE FLARING TOOL 4.75mm DIN ON CAR, for £38.00 here: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/BRAKE-PIPE-FL ... 27eda41cdc
Sent a pm to citronut asking for advice.

I need to decide wether or not go the patch route and, if so
- wether to drop the subframe to get the new section in, or re-route it under the subframe….
OR renew the whole length:
- I understand it goes to the ABS block, forward of the LHM tank. I have no idea about access and dismantling there.