Oh no 🤦🏼??? I've just bought another Xantia !

[CitroJim]

Hey man , I didn't even know it was a hydractive model , haha , I havnt had a proper look around apart from inside, so the button to the right of the steering wheel, next to the Sus lockout . Is that the hydractive firm / soft setting ?

Yes, it will be if it looks vaguely like a spring! All Exclusives were Hydractive... A great system but one with well-known and easily resolvable stock faults...

Don't expect that button to make a huge and obvious difference... It does not 'hard' switch hard or soft modes but adjusts the thresholds at which the Hydractive system chooses to switch from soft to hard and back again under cornering, acceleration and braking...

When you push it in, nothing appears to happen except for a light coming on!

Lots of knowledge on here about Hydractive...

Looks like your welder is soon going to be busy... It's a common place for them to go and the likely reason is a perished/missing rubber bung in the forward part of the rear wheelarch that allows water straight into the sill. This problem is compounded by the rather narrow sill drain slots becoming blocked... They do so very readily...

It's not a hard repair for a competent welder to undertake but do check the integrity of the inner sill and the nearby seat belt anchorage whilst you're there...

[zs&tas]

Ha love me a button that does nothing !
I taught myself to weld this year, so it's more practice. I believe the car is well worth it ! I seem to have fallen for xantias and the estate will be great on hols

[zs&tas]

Oh Under the battery tray is a nice big block of shiney metal , must control something , any ideas , I can't get under the car yet as the fronts blown and on the ground

[CitroJim]

I seem to have fallen for xantias and the estate will be great on hols

It's easy to become smitten with a Xantia I enjoyed a 15 year love affair with them and ended up owning an example of almost every model! The only ones I never did own were the smaller petrols...

Estates, especially in exclusive trim, are very desirable and well worth working on and making good

[zs&tas]

I started on a c5 . I like a good chassis and c5 was quite impressive, my friend bought the xantia 1.8 auto for fun , I prefer older cars and found the c5 Interior annoying so I took the xantia, I've had it 4.5 years now. It's much nicer to live with than the c5. In fact the only two things better about the c5 was having larger diameter rubber, the wheels roll nicer , and the brakes. I just always wanted an estate , if I can mot it , I will keep it for a long time

[zs&tas]

Hi, waiting for metal and a pipe fix delivery. Meanwhile I would like a hydractive pipe diagram for my 99 if someone can provide that so I can save it on my laptop for future reference

[xantia_v6]

Oh Under the battery tray is a nice big block of shiney metal , must control something , any ideas , I can't get under the car yet as the fronts blown and on the ground

That would be the ECU that controls the AL4 transmission.

[zs&tas]

Hi , manual gearbox ?

[CitroJim]

Oh Under the battery tray is a nice big block of shiney metal , must control something , any ideas , I can't get under the car yet as the fronts blown and on the ground

That would be the ECU that controls the AL4 transmission.

That's the usual location for the autobox ECU and I've never been aware of any other ECU living in that position... It is, after all, a pretty stupid place to put one!

Given you have a manual transmission, we need a few photos to see exactly what it is...

I thought I'd seen everything on a Xantia abut this has piqued my curiosity

[zs&tas]

Hehe I'll get a pic when I can , when I was locating the hydraulic leak , under the Batt tray is rusted to hell so I could see it through the hole there , a little surprised, I wondered if it was just a front left crash sensor ?

[CitroJim]

Ahh, if it's under the the hole then that will be the vacuum pump for the cruise control...

Not the best place for it by any means...

Bizarrely, the ECU for the cruise control lives on the inner sill under the driver's seat!

[zs&tas]

Ok thanks , god they leave stuff everywhere huh. I'm normally a fan of basic cars for this reason lol.

[CitroJim]

Ok thanks , god they leave stuff everywhere huh. I'm normally a fan of basic cars for this reason lol.

I love my basic cars these days... My AX is a true base model... I like to see the old poverty spec cars preserved.

When you look at the high-spec late Xantias they appear to have been designed after a particularly good liquid lunch on a Friday afternoon

[citroC5]

what a lovely car ! quiet , comfortable , Powerful ! im impressed, it needs a dam good clean though ! with moss all around, it needs tyres as they are sun baked cracking, and i have to fix the abs light ?? any ideas where to start on that one ?
thanks

It looks sodding well amazing. I hope you get some great miles out of it!

[zs&tas]

That's the plan ! I've just taken delivery of some metal for welding it