Replacing BX front struts with those from Xantia?

[czenda]

Hi, a rumor appeared recently on our local forum saying that it is possible to replace troublesome BX front struts with those taken from Xantia, which are supposed to be virtually maintenance-free and undestroyable. However, nobody tried this swap yet. Does that sound like a good idea or is it just nonsense?

[tomsheppard]

It is nonsense. The Xantia strut doesn't fit and the BX strut isn't troublesome, being cheaply rebuildable, if indeed it needs rebuilding. Many do not.

[alan s]

It used to amaze me the number of BXs that were scrapped due to tightness in the front struts. If any were still sitting dejected in wreckers yards today, they could be a nice little earner for somebody as it was never all that big a job to rebuild them anyway and in lots of cases they could have (or should have) been serviced to prevent the problem in the first place.
I agree that the Xantia strut seems a better set up but by the same token, I think I've heard of more Xantia struts popping through the bonnet than I ever did BX ones and in any case. I feel just looking at them answers the question as regards replacing one with teh other; a disaster waiting to happen.
If in doubt on the strut maintenance and their smoothness, read this & give it a try; you'll be amazed at the difference.
http://www.andyspares.com/discussionfor ... IC_ID=7184
Alan S

[czenda]

OK, I will pass the info to those who came with the idea of swapping the struts. I read the article mentioned above, and although I can easily imagine the procedure involving putting the rubber vent hoses to a jar filled with LHM, I am not very clear about where to "inject" the stuff. Pls help.

[tomsheppard]

Just raise the suspension . This sucks some lhm into the struts and does the magic. That's the deliberate injection I was talking about.