terrible xantia handling on motorway (SOLVED!)

This is the Forum for all your Citroen Technical Questions, Problems or Advice.

Moderator: RichardW

User avatar
AndersDK
Posts: 6060
Joined: 21 Feb 2003, 04:56
Location: Denmark
My Cars:
x 1

Post by AndersDK »

Long shot :
Have the car MOT'ed. These guys usually finds all the problems.
JohnCKL
Posts: 230
Joined: 24 Sep 2002, 23:35
Location: Malaysia
My Cars:

Post by JohnCKL »

Sounds very much like worn out lower arm bushes. When I had that problem, I was fighting with the steering to keep the car in a straight line. No, it won't have any sounds when accelerating or braking either. As Alan S pointed out, it won't be easily seen unless taken out and scrutinised.
kid
Posts: 68
Joined: 18 Nov 2004, 20:02
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by kid »

thanks for your replies, v intresting
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by JohnCKL</i>

Sounds very much like worn out lower arm bushes. When I had that problem, I was fighting with the steering to keep the car in a straight line. No, it won't have any sounds when accelerating or braking either. As Alan S pointed out, it won't be easily seen unless taken out and scrutinised.
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
ill do a couple of quick check first:
1) check balance is still on tyres
2) check fornt tyres are have not been fitted in wrong direction
if this is ok, so would i be on the right lines if i checked the following
1) front lower arm bushes
2) rear arm bearings
if so, id like to have a look, is there anyway i can check if these are worn, both front and rear
alan s
RIP 2010
Posts: 2542
Joined: 26 Jan 2001, 15:53
Location: Australia
My Cars:
x 6

Post by alan s »

Ideally, a hoist with one centre post and the rubber feet that sit under the jacking points leaving the wheels dangling in the air.
Grab something like a pinch bar and try to move both front and rear bushes by using force via leverage to make them move.
In the case of the rear arms, try getting the bar between the arm and chassis to pull it outwards and with the front again look for a fulcrum point to get leverage from. I think once it's up in the air, you'll soon see what I mean; very hard to describe in a few words.
Alan S
kid
Posts: 68
Joined: 18 Nov 2004, 20:02
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by kid »

original posters update
ive taken car to the local specialist and he's checked all bushes, rear arms, pretty much eveything to do with suspension and steering and says all is fine.
however he noticed the nsf tyre centre tread was not in line with the two outer treads, and you can feel the indent in this centre section when you rub your hand over the whole tread.
so maybe the internal central steel wall (or whatever its made from) has collapsed.
ill try swapping this with one of the rear tyres take it for a spin and see if it makes any difference, if it does problem solved.
BonceChops
Posts: 449
Joined: 28 Sep 2003, 11:08
Location: North West UK
My Cars:

Post by BonceChops »

Put the spare in its place. Not a good idea to try and prove a faulty tyre by leaving it on the car. The "central steel" is made of steel and non-metallic fabrics. ie steel braids sandwiched between thin rubber sheets to form a steel fabric.
Dave Burns
Posts: 1915
Joined: 14 May 2001, 05:30
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:
x 2

Post by Dave Burns »

Sounds like an over inflated tyre to me, never heard of a tyre suffering internal carcase damage that didn't develop duck eggs or other very unsavoury traits, I doubt very much if an evenly worn centre section of tread could be due to the likes, what is the name on the tyre.
Dave
kid
Posts: 68
Joined: 18 Nov 2004, 20:02
Location: United Kingdom
My Cars:

Post by kid »

Only 11 months late the problem has now been solved.
Everything i could think of checking ive had done including:
Bushes, arms, rear arm bearing, 2 wheel alignment, 4 wheel alignment, 6 wheel alignment (ok maybe not the six), spheres, checks rechecks, triple check, even passed the mot in between, and still no joy
Yesterday i took the tyre back to the place of purchase and a genuinely helpful man looked at the possibly faulty tyre and thought most probably nothing wrong, looks like he was correct.
So he tried to swap the two front tyres (Avon cr322 185 65 14t), to the back and put the cheap nasty budget ones (both different) to the front, to see if this made any difference, well yes it did, it made it grip like torvil and dean (i.e. no grip). So now thought well i give up.
Toady i gave it one last chance national tyres have an offer on Avon zv3 for £84 the pair, so ive given it a go and finally the handling has been transformed, like a new car and for the first time in my xantia i was doing 70mph and felt totally in control and safe, and this was in the wet!
So turns out it was the tyres. A lesson for all here is only put good quality tyres on any car, and factor into the cost of purchasing a vehicle this. sice my purchase of the xantia i have bought 4 brand new tyres for £165 plus spend £25 for the optiflex, quiet a signifying cost any car but in particular on a car which would probably struggle to fetch four figures.
I hope those cheap horrible budgets have been torn to pieces by the center, not even worth using for recycling they are so bad. They still had half their tread on too; god help any man if these were approaching the legal limit
i now have the avon zv3 at the front and the cr322 at the back.
today I am happy today, very happy!
Post Reply