Xantia clutch adjustment

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D.Slatford
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Joined: 13 Nov 2001, 06:06
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Xantia clutch adjustment

Post by D.Slatford »

Not quite gone yet! I've been offered for next to nothing a colleagues 1.8 Xantia, with a whopping 180K on the clock. It'll do as a stop-gap after the sudden death of my 1.9TD until I find something proper.
Anyway, my only worry with this car when I examine it tomorrow is the clutch. The bite point is close to the floor, and the pedal is low down too - plus you can pull the pedal freely upwards from its rest position.
Someone has already put this down to the Xantia clutch cables 'stretchyness' more than anything else, and a simple adjustment should put it right again.
Does this sound reasonable, or might the clutch be close to failure? I wonder, because after I had a clutch change some months ago, the adjuster nut came loose and the pedal fell close to the floor - like this one has - but I <i>couldn't pull it back up again</i>. Its rest position was the maximum travel. The pedals rest position on this prospective is <i>not</i> the maximum travel, the pedal can be pulled up on some slack. Is this a warning sign that the clutch is close to failing or still a matter of simple adjustment?
tonespeed1999
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Post by tonespeed1999 »

if you cant make the clutch slip,i would say try adjusting it,or fit a new cable if your feeling brave!
RichardW
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Post by RichardW »

I think there's always been a bit of upwards free play in the clutches on my 2 Xantia TDs.
The 1.8 uses a more conventional push clutch, so low down bite and little travel does suggest that the clutch cable needs adjusting. The reason for the slack could be that the cable is pushing back through the adjuster (which it won't do on a TD, as the inner is fixed and the outer moves - I think anyway, operation of cables always confuses me [:o)]). It should be possible to adjust it to the required 140mm travel farily easily.
Note of caution though: I never adjusted the clutch cable in 40,000 miles on my last Xantia TD (Clutch was about shot for all that time), nor in 70,000 miles in a BX TD, and 'stretchy' cables are not well known. What can happen is that the clutch fails by the release bearing wearing through the springs - this causes big amounts of movement in the release lever that need to be compensated for by cable adjustment. Once it's got to the needing adjustment more than once stage, it's probably time to replace before it lets you down. I would be suspicious that this car is suffering so - either that, or the clutch has been replaced and the cable not adjusted properly, or the cable is about shot. Replacing the cable is not fun! I would find out if it has had a new clutch and / or cable and the recent frequency of cable adjustment before committing.
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