strut top leaking

davethewheel · Post by **davethewheel** » 22 Nov 2006, 23:21

i fitted new strut tops on my old 1.9td xantia but there was a small weep of lhm from the nut that secures the ram through the strut top, tried to tighten it a bit more but it didn't make a difference, i've since changed the car so i swapped the new strut tops over to the new car and replaced the seals in the leaking strut top and all seemed ok but now the opposite side is leaking, has anyome come across this problem, when i changed the seals on the first leaking one i checked the old ones and couldn't find any reason why they didn't appear to be split or damaged.

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 23 Nov 2006, 18:48

Hi Dave -

Its normal to get weeping strut top seals if disturbed - like after strut replacements.
The seals are standard O-rings compressed by the assembled strut. After some years the seal rubber tends to adapt to the space - and becomes oval. Consequently it will leak. For the same reason its very important that top bore and strut surface is perfectly clean and lubed with fresh LHM before strut assembly.

Note that the compression of the seal is determined by the bore and strut diameter. Its not affected by the top fixing nut torque.

http://www.citroen-pr.net/catalogues/il ... 345100.gif
Note that the 2 seals are of different size and must not be mixed up.
11 - 96 145 321 - SUSP CYL O-RING (approx £1)
12 - 96 065 851 - SUSP CYL O-RING (approx £2)
(Does NOT fit V6)

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 23 Nov 2006, 18:55

Hi Dave

I had the same problem when I put new struts in - the seals were fine, but there was a little bit of seepage up the thread and around the side of the nut so the nuts were always slightly wet with oil. I also noticed that even though I'd done them up to the right torque a few weeks later they would always be slightly loose.

The problem was lack of loctite - the Citroen manual says to use loctite on the thread and I hadn't because I didn't have any available at the time. (And don't generally like using loctite except when absolutely necessary)

So I bought some "medium strength" 641 loctite, depressurized the car, undid both nuts, thoroughly cleaned the threads and nuts with a brush and petrol (loctite wont set on oily surfaces) and applied some loctite. I applied it to both the thread and the flat face the nut screws down onto.

I then did up the nuts to the correct torque and left it for a few hours before pressurizing it or otherwise disturbing it.

That was about 6 weeks ago now and there has been no trace of seepage whatsoever, and also the nuts are not working loose anymore.

So I guess in this instance Citroen were right about using loctite there

Regards,
Simon

davethewheel · Post by **davethewheel** » 23 Nov 2006, 19:14

thanks for that i'll definatly try the locktite first before i go to the extent of changing the seals