Xantia TD 5th Gear Crunch

David W · Post by **David W** » 28 Feb 2007, 07:55

Mike,

Yes I can't not change the gearbox but I do have an open mind on the clutch being a cause.

By coincidence a few months ago my Discovery TDI had broadly similar problems... right out of the blue one morning. It too had a confusing set of symptoms that seemed like clutch one moment and gearbox the next.

After hauling out the heavy engine I found one of the anti-shock springs in the friction plate had broken up and the bits were rattling around in the clutch. These bits were getting stuck in various places at random causing clutch drag and gear selection problems.

David

Post by **Peter.N.** » 28 Feb 2007, 09:45

Seems strange for it to crunch in several gears. My experience with these gearboxes is that usually only one gear goes noisey or loses synchro altogether, second crunches on my XM when cold and I have had a BX which lost synchro altogether on 2nd and a CX which lost it on 5th, but all other gears were OK. I think the acid test is whether it goes into reverse without crunching, or even at all, as has already been mentioned. Any clutch drag would certainly show up here with no synchro.

David W · Post by **David W** » 02 Mar 2007, 14:39

Thanks for all the thoughts guys. It does come down to being a bit of a weird one.

Today I've just collected a replacement transmission from "howiedean". Came out of a 63K car same age/model as mine so should do the trick. It will be a few weeks until I have the chance to swap though... this weekend for example is a new clutch and rad in the wife's Xsara TD.

I will report back once the Xantia job is done.

David

David W · Post by **David W** » 05 May 2008, 02:50

Well I did say I'd report back on the gearbox replacement success.... and it's taken 13mths!!

Basically we had such a busy period of our lives I could never take the car off the road for a weekend to do the change. I did buy the new clutch and oil seals but they just sat in the workshop. The crunching gears remained but over 13,000mls never got worse.

By chance a friend wanted a car like my Xantia TD Estate last month at the same time another friend was selling a car that interested me.

Both deals were done and I sold the Xantia with the gearbox etc included. I knocked the price down by an agreed figure for a local garage to change the gearbox and fit the new clutch. This was done a couple of weeks ago and pleased to report the gearbox Howiedean sold me all that time ago cured all the problems. So it was just an unlucky duff gearbox in the car when I bought it.

The Xantia TD Estate was a great car but after many years with Citroen diesels I have become "Mondeo Man" being unable to resist the bling of a 2001 Ghia X Estate.

Only time will tell if this is a temporary move from Citroens!

David

Post by **Peter.N.** » 05 May 2008, 09:20

The break from the Xantia might be possible, but once you have had an XM.....