Xsara Estate - rear jacking points, and handbrake adjustment

Mad Ax · Unread post by **Mad Ax** » 26 May 2007, 12:03

The handbrake on my Xsara appears to completely not work. This does not come as a great surprise, since this appears to be a common trait on all Citroens; what was a surprise was to find that the handbrake works on the rear wheels, not the front ones. I thought it was only Ever Other Car Manufacturer In The World that connected their handbrakes to the rear wheels

Anyhoo, I thought the job of adjusting said handbrake would be really simple, apart from 2 problems:

1) I can only jack the rear end up with the factory jack. I can't find any suitable jacking points for a regular trolley jack. It's an Estate model with a towbar, but the bar itself and all its big strong metal bits are too high for my trolley jack to reach. My driveway is covered with stone chippings, so I'm not preparing to go forraging underneath it with just the factory jack in place.

2) I can't find the adjustors. I thought they'd be on the brakes themselves, but this appears not to be the case. Perhaps they're under the car, but I don't want to go under to find out (see (1) above) until I have a suitable jack in place.

Any advice appreciated, tonight I will be doing deliveries in the City of 7 Big Steep Hills (that's Bath, not Rome) and will be struggling if I don't have a working handbrake.

Stewart(oily) · Unread post by **Stewart(oily)** » 26 May 2007, 12:25

Make completely sure that the discs/drums are properly adjusted before you start on the cable adjustment, you should be able to do this without getting under

and I thought Sheffield was buily on seven hills

Stewart

jeremy · Unread post by **jeremy** » 26 May 2007, 13:34

If the disc handbrake is similar to that fitted to a BX it should be self adjusting. It sometimes needs a bit of help - and applying the footbrake firmly and then pulling the handbrake lever up and down a few times often does the necessary.

If this doesn't work - check that the cables are sound (They may have rusted or fractured the outer cover). New ones aren't expensive from GSF or Eurocarparts. Otherwise its pads, discs, caliper slides and the mechanism itself.

JohnD · Unread post by **JohnD** » 26 May 2007, 15:11

IF the hand brake needs adjustment, you'll find it under the centre console.

Mad Ax · Unread post by **Mad Ax** » 27 May 2007, 09:10

Thanks for thine help, I will give those things a try and get underneath to check the cables out once my axle stands are free.

Oily Stewart, is it possible to adjust the disc brakes..? In my experience disc brakes self-adjust and compensate for wear wihout any manual adjustment; the design is such that the piston will only move in and out as much as it needs to.

jeremy · Unread post by **jeremy** » 27 May 2007, 09:44

I was slightly confused when I posted above and thought we were talking about a Xantia.

Xsara is probably like a ZX and either have a disc or drum handbrake on the rear wheels. I have some experience of the drum brakes on a ZX - which are prone to failure.

The cables generally need replacing - they're not expensive. The adjusters get sticky - and the whole thing really needs to be stripped and overhauled fully - to the extent of cleaning and painting the rusty bits of the backplate which act as shoe supports.

After doing this and replacing the adjusters with new (they could have been cleaned, greased and re-assembled I now have back brakes that will hold the back suspension compressed when stationary and allow it to rise noticeably when released. It holds well on a hill but I always leave it in gear having had my BX run away - but that's a different story.

One hint - when assembling the adjuster make sure there is some grease on the unused and hidden portion of the thread and wind the nut up and down a couple of times to spread the grease under it.

On modern Citroens only the hydraulic ones have the handbrake on the front and the reason is due to the hydraulic suspoension and the use of a trailing arm rear suspension. As you have probably found with your Xsara stopping on a hill with the handbrake applied causes the trailing arms to rotate and raise the rear of the car. This is no problem with springs but with hydraulics the height corrector would open and let the presure out of the rear suspension - and so when the brake was released the back of the car would drop. Easy solution - put the handbrake on the front! There was probably a similar problem with the 2CV and its siblings which were softly suspended and even the earlier Renault 4's had it there as well.

nick · Unread post by **nick** » 27 May 2007, 12:25

jeremy wrote:I was slightly confused when I posted above and thought we were talking about a Xantia.

If it has discs on the back they will be a very similar setup to the front of a Xantia. The rear brakes on my Xsara are really just miniature Xantia front brakes!

simonelsey · Unread post by **simonelsey** » 27 May 2007, 13:15

jacking point I use is the round steel bar runs along back of car left to right (think its something like a torson beam) , Jack it up on that and put some axle stands on it .