Lubricating Front struts

[aerodynamica]

On the Xantia in a couple of weeks I'll be doing some more work. One thing will be replacing LHM, rebuilding the height corrector valves and general suspension fixes.

I wanted to grease up the notorious Xantia front struts. They don't apppear too bad but I'll take any good measure to prolong their service. I was wondering if there was a trick to lubing them up (like the BX trick of immersing the overflow pipes in new LHM and raising the suspension where they suck it in) and how to grease the top section.

Which way does the gaiter disconnect? up or down. Will it be hard to reattach it?

On my BX I recall there were 2 holes at the strut top where you could literally just tip in or spray some lube. Nothing like that on the Xant that I'm missing?

Lastly, any grease types to avoid? eg that don't mix with LHM based rubbers and such.

And experience sought!

G

[CitroJim]

The gaiters are best pulled down from the top (i.e. off the strut tops). I set the suspension on high, reach in and pull them down by gripping a concertina section. There is a bit of a knack to it as the gaiter tops are stretched over a ring on the strut top. The gaiters are tough though. On high, a good part of the ram will be exposed.

It is worthwhile whilst you are there to ensure the gaiters are absolutely free to rotate around the strut as if they are not they can wind up and fall down.

As regards lubrication, I've always used LHM but this is not long-lasting. Any ordinary thin grease should be OK (like Castrol LM) and just recently, Xac has tried silicone spray.

I'm wondering if something as simple as Vaseline might do the job...

[aerodynamica]

OK thanks, I'll give that some attention.

Cheers,

G

[alan s]

With the BXs the best system we discovered through trial and error was to wash the silver part of the strut with WD and wipe off. To do it properly, it needs doing a few times and the suspension raised and lowered to help soften the film that seems to get both on the metal as well as on the plastic type bushes.
We pulled the strut gaitor down from the top at the start and wiped silicone grease over the silver part of the strut once we were convinced all the scum had been removed.
I have also seen bike chain lube used (in a spray can) normal grease, vaseline and even remnants of additives smeared over. All seem to work for a while but unless it is repeated on a regular basis will be marginal at best in results.
Things like silicone sprays give instant results but as with LHM, not long lasting.
After we did this, we then did the sucking the LHM up into the struts trick which again is removing scummy coatings. Some claim that using engine oil improves things, but I've never tried so can't say.
The sucking of the LHM doesn't work on the Xantia apparently due to a different strut design, so you're stuck with the external lube system.


Alan S

[aerodynamica]

Excellent, thanks Alan for the info.