handyman wrote:Hi John, have you checked that the rims are wide enough to take a 205 profile tyre. They need to be a minimum of 5.5J to 6J wide. Check the vehicle spec. If they are fitted to rims that are too narrow, they will balloon and pick up all the irregularities in the road.
I was wondering the same, but when I re-read the original post I realise John is saying that the tracking problems were also there with the original smaller tyres...
As the steering on all hydraulic Citroens is self-centering, I would suggest the steering is toeing out too much, by a long way!
Can't quite make sense of this ? I presume you mean all hydraulic Citroen's with power steering ?
Unfortunately later Citroen's like the Xantia don't have self centering steering in the way that a diravi equipped CX etc had - the centering is just plain old steering geometry and tyre forces from toe-in / toe-out like any other conventional car. (toe-out in the case of the Xantia)
Too much toe-out (within reason) is going to make the self centering stronger, not weaker. I can't recall the exact figures but it's something like 0 to 3mm toe-out for the Xantia, with somewhere near the middle being optimum depending on tyres. (Mine is set in the middle of the range at the moment)
If the tyres are good and properly inflated, and the toe-out is within spec, I'd be checking the lower arm bushes, lower hub balljoint, and steering tie-rod balljoints - any source of slack is going to cause wandering when hitting bumps, especially if there is not much toe-out. A bit more toe-out can often disguise these problems but its best to find the real cause.
Regards,
Simon
