Xsara Picasso Wheel vibration

tomthered · Post by **tomthered** » 21 Jun 2009, 20:50

As the subject says I have a vibration on my front drivers offside wheel. This only manifests itself when I turn left and the wheel vibrates. I know the balancing is not to blame as I have put a brand new tyre on with freshly balanced weights on. When I drive at 58-68 mph on a motorway and I turn the steering wheel slightly to the left its quite pronounced. It does not do it driving straight ahead. There is a slight clunk when going over a bump but not there all the time, don't know whether this is significant.

When the car is jacked off the ground the wheel has free play when rocked between the 9 and 3 O clock position.

My mate who is a motor technician has checked the steering gear for me. He drove it and said the anti roll bars are fine and bushes. He says the control arm ends are fine. He did say it could possible be the steering rack.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please? Its bugging me like mad as it was never like this when I got it last October 2008. It only seems to have gone like this in the last 6 weeks or so.

Any help much appreciated.

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 22 Jun 2009, 07:54

it sounds like one end or the other of the track rod, which your mechanic freind should have been able to work which end the play is,

an anti roll bar fault would not usualy cause this type of prob

has any work been carried out just prior to the wobble startting

regards malcolm

tomthered · Post by **tomthered** » 22 Jun 2009, 08:35

thanks for coming back so quickly,

The only thing I had done when I first got it was the timing belt changed and a service. Oh and there is some sort of rubber that the guy who did the timing belt says it failed. It sits on top of the suspension nut and I believe is like a mount vibration supressor. Its like a V shape.

I think he forgot to put it back on as I had to call him back to do it but no worries since then, until now, it has been fine. Apart from that no other work. Is it possible he needed to remove the track rod end to do the timing belt? Is there a way of just tightening it or is it a replacement job?

How would I figure out it was a track rod end?

Post by **RichardW** » 22 Jun 2009, 08:50

I don't think there's any doubt this is a track rod end

To be sure, you can check by grabbing hold of the joint whilst some one else rocks the wheel and feeling the play - it could be an inner track rod joint, but that is much less likely. Should be easy to change - see recent thread on changing TREs on a Xantia. I had one on a Xantia go just like this - I think the play was amplifying some small amount of drive train vibration. Took me ages to find it though, as on the Xantia when the suspension was put in high, it jammed the joint and the play couldn't be felt

TREs don't seem to last very long on cars with PAS that are used for mostly town work.....!

tomthered · Post by **tomthered** » 22 Jun 2009, 09:10

I take my wife to work every morning down country lanes that are extremely bumpy, assume that could be that cause as similar thing happened to my 406 and that was the anti roll bar bushes.

Would that explain why the wheel has a little bit of play in it when you hold it in the 9 - 3 O'Clock position and rock it? I will get my son in lw to give me a lift doing what you suggest to see if there is play in the TRE. Everything screams at me that this ias the cause!

EDIT done a search for the post you mentioned. not able to find it easy. any ideas who posted the thred or contributed? That way I can find it easier. Many thanks

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 22 Jun 2009, 11:37

try this link if it works, you will see a picy of a picaso steering rack,

http://service.citroen.com/docpr/affich ... 3%20442001

at the kneck of the track rod end there is a nut (usualy about a 19mm),
just crack this nut off but do not spin it along the thread in the slightest, as this will give you a guide to were to adjust the new TRE to get the tracking set to were it was before you started,

messure from the outter face of the lock nut to the centre of the back of the swivle pin/joint body, this is distance you spin the old nut onto the new joint,

then without alowing the nut to move screw the new TRE into the track rod till the nut comes up against it, and now rotate the new TRE untill the swivle pin is pointting up or down in the direction it goes into the hub carrier, refit the swivle pin nut then tighten the adjuster lock nut (19mm ??)

now as soon as you can get your tracking set/adjusted by a competant mechanic/garage (preferably not a tyre company)

regards malcolm