'98 Xantia Suspension - What's Occuring??

gadgetgricey · Unread post by **gadgetgricey** » 03 Jun 2010, 21:27

Admittedly not done any real testing as yet, but got the car back earlier from the garage after they replaced both front lower arm bushes for the MOT.
Got out the car at home and it felt higher, so much so that I peered back inside to see if they had adjusted the ride height. No, all as it should be.

However the front of the car is sitting higher than I feel it should be.

Any suggestions re possible cause, or even any fix, or does this seem the right height?

Was just going to try lowering the ride height and then setting back to normal in the morning, but just wondered if anyone had ever seen anything similar.

Thanks again.

- Dave -

Unread post by **citroenxm** » 03 Jun 2010, 21:52

Hi Dave

How you getting on with her apart from the bush's??

IF they have made adjustments or replaced bush's they may have disturbed the anti roll bar and it COULD be in a slightly roatated position, which means it will have a rotational effect on the linkage to the height corrector, which means it will affect the height slightly...
IF you have access to ramps, you may need to adjust the clamp on the anti roll bar to bring her down a bit...

Paul

Unread post by **Peter.N.** » 03 Jun 2010, 22:43

Have a look at the drive shafts, at normal height they should be approximatly parallel to the road.

Peter

gadgetgricey · Unread post by **gadgetgricey** » 03 Jun 2010, 22:57

citroenxm wrote:Hi Dave
How you getting on with her apart from the bush's??
Paul

Hi Paul.

Fantastic....

Nice Leather Interior and wheel fitted, just got to connect the heated seats up, but no rush for that at the moment. And also got a cheap black rear spoiler off e-bay..

Done so many miles in the car its ridiculous, and she has not missed a beat once. Got roped into collecting relatives from Dover a few weeks ago, when the planes were not flying. Just drove down like it was a trip to the shops. Did the trip back in the early hours fully laden it a rather "speedy" time

I'll have a look tomorrow re the drive shafts, and take a print out of this page back to the garage if they seem out.

Thanks again both.

- Dave -

red_dwarfers · Unread post by **red_dwarfers** » 03 Jun 2010, 23:09

Before playing around with adjusting the ride height, see if it settles to the same height from both service low and high. If it doesn't, its not worth adjusting the ride height until the loss of motion in the height corrector linkages is sorted. You might find that may even solve the problem.

Unread post by **RichardW** » 04 Jun 2010, 08:13

On a Xantia the roll bar in is front of the arm, and in order to remove the arm it looks like it is necessary to rotate the roll bar upwards to get clearance. There have been more than a few instances of cars coming back from bush replacement with the front suspension height upset

I suspect what is happening is that a non-knowing mechanic has levered the roll bar up to get clearance to get the arm out, and bent or broken the height corrector clamp on the roll bar. Now you could take it back and point out the error of their ways, but I suspect that will be met with blank stares! You need to get it up on ramps and have a good look at the heigt corrector mechanism to see if it looks bent / damaged. It may just be that the clamp has slipped and it can be loosened and re-set to re-establish the correct front height.

The only safe way to do the bushes on a Xantia appears to be to disconnect both drop links and the height corrector mechanism to allow free movement of the roll bar whilst the work is done without upsetting the front ride height.

andmcit · Unread post by **andmcit** » 04 Jun 2010, 09:14

Perhaps both anti roll bars were undone together rather than one at a time;
a no-no when it comes to upsetting the anti roll bar and ride height and
mentioned in the manuals?

Andrew