Wondering about a wandering...

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andmcit
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Wondering about a wandering...

Post by andmcit »

...Xantia Exclusive estate.

My pal is worried big time as he plans to use the car for big motorway
mileages and he's certain the car wanders significantly of it's own accord.
He's had the wheels checked and balanced but is still troubled by this issue.

I haven't seen the car myself but have told him to get the front suspension
arms/bushes checked and the wheel alignment checked/adjusted and to check
the rear trailing arm bushes are correct with the wheel perpendicular. He says
the suspension and alignment have been checked and mentions another ebay
car the seller had similar issues with and just sold on...

Does anyone have any thoughts to add that I can pass on to him?
It truly sounds frightening.

Andrew
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myglaren
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Post by myglaren »

Could be the tyres. May be worth swapping front to back and see if there is any improvement.

Otherwise I imagine play in the steering ball joints, rack or UJ, all of which should be easy enough to check and should have shown up on an alignment check.
andmcit
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Post by andmcit »

For what it's worth, the car has recently been put on the road and my pal has
just had it pass an MOT
which did need some work on the front suspension
that was carried out by a local guy he appears to trust. I've asked him how
it drove when he first purchased the car and being a good while ago last
year when it was collected he can only recollect it had a bit of a firm ride
but nothing else stood out.

I wonder if he's had something upset on the front suspension but the
different place he took it to be checked over drew a blank - AFAIK it was
a good'un and used lasers for the wheel alignment and he also had the
rims/tyres checked by them at the same time.

Without trying it myself I'm surprised he says it wanders so significantly
apparently even on a level straight motorway.

I recall a CX GTi Turbo I had with duff rear arm bearings and it was
frightening at speed as the arms tended to set up different steering angles
dependent on the free play that "steered" the arm so will await his findings
about how true the wheels look and what the wear on the tyres is like.

It's running steels with the late bobbly trims not solid Exclusive alloys.

Andrew
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Post by myglaren »

I wonder if it might be the rear subframe bushes - which also should heave been detected at MOT time. I haven't ever been aware of them causing the car to wander, just usually 'shimmy' over bumps.
andmcit
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Post by andmcit »

I recall aren't these rear subframe bushes designed to have some passive
steering effect when they were new - not sure how this works now with
ageing rubber and corrosion stresses etc. I'm surprised other Xantiae don't
suffer the same complaint mind with no comments covering this on the forum.
I believe the mileage is about average for the year - approx 1997/98.

I had rear bushes on a GSA give up and clunk the subframe in a twist fore
to back every time the car braked or accelerated as it see-sawed! Interesting
stuff to put it mildly but the car handled perfectly (as G's do) even accounting
for the front pair of knackered mounts. This Xantia sounds a LOT livelier.

Andrew
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Post by Homer »

Definitely have the rear trailing arm bushes checked by someone who knows what they are looking at.

I know from experience these can get missed at MOT yet be badly worn.

And the symptoms are just as you describe.
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