Anti-roll bar bushes ... Activa mk1

[addo]

Front D-bushes are secured by the bolts on your wishbone P-bushes.

I used rubber grease around the replacement items and anti-roll bar itself, then left the bolts barely nipped up before Citrobics, and a few rolls back/forth under power. Then I lay on the ground beside the running car at normal ride height, to tighten. Not super-easy, but it meant that I hadn't locked in torsional preload.

[Xaccers]

Have you lubed the front stuts to eliminate them from the source of the noise?

[citronut]

there is no need to finaly tighten the rear front arm bush (P bush) with the weight of the car on its wheels at normal hight,

the main thing is to fit the new P bush onto the arm in the correct oriantation in the first place,

although this is correct procedure for the front front arm bush,

regards malcolm

[addo]

Reason for it here, is that it's possible to clamp the D-bush ontro the anti-roll bar at the wrong "clocking" if the car is not sorted for ride height.

[Xantidote]

front ride height seems to have gradually crept higher recently

How much higher? Four fingers instead of three? Think I'd be looking at/correcting the ride height issue before getting stuck into anything else.

I had an issue with the rear height on my Series 1 being too high. Never found the reason why. I assume the clamp on the rear anti-roll bar hadn't been tight enough, allowing it to rotate slightly. I reset it, which was a bit fiddly (support the car so it can't drop on you!), and no further problems. Possibly overloaded the car with bags on compost once too often? Could it be that the raised ride height is causing the strut tops to groan in their new orientation?

[citronut]

Adam i spoz it might be possible for the ARB D bush to move if you accidently move the ARB whilst the bolts are out,

but in saying that as long as you dont alow the D bush to move what you say above would not be necercery, as the ARB should be able to rotate in its bush's when its all bolted up tight,

regards malcolm

[addo]

That's where I don't agree with you - the D bush usually clamps hard enough onto the ARB that movement of the bar, twists the rubber.

Easy if I had a four-poster to work on for this stuff.

[lexi]

.

the D bush usually clamps hard enough onto the ARB that movement of the bar, twists the rubber.

Is that not the way they function and the reason they eventually break up? Do all rubber bushes not take twisting force as well as pistonic movement?

I ask this as I notice my Vel D bushes on ARB seem to have the hole slightly enlarged where the bar goes through and is slightly rusty.....no real play with pry bar though.
Is that why you are putting the rubber grease in there? Just trying to get this clear in my mind here

[addo]

I use the rubber grease as an assembly aid. Makes sure there isn't unwanted binding occurring before it's all lined up and torqued down.

[myglaren]

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[CitroJim]

Those ramps look the business Mike

Just the job I'd say...

[Xantidote]

what are the pitfalls?

The major pitfall if you get things wrong is that the car would crush you, but using the ramps should avoid that!

My own experience is only with adjusting the rear height, which may be a bit more accessible than the front, and I did this with the car sitting on level ground, albeit having driven it on to 4 wooden blocks of equal height, to increase chassis clearance. As the ride height information given in Haynes is measured from ground level to the underside of the sub-frame in the vicinity of the drive-shafts, you'll find this difficult as the car will be sloping upwards on the ramps. However, if your arch-wheel clearance is 4-5 fingers rather than the guideline of 3 (see other posts on the Forum), then I would have thought you could adjust with the car on the ramps to bring the clearance closer to this 3 finger clearance. I'm assuming here that the 3 finger figure is applicable whatever model of Xantia. The height control mechanism is connected via a short plastic link (approx 2", often referred to as the dogbone) to a clamp on the anti-roll bar. The clamp is eased by fractionally undoing one bolt, and is very sensitive in it's control of the car's height. You'll then have to adjust on a trial and error basis.

I think you'll find there's a few posts/threads on this subject elsewhere on the Forum.

When I first bought my Xantia at 3 years old, I found the front ride height to be too high, and I had a Citroen dealership do the adjustment (took them 1/2hr). Interestingly, I subsequently found the car to handle much better through the chicane of a roundabout I used regularly, where the camber changed significantly on the exit - the ride height no longer topped/bottomed out, and car felt taughter through the exit

[bra.ker]

Hi to all,
first of all sorry for my English - I am not a native speaker. Does the noise occur only at low speeds? And in straight direction or also in sharp curves?