Xantia advice before i buy.

[Sam KS]

G'day all

I am looking at buying the below car but have found some issues and am after advice on a fix and where to sauce parts at a reasonable price or breakers. I'm is South East Queensland (Sunshine Coast) Australia but for things like the dash might be a LOT cheaper to get second hand from UK (also because I'd need KPH not MPH).

Citroen Xantia
Sedan
Auto
Year: 1998
75th anniversary edition
VIN: VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]******
170 000km

Faults I found:

• The suspension when in normal mode oscillates up and down (smoothly). It go’s up and down as it should in both service modes.
• Clocks are wound clockwise around to their end point. This only affects the speedo and tacho.
• Horn dose not work and the fuse is fine.
• A/C switch dose not stay in but A/C works fine when held in. I assume this is just an easy replace the switch.
• The stereo cover will not stay open. The owner said it normally closes when the motor is off but now wont stay open.
• LHR door wont open but she said she had the child lock on and I assume it’s the outer door handle (feels like it’s not connected to any thing inside).
• A few lights not working (replace bulbs).
• Log book only go’s up to 130,000km and has dealer stamps up to then. No other service evidence. How hard are cam belts to do on this and can you tell me when it is due.

The car looks brilliant, but it has stood out side their house for about 6 months. In this time the battery has gone flat and trying to start is caused the clocks to turn over. She also tried to tell me the (dead) flat tyre was causing the back end oscillating.

also changing tiers on these? How do I hook the spare wheel up to change the tire and cay you still drive these on three wheels? I couldn’t find a spare.

any advice appreciated, I really like this car and hope to buy it if I can get it to pass a road worthy (MOT).

[Mandrake]

G'day all

I am looking at buying the below car but have found some issues and am after advice on a fix and where to sauce parts at a reasonable price or breakers. I'm is South East Queensland (Sunshine Coast) Australia but for things like the dash might be a LOT cheaper to get second hand from UK (also because I'd need KPH not MPH).

Not sure if you're aware but the UK still uses MPH, so any dashboard you source from the UK would have MPH as the main speedo readout, although it does have KPH as well in smaller writing. The trip counters and total mileage will be only in MPH in a UK Xantia dashboard though, which might not meet legal requirements in Australia.

Europe is KPH but all of Europe is left hand drive, so dashboards are incompatible. If you're having trouble getting a dashboard in Australia your best bet is New Zealand, as there were more Xantia's sold there than Australia. Other possibilities would be Malaysia and Japan, both of which are right hand drive, KPH and had Xantia's. (You're not likely to find any spare parts in Japan though, as the Japanese don't keep cars to that age, they just sell them and move on!)

Citroen Xantia
Sedan
Auto
Year: 1998
75th anniversary edition
VIN: VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]******
170 000km

Faults I found:

• The suspension when in normal mode oscillates up and down (smoothly). It go’s up and down as it should in both service modes.

If you turn the engine off does it keep falling down onto the bump stops, or stop at a mid level height ?

Is it only the front oscillating up and down or is it the rear ? If its the front does it only do it if the wheels are on full lock or also when straight ahead ?

Its not uncommon for the front suspension of a Xantia to oscillate at the front on full lock while stationary if the front struts are in need of lubrication but it shouldn't do it with the wheels straight ahead.

• Clocks are wound clockwise around to their end point. This only affects the speedo and tacho.

Could be caused by a faulty earth to the dashboard, or they may just be stuck on full scale after an electrical fault has occurred and been fixed. They might just need a mechanical prod to get them unstuck from being fully clockwise.

• Horn dose not work and the fuse is fine.
• A/C switch dose not stay in but A/C works fine when held in. I assume this is just an easy replace the switch.
• The stereo cover will not stay open. The owner said it normally closes when the motor is off but now wont stay open.

Can't see how the stereo cover could be affected by the engine running! If its like the one in my previous Xantia that swings up above the radio its a fairly simple mechanism - shouldn't be too hard to find whats wrong with it if you remove it.

• LHR door wont open but she said she had the child lock on and I assume it’s the outer door handle (feels like it’s not connected to any thing inside).

Won't open from the inside or the outside ? Child lock only affects the inside handle, and is the small lever on the back edge of the door when the door is open. If you can't open it from the outside it could be the outside handle has disconnected from the lock mechanism. There is a grooved/toothed rod from the handle that slips into a V shaped attachment in the lock that may have dislodged. You'll have to tae the door card off to have a look but it shouldn't be too hard to fix.

• A few lights not working (replace bulbs).
• Log book only go’s up to 130,000km and has dealer stamps up to then. No other service evidence. How hard are cam belts to do on this and can you tell me when it is due.

Cam belt frequency depends on the engine model, which engine is it ? I don't recall the exact figures but for the 2 litre 8 valve petrol (my previous Xantia in New Zeland) the cam belts are meant to be done around every 80,000km or 10 years, (whichever comes first) from memory. (Someone may be able to correct my figure) On the 2 litre petrol it wasn't a particularly difficult job, I did mine in a couple of hours, and you'll find advice on the forum on how to do it.

If its a 1998 its probably a series 2 Xantia which means it has a different gearbox and 16 valve twin cam engine instead of the 8 valve single cam mine hand, so it may be a bit more complex but not too much.

The car looks brilliant, but it has stood out side their house for about 6 months. In this time the battery has gone flat and trying to start is caused the clocks to turn over. She also tried to tell me the (dead) flat tyre was causing the back end oscillating.

Hmm so the rear end is oscillating ? Can't really think of anything that would make the rear of a Xantia oscillate, unless the rear brakes were binding!

also changing tiers on these? How do I hook the spare wheel up to change the tire and cay you still drive these on three wheels? I couldn’t find a spare.

Not sure what you're asking there, do you mean you don't know where the spare wheel is, or that its missing ? The spare is under the boot, there is a small screw with a slot near the right hand rear corner of the boot, there may be a small flap of carpet covering it. You insert the end of the wheel brace and unscrew this a dozen turns or so to drop the wheel down a bit, then there is also a catch underneath that will release and let the wheel tray drop down.

To be honest the spare wheel carrier is a PITA in the Xantia, I think it was designed by the "bureau 'de bastards" to be as difficult as possible to use.

Changing a wheel is easy if the suspension is working properly - lift the suspension fully, put the jack under the jacking point on the sill (one under the front door, one under the rear door) and jack it up just a little bit, then lower the suspension to normal height and the wheels on that side will lift off the ground...

And no, I wouldn't go driving about on 3 wheels, it might be possible but I haven't tried it and wouldn't recommend it...

any advice appreciated, I really like this car and hope to buy it if I can get it to pass a road worthy (MOT).

Sounds like you have a good project on your hands there, nothing too serious though, even the cam belts are well within the realm of a competent DIY'er with a forum like this to fall back onto for advice. If the price is good and its otherwise in good condition and you don't mind getting your hands dirty sorting out these problems I'd go for it...

[VertVega]

...
VIN: VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]******
170 000km

• The suspension when in normal mode oscillates up and down (smoothly). It go’s up and down as it should in both service modes.
...
• Horn dose not work and the fuse is fine.
...
• Log book only go’s up to 130,000km and has dealer stamps up to then. No other service evidence. How hard are cam belts to do on this and can you tell me when it is due.
...
I couldn’t find a spare.
...

G'day,
I'm commenting only on those quoted parts
According to VIN it's a MK2 Xantia 2.0i 16V petrol engine (like mine) and I LOVE this engine. It's great.

Oscillation is strange (never had it in mine). Check out these:
- Is the rear height corrector white plastic connected, connecting rod lubricated?
- LHM change would be fine. When was it done? Normally every 60k km.

Horn location is front left side, in front of front tire, behind the inner wheel trim.
I have replaced mine when it was dead with a twin sound horn.

xantia's cam belt interval used to be 120k km which is later on taken down to 100k km and 80k would be even better. Try to see from service history when it was done or was it ever done?

Spare tire is under the car, outside not in the trunk. In order to change wheel, you must put the car to the highest level. Don't drive in the highest level.

Hope this helps also follow the FCF where you'll get lots of helpful tips.

[c.morewood]

Speedo needles are probably stuck because of the low battery.. they tend to flick fully right when there is not enought battery power to start the engine.. they may return when you have a charged battery in place and turn th key to start. Otherwise its a relatively simple procedure to remove the speedo housing
http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... od#p321895" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
and tilt it to the left to get them back to their resting positions.
Chris

[citroenxm]

Buy a km/h clock from France and put just the speed head in your own..n however as said its not a wiring falter its only the fact someone has tried it start it with a low to flat battery which flicks the needles over... easy to sort as c horwood said.

[Sam KS]

thanks for the advice. for some reason i thought Citroen's didn't use jacks or spare wheels. it all look like straight forwarded fix's so far.

the suspension issue. when the motor is off the car drops to the bump stops and when running the back end only osculates.

For the timing belt, it's a 2.0lt twin cam 16v motor and there looks like there is loads of room. these don't need any special tools do they?

[addo]

You do need some halfway reliable timing pins, and buy a new balancer before pinning. You can be fairly certain the old balancer has spun, and will not be reliable for pinning up the belt. I bought a Dayco timing kit overseas, it cost me $115 landed and then a locally sourced water pump for about $60.

The most crippling issue - I speak from experience - is the hydraulic return setup. Buy a new 5270JK from overseas as this covers a lot of the smaller return lines, and then improvise for the other hydraulic "harness".

Heater core is a two man job for best results, and replace the brake valve boot ASAP if there's no evidence of this. In order, Valeo for the heater and Citroën for the rubber boot.

[Sam KS]

the heater core, as in heater to keep the car warm? i'm in QLD. dont need one here... only A/C.

[addo]

It adds about 300ml to the cooling system, which I rate. I also hate stuff not working as designed.

[Mandrake]

The main reason to do the heater matrix is to fix its almost inevitable leaking...

Try lifting up the passenger side carpet and you'll most likely find about 10 litres or more of coolant soaked into the foam under the carpet...

[Sam KS]

arr, i'll check that one out.

[VertVega]

If you suspect that you have a heater matrix "issue" then you should absolutely check this thread.
Nice pics sent by CitroJim and lots of information on the subject there

---> matrix replacement