C5 Radius Arm Bearing

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Jeff
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C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by Jeff »

Hi,
Has anyone changed the Radius arm bearings on a C5 lately? How much of a job is it please, how difficult & how long did it take please etc? Any special tools?
Thanks
Jeff
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by daviemck2006 »

I've just had one done by a garage, but I got the kit myself for £50 off eBay. All I know is the mechanic that did it said it wasn't too bad. I've no idea how long it took or how much it cost yet.
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by citronut »

here is a list of bits i sourced when i did a customers a couple of years back

there is a thread somewhere on here with more info

here are price's and part No.'s
from GSF
bearings (2 per arm )
512pc0080 £10.38 each inc vat trade

SKF's No.'s
VKD 24000
bar code ref
7 316577 732361

seals (2 per arm)
512pc0100 £2.60 each inc vat trade


from dealer
bearing bush's ( require 2 per arm)
5133.26 £2.96 each inc vat trade

spacer/pivot tube (1 per arm)
5132.68 £7.56 each inc vat trade

all in £38.56
Regards, malcolm.

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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by citroenxm »

Ive done two lots now. The issue I had though was the abs sensor.. the plug is wey up behind the fuel tank somewhere but luckily there is enough spare length of cable to get the arm off and rest it on the floor next to the car if you do it on the floor with jacks and axle stands..

the job itself is ok. Not half as bad as the BX ones used to be.

strange for the issue to return again on c5's after xantia and xm arm bearings rarely went.. ive never done xm ones yet but just a couple of xantia ones in all the xantias ive had.
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by citronut »

just either leave the calipers on the arms, unless you have the time for the car to be disabled whilst sorting the calipers at the same time,

if not do the calipers as a separate job a bit later
Regards, malcolm.

current ride a BX 1.7 TZD estate
1986 MK1 BX 1.9na D Auto(in Mothman Andy's stable )
layed up roppy 1.9TD XANT estate, now gone to meet her maker
purple and lilac metalic 2CV(VIOLET)registered to her in doors
1972 DS special been layed up aprox 31 years
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by Peter.N. »

Its fairly straightforward if everything comes undone! The first problem is usually getting the pins out that secure the push rod to the suspension arm, after lots of lubrication I eventually had to drive mine out with a suitably sized punch. The other problem was the brake pipe, it wouldn't come undone, the nut was seized to the pipe so I removed the caliper and unscrewed it from the pipe - mind you don't loose the 'O' ring between the two halves and make sure you use threadlock on the bolts or they will come undone. I think I had to cut and join the ABS cable.

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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by Jeff »

Thanks everyone for the helpful advice. I read somewhere you can unclip the brake pipe and hang the caliper up out of the way...is that correct? So no need to dismantle and rebleed? Having a go at this job in the morning...also to depressurise suspension is it just put in lowest height setting?
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by citronut »

i usually place the car on stands then with the engine running select the lowest setting,
then jack one of the rear arms fully up as far as it can go, gently when jacking the arm so you do not tip the car off the stand

i think there is a bleed valve/nipple at the rear end for the rear suspension somewhere
Regards, malcolm.

current ride a BX 1.7 TZD estate
1986 MK1 BX 1.9na D Auto(in Mothman Andy's stable )
layed up roppy 1.9TD XANT estate, now gone to meet her maker
purple and lilac metalic 2CV(VIOLET)registered to her in doors
1972 DS special been layed up aprox 31 years
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2010 Peugeot 207 SW 1.6 8v HDi 161k and rising
x 70

Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by citroenxm »

There is ABSOLUTELY no need to take the pipe off the caliper.. keep the pad bolt in to hold the caliper halfs together and under the car if you follow the brake pipe it goes to a conventional flexi hose.. release the flexi which I think is the anti roll bar bolts to arm and you can simply slide the caliper off the disk and put it under the car..

also once the car is on low theres no system de pressure to do either.. the R clips on the syspension cylinders will be either loose and slide out or be completely siezed in place and a right pita to get out or wont!!

FIRST THING TO CHECK THE R CLIP. if they are siezed dont even consider starting the job!!
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by Jeff »

Got job done with a mate, took all day, every thing mentioned was seized and needed heat....definitely a job for a garage if the price is right...
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by Lighty »

I always remove the rear disc , this means taking off the caliper. This way you can carefully push the abs sensor out from the disc side, by tapping it with a punch. This rarely damages it. I much prefer to put the arm in a vice to work on, and the disc and caliper make it much more cumbersome & heavy.
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by citronut »

i have done these on C5's before with the arm on the floor without disconnecting the ABS sensor/lead,
but as Lighty says it is better/easier in a vice,
Regards, malcolm.

current ride a BX 1.7 TZD estate
1986 MK1 BX 1.9na D Auto(in Mothman Andy's stable )
layed up roppy 1.9TD XANT estate, now gone to meet her maker
purple and lilac metalic 2CV(VIOLET)registered to her in doors
1972 DS special been layed up aprox 31 years
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing - Nearside only!

Post by Jeff »

We had car on axle stands. Sufficient room to work underneath but when everything was seized it took forever... all day until got dark. With good advice from the forum we put car on lowest setting but I noticed LDs coming from reservoir cap, so using a pipe we syphoned off about a litre of LDS which otherwise would have been over the engine bay/floor. (the car was down at the front and high at the back). We used a trolley jack to push the radius arm up releasing any pressure/fluid there.

Could not remove the caliper as lower bolt would not shift, put heat and oil on it front and back plate but bolt head and washer looked like it had welded into the caliper, tried 6ft pipe on socket but feared would shear bolt head off, plenty of pad thickness so to get around this we left caliper on arm which added to the weight of course but later bleeding it was easy after I had clamped off the rubber hose near the cross beam.

The half pin was seized in, applied heat few times and with both of us twisting the pin and lifting the arm eventually and I mean eventually.... managed to get it out. It kinks and rusts a bit inside...Push rod to radius arm - seized in and had to use a larger ball joint splitter and it literally had to be bludgeoned apart.... then the rod came out of the gaiter and very fiddly getting gaiter back on far enough to cable tie. (When refitting radius arm to car it was very fiddly, probably we should have split when radius arm still on car).

Anti roll bar bolts need tork size T55, we did not disconnect height adjuster. We did not disconnect ABS.

With radius arm on floor - everything was okay except used a long sharp wood chisel to cut through the internal plastic cover (cant remember right name) and then we tried to cut the shells /collar left with a drimmel tool /disc cutter but would take ages and breaking the little discs on the dremmel so we had to find a long sharp metal chisel and again with a lump hammer (for this whole job) bashed out the rings by knocking through the radius arm one side turning over for other side etc. The collars have a thickness of say 2mm so need a decent chisel...

New bearings assembly was fiddly with new bearings lifting out sticky with the grease stopping the whole assembly from pulling snug together (on a bench would have been better but still fiddly, probably a bit of a knack and depends what bearings you get - I bought a kit off ebay and not sure if timken bearings were more fiddly than GSF ones, once all back together and spacer bar was stopping the assembly from pulling together more (we put the nut on the long bolt with a couple of packing spacers and tightened up the assembly first before looking to put on the car), but when we came to put on car the whole assemby was slightly too wide so we angle grinded a small amount from car (a mil or two) to enable the radius arm to go back with the aid of a trolley jack underneath and twisting to get the radius arm perfectly square. Would have been easier without weight of caliper/disc for sure. Even with anti roll bar hanging down refitting the radius arm with caliper/disc on was a two man job. Everything then went back on reverse sequence except push rod gaiter (very fiddly), tightened up, caliper bled quick and easy and reservoir topped back up car was quickly back in working order.

I am putting this on here as a warning that on older cars this job can take much longer than estimates I have read....dont even consider doing this unless you like working under cars on the floor, are agile, knowledge/experience of similar work, have access to a torch to heat parts, access to decent/various tools etc... I know garages that refuse this job... due to the time factor...
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by citronut »

Timkin bearings are probably as good as SKF which is the brand from GSF,

you will probably find the seals and spacer bush's are of sub slandered quality, and one or both of these will be the reason the arm would not fit into the sub frame,

i had this problem on the last XANT i did, turned out to be cheap and nasty seals from a citroen parts supplier a lot of us know,
it was a batch he purchased from a different company to the one he usually uses,

the only ones i will use after that are Corteco, this is why i purchase from the suppliers i use
Regards, malcolm.

current ride a BX 1.7 TZD estate
1986 MK1 BX 1.9na D Auto(in Mothman Andy's stable )
layed up roppy 1.9TD XANT estate, now gone to meet her maker
purple and lilac metalic 2CV(VIOLET)registered to her in doors
1972 DS special been layed up aprox 31 years
Jeff
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Re: C5 Radius Arm Bearing

Post by Jeff »

Thanks Malcolm.

Any thoughts on the caliper bolt head, I am wondering if bi-metallic corrosion is at play? Top bolt came off easy, bottom one looked like washer had gone and bolt head was part of the caliper? As if bolt head had started to sink into caliper.
Currently driving Citroen c5 2.0 HDI 51 Plate
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