Simon's new Xantia V6 and Leaf blog

[RichardW]

That's not great, Simon! Only that MIEV breaking on e-bay at present, with the wrong wheels and a new one is>£300! The centre piece will knock out - that's how they balance them. It might well be be possible that an alloy wheel refurbisher could straighten that out.

[Mandrake]

That's not great, Simon! Only that MIEV breaking on e-bay at present, with the wrong wheels and a new one is>£300! The centre piece will knock out - that's how they balance them. It might well be be possible that an alloy wheel refurbisher could straighten that out.

New one for £150 on ebay at the moment, part number 5402FX, I think it's the rear one. (Front and rear are both 15" but different width!)

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/264247786579?chn=ps

Unfortunately I can't afford it at the moment, it will be a couple of months before I can put some money aside for it, so not sure if it will still be around then but hopefully there will be others!

[DHallworth]

There's a place in Port Glasgow that would fix that wheel for £25 - 30 quid. He's done a few wheels for me in the past.

David.

[Mandrake]

Time to do a few things on the Xantia for the MOT in July, the main thing being new rear discs and pads.

It was a very marginal pass on the rear brakes last year and I have to admit despite giving them the usual "service" at the time and giving the car a bit of driving recently the rear brakes just aren't working that well. They're adequate but don't have a good "bite" like the front brakes do, (yes, even with the boot loaded) and I think it's because the discs are just too scored and have too much shoulder for the pads to bed into so time for some new discs and pads.

I bought Bosch discs and pads from mister-auto last year and have been very happy with them - not only do they bite really well, despite the car siting mostly unused for periods of time up to a few weeks at a time, they don't rust at all! (Unlike the ones on the Ion that rust over in about a day despite daily use...)

So off I trundle to mister-auto for rear discs and pads, preferably Bosch and they don't list any make or model of rear discs or pads for the Xantia !? Is it becoming hard to find rear Xantia (hatchback) discs and pads now ?

Of course I will also need new rear caliper mounting bolts (the large ones that go into the arms) for the likelyhood of one of the originals snapping if I don't have spares on hand - I replaced the rear caliper bolts on my first V6 years ago but I don't have the foggiest where I would have ordered them from at the time... and if it was mister-auto they don't seem to do those now either.

Anyone have any suggestions on where to obtain rear discs, pads and caliper bolts for the Xantia ? Preferably Bosch but I'd consider others...

[Hell Razor5543]

I just had a look on the AEP Direct website, and they say they do OEM parts (including rear disks and pads, Bosch included in the list of disks), so it could be worth giving them a shout. They have disks and pads, but no sign of the bolts.

[RichardW]

Bosch discs on e-bay...

...and pads

Bolts are not listed as NFP by Citroen, but when you click on them it says part number not known

Unfortunately they are M9x1.25 which is an odd size,so might be difficult to source elsewhere.... go very gently to avoid breaking them!!

[Mandrake]

I just had a look on the AEP Direct website, and they say they do OEM parts (including rear disks and pads, Bosch included in the list of disks), so it could be worth giving them a shout. They have disks and pads, but no sign of the bolts.

Do you mean these ones ?

http://www.aepdirect.com/brake-disc-rea ... ory_id=751

They are half the price of the ones Richard found on ebay however they don't state the manufacturer, so I'll have to email them to confirm what make they are as I'd prefer Bosch.

GSF list these Vetech ones that are silly cheap at £8.40 each, can't be any good surely ?

https://www.gsfcarparts.com/603pc0124

[Hell Razor5543]

If you look down the blurb they say (in the second paragraph) "We stock Lucas, Bosch, Bendix and Valeo brake discs as they are the Original Equipment Manufacturer parts on Citroen, Peugeot & Renault and many other vehicle manufacturers."

[Mandrake]

Bolts are not listed as NFP by Citroen, but when you click on them it says part number not known

Service Citroen seems to be having problems for me today - lots of errors and timeouts but I eventually managed to look it up and as far as I can see the bolts are still available ?

Although it doesn't show it on the diagram its two bolts per side, surely ?

Unfortunately they are M9x1.25 which is an odd size,so might be difficult to source elsewhere.... go very gently to avoid breaking them!!

Yes. I don't have a breaker bar either although I think last time I did a job like this I naughtily used my large torque wrench to undo them... Anyone know off hand the tightening torque ?

[Mandrake]

If you look down the blurb they say (in the second paragraph) "We stock Lucas, Bosch, Bendix and Valeo brake discs as they are the Original Equipment Manufacturer parts on Citroen, Peugeot & Renault and many other vehicle manufacturers."

Yes I saw that, but it doesn't say what brand this particular disc is, or indeed whether that specific listing is always the same brand of disc or whether it's pot luck among one of the listed brands...

In any case I've emailed them to query the brand of pads and discs. As the car sits for such a long time between use (weeks) I want good quality discs that don't corrode quickly. The Bosch discs I fitted on the front are amazing for not corroding - even sitting for weeks in damp weather they hardly corrode at all. In contrast the cheap discs I fitted to the front of the Ion lightly rust over the entire disc if I don't even drive it for one day in wet weather! (And even when I do drive it daily, the pads still grind noisily against rust when I first use them in the morning)

[Mandrake]

There's a place in Port Glasgow that would fix that wheel for £25 - 30 quid. He's done a few wheels for me in the past.

Thanks for the suggestion David, (and sorry for the slow reply!) but that would require taking the car off the road probably for a week and a lot of faffing around getting the wheel over there and back in the Xantia and then timing that with ordering a new tyre to put on. As the Xantia costs me such a lot to commute to work that jacks up the cost of anything that takes the Ion off the road for a week or more...

I've managed to find a second hand rim from a speakev member that has only done 5k miles and is in fairly good order - it looks better than any of mine... I should have that in a couple of weeks and then I can get a new tyre fitted to it and just swap them over with no downtime of the car.

As the car doesn't have any sort of spare wheel I plan to keep the old rim with the old tyre on it wrapped up in a bag in the garage as a spare wheel for emergency use if I ever have to back order a replacement tyre again - it will only fit the rear (since the front wheels are narrower and have lockout pegs on the hub to prevent fitting a rear wheel at the front) but so far all my punctures have been on the rear!

[Mandrake]

I emailed AEP yesterday about the disc and pad listings and good job I did because they replied back to say that the listings on the website are out of date and not correct because they are in the middle of changing supplier, so I can't order online!

He said they can get both Bosch discs and pads - the price quoted was the same for the discs as on the website but the pad set was a bit more at about £12, so still reasonable. He said I would need to order over the phone - only problem is I have laryngitis yesterday and today and can barely speak so unfortunately it will have to wait until Monday when I can (hopefully) talk! Same goes for ordering the bolts from Citroen which will also be over the phone...

Ordering parts over the phone in Scotland with a Kiwi accent is problematic and frustrating at the best of times, let alone when I can't talk properly.

[DHallworth]

Have you looked up the Citroen part numbers on eBay, Simon?

I've lucked out that way a lot of times recently when you find a dealer trying to new old stock.

David.

[Mandrake]

Do you mean for discs/pads or the caliper bolts ?

I ordered rear discs and pads from AEP yesterday - £55 all up including delivery to work, and Bosch branded so not too bad I think. Should have them in about 3-4 days as they have had to back order them.

I just need the caliper bolts now which I think are Citroen only although at around £25 for a set of four I'm wondering whether to chance it and only order them if I run into trouble with the original bolts... as its not the end of the world if the Xantia is off the road for a few days. That £25 could be put towards something else like a much needed coolant and oil/filter change.

[RichardW]

You need a 5.5mm socket / spanner to get the disc retaining bolt out (no idea why it's that size!!); and when I tried on my HDi, the rear discs were firmly stuck to the hubs, so you may need to get medieval to get the old discs off!!