My Xantia Estate 1.9 D turbo went drag racing!

[chinkostu]

Rear pads shouldn't be hard to source, my local factors had some on the shelf, and LHM!


Completely agree with everything else though

[falling-out-with-my-car]

Never had any probs getting LHM its the price I have a problem with

[Old-Guy]

Great to your car riding properly. I'd say your analysis is spot on - it's normal for the ARB clamp to be well rusty. It might be that a new one has been fitted in the recent past: it's common for the original dog-bone breaks (because it's brittle with age and the height corrector mechanism gets really stiff with dirt and corrosion), a new dog-bone gets fitted, so the next weakest link is the little arm (or the ball on its end) on the ARB clamp. So then the clamp assembly is replaced, but isn't done up tight so it will slip rather than something breaking! The proper solution was of course to clean the front height corrector mechanism.

My take on front v. rear height corrector mechanism sticking is that the rear is more prone to getting corroded and bunged up, but is much, much easierr to remove or to clean in situ - so over time the front one is more likely to become the persistently sticky one.

If you didn't notice the nipples on the pads, the odds are against the pistons being correctly aligned by chance and that's the answer to your problem. While your at it, follow falling-out's advice about cleaning and lightly greasing the surface that the pads sit on - it will save time and trouble in the future. It's a good idea to also put a slight smear of copper-grease on the backs of the pads where the calliper and the piston respectively press on them.

It's common for anti-squeal shims (on all cars) to rot and not be replaced. They should be readily available from most motor factors.

[lexi]

Quite common for brake pads to have thick factory paint or be slightly tight in their carriers. A light file and shape, with a smear of coppaslip at the edges, stops them wedging and lets them release once pressure is off.

[Stickyfinger]

Quite common for brake pads to have thick factory paint or be slightly tight in their carriers. A light file and shape, with a smear of coppaslip at the edges, stops them wedging and lets them release once pressure is off.

Not to mention the buildup of crud on the caliper itself....it can build up quite thick.

[xantiagreen]

Never heard that one before
Maybe I'm to young?

Xantiagreen, I hope you took some wax oil with you when you went underneath the car
I spotted one or two spots of rust that could do with a drink in your photos

No that wasn't rust it's a stray leaf that ended up where it is now I noticed it whilst I was admiring the leak.
I'll clean "the leaf" off and take a pic.

[falling-out-with-my-car]

Actually I forgot to mention that there is relatively new brake (pad lubricant (edited for Jim) out now called Ceratec
it is absolutely brilliant for xantia brakes.

[CitroJim]

Surely a brake lubricant is a contradiction in terms Nigel

I once heard of someone spraying a squeaky fanbelt (remember those?!) with WD-40 to silence it...

It certainly did but it also made the person wonder why the battery had stopped charging too...

[falling-out-with-my-car]

well yes there was a person recently (no names mentioned) (guilty) that made a device to reach the back of the xantia
tensioner pulley to lube the bearing because it was noisy.
in about six months time after having a nice quiet pulley for a while the aux/serpentine belt snapped and the offside
rear suspension arm bush failed the MOT as it was covered in grease transmitted by centrifugal force from the back of the tensioner pulley. I shall be more careful in future and never buy GSF pulleys again (noisy things).

[stupidxantia]

Been a while guys since I have checked in here ... but I have been sooo busy with life, junk and drag racing (yes in the xantia)!

I have the turbo running at around 28psi at present (noisier than standard but most definitely more effective than before), the exhaust is just a cobbled together straight through pipe with '0' silencers in the system (this makes Mr Turbo spool much faster than before). The throttle arm on the pump has no damper connected and the little buffer to allow it to slowly come down off the revs when you take your foot off the pedal is removed! I have a monumental amount of throttle pedal travel than the standard setup and the throttle arm is advanced a couple of splines to make it rev more freely (this is now a car that is epic fun to drive if not a little mental). I also carried out the fabled "Governor Mod" and oh my god what a difference this has made to the overall performance of this old diesel motor!!

At Crail Thrash and Dash meet (attended with Autoshite and what an epic day it was) the old Xantia surprised a fair few people including me!! It as good as kept up with a 205 1.9 D turbo conversion with only a 2 tenths of a second difference overall!



The big old Xantia and it's little friend on the 1/4 mile .... head to head no less! French Diesel (or should I say Veg) at it's finest, well it will be when the tuning is properly done!



It's definitely not every day you see a spectacle like this one!

And this is the old bus doing battle against it's friend, the matching appliance white 205 1.9 D Turbo conversion!



My times were respectable overall , time for that run was 17.67seconds @78.5mph for 1/4 mile! 205 was 18.85seconds @76.3 for 1/4 mile!

It was my first ever attempt so I don't think I did too badly best run of the day was 17.35 seconds for the 1/4 mile but unfortunately the end speed didn't get recorded for some reason (that run upset an Audi a4 estate drivers when he got beaten by my Xantia ) The fastest top speed on the 1/4 mile was 79.4mph !!

I have found out that my 0-60mph time is somewhere between 9 and 10 seconds (including butt loads of wheelspin due to useless tyres)!

I am going to continue the fettling until I get a tune that I am happy with, I have seen 306's run in the mid to low 14 seconds ... Should be possible to get close with the Xantia!

*All of the above was achieved running 100% WVO*

[CitroJim]

LOL. I think that's the very first time I've ever known a Xantia in a drag race! Love it

[chinkostu]

Governor mod?

The old lumps are pretty nice for power, mine shifts well and i've not touched the max fuel yet, just the boost compensator and wastegate!

[falling-out-with-my-car]

Brilliant my estate still has the kick in the back effect when accelerating, sometimes she is great fun. she does more short town trips these days, there was once a time when I ran her on veg for about 5 years but it started to interfere with the timing. I'm definitely keeping her for as long as she will last. could have bought three used cars on what it has cost to keep her going in the last 3 years. and a new clutch is looming to. oh well 100k on a clutch aint bad considering all the trailers with Citroens on she has towed over the years. nice to see that interest in the xantia diesel is still alive and thriving. Well done mate. I see your trying to keep costs down running on veg but have you added a little petrol to the mix to see if it helps, I used to go to 10% in the winter time, 5% was the norm. with a heat exchanger I got vapour lock at 10% sometimes.

[MikeT]

Governor mod?

The pumps cetrifugal force acts against the control lever to reduce the full fuel load. In effect, as the revs increase, the full fuel load is proportionately restricted to eventually achieve a rev limit. While this maintains a "safe" rev limit, it also "moderates" acceleration. Shimming the spings (so they resist the centrifugal force applied by the governor shaft) allows more fuel, ergo better acceleration.

The downside is a higher rev limit leaving the onus on the driver on when to back off the throttle or risk engine damage.

[stupidxantia]

I am surprised to get a good reaction with what I'm doing to this xantia. I expected to get flamed all over for it

That is a great explanation of what the governor does in the pump, standard main spring cuts fuel by up to 80% and it really robs you of power mid range and high up. Just by shimming mine I now have clean pull right through to 4200rpm ... On the downside as mentioned above it kind of removes the rev limit! Mine revs higher than the gauge will read lol . On the drag strip I never took it over 5k and this morning tweaked a bit more with the as3 pump (these semi electric pumps are very tunable) and the turbo has been tweaked a bit more! I have to say it's capable of putting a grin on your face a mile wide and almost as fast up to 80mph as an activa or V6 exclusive (manual ofc).

More to come as funds allow!