C5 Refurbished Rear Axle Gone Bad Twice?

[Peter.N.]

I have done several trailing arm bearing replacements, one on the C5 and also on XMs and CXs and have never had one fail again. Its lack of lubrication combined with water ingress that makes them fail, I always pack the tube with grease on reassembly, sounds to me like they fitted a secondhand unit - or didn't do anything at all.

Peter

[BX]

I can see why someone would like a refurbished rear axle. My idea of refurbishing one would be new trailing arm bearings and also Newmarket discs and pads. Also complete with refurbished calipers ( new seals and dust covers with new pistons if required also completely cleaned and mounting faces machined if necessary.
Replacing the trailing arm bearings is a relatively simple job. It is important that the correct pre load is applied to the bearings by means of shims. Normally reusing the shims originally fitted does the job. The other requirement is loads of grease.
I have done Peugeot 305 vans, c15 vans, bx and C5 ones. The same bearings fit all. Every time they have outlasted the originals.
My guess is that yours weren't properly shimmed.

[SamH]

The last option, that damage has been caused while driving the car over the last 6 - 7 months, for example by hitting a pot hole, is not their problem.

You raise an important point. The first failure was blamed on a broken mounting bush (rear crossmember, offside, forward). I don't know if this caused a cascade failure on the trailing arm bearings or not. Anyway, the roads around me are not in the best condition and there are certainly a lot of potholes. But the reason I bought the C5 in the first instance was because of a bad back and I probably spend more time than I should while driving, focused on avoiding potholes. I've never kerbed the car or hit a pothole or speed bump hard.

[Peter.N.]

Unfortunately our roads here are not the best, that added to the fact that we have to drive half a mile or so over a forest track to reach the road can be pretty hard on the suspension but in the 46 years we have lived here I and for a lot of that time driven hydropnumatic Citroens (CX, XM, and C5) I have never had a problem that I could attribute to the poor surface, I broke a wheel once but have never damaged the suspension.

Peter

[Stickyfinger]

Nope....they fitted it wrong, refurbished it badly (id at all) or did not fit the trailing arm bearings correctly....99%.....get a report done and head directly to the smalls claims.....time is no friend if you are using your car.

[daviemck2006]

Sounds to me that the "refurbishment " was an axle and subframe of a breaker given a wire brush down and a coat of paint to make it look good and no bearings looked at. I would get an opinion from someone that knows Citroens then claim at court for your 2 year warranty. I presume you have it in writing with any conditions etc attached to it.

[Malcolm]

I had a '93 405. The rear n/s swinging arm bearing went. I took it to a recommended local garage. They did the requested job but said that the worn bearing had caused wear to the inside of cross member tube and said it wouldn't last and would need a new 'axle'. I managed to get one from 24/7 spares. I remember replacing it in snow in middle of winter. Relativey easy job. Had to fit a new wheel bearing as it must have been stored out in the rain but swinging arm bearings ok. One of those jobs - if you knew that a bearing change would have prevented further damage, I would have done it earlier. A 205 the wife had went the same way but let it go spares or repair.
Should be a service item at 100?

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[Malcolm]

100 k.

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[Peter.N.]

I think all the suspensions I have repaired had damage to the bearing housing, but as long as there is enough metal left to hold the bearings in position, once you have tightened the bolt up the're not going anywhere. I have never had one fail again.

Peter

[BX]

The 405 205 306 206 and some other Peugeot models cannot be compared with The C5, xantia, bx, c15, 305 etc. It is a case of needle rollers running straight on the axle tube vs complete taper roller bearings. In the case of the 405 etc by the time a problem is noticed The axle is already damaged so the repair is normally short lived. Replacement axle tubes are available for several axles. I fitted one pair ever and it turned out to be a good job.

[SamH]

Just as a progress update, in case anyone is curious, the axle refurbishers are continuing to blank me. They don't return phone calls from me or from the garage that they asked me to have call them, to describe the symptoms. I've now begun emailing them in order to establish a paper trail of non-response.

I can't find any evidence of trade associations that they're party to, so I've emailed asking them to provide information on their "Alternative Dispute Resolution", aka ADR, policy. I don't expect they'll have such a thing but it does appear that they MUST, by law, respond to that request with the information (even if it's "nope, we don't do ADR).

I had a minor panic when I realised that I no longer have the warranty paperwork. I left that on the passenger seat when they last attempted to repair the axle and it's no longer in the car. However, I do have email confirmation of my original order which includes mention of the axle having a 2 year warranty and, looking at the Sale Of Goods Act, etc, it appears that it's against the rules for them to demand spurious paperwork. They warranty the product themselves and so me providing the order number should be perfectly adequate for them to tie up my axle in their system.

I've given them 1 week to respond by email. If they don't then I'll consider myself forced to report them to Trading Standards. After that, if it continues the way it's going with me being blanked, I expect I'll finish up having to take them to small claims. I can't really afford to do that, but I certainly can't afford to abandon the warranty and get the work done elsewhere either.

As far as the car goes, it's getting really embarrassing. The rear of the car now cracks loudly over the gentlest speed-bumps, sometimes even over gently undulating roads and particularly on right-hand corners. It sounds like I'm towing a trailer with a box of spanners in it, and occasionally it even makes pedestrians jump and turns their heads. Uneven wear is beginning to show again in the rear tyres. If it's like last time, the axle will chew through this pair in the space of about 5,000 miles.

I have a GoPro which I'm going to try and fix under the rear, to see if I can capture the movement and sound of the rear axle, and stuff it on Youtube. If I'm really nice about it, I'll make it unlisted and offer it as supporting evidence in case I go to court.

[myglaren]

Contact the CAB. They may be able to offer advise and/or give you a free appointment with a solicitor.*
As they are not responding to your requests it may be possible for you to have the work done elsewhere and claim the additional expense from them.
This needs to be verified though.


*I did this some years ago and it turned out very favourably.

[Smarty2]

I had the trailing arm on the offside crumble and destroy the seats on it and my local garage (not a citroen specialist) got new bearing kits for both sides but the offside was tatered so he got one from a scrappy and refurbed it and sprayed it all up nice, only thing I insisted on was this http://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/archoil- ... rease.html and asked him to pack the bearings with it, once that stuff is in worry no more it will last the life of the car. hope you get it sorted, nothing worse than a dishonest repair shop, very hard to come across decent ones, took me 40 years!

[GiveMeABreak]

... only thing I insisted on was this http://www.powerenhancer.co.uk/archoil- ... rease.html

How much!! .... says it's £8.95 opening the link, but no such price when you click the size options - it's near £100 for 400G!! ..... it would have to be bloody marvelous grease for that price.

Aw, to hell with it, think I'll just order a 35lb tub at £2654.95 and be done with it!

[myglaren]

That would last you the best part of a year.

Sounds like the mad Swiss wax/polish stuff at about £100/g