Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

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Mandrake
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Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by Mandrake »

Hi All,

I need to get a pair of drop links and track rod ends for the Xantia V6 shortly and it seems that things have changed in the 3-4 years since I did this on the last Xantia!

To be precise, prices of Lemforder parts have nearly doubled and there are many other brands available now, especially from the likes of mr-auto...

So what are peoples experiences with the following brands of joints ?

Track rod ends:

ECP offer Ocap at £10.99 and Lemforder at £16.49, although annoyingly they are out of stock of left hand side Lemforder Joints. ECP are currently offering 15% off service parts. Have never heard of Ocap before.

GSF offers only Vetech track rod ends for £16.94, but have a massive 42% off everything sale for the next couple of days. I have heard of Vetech but have no experience of them.

Mr Auto have many brands - Bolk for £5.41, (ha, no thanks) Febi Bilstein for £20, MOOG for £9.13, TRW for £14.15, Lemforder for £20, and Delphi for £21. Phew! Too many to choose from. Mr Auto does not have any discounts at the moment.

For drop links:

ECP offer Q-Drive for £11.89, OCAP for £16.99, Lemforder for £24.99 (and 15% off)

GSF offer Vetech for £17.64 (with 42% off!)

Mr Auto offer Bolk for £5.20 (seems too cheap...) Febi Bilstein £6.67, Moog for £7.74, TRW from £16.40, Lemforder for £22.55 and Delphi for £20. (No current discounts)

In the past I have always stuck with Lemforder but they are the most expensive of the bunch and I can only get them from Mr Auto who aren't doing discounts at the moment. GSF is tempting but I have no experience with Vetech...

What I don't want is joints that start knocking again in a few thousand miles, but I also don't want to pay a fortune unless the cheaper options really are inferior.

Thoughts anyone ?

Annoyingly some of the sites are quite unclear about the specifications of the parts - there are two different size track rod ends for Xantia's (the V6 uses the larger type) and one of the sites shows multiple matches with different part numbers but doesn't say which is which size. Likewise there are three different drop link variants and its hard to tell the pre-1995 types from the 1995-1999 types just through photo alone.
Simon

1997 Xantia S1 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive in Silex Grey
2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

2011 Peugeot Ion Full Electric in Silver
1977 G Special 1129cc LHD
1978 CX 2400
1997 Xantia S1 2.0i Auto VSX
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by Mandrake »

Simon

1997 Xantia S1 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive in Silex Grey
2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

2011 Peugeot Ion Full Electric in Silver
1977 G Special 1129cc LHD
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by BenC5HDi »

The TRWs I've put on the heavy - nosed and remapped diesel Berlingo seem to be of good quality so far. They're not knocking after 4000 miles of being battered on country lanes.

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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by electronmirror »

See eBay items.

331381492403 (£24.65 free postage)

260680832333 (£28.85 free postage) genuine Delphi, I bought these from Maltby Service Station 2 years ago, they've now done 18,000 miles and no problems. They also list some TREs which may fit your Xant.

Both above are 12 mm thread, I'm not sure if your Xantia has the threads both pointing the same way or if they're 180* opposed as on my series 2. I've also seen a drop link for early Xantias where one joint is in line with the rod and the other at right angles to it.

Personally I'd not go with cheap and cheerful, there are too many tales of woe where links are completely shot in less than 2,000 miles, joints not filled with grease, etc..


HTH
Last edited by electronmirror on 13 May 2016, 15:37, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by elma »

I trust lemforder and febi bilstein from the list. Delphi used to be good but I haven't had any of their parts for ages.
Q drive I've found to be not good, bought a droplink in an emergency and it lasted 350 miles. The others I haven't come across.
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by Mandrake »

electronmirror wrote:See eBay items.

331381492403 (£24.65 free postage)

260680832333 (£28.85 free postage) genuine Delphi, I bought these from Maltby Service Station 2 years ago, they've now done 18,000 miles and no problems. They also list some TREs which may fit your Xant.

Both above are 12 mm thread, I'm not sure if your Xantia has the threads both pointing the same way or if they're 180* opposed as on my series 2. I've also seen a drop link for early Xantias where one joint is in line with the rod and the other at right angles to it.
The ones above are the wrong ones for my car - they're for '99 onwards. There are three kinds of drop links for Xantia's.

93-95 have one right angle ball joint and one straight ball joint and 10mm thread bolts/nuts. 95-99 have the same design but larger 12mm thread bolts/nuts (this is the kind I need for my 1997) and 1999 onwards have right angle joints at both ends.
Personally I'd not go with cheap and cheerful, there are too many tales of woe where links are completely shot in less than 2,000 miles, joints not filled with grease, etc..
HTH
That's my concern too. It's just a shame that lemforder seem to be so much more expensive than nearly all the others. :?
elma wrote:I trust lemforder and febi bilstein from the list. Delphi used to be good but I haven't had any of their parts for ages.
Q drive I've found to be not good, bought a droplink in an emergency and it lasted 350 miles. The others I haven't come across.
Thanks - further reading I've done has already made me rule out Q-Drive (ECP house brand) as well. So that and Vetech are definitely off the table. So no 42% discount from GSF for me! [-X
Simon

1997 Xantia S1 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive in Silex Grey
2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

2011 Peugeot Ion Full Electric in Silver
1977 G Special 1129cc LHD
1978 CX 2400
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by chinkostu »

Don't buy cheap ones either. I got 2 for about £15 for the MOT last year and had to replace them about 3 months ago...
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by Mandrake »

Buying all Lemforder from Mr Auto works out to £84.49. Ouch.

What I find strange is that the Febi Bilstein track rod ends are just as expensive as the Lemforder ones - both about £20, but for drop links the Febi Bilstein are only £6.67 while the lemforder are £22.55. Go figure!

So based on those prices are Febi Bilstein a cheap brand or a good brand ? Seems like a random number generator was used to determine the sale price of some of these joints, just like OEM Citroen parts... :lol:
Simon

1997 Xantia S1 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive in Silex Grey
2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

2011 Peugeot Ion Full Electric in Silver
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by xantia_v6 »

Most of these brands don't manufacture their own, they just order them from a manufacturer in bulk to be packaged and redistributed. They don't always buy from the same manufacturer or the same quality. So the quality tends to be as random as the price (but cheap is unlikely to be good).
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by Mandrake »

Care to enumerate the brands in my list that don't manufacture their own ? I would probably dismiss any repackaged brands straight away, for exactly the reason you cite. (unknown quality control as you don't know what you're getting)
Simon

1997 Xantia S1 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive in Silex Grey
2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

2011 Peugeot Ion Full Electric in Silver
1977 G Special 1129cc LHD
1978 CX 2400
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by RichardW »

I'd go for the Meyle HD ones. They've got a 4 year warranty, where else can you get that? The ones I fitted to the C4 over 2 years ago are still quiet. They also do the TRE ends, part no 11-16 020 0005/0006.
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by Mandrake »

Who sells those ? I didn't see them listed in the sites I looked at. (I'm not too keen on ebay or amazon for these type of parts, especially ebay, where fakes and mislabelled items abound)

In looking up the various brands today I've seen mixed reports for Meyle joints... Most people seem to be favouring Lemforder, TRW and MOOG. :lol: I notice that MOOG and TRW are supposedly made by the same company, and TRW has recently (last year) been bought out by ZF, who also own Lemforder...
Simon

1997 Xantia S1 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive in Silex Grey
2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

2011 Peugeot Ion Full Electric in Silver
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1978 CX 2400
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by RichardW »

I just bought the links off E-bay - they had ones for the C4, and had the Xantia ones in stock when I enquired. Found the link, but it seems to be dead now. I think the bottom joints I fitted on the 307 were MOOG. There's some good pics on this link: http://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index. ... c=105336.0

I fitted some alleged Lemforder ones from ECP that were pants (knocked from new).
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by Mandrake »

Got an email this morning from carparts4less advising of a one day (Sunday) 12% off everything offer - completely forgot that I have bought from them before and pretty sure I bought my last lot of lemforder joints from them a few years ago come to think of it.

So a quick look and they have lemforder drop links for £20.56 and lemforder track rod ends for £12.97, which are both less than ECP or Mr Auto. Including the 12% off that works out to about £59 compared to £85. :)

While I was there I realised I need to replace a cracked axillary/serpentine belt, so I checked and they offer two different Dayco belts based on my number plate:

http://www.carparts4less.co.uk/cp4l/c/C ... d61&000108

http://www.carparts4less.co.uk/cp4l/c/C ... 3a8&000108

So, how do Dayco rate for axillary belts, or should I be looking elsewhere for a different brand ? I have absolutely zero knowledge of belt brands, what is good or bad. It's been nearly 10 years since I changed an auxiliary belt (my Xantia in NZ in 2006) and I have no memory of what brand it might have been.

If Dayco is OK, how do I know which one of these belts I should be using ?

The first one says supplier part number 6PK1623, Type V ribbed belt, Driven unit- aircon compressor, Driven unit- alternator.

The second says Length 1495mm, Engine code ES9J4, Number of ribs 6.

Not particularly clear.... :lol:
Last edited by Mandrake on 15 May 2016, 09:34, edited 2 times in total.
Simon

1997 Xantia S1 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive in Silex Grey
2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

2011 Peugeot Ion Full Electric in Silver
1977 G Special 1129cc LHD
1978 CX 2400
1997 Xantia S1 2.0i Auto VSX
1998 Xantia S2 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive
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Re: Drop link and track rod ends for Xantia V6 ?

Post by elma »

First link is with aircon and is a 1623mm belt. (google 6PK1623 for the length)

Second link is without aircon and the belt is 1495mm.

Dayco are a reasonable make that I would fit. I always buy gates belts myself as they are what I see fitted to new engines when I work in car factories. Between Dayco and Gates I'd say theres nothing in it though, both premium belts.
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