Xantia suspension unit

[davewithington]

Is there anyone rebuilding Xantia suspension struts?

My left hand front is showing a bit of oil on the outside, and I reckon this is a precursor to a leak

[CitroJim]

Dave,

No, sadly, the Xantia front struts are seen as being irreparable. I believe the last to be refurbishable were BX ones...

Martin at Pleiades may be able to offer more information but generally they last very well and you should be OK finding a replacement from a scrapper...

[davewithington]

Funny thing is the left front was starting to leak on my white VSX, at a similar mileage

[CitroJim]

Must be some special killer potholes up your way Dave...

[Mandrake]

Are you sure its leaking ? Where is the oil appearing ?

If it appears to be leaking where the shaft goes in at the top, it's more likely that the leak is one of the o-rings in the strut top where the top of the shaft attaches - the oil will run down the shaft and pool on the top of the strut.

[aerodynamica]

Wouldn't simply be a leak from the old strut return pipes? I had to replace mine recently due to a little split in the old ones, but my it leaked an alarming amount!

[davewithington]

No, I replaced the returns with new boots when I bought the car four years ago. It's only misting on the outside as yet but I much prefer planned maintenance to firefighting
I'll have a look at the strut top O ring, I have a couple of new tops in my garage

[c.morewood]

Let me know if you need a strut..there are two where the hook came from.

[davewithington]

VSX Chris?

[c.morewood]

No its a w 1.8 petrol.. But aren't all the front struts the same?

[CitroJim]

No its a w 1.8 petrol.. But aren't all the front struts the same?

To all intents and purposes yes, barring V6 and Activa...

[davewithington]

That's interesting Jim, I've seen the odd new unit about with non VSX specific part numbers.

I'd prefer to fit new if I can, there's no rush

[CitroJim]

I don't doubt there's small differences warranting a different part number but to be honest Dave, I think, under the circumstances, any differences are going to be so minor you won't even notice...

Note that V6 ones are a bigger diameter... You could use them but you'd need the matching strut tops too...

[c.morewood]

I'm sure they'll be there for a while dave. Out of interest its one of those with the c5 fittings.