xantia drive shaft seals

[davoxx]

My lovely HDi exclusive estate is making a lovely grinding noise from the drivers side wheel as she drives and freewheels.

I think it's the gearbox, but hoping it's the driveshaft.
Are there two drivers side driveshaft seals?
http://www.gsfcarparts.ie/311pc0050
http://www.gsfcarparts.ie/311pc0030

Also, I have found that the wishbone does not want to leave the balljoint, and in trying to persuade it, my friend damaged the ball joint, so hurray another pita job to do if the gearbox is fine.
Is there a good balljoint splitter that works well on xantias or am I always going to end up replacing the ball joint?

[CitroJim]

I always use a scissor-type balljoint splitter on them Dave, never an issue...

I get the splitter done up tight and then bring a big club hammer into play to give the joint and housing a bit of percussive persuasion... Often a good whallop fro the hammer on the side of the wishbone right by the joint eye is enough to separate it.

Yes, the seals are different each side...

Your problem may well be the driveshaft intermediate bearing...

[davoxx]

So I need both seals? GSF lists two on the right side and one on the left.

the left side one:
http://www.gsfcarparts.ie/311pc0020

the right side ones:
http://www.gsfcarparts.ie/311pc0030
http://www.gsfcarparts.ie/311pc0050

I have a spare drive shaft to swap with.

[ekjdm14]

The method Jim describes of splitting Xant' ball joints works well, but if there's not a huge amount of corrosion present it's sometimes worth just giving the wishbone a couple of good smacks as the splitter isn't always needed. I always feel more comfortable not putting any kind of splitter tool near the rubber boot if I can help it.

Also, now they're part of the MoT proper you can get replacement ball joint boots of all sizes so a couple of quid on ebay might save you some ball ache if the joint itself is still decent.

[CitroJim]

No, there's one seal per side but they are different sizes... BE3 (90 HDi) and ML5 (110HDi) seals are not the same either, as I have found out to my cost...

Dan, yes, I have tried the two hammer trick in the psst and often it works... My splitter is pretty kind to boots and I always ease the boots up before inserting the forks of the splitter to further avoid damage...

[moizeau]

Is the grinding all the time or worse on a particular lock, may be the CV joint?

[davoxx]

The grinding is all the time, worse when locked either way.
Sometimes it seems to come from the passenger side too!!

There was under a litre of oil in the gearbox, which I guess doesn't help!!
If it was just the lack of oil, I'll super pi$$ed after having spent a day destroying a ball joint and whacking out seized drive shafts.

Question is if there was only 1 litre of oil in the gearbox, how did the rest leak out?

[van ordinaire]

Didn't somebody recently say gearboxes always leak?

I assume you knew there was only 1 litre in the 'box from how much it took to fill - 'cos if you'd drained that amount out, you'd have a good idea if that's where the fault lay.

I've no idea what a shot centre bearing sounds like (more of a rumble I'd have thought) but would expect to feel if it, if not through the wheel, then when grabbing hold of the driveshaft. I thought worn CVJ's "clicked" on lock - or was that only Minis?

f-w-i-w, I only ever use a hammer (or 2) to split taper joints, with pinch bolts & grooves, I just use a tyre lever; needed to overcome the tension of the ARB anyway.

[CitroJim]

I knew of an BE3 gearbox in a Pug 306 that ran dry of oil due to a leak for months on end. The 'box did fail but only when called upon to tow a Rover 75 for 90 miles! Had it not been called upon to work so hard I'm sure it would have gone on for a lot longer in that state.

That one ended up grinding and only able to select one gear in the end...

The diff bearings were the first to fail... Most of the rest of the 'box escaped relatively unscathed...

One litre still present should have given it enough lubrication - the nominal normal capacity is double that...

[davoxx]

So some context - it's my sisters car, who wouldn't know if the car was on fire unless I told her.

I drained under 1l of oil from the gear box.
The grinding got worse when the dogbone popped off, so the car was tilted, and the grinding sounded fatal after I jacked up the front to pop it back on.

I thought CV joints also only clicked, but was assured by a 'mechanic' that they can grind, and since the noise was worse on lock, it was almost 100% this.

I'm going to put every thing back together and fill it with oil and see if that solves it. Then I have to whack off the balljoint that was sacrificed, fun times ... seriously thinking of ditching the xantias and getting something german!!

[CitroJim]

Fingers crossed it all comes good Dave

seriously thinking of ditching the xantias and getting something german!!

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

[myglaren]

Fingers crossed it all comes good Dave

seriously thinking of ditching the xantias and getting something german!!

Out of the frying pan and into the fire

If my son's Golf is any measure then absolutely, nothing but expansive headaches.
Replaced with a Megane - no problems!
That replaced with a newish Volvo S60 - fell to bits.
Replace with a Nissan Fourtrack - rubbish, caught fire on the way to the dealer for:
Seat Leon Cupra (new) - more expensive headaches.

[van ordinaire]

All cars have (more than their fair share of) problems.

As an administrator on my cadillac forum of choice never tires of reminding everyone, this sort of forum is essentially a trouble shooting/fault fixing tool; very few people will post that their particular car is absolutely wonderful (other than in response to a request, say, from the prospective purchaser of a particular model for opinions). When people berate late models in particular, he suggests they check out Mercedes/Lexus/Jaguar forum - where they will find more of the same.

German cars have a reputation for being boring . . . no, sorry - well screwed together. French cars have a reputation for being comfortable (although that's not what attracts the hot hatch brigade) &, sometimes, quirky - but nobody's ever suggested they weren't well built.
All FWD cars suffer from driveshaft issues (except Cadillacs, mercifully - can you imagine??). Having filled the 'box with the right oil (cannot stress the importance of that - see the discussion at length in my blog) be prepared to fit that spare shaft. I'd be rather surprised if, between them, the problem doesn't disappear.

[davoxx]

Drive shaft seal fell out, I removed the metal ring part, but I assume the part above the plastic bit in the pic needs to come out too? And what's the best way?

[CitroJim]

Yes...

Lever it out with a small pry-bar being careful not to scratch/damage the housing...

You will need to put a small block of wood under the opposite side to where you lever to give the pry-bar a fulcrum on which to effectively work.