Xantia brake pedal

[seedy]

This is about my 1999 Xantia HDi 110. it's working well at present, but my daughter drove it the other day and pronounced the brakes to be something I'd not heard her pronounce before (ingrate ).

I suppose it may be that the pedal sits low, not that they are non-retardant.

I recall seeing something about a rubber spacer that might originally have been fitted below the pedal and that could be removed if not wanted. I can't find that now. Does anyone know what I'm talking about?

Colin

[RichardW]

There's a plastic cannister in the back of the brake pedal that transmits the action to the brake valve. This contains a spring, which is designed to give the brakes a more conventional feel. However, it can cause a bit of instability that makes it feel like the brakes are pulsing - especially if the accumulator is less than perfect. You can wiggle the cannister out of the back of the pedal if you lift it up, and then dismantle the cannister and replace the spring with a piece of pipe or bar of the same length. This will remove the springiness from the pedal, but will catch out drivers who are expecting pedal travel - they will come to a crashing halt the first few times! It may be that brake performance has deteriorated, but you, as regular driver, will not have noticed. Perhaps ask your Daughter what she thought the problem was?

[Mandrake]

If the pedal seems "low" and leg reach is the problem, doing the modification to replace the spring in the plastic cannister with a piece of hollow pipe would help - although the pedal wouldn't sit any higher when not pressed, it would hardly have to move to apply strong braking, whereas with the spring the pedal has to be pushed quite close to the floor to get full braking action.

Easy modification to make if you have a suitable diameter of hollow metal pipe (it needs to be hollow) and easy to revert back to original if you don't like the result, by putting the spring back in.

[Stewart(oily)]

I removed the spring from mine and replaced it with a length of 15mm plumbers copper pipe, it feels like a BX now. It is a good modification though heavy footed drivers might need to modify their technique.

[CitroJim]

I removed the spring from mine and replaced it with a length of 15mm plumbers copper pipe, it feels like a BX now. It is a good modification though heavy footed drivers might need to modify their technique.

I did this on all my Xantias, the feel of the brakes with the spring present just does not feel right at all... It was supposed to make the brakes feel more 'conventional' but to my mind it was an epic fail...

[Stickyfinger]

I must say I have never had a problem with the feel of the Xantia brakes in standard issue set-up......

[wurlycorner]

This ^^^^

However, it does prevent the enormous enjoyment that one gets from seeing the absolute shock/awe on someone elses face, the first time they hit the brake pedal on a CX...

[Mandrake]

I must say I have never had a problem with the feel of the Xantia brakes in standard issue set-up......

My first Xantia (a 1997 S1 2.0i with the small discs) had pretty poor brakes to be honest, I did lots of work to the brakes and they never felt right - a bit dead and insensitive.

I did the spring removal mod on that one and it made a big difference - still not what I'd call fantastic brakes but good enough after removing the spring.

My first Xantia V6 (a 1998 S2) the brakes were a lot better (the big discs help I reckon) and I didn't really feel that it needed the spring mod, so I don't think I ever got around to it.

My current Xantia V6 (a 1997 S1) the brakes worked well enough and had stopping power if you pushed hard, but I've always thought that I have to push the pedal unusually hard to brake hard.

This was really brought home when I bought the Peugeot Ion and realised that it had better, more sensitive brakes than the Xantia despite the tiny tires. Jumping between cars the brakes on the Xantia felt heavy, ponderous and just not very sensitive compared to the Ion.

So a few days ago I finally got around to doing the spring mod on this Xantia. Wow! The difference is unbelievable.

You would think that the spring would only cause you to have to push the pedal further (but not harder) to get the same degree of braking. That's the theory, but it sure doesn't feel that way in practice!

Light to moderate touches of the pedal feel the same as before without the spring, but when you need to do a rapid or emergency stop the difference is night and day. It really hauls on the anchors now when you push a bit harder and there is no doubt that reaction time in an emergency stop is greatly reduced. All mushiness gone.

Despite owning a Xantia with this mod before I'm still adjusting to how sensitive the pedal is now, I need to relearn how hard to press the pedal...

Definitely worth a go even for those that don't think there is anything wrong with their Xantias brakes - the difference really is night and day.

A piece of 15mm copper pipe cut to the right length is perfect - although I'd recommend using a proper rotary plumbers pipe cutter (which I have - one of the el cheapo ones) because it leaves a gentle round on each end without any burrs. If you cut it with a hacksaw, even if you file the burrs off the edge is still relatively sharp and may pierce or damage the plastic capsule which it sits inside when you stomp on the pedal!

[CitroJim]

So a few days ago I finally got around to doing the spring mod on this Xantia. Wow! The difference is unbelievable.

My findings exactly Simon

[Stickyfinger]

Maybe it is my big feet then because I can make them lock up and engage the ABS in the dry with average effort...........

[CitroJim]

Maybe it is my big feet then because I can make them lock up and engage the ABS in the dry with average effort...........

Maybe not.. Having owned enough Xantias, I can authoritatively say that not all feel the same and not all respond to the mod so well as others... One I owned - and I can't now recall which - felt better without...

Do the mod and see how it feels to you... It's easily reversed...

Generally though, in my experience nine out of ten times it is better...

[daviemck2006]

I wonder if the kind mr citrojim could let me know if Gabby is modified. Her brakes feel exactly the same as my activa were.

[CitroJim]

I wonder if the kind mr citrojim could let me know if Gabby is modified. Her brakes feel exactly the same as my activa were.

I don't know Davie... I don't recall doing it but to be honest, I never had any issue with gabby's brakes at all...

I suspect she has been done

[Zelandeth]

I certainly never touched the brake pedal (only read about this mod after she had moved on), but the pedal definitely had more travel than in Jim's Activa - which feels much more like I remember Citroen brakes being like from the past, far more like the pedal on a vehicle with air brakes.

Granted, I never drove Gabby after Jim overhauled the rear brakes - so that probably improved things!