Citroen Xantia Suspension question

I had two BX's and the symptoms you mention re a bouncy ride would indicate the spheres have failed. With the ride height at normal do you have the expected long travel when you bounce the rear? (I found having a tow bar ideal for this because you could just step on and off and get some idea of the travel before the height adjuster tried to compensate for the hange). --Our spheres were changed at approx 3 year intervals before the diaphragm within the spheres was damaged. I assume you changed the accumulator sphere at the same time you changed the

4 suspension units otherwise there will be a delay on the system pressurising? Out of interest did you buy new spheres, a set of recharged / recouped units or a set off a scrapper ?

Gio

Vajman ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Are the rear tyres wearing unevenly? Sounds very like the usual arm bearing problems.

Unlikely.

Adrian wrote in news:Xns94D0BE656DAD6adrianachapmanfreeis@130.133.1.4:

Can you expand on the "usual arm bearing problem"

Many thanks

Luca

Vajman ( snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

The rear arm bearings wear. They're not lubricable (Is that a word? It should be...). As they wear, the rear wheels get more and more camber on them, together with odd handling as the play allows the inside rear wheel to move slightly laterally.

The first signs of trouble are creaks and stiffness as the car goes up and down, with rear tyres wearing unevenly.

Eventually, if you walk up to the back of the car, you'll notice them sitting like this :- // \\ (exaggerated, but not much)

By that stage, you may have to replace the entire arm(s), instead of just the bearings.

It's been a problem since that rear arm and bearing design came in on the CX. BXs and C15s suffer badly, as can Xants, although not as badly. XMs don't seem to, for some reason.

If the rear tyre wear is even between inside and outside edge, though, you should be OK there.

The bearings on my series one XM were pretty shot though it didn't really seem to make for very bad handling. The ones on the CX that replaced it were totally knackered even though, according to the service history, they had apparently been repaired not long before by a well known citroen specialist - can't remember who the hell that was now.

Sam

Adrian wrote in news:Xns94D1D9D5E83DDadrianachapmanfreeis@130.133.1.4:

Thanks for that. A conference with my friendly mechanic is required.

Luca