Front Suspension Gaiter, Refitting problem

[jackyboy]

Having now had a good look, it seems that the rubber which protrudes down through the hole which takes the mount has perished on the bottom side.

Has anyone any dea where I might get a new set of rubbers or the top mount if they come complete and any idea on price?

[Andmcit]

It sounds like the part of the initial image pictures a jagged material hanging down which must
be the rubberised remnants or coating on the underside of the strut top or as Citroen calls it,
a Sphere Mounting Bracket. The only aspect that cannot be easily determined from the pictures
is whether the gaiter can slip over and grip all arounb the circumference of the lip on the lower
edge of the strut top as the lip pictured does appear to be incomplete though it could very well
be down to poor lighting etc.

Thre very well may be absolutely nothing wrong with the structural integrity of the strut top and
only the minor inconvenience of a torn and insecured bellows gaiter which may very well cost no
more than a tenner new from Citroen. But were it true for the cost of a new sphere mount bracket
from Citroen; I fear it may be vastly into the multiples of hundreds though the blasted Xantia one
is around £100 per corner though being made of the aforementioned papier mache not a patch on
the properly protected material used for an Xm which would therefore incur higher cost!

Andrew

[xmexclusive]

Hi Jackboy, Andrew

Have now pulled out and looked at some XM strut heads. The XM ones look rather different than the Xantia ones. Unlike the Xantia head there is no rubber protection undershield on the XM ones. It is the debonding of the Xantia rubber undershield trapping salt water that causes all the Xantia strut problems. The underside of the XM one is just painted metal with the rubber cone in the centre. There should be a full circle of rubber about 6mm wide and projecting down by about 6mm. It is the outside of this circle that the top of the gaiter clips over. A similar projection can be seen on the underside of the new Xantia strut head. I still suspect that the external hanging bits are the debris from an application of rubberised underseal at some time. There should be two lands of rubber joining the outside of the gaiter ring to the metal of the strut head base. The lands are on opposite sides of the strut and are flush with the metal. It is these two lands which need examining for Axial splitting. If the rubber is tearing it will start as circular cracks around each land immediately outside the gaiter ring. This cracking will be across the lands and should not be confused with the two large moulding insets (finger sizes holes in the rubber between the lands) which are part of the original strut head design to give the top of the strut freedom of movement.

John

[jackyboy]

Thanks for all of your help on this one, been under the beast this morning and managed to get the gaiter back on, i put a cable tie around it to make sure.
Having done that I put the wheel back on, held the front wheel at 3 o'clock and 9 o' clock and found a lot of movement. I checked underneath as I was doing it and there is a bush of some sort where the lower arm thing connects to the chassis. This is where the movement is coming from......what is it called and how easy to fix it ?
Cheers all

[dean]

Hi Jackboy

Control arm / wishbone arm bushes, Just done mine as it had started to get a bit wondery on uneven roads and had a clunk when coming to a stop or pulling away.
I took the arms off and got Cit to press new bushes in / on, on both, came to £80 + vat but you can just buy new arms for about £50 a piece from a factors if you dont have the gear to press the bushes in yourself or dont want to be without the car for a couple of days.
Easy to take the arms off, its only 4 nuts/bolts to undo.

Good luck
D

[jackyboy]

Cheers Dean, I am goimng to try & get a second hand arm, or both, then I can get the bushes fitted to them ready to go on. I live miles away from anything and anybody so can't afford to be without a car

[dean]

Bugger, just chucked an old pair away you could of had, mind you postage would have probably been extortionate anyway
Some one will have a pair no doubt.
Thought i would mentiuon cit didnt charge me labour, if i got the bushes from them so the £80 was technicaly supply only, aftermarket i think where a few quid each so much cheaper.

D

This post has been edited by dean on November 04, 2008 06:46 pm