The £500 mothership ('96 2.1td manual estate) has covered getting on for 18000 miles since February and is going like a train. In fact I may have passed Noz while I was going up the A9 on my weekly jaunt up to Speyside. Hard to spot another mothership, they look similar to a Xantia head on.

I've not posted anything for a while as nothing has broken or failed in ages.

However, a peek under the bonnet revealed that the sphere on the driver's side strut is almost contacting the scuttle panel. I had a quick look at Noz's strut top pic file on his XM and feel that mine may be close to failure.

I've no idea what a new strut top costs. Any answers? So how durable/viable would a used one be? How time consuming are they to change? Do I need a whole strut? or just the top? What's the going rate for a used one? Does anyone have any going spare?

Hope you can help. I dont want a failed strut to trash a great car.

MC

Hi mcmoonter,

I though that was you but it was so quick I din't get a good look through the window. I'm up and down the A9 every week.

You need to measure the diameter of the shaft which goes into the strut top. With the suspension on high reach into the wheel arch and pull down the black plastic concertina cover. Measure the shaft diameter with verniers. If it's the larger of the two options (can't remember exactly now, getting too late) then I have a couple of spares in average to below average condition. However, if yours is imminent then they may get you by until you get something else.

I believe the strut tops are £180 from Citroen. I was told once they were on back order but someone assured me at the summer rally that they were in stock.

Give me a buzz when you get a chance.

Cheers

noz

Hi McMooter

Secondhand strut heads are best bought complete with the strut as the whole assembly seems to be interchangable between different cars but not always the individual parts. Noz is right about the two different size rods each with its own matching head but this applies to Mk2's only. There are also a further two different strut/head combinations for Mk1 cars. With left and right hand ones also being different that makes at least 8 different XM strut head types. The prices being quoted are about half the amount that my local cit dealer wanted for a single strut head a year or so ago.

Regards

XMexc

the larger diameter of strut rod is 25mm. i believe only fiited to mk2 estates or to saloons with 2.5 or V6.

if you replace the complete strut and head set you can fit the smaller diameter assembly in place of the larger with no adverse affects. i recently had to inspect mine for a similar excercise only to discover that one of them (which was replaced when i bought the car) was the smaller diameter - mine is a 2.5 hence should be the larger. many 10s of thousdands of miles and several years of ownership without problem.

Reasonably quick and easy to change. I bought a XM with a failed strut, changed the strut insitu and trailered the car home. I got a complete pair of secondhand ones, they cost less than half the cost of just one strut top from Citroen.

Some photos here if you're interested -

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7328220@N02/s...57601606596399/

Steve.