Help - Search - Members - Calendar
Full Version Front Tyre Wear

Club XM Forum > XM General Issues
martinpenk
I have had a long standing problem with the insides of my front tyres on my XM 2.5 estate wearing quickly. It seems to be both sides. Citroen dealer mechanic and my local citroen specilist mechanic maintain that all the bushes and joints are all OK. No excessive wear. However, the latest MOT threw up the need for a replacement Track rod end o the drivers side. This was done. There is definately less wobble generally but I'm not sure its cured the problem. I've just had to put a new pair of tyres on.

Can anyone make any suggestions

Thanks

Martin

Andmcit
As the wear seems even across the axle, and the joints are checking out as being OK,
I'd suggest the tracking isn't right. If you imagine the plan view of the wheels where you're
traveling forwards, if they're splayed outwards from the centre line of the car the effective
leading edge of resistance will be the inner shoulders of both wheels if the adjustment is
beyond the correct tolerance. If the wheels were splayed INWARDS*, the outer edges of the
tyres on both sides would 'cop' the wear.

What caught me out on the Xm is the tyres run with a toe out which is quite high (up to 3mm)
whereas the older Citroen models could happily run on neutral ie. 0 or toe in up to about 1-2mm.

I'd certainly get a pro outfit check the alignment of the car at it's correct (and checked) running
height; many can do this with laser alignment testing tools though some kick up a fuss and moan
about the Citroen suspension and say it can't be done with the kit.

I adjust my own alignment on every car I run using a rudimentary but effective bar with
adjustable legs that I gauge across the car's width between the axle's front and rear trailing
edges.

Andrew

*Brain not in gear - corrected from 'outwards' Do'h!
martinpenk
Thanks Andrew.

I have had the tracking checked and adjusted about 12 months ago when i had the last new tyres. The ride height is something i was unaware of and I don't have much confidence in the last tracking/alignment job so I think I'll follow your advice and see if I can get these checked out again dare I say by my local citroen dealer, They do seem to have an XM fan as their cheif mechanic.

Martin
Citroenmad
I dont trust garages to do tracking and camber on cars. A lot of them have bad reputation for doing a poor job.

The laser tracking machines need calibrating every so often. It seems very few garages do this.

One garage i took my car (not the XM) to said my camber was well out on the passenger side, they adjusted it to its full adjustment and said it was still out. Later a frined took his car in and they told him it had the same problem! Highly unikely as both of our cars looked right by eye.

So now i do my own tracking, i have a bar which goes onto the inside of the wheels at the back anf front of each wheel so to get the wheels parallel.

Although i do often borrow tracking gear from the garage we use and set the cars up with that.

Actually where i can i try not to take any of the cars to a garage, i never have any luck with garages and dealers are among the worst!

Your best bet is to find a good indy and stick with them. The garage i use is very good and always does a faultless job.

It does sound like your tracking is amiss, its usually a good idea to get the tracking checked every year, or when you get new tyres, as it can become out of line.

Saying that ive never checked the tracking on the XM in 6 years, and it never scrubs its tyres off. Well on the outside but thats due to cornering!
Peter.N.
I use a length of threaded rod with two nuts slid into a length of steel conduit tube to track mine. Adjust the nuts to give a length that just touches the tyres at the front of the bottom of the wheel, transfer it to the same position at the back and you can immediatly tell if the tracking is correct. The tolerance is 0 - 3mm toe out, I set mine paralell as the forward movement tends to make them tow out a bit, except when accelerating. I have been using this method ever since my first XM, about 12 or 13 years and my tyres always wear evenly and last about 30k.

Peter.N.
jorgy9
QUOTE (Andmcit @ Nov 11 2008, 23:14 PM)
As the wear seems even across the axle, and the joints are checking out as being OK,
I'd suggest the tracking isn't right. If you imagine the plan view of the wheels where you're
traveling forwards, if they're splayed outwards from the centre line of the car the effective
leading edge of resistance will be the inner shoulders of both wheels if the adjustment is
beyond the correct tolerance. If the wheels were splayed INWARDS*, the outer edges of the
tyres on both sides would 'cop' the wear.

What caught me out on the Xm is the tyres run with a toe out which is quite high (up to 3mm)
whereas the older Citroen models could happily run on neutral ie. 0 or toe in up to about 1-2mm.

I'd certainly get a pro outfit check the alignment of the car at it's correct (and checked) running
height; many can do this with laser alignment testing tools though some kick up a fuss and moan
about the Citroen suspension and say it can't be done with the kit.

I adjust my own alignment on every car I run using a rudimentary but effective bar with
adjustable legs that I gauge across the car's width between the axle's front and rear trailing
edges.

Andrew

*Brain not in gear - corrected from 'outwards' Do'h!


Confirm, my front tyres were too toed out and the inner edges had become BALD while the rest of the tyre were 1mm above manufacturer's marks. Shame, they lasted only 40,000kilometers, they would have done 10,000 more.

G
Andmcit
Jorgy - you've got it a damned sight easier to fine tune the centering of your Xm's DIRAVI on
the bulkhead cable arrangement than that laoborious or fiddly for access process of adjustment
on the CX's!! It's either dismemeber the air intake throat to access the column to adjust a
universal joint or adjustment of both sides of the track rods to take some off and add the
same amount to the opposite side without losing the optimum setting.

It is, however VERY much worth it - they really do like zero toe in/out and this gives a real
sharpness to proceedings!

In actual practice, how does the steering head above the rack move/operate on yours exactly?
I seem to recall is swivels the whole cylindrical cassette head and the cable runs off it up to
the fixing on the bulkhead. I also can't recall where the plastic plastic sphere lives. Would be
educational to those here with the dinosaur steering system on their Xm's if you could take
some piccies sometime!! biggrin.gif

Andrew
jorgy9

Actually tracking the DIRAVI is more complicated! I happened to read a relevant thread in a french website and I got more puzzled after I had re-read it 10 times than before I read anything! It appears that to track a DIRAVI XM u have to proceed in 3 steps:

1. center a "thingy" (sorry don't even remember what it actually was) that lives on the centre of the DIRAVI mechanism, somewhere on the rack I guess.

2. then track the car as per normal

3. then use the cable u refer to do a fine adjustement of the center, if necessary.

i.e. it is wrong to only use the cable to "make the car go straight", as (if I understood correctly) the steering will not be realy centered (symmetrical left/right, if u see what I mean).

Another thing I learnt is that, apparently, when one removes a DIRAVI from a car e.g. to keep it as a spare, u have to have it in the center position and, before removal, introduce a special pin/needle thing in a special hole. This keeps the mechanism centered. If u ommit that step, the centre is lost *forever* and u can as well throw ur spare DIRAVI away!!!!! Do u know anything about this business???

I should make some photos but the truth is u can't see much...The only item well visible is the centrifugal regulator on teh bulkhead (is this what u call the plastic sphere??)

cheers
G
noz
Hi Jorgy,

I have had the doubtful pleasure of completely dismantling the DIRAVI steering comumn of a CX in order to fix a very annoying 'squeak'. I learned all about the realignment after the 3rd try at reassembling it. Getting it wrong twice resulted in some hairy results in terms of steering control.

As with most things it is not complicated when you understand the mechanism. I used one of my mum's 4mm diameter knitting needles to rebuild the DIRAVI unit. There are holes in each of the toothed gear wheels which link the stering wheel cog to the column cog via the bistable pivot in between (the engineering inside the black plastic cover is simply wonderful). To get them all centred for assembly it is as simple as inserting the knitting needle in through the hole on the top of the column (after removing the little rubber bung) and threading it through the holes in the appropriate cogs. Once the whole unit is assembled the needle can simply be withdrawn and the unit is ready for use. Easy peasy when you know how.

As for tracking the DIRAVI it is straight forward. There's no need to block the steering wheel because the DIRAVI always returns it to the centre anyway. Adjust the track rod ends as normal. If you run out of thread on any one track rod end the centre position will indeed need resetting. To do this, jack up the car and reach under the off-side wheel arch until you can feel the joint in the steering column. Turn the steering wheel through 90 Deg which will turn the column through 180 deg. Slacken the 13mm bolt on the joint. Let the steeering go so that it returns to the straight ahead position. The opposing bolt head should now be accessible on the joint. Now rotate the top half of the joint relative to the bottom half in the direction which would return some adjustment threads on the track rod end for you to use. Once the relative adjustment has taken place on the joint tighten the two bolts back up. Now track the wheels normally. See? Easy.

Cheers

noz cool.gif
Andmcit
Been here but not been as far as resorting to a knitting needle!! laugh.gif

I've simply cheated by replaced the whole DIRAVI steering column/shooting match.
Noz, you're not wrong, it IS very elegant engineering in there! I found the access
through the side arches was a bit frustrating so attacked it all from the top!

Andrew
Peter.N.
Hello Noz! biggrin.gif biggrin.gif
noz
Hi Peter,

Sorry for the protracted absence, I've been a bit busy for a while. May post about it in the anything goes section soon.

Cheers

noz
jorgy9

Hi Noz, thanks for info -let's pretend I understood!!-. It's only because I've never went to see how it all looks around there...Some day, perhaps....(hopefully will only be because of "academic interest"!).

cheers
G
This is a "lo-fi" version of our main content. To view the full version with more information, formatting and images, please click here .
Invision Power Board © 2001-2024 Invision Power Services, Inc.
Adapted by Shaun Harrison
Translated and modified by Fantome et David, Lafter