1996 Citroen Xantia 2.0T Activa

Love a hydraulic Citroen! Really must get my BX going again (although it's not quite as nice as your Xantia).

Will keep an eye on this thread as there's always good stuff to learn. Didn't know about the anti-foaming properties of LHM breaking down over time (mostly because it's had two major leaks on the LHM return line so it's been 'flushed' and refilled at least twice!).

The suspension bush I've been waiting for the Xantia finally appears to be en route to me, so she should be getting put back to the garage for the MOT in the next week or so...however she looked like something from the Lost World having been parked under a tree for several weeks. Was filthy enough before that (I was honestly embarrassed to have presented the car for an MOT in that state) so a wash was the first order of business today.





Better, though the winter hasn't done the clearcoat peel any favours. It's really looking more and more like the car has a bad case of sunburn.















I'm tempted to have a play around with some cans of that plastic coating aerosol (the name of which escapes me right now). The paint is in such a state there's nothing to stop me having a bit of fun really is there?

What colour do you reckon?

There's a 50/50 mix of original and resprayed paint. The roof and bonnet were repainted at some point in the past. The bonnet is currently peel free I believe but the roof has properly started blowing the clearcoat again.

Realistically the whole car wants stripping back to bare metal and resprayed. Just hard to justify the cost!

The boot lids all seem prone to it, guessing it's a different paint formula or something with it being plastic. Or maybe it flexes more? Not sure! Dante red seems to be the colour overall that suffers from the most horrendous peel issues though.

As for cornering, yes. It's quite uncanny how it can change direction without the laws of physics seeming to have any effect. Especially when coming off roundabouts where you expect the sudden left-right weight shift to do something...the Activa just stays absolutely flat through that.

Getting back into anything else afterwards feels like it's leaning like a 2CV the first time you go into a corner.

Sometimes the easy jobs are the pain in the back side, case in point - a horrible clunk from my Mondeo, took it to the garage today thinking engine mount/lower arm to find it was a droplink. Normally I'd bring it home and do it myself but needed the car back today for work tomorrow so let him do it. Glad I did as it took a plasma cutter to get one of them off, something I'd have fannied around for hours trying to do at home. So now I don't feel lazy, neither should you

With the Xantia heading in for remedial work and an MOT at the start of next week I figured it was probably time to set about removing the cobwebs and pine needles from the interior. I always try to present my car for the test in a reasonable state as I figure making a good first impression can never hurt. The tester jumping into a car that's obviously cared for despite being worth about the same amount as the fuel in the tank is always going to put them in a better frame of mind than one they have to don full hazmat gear to get into.

While the clearcoat peel let's the exterior down the interior still scrubs up will for a 24 year old, 140K mile car.

My local garage has been snowed under lately, meaning the Xantia has been sitting out the back of their place for three weeks awaiting time on the ramp...to try to remedy this, they have asked a local Citroen expert (in a strange twist of fate, the car's former keeper) to help out. So I've been lending a hand too.

The issue we started out with was a failed lower control arm bush. Swapping this turned out to be slightly more of a headache than it might have been as the nut on the bottom balljoint refused to come off...so the whole wishbone had to come off complete with the hub still attached.

Next couple of photos are courtesy of the gent who's been doing most of the work.



Don't worry, the brake caliper was also tied up after the photo was taken, not left precariously balanced on that box.

She's also wanting new brake pads so those will be swapped while we're in there. Looks like the caliper has been touching the edge of the disc as well so that will be given a clean up. The car's been sitting since November so not surprised there's a little rust there.

Turned out that both the bush mentioned by the MOT tester *and* the rear "P" bush were stuffed...so they're both getting changed.



It was noted around the point the MOT was running out that the battery was struggling. It was still under warranty (fitted in December 2018), and Costco swapped it yesterday without any quibbles.

Turned out there was a reason for this. The suspension on the Xantia wakes up when it detects a door or the boot opened, which can be detected if you know to look for it, by a quiet whining noise from the electrovalves.

While he was working on the car it was noticed that the system wasn't always going to sleep as it should have. The culprit was (as is often the case apparently) the switch in the boot latch. This has now been defeated (unplugged!).



Hopefully the battery will stop going flat now.

I'm just waiting for a new lower ball joint to turn up then we can start getting things reassembled.

Aye, she's a pretty well known car! Poor thing really needs something done about the paint to be honest as that's the one aspect that really lets it down at the moment.

I still reckon that the Xantia in any form has to be one of the most undervalued cars out there. They're just one of those motors which are supremely competent at just about anything you're likely to throw at them. Whether it be a bog standard 1.9TD or a top spec Executive trimmed V6.

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A few days ago I went through my Citroen spares stash carefully three full times checking for a lower ball joint before I admitted defeat and ordered one.

Today what did I spot sitting on the pool table...about a foot away from the P-bush which has been waiting to be dropped off at the car once the new ball joint arrives?





I must have physically picked this up and moved it TWICE when I was digging through the boxes of parts. I really do worry about the state of my brain sometimes...

Anyhow...It has now been dropped off with the car. My friend is going to build up the control arm in the interim and we'll hopefully get it put back together on Friday which is when we're next both free. When the new ones arrive they can go back into the spares stash as ball joints are one of those things which you're always going to need at some point.

A bush in the hand is worth two in the, er, bush.