red_dwarfers

Take a look here Willie: http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=24786 An entire thread dedicated to the problem. I myself was in your situation a couple of weeks back, its generally parts of the ignition switch burning out, usually there is enough and a stable current to run a relay to divert the power around the switch. Anyway, take a look at the link.

Hi Doc, I would put my money on the spring tensioner arm being siezed in its roller bearings. If you look down at the spring tensioner arm by taking off the front off side wheel and plastic covering you should see a square hole on the arm that should fit a 3/8 square drive ratchet nicely, if you can crank the tensioner arm back and not feel it wanting to pull back again, thats where you're problem lies. It takes a good few hours to changing the arm and roller bearings though as the altenator and hydraulic pump need to come out and the air con condensor needs jarring aside. You will also need a decent set of allen keys to finally unscrew the spring tensioner block :rolleyes:

Hi That is an early Xantia VSX! It is certainly worth keeping on the road, is there a service history? Whats the milage? Where abouts are you located?

Hi Fred Unfortunatly the strut tops are starting to go on a lot of Xantia recently and at the moment (in the UK at least) it appears to be a dealer only part. Sorry I could be of more help.

If you do go down the pump stripping route, heres a guide on repairing the seals but it does guide on removing the armour: Guide bosch pump

Welcome to the forum! I would be likely to suspect the rear height corrector, there is a nylon clip which maybe broken or need a clearout. If you have a search around on the forum there are guides about the plastic clip.

Sorry this is a bit late! One of my relations had a similar problem a couple of months back where the engine kept loosing power for a few seconds at a time, my brother did track it down to a sensor somewhere, I think that was the mass airflow meter.

Don't know how it works but sometimes mine used to do that, in the end I found it worked if I put the key in the other way around?! Beats me.

Do you mean it drops when the engine is still running? The only thing I can think of if it's when the engine is switched off, that you have a cream crackered antisink valve which has a dodgy isolater thingy hence it would sometimes do its stuff and other times not. Do you reckon this could be due to mucky LHM anyone? Just throwing some ideas out!

Welcome to the forum mate! :rolleyes: For nothing! Brilliant find there!! Whats the milage like? The only way I know of to get hold of a radio code is via a main Citroen Dealer. Most members here get their spheres from GSF motor parts. http://www.gsfcarparts.com/

Just browsing Citroen's website and came across this section which houses the history of their cars and their future concept cars. Theres some truely breathtaking innovations. One of the cars is built to run on biodiesel but is also a hybrid and stores the power that the kinetic energy of the car creates when slowing down. Amazing! Take a look at this: http://www.differentiseverything.co.uk/

Just having a nose around my Xantia today and under the passenger's side seat there is an orange wire with the connector in the middle which I presume is something to do with pretensioners. There are two wires underneath the drivers side but they are not connected, one of the connector blocks has a big resistor in it, leaving the other connector not connecting anywhere, as far as I can tell it the one that goes under the carpet that has the resistor. Is this some sort of quick fix for a common problem? Should I be worried?

The easiest way to tell is by decals saying 'Activa' on the rear of the vehicle or on the outside trim on the front doors. EDIT: Unless you're talking about Hydractive suspension, if you have this there will be a button just to the front of the manual height lever on the central console, if you don't have this you have the standard hydropnematic suspension. Hope this helps mate!

Cheers Colin, Got a second wrench around the housing and after a few sharp blows, the sphere came loose. The old spheres were certainly knackered, it feels like a boat floating on water now!

Im right in saying that you have a '95 Xantia? I had a quick look around on the net and came up with this:

Penguin: It will probably be that the key plip needs reprogramming, I know there is a special sequence to doing this. It's probably on the forums somewhere.

I totally agree with you there Colin, it would be a waste to provide the wires without the light. I couldn't resist pointing it out to the Xantia technical god that is Colin :rolleyes:

The later Mk1's have a high level brake light too :D

Had another go at it late this afternoon after spraying it with WD40 last night, had the suspension up high with the engine switched off, car bricked up for safety before anyone says anything! After giving the chain wrench a bit of encouraging with a few solid blows with a hammer something was moving the tinest amount but I stopped because I heard a hissing sound everytime I hit it with the hammer. I've got a horrible feeling that this isn't the sphere but something to do with the housing/pipework, but then again I could be wrong Heres a picture: http://i62.photobucket.com/albums/h109/red_dwarfers/sphereprob.jpg The bit that I've outline is something which looks like it prevents the sphere housing from going so far that it does any damage which makes another part of me think that it was the sphere :D If I do go on and break something, i would have to get hold of some new pipework and presumable the whole housing, with the tight budgets im working with I would like that to be a last resort... Im looking for a second opinion on this!

The extra gubbins are extra bits. That cylinder just to the left front of the fuel pump is something to do with the aircon, I presume that the other bits and pieces are where Citroen have changed the engine layout a bit or possibly extra bits too. The only bit I can be sure about is the air con!

Bought myself a chain and a strap wrench today to replace the rear spheres on my Xantia 1.9TD. They look well past their best and when it came to loosening them they wouldn't budge, I used a fair sized ratchet and all. I'm presuming that i'm either doing something wrong or they have seized. If they have seized, what should I do?!

Cor! I had a scare today :( , its the first day that I've been on a long run with my Xantia. I was parking up where I usually do and realised that I couldn't get into reverse...same with 2nd and 4th aswell, the other gears were fine though. I took a couple of hours to clear me head and do something else and after playing with it relise that the gearstick cover thing keeps popping off whenever I change gear. After a little bit of thinking all it was that I had tried to pull the stick upwards to go into reverse, so popped it back down and all was then fine! Phew! :blink: Reason I did this is that before I drove a Corsa and to get into reverse you pull the stick up and move it. I'm glad it was something so simple though.

Cheers everyone! I've picked up some rear spheres from my local GSF (and a couple of bottles of Total LHM just in case), going to fit them according to my newly acquired Haynes manual and the instructions posted by Colin. Got the alarm sorted too now - what an invaluble resource this forum is :(

Cheers Colin and Zoe After much thinking I think it might be for the best to leave the immobiliser! Going in to get new spheres from my local branch of GSF, the oil also looks a bit too black for comfort so might give that a change. While im in there I might pick up some LHM, filters etc...and give the system a good clean out. How often should the LHM be changed and how many litres should I pick up? Zoe, how do I go about turning the sensors off?

Hi, I picked up a '97 R reg Xantia LX with 188,000 miles on the clock a few days ago, a few questions for you all. Firstly, security-wise this car has an alarm and keypad immobiliser. Is is normal for the alarm to be ultra sensitive? As I was walking away from it the other day a Mini Cooper drove past and set it off...I've never had an alarm on any of my cars so this is a bit new to me! The immobiliser keypad looks as if it is been bypassed or unplugged as no lights ever come on it according to this thread: http://www.citroen-owners-club.co.uk/citro...pad+immobiliser I've got the code for it, and it would be good to put it back into use, is there something I should be doing to activate it? Should there be any lights coming on? She's had 2 new front spheres done a couple of months back but the car feels really solid on the suspension on our bumpy roads and after looking around on the forums I would be right in saying that I need 2 new rear spheres? As far as I know, the car is still running on its original hydraulic pump. I've looked around and it appears that if this one decides to stop working I've lost my steering, breaks and suspension which I am a little worried about, so is there any known way of checking this before it does happen? I take it also that the accumulator sphere is the 'emergency backup' for the whole system - how will I know when this is being used? Anything else I should be looking at for a high milage car like this? Thanks in advance! Take care