Uneven Rear End

[Guest Andy H]

Hi, Just joined today after purchasing my nice ZX TD last week as I've wanted one for years.

 

Thing is, after I'd had it a couple of days, I noticed the rear end was wonky in that the ride height is lower on one side than the other. I can see no crash repairs, or evidence of, and no other obvious problems.

The offside/drivers side looks as any other ZX height wise but the nearside/passenger side looks too high. The offside rear tyre however fouls the inner arch if I put a little weight in the boot and thus is wearing the sidewall away.

All I can think is; a ) for some reason the o/s rear trailing arm is twisted, b ) the o/s torsion bar is knackered c ) combination of both or d ) the n/s trailing arm has been taken off and replaced a spline out and has such cocked up the whole rear geometry eccentuated with the passive steer setup.

I can't see how b ) could cause tyre fouling, and find it doubtful that d) would do either.

 

Is there a common fault on the ZX's that could cause tis situation that anyone knows of, or are the above possible or likely?

I have heard of 'the rear beam being a common weak point on the ZX's', so wondered if this could be what my problem is?

 

As I say the whole body shell seems solid and original/unadulterated with no eveidence of crash repair or cut'n'shut, so am stumped, particularly if the arm is twisted!

 

Thanks in advance, and I hope this is a readily sorted problem!

[Guest Andy H]

Hi, Just joined today after purchasing my nice ZX TD last week as I've wanted one for years.

 

Thing is, after I'd had it a couple of days, I noticed the rear end was wonky in that the ride height is lower on one side than the other. I can see no crash repairs, or evidence of, and no other obvious problems.

The offside/drivers side looks as any other ZX height wise but the nearside/passenger side looks too high. The offside rear tyre however fouls the inner arch if I put a little weight in the boot and thus is wearing the sidewall away.

All I can think is; a ) for some reason the o/s rear trailing arm is twisted, b ) the o/s torsion bar is knackered c ) combination of both or d ) the n/s trailing arm has been taken off and replaced a spline out and has such cocked up the whole rear geometry eccentuated with the passive steer setup.

I can't see how b ) could cause tyre fouling, and find it doubtful that d) would do either.

 

Is there a common fault on the ZX's that could cause tis situation that anyone knows of, or are the above possible or likely?

I have heard of 'the rear beam being a common weak point on the ZX's', so wondered if this could be what my problem is?

 

As I say the whole body shell seems solid and original/unadulterated with no eveidence of crash repair or cut'n'shut, so am stumped, particularly if the arm is twisted!

 

Thanks in advance, and I hope this is a readily sorted problem!

[Guest Andy H]

Well I found the problem this morning, the o/s trailing arm is offset upwards by almost 1/4" in relation to the axle tube, rather than being in line with it as it should be. So it appears that either the torsion bar or (most likely) the bearing inside the axle tube has collapsed, maybe both, and been chewed away allowing the trailing arm to become out of line and subsequently drop the rear of the car while at the same time creating adverse negative camber causing the tyre fouling.

Been to a breakers and bought a replacement whole axle assembly which all appears to be good.

Just got the fun of swapping them over now!

 

Hope this may help someone in the future.

[Shemer]

Hi,

 

Just saw the mail, and was about to suggest same direction as you did, but I see you already solved it. :)

 

Anyways, a small suggestion regarding the new rear beam: Since PSA/Citroen workers tend not to use an adequate amount of grease in the tube (for lubrication), it's a good idea to put some grease in for saving the "new" beam.

 

If you don't want to disassemble the beam, you may buy yourself 2 greasing nipples (like they used to install in old cars) drill a small hole(s) in the tube at the right size, create a screw thread and screw the nipples in. Now you can lubricate the tube freely and make beam's life much longer.