Citreon Z X Turbo Diesel/ Rear Suspension

[Barking]

hy can anyone help me please?

I have just bought a secondhand Citreon ZX Turbo Diezel and have very little experience with them.

The car is great and a lovely drive its just that it is fitted with alloys which i believe may be the reason for my problem. As I have said, with no one sitting in the back I dont have a problem, but when I get the weight of a person in the back then going over bumps or dips I get a metal to metal grating noise dependant upon what side the person is sitting. With 3 people in the back, it feels like the whole of my back end is scraping on the floor!

has anyone else experienced anything similar and what was the answer? PLEASE.

To my mind it might be the alloys being too wide, and if it is the alloys, would changing the wheels sort out my problem, or is the problem more likely to be the actual suspension itself?

Cheers Barking

[Guest Colin Hunter]

The rear suspension on the ZX is independant by courtesy of a torsion bar beam axle. The rear trailing arms are supported by bearings in the axle tube itself, and these bearings can fail over time and cause the rear wheels to splay and contact the arches when the suspension deflects. The "Metal to metal" noise you are hearing may be down to these bearings but you should be able to hear that even when in the car yourself. If the ride is otherwise OK then they are probably alright. The standard wheels are 14" and depending on the model, will be fitted with 175/65 or 185/60 tyres. Neither combo should foul on the bodywork at any time. The only other wheel/tyre combo which was fitted to the ZX was on the 2.0i 16valve which had 15" wheels and 195/55 tyres so if your wheel/tyre combo is no bigger than that you should be fine as long as the wheels have the correct offset.

 

Chers. Hope this helps. :unsure: