'96 Xantia Activa - back to the future!

[wurlycorner]

As well as 2 ludes, a 924s, a Nissan Sunny, I also have 6 Citroens.

This is a nearest to being back on the road - a 1996 Xantia Activa.



For those that don't know what it is, this is the ultimate in Citroen hydraulics. Not just self levelling dependant on weight, but fully active suspension so it stays completely level in corners (works by instead of having fixed drop links both sides of the anti-roll bar, one side of each roll bar is a computer controlled dual acting hydraulic ram).

This was bought in a pub car park, in the dark, with no V5 a good few years ago and I ran it for a couple of years until an ABS sensor went on it and the MOT came up.

The ABS sensor was a massively unpleasant job to change and when the weather turned crappy half way through the job a couple of years ago (along with discovering that the rear discs pads and calipers were knackered) I gave up and the car sat on bricks for about 2 years while the UKDM lude got the attention instead. And then I bought the JDM lude, so that delayed things further...

This shows part of the reason why the ABS sensor was such a complete sod.
The cable runs from the hub (bottom left) up the underneath of the trailing arm, around the bearing end of the trailing arm (inside the subframe) and squeezes through a hole in the top of the subframe above the top of the trailing arm (centre of the pic)





Then it squeezes out into a tiny gap between the subframe and the body shell.



It then runs along the top of the subframe to a plug that's completely impossible to see and virtually impossible to even feel with finger tips...

Anyway this October with the ludes pretty well advanced, I turned some attention back to the Activa.

How I'd left the brakes all that time ago.



Bit of rust protection



That's more like it





And the other side





Hooray! Back on its wheels and moved!!!



Hmmm... Certainly left its mark

[honda-hardy]

seeing those rear calipers brings back so many bad memories. the caliper bolts seize in the rear trailing arm. and to change the disk you have to fit the pad retaining bolt to hold the 2 halves of the caliper together to stop them splitting. all alloy and corrode. evil cars.

nice cx estate by the way.great for camping.

[mercutio]

loving the cx estate they are a huge barge you not thinking of retrofitting the lude with hydraulic suspension then lol

[Supermarine Blues]

Indeed; a car with even less steering geometry than a 4WS 'Lude! Must be quite interesting jumping between the two.

Although I dislike Xantias (not a proper Citroen; pointless (ie soggy) brake pedal, useless dipped headlights and a terrible driving position) I'd still like to try the Activa for its anti-roll properties. I'd also like to try a Borgward 2.3 for its anti-roll properties, too, but that's even rarer.

We used to criticise Citroens since they were designed with zero regard for maintenance, but many Audi/VWs are equally as bad now. Must be nice to work on a Prelude for a rest!

[bb1boy]

Xantia Activa's corner like dogs on grass! ..check out this 8 second clip, notice how flat the thing is as it corners.. not bad for a french FWD:

[wurlycorner]

Although I dislike Xantias (not a proper Citroen; pointless (ie soggy) brake pedal, useless dipped headlights and a terrible driving position) I'd still like to try the Activa for its anti-roll properties. I'd also like to try a Borgward 2.3 for its anti-roll properties, too, but that's even rarer.

I know what you mean. I'm not a modern Citroen fan (as my vast quantity of CXs probably suggests lol) but the Activa is very definitely an interesting beast...

The brake pedal was designed that way to please drivers of 'normal' cars. Changing it to something much firmer is supposed to be well easy, so I've read (not done it yet) - the pedal is a two piece design with a hinge and spring between the two parts. Yank the spring out and put a very small length of 15mm copper pipe in its place et voila!

We used to criticise Citroens since they were designed with zero regard for maintenance, but many Audi/VWs are equally as bad now. Must be nice to work on a Prelude for a rest!

To be honest, I find Xantia's pretty easy to work on, for the majority.
The Activa is a bit more of a sod because there's all this extra kit been crammed into a car that wasn't built with it as part of the original design, so it buggers up access to a lot of things.

The CXs are indeed quite a 'challenge' (ok, a bitch!) However, the difference is that everything on a CX can be stripped down, repaired and rebuilt. The Xantia is a different kettle of fish - it's a modern car in every sense of the word, so everything is meant to be a a throw-away/not overhaulable on the bench commodity, which is damn annoying.

[wurlycorner]

seeing those rear calipers brings back so many bad memories. the caliper bolts seize in the rear trailing arm. and to change the disk you have to fit the pad retaining bolt to hold the 2 halves of the caliper together to stop them splitting. all alloy and corrode.

Interesting you say that, 'cause the bolts for that same caliper do seize badly into the trailing arms on a CX 'cause the arms are aluminium (doesn't go well with the steel bolts) so having changed the arm to steel means that doesn't seem to be a problem on the Xantia?
Changing the arm to steel seems to have caused a different problem though (that the CX doesn't suffer from) where the back of the aluminium caliper corrodes so badly against the steel arms, that it had bent the mounting bolts and the calipers were so skewed that the inside face of both calipers had been grinding into the discs!

Each to their own, but I'm afraid I have to disagree about this bit of the car being evil to work on.
To change the pads you undo that one centre bolt (leave the calipers bolted to the arms), slide the old pads out and new ones in. Piece of.
They're by far and away the simplest and easiest to strip down, overhaul, repair and bleed of any calipers I've ever worked on too. If you do split them when you you remove them, it's no big deal. Bolt them back together (99% certain you won't need to replace the seal) start the engine, get someone to put their foot on the brake (none of that pumping cobblers) let it bleed out for a few secs and all done.
And they're twin-pot, too!
AND they *never* seize or squeal like standard design calipers (and don't need any shims or any of that crap).

What pisses me off about the brakes on Xantia is actually that they went for 'standard' design calipers on the front, instead of sticking with the old design ones on previous Citroens. They're FAR harder to work on and can't be DIY overhauled!!! grrr... I had to fork out for 2 new calipers there instead of about £2.50 for a few new seals.

nice cx estate by the way.great for camping

Thanks, amazing for towing boats!!!
It's a late 2.5 turbo diesel and the poor old thing's been stuck on that drive (or mum's) for about 8 years and the bodywork is looking very sorry for itself now
It came off the road 'cause the head cracked (coolant pipe inside the head had corroded and snapped so it wasn't getting flow to each of the cylinder crowns).
Just didn't run right after I put a replacement head on it (very smokey).
I'm sure it was just the injectors, 'cause I stupidly re-used the ones that came with the replacement head instead of my known good ones. co-incided with buying the house so I didn't get round to exploring further.

Sorting that engine is probably next on the list after the Xantia is finished!!!

[wurlycorner]

loving the cx estate they are a huge barge you not thinking of retrofitting the lude with hydraulic suspension then lol

Lol nope. 6 Citroens is more than enough work thanks!!!

[Supermarine Blues]

Xantia Activa's corner like dogs on grass! ..check out this 8 second clip, notice how flat the thing is as it corners.. not bad for a french FWD:

That is f ucking mental!

Seemed to be going about twice as fast as that red Italian thing behind it.

[RattyMcClelland]

Xantia Activa's corner like dogs on grass! .

Is that good or bad? Can't say iv seen a dog run on grass. I can imagine it will slide some.