Citroen XM Forum

Spotted just outside Nerja yesterday...
Oh dear.

''I really should not have run the car on flat spheres for the last five years'' The owner must have had a shock after they left the house for work that day. Regards, Matthew T.

Whoops! Classic buckled bonnet.

MTXM wrote:''I really should not have run the car on flat spheres for the last five years'' The owner must have had a shock after they left the house for work that day. Regards, Matthew T.

You could well be right, Matt.
At least he doesn't have to bother with the bonnet stay now!

MTXM wrote:''I really should not have run the car on flat spheres for the last five years'' The owner must have had a shock after they left the house for work that day. Regards, Matthew T.

although flat spheres probably brings this this on sooner rather than later, it is actually a combination of the bonded rubber and tin worm that causes the strut top to fail

regards malcolm

Not in this particular case malcolm
It is clearly due axial tearing of the rubber cone.
That as Matthew states is initiated by overstress tearing of the base of the solid rubber cone.
It can happen without rusting or rubber bond failure.
Rubber bond failure and metal cone rusting both show considerable rust with different shape torn surfaces.
No rust present in the photo.

Extended running on flat spheres causes the overstress to start tearing the rubber axially from the underside.
It is probably the most dangerous form of strut head failure to predict as it is sudden and so difficult to examine for.
Only matched in risk by the early XM four dimple strut heads failures that Citroen redesigned before the Xantia was born.

John

Must agree with John's analysis here. That is torn, not detached rubber.
Rust on vehicles in this part of Spain is almost unknown.

Xantias here disappearing very fast. Many more ZXs still running around. Only see around 2-3 BXs a year now.

My guess is that, on the back of the high regard and popularity of Citroen here (from C15 onwards), Xantias sold and were acquired secondhand, but without many of the owners ever knowing the importance of keeping the suspension serviced - or even on what basis it worked.

Lost count of the number of Xantias we've followed, lumping over road bumps and speed ramps, with suspension obviously operating in "Wood" mode. Seen on C5 too, but they do seem to fare much better at the hands of their owners.

Once the rubber has suffered the first almost invisible overstress split then it will grow.
Putting new spheres on after this just hides the problem and slows the growth rate.

UK Xantia strutheads and rusting are a different game all together.
An extra worst choice design feature over the XM ones.
Extreme baseplate rusting caused by adding "protective" rubber.
4mm plate rusts completely away in places.
The same unprotected steel plate on a XM one just has minor surface rust after 20 or so years.

John

It is clearly due axial tearing of the rubber cone.

I have purchased two XM with this problem, where the strut tops looked fine insitu and only when the wheels were jacked was the damage clearly apparent! My guess is this might happen more often with Xantia due to the large numbers sold and the cars are often bought and run by people who do not appreciate what they have! With regards, Matthew T.

I am sorry that I did not fully read your last post Chris and reiterated the same remarks about the Xantia!! Regards, Matthew T.