Sphere mount bracket

[xmexclusive]

Be very careful about drawing conclusions from this strut cross section.
Apart from needing a check dimension to be sure the cut was across the diameter it is a very unusual early XM type.
You can tell as there is only one visible locking indent to fix the centre cone to the hydraulic head.
Citroen only made these 4 locking indent strut heads for the initial XM production.
They very quickly changed to using 10 equally spaced locking indents.
That bit of information comes from Noz's site postings.
I am not keen on cutting up any XM strut heads at present but I have a very heavily rust damaged Xantia pair.
These did not actually fail though I still find that amazing with the condition.
I will section one as soon as I have taken record photos of them.

John

[eduFX]

Hi more pictures...

That's what happens when the new structures burst...



p.s. not come out of the structures

eduFX

[andmcit]

Woah, so the re-engineered ones can still fail too then even after a redesign.
What a load of rubbish - how difficult was it for 90's Citroen where the equivalent
Pug strut tops don't fair or pop through the bonnet. Wonder how the C5's of varying
generations are set up?

Andrew

[robert_e_smart]

Thats a Xantia top though.

[andmcit]

John, it would be interesting to see a cross sectioned Xant strut and compare the Xm design and see how viable
a repair refurb could even share common components between the two models even allowing for the obvious
difference in size the Xantia one has over the Xm's; there'll be a whole load more people in the hunt for Xantia
tops even where their current RRRP is a 1/4 of the Xm one. They won't be for sale indefinitely...

Andrew

[andmcit]

Thats a Xantia top though.

With the drop down stubs for the mounting bolts it is Robert - missed that!

Still a bloody awful design.

[xmexclusive]

Hi Andrew

On the Xantia strut head I think it will be worth modifying a good secondhand one to see if we can life extend it.
I think there is real scope here and I would even modify a new Xantia one before fitting it.
I have two reasonably good recovered sets here that are promised to Paul so I might try with those.
I particularly want to examine a C5 strut head and setup before anyone goes too far with an XM redesign.
As Noz has already suggested with his proposals careful design giving common components could avoid the need for handing.
Extening that concept to comanality between XM and Xantia might be too difficult though.
Sectioning the Xantia one was particularly useful as it helped me understand a lot more about the design and function of the rubber in the strut head.
I am promised a C5 to take the front suspension out of in the next week or so.
If that happens then I will have a much better idea of how the Citroen strut head design developed.
Never heard of a C5 failure so there is hope that Citroen got it right third time they tried.
I am certain that the Xantia despite being the second design suffers far worse than the XM.
I suspect that this is simply that in the four years between the XM and the Xantia failures had not started or even turned up on the factory test rigs.
The bargin for the C5 bits involves me stripping quite a bit of the rest of the car to order so will take a bit of effort.
I have also asked to be able to take away the C5 hydraulic pump as I think it would make a portable 12 volt powered hydraulic pack to plumb into a dead XM suspension. If anyone has any thoughts on this let me know. Will a general clean up do or do I need to purge everything before filling it with LHM to try it. Is there a rubber seal problem from using LHM.

John

[kenhall]

One critical factor to consider regarding possible adaptation of Xantia or C5 strut top mounts for the XM will be the dimensions of the strut rod taper. I believe that three taper/ strut mount hole designs have been used over the years the XM was in production, however the first can probably be disregarded as it was superceded very early on and dealers may have changed both strut mount and the strut itself to the second design during maintenance/servicing. The second design is probably the most commonly encountered and the third design of course is the 'large' size strut rod fitted in later years to a limited number of models eg 2.5TD's, V6's and some 2.1TD's.

The pessimist in me says that Citroen cussedness will mean that Xantia and C5 strut tapers will have little or no interchangeability with the XM variants. I will await the results of your detailed examinations with interest John.

Ken

[xmexclusive]

Hi Ken

I am not expecting any Citroen design to fit between car models.
It is mainly to see the design changes that they made for each model.
My recent discovery that Xantia and XM strut heads are designed to give no rubber movement restraint in the direction of travel has really thrown my preconcieved remanufacturing notions right out the window.
I now want to see if the C5 rubber is designed the same.
It could make the replacement a lot simpler to design.

John

[kenhall]

Thanks John

Understood.

Ken