Citroen XM Forum

How does that work with Elastomer? Do you just send a box of bits to them? Could they remake the whole part? Incidentally, has anyone used Pleiades to refurbish anything? I have a wildly leaking pinion valve and I need it fixed sometime this year. Are they okay with XM stuff?

Richard

Pleiades can do any hydraulic work.

Existing strut heads are sent in a parcel to Elastomer.
They are dismantled, parts weld repaired and safety bands added then rebuilt using an elastomer.
They are then sent back as a parcel.
The original process is documented fully on this website (search for posts by Kingas).

I send occasional larger batches to reduce unit costs, mainly the saving is in the postage.

As explained above there are different types of strut head so sending the ones from the car ensures the right size and type are rebuilt.
This puts the car out of action typically for two weeks.

Yes Pleiades still exist and deal with XM items.
The work volume with Citroen hydraulics has reduced considerably in recent years.
I think contact and response over hydraulic queries are not always as they would like due to pressure of other work.

John

Thanks for that answer! What sort of money do Elastomer charge? I´d noticed Pleiades don´t have a huge web-presence. It´s a bit worrying they don´t have so much Citronics to do these days. Without practice they might get less competent at the tasks. Did you know heart surgeons do work abroad to keep busy if they have not got enough to do at their home hospital? They do this to keep their skills up.

The refurb is typically 75 euros plus vat at 21% per item.
Postage likely to be 30 euros each way.

John

I whipped these strut heads off today. What a pain! I broke by sykes pykavant chain removal tool twice and gave myself blooded knuckles. Eventually I removed the units complete, clamped them in my vice and used my home made "enforcer" sphere removal tool. It hasn't failed yet!

Sorry about the blood and tool breakage.
Thanks for the efforts in recovering them for me.

John

No worries John! All part of the fun.

Thanks for that John, you say change the hand of the strut the car that i am breaking down slowly has 1 good one fitted but its the wrong side of the car.

Hi Southerner

When they are refurbished the hand can be changed.
For example last time I sent two passenger side ones that came back refurbished as drivers side ones.
Unfortunately not what you were hoping.

John