Citroën Xantia
One man’s parts hoarding tendencies saves John’s bacon – and wallet
Mere weeks after seemingly having its brakes sorted, the Xantia developed the dreaded LHM fluid leak. The suspension, brakes and power steering are all run from this reservoir on cars that use Citroën’s hydropneumatic system, and the fluid is pumped around the car at very high pressure.
Another visit to Dave at Citroën Stirchley found a leak in the rear suspension, which was fairly easily cured with a part that’s available, but which produced another conundrum.
Xantias have an LHM pipe that runs around the engine to the power steering and then under the car. On inspecting the pipes looking for leaks, Dave noticed that mine was very badly corroded, although it wasn’t actually leaking – yet. However, he was full of foreboding when he called because it was so rusty and advised me not to take the car very far in case it failed. Furthermore, his research had revealed that the pipe in question was no longer available.
It was made in a number of slightly different guises (all called 4023, but with an added second section – such as ‘g3’) to allow it to fit around different engines, which narrowed the search field, making it less likely that the correct one would turn up. However, it is also very difficult to copy because it has a bonded-in rubber section that flexes as the engine moves under acceleration and braking; a solid metal pipe would simply crack.
I spent some time searching the web, but was rescued by the parts-hoarding habits of the ever-helpful Rob Moss from Hitchin-based specialist, Chevronics, who had saved a new-old-stock one, just in case it came in useful. We weren’t sure that it would fit because the different part numbers for different years and engines were opaque to say the least, but Rob was happy to take it back if it didn’t, so I took the plunge.
As it turned out it wasn’t quite the correct one, but it wasn’t far off so Dave managed to manipulate it slowly and carefully into a new shape at the engine end and then made up some new brackets from scratch to route it around my car’s 1.8-litre 16v petrol engine. We think it was probably originally meant for a diesel, but it definitely wasn’t for one of the super-rare V6s.
I’ve had two quite expensive surprises on the Xantia in six weeks, now, so I’m really hoping that it will settle down for a while at least and give me – and my wallet – a bit of a break.
Fingers crossed. THANKS TO Citroën Stirchley, 0121 433 4335.