Xantia Shite

[Ross_K]

Check it bitches.

 

1.8 litres of French shiteyness.

 

It's amazingly rust-free for a 15-year old Xantia. If the roads were salted over here it'd be a different story.

 

No anti-sink on these early models either. GR8 4 THE SLAMMED TO THE DECK LOOK.

 

 

 

Some minor jobs to do, like replacing those frosted tail lights, fixing the dangerous brakes (which appears to be down to a flat accumulator sphere), replacing the alarmingly frayed driver's seatbelt and changing the engine oil once I get off the rounded off sump plug... The tyres are borderline legal so I might bung on the ZX alloys you see in the second photo now that it's sold.

 

Not too bad for €400. And it's never even been smoked in.

 

Feel free to add your own Xantias below. I'm curious to see how many other are floating around the forum.

[Split_Pin]

I never noticed that the early cars sank like all other Hydro Citroens but later ones didnt - when did they stop that? I like it!Getting rare up here in Scotland!

[r.welfare]

Ooh lovely - chevrons on the bonnet and, I assume, the grab handle on the dash above the glovebox.Hydropneumatics R GR8 4 FLOODED CAR PARKS, as my colleague tells me.

[Ross_K]

I think they added the anti-sink more for aesthetic reasons than anything else. Punters apparently wanted a "conventional" look or something.I don't mind the sinking ones - at least the spare won't get nicked from the cradle under the boot when I'm parked up...

[Volksy]

I think they added the anti-sink more for aesthetic reasons than anything else. Punters apparently wanted a "conventional" look or something.I don't mind the sinking ones - at least the spare won't get nicked from the cradle under the boot when I'm parked up...

I presume that with the 'non-sinking' ones you can drive off straight away, rather than waiting for the suspension to pump up as you had to one the old ones.

[Milford Cubicle]

Bland and lardy as they are, I still quite fancy owning one of these.

[Ross_K]

I presume that with the 'non-sinking' ones you can drive off straight away, rather than waiting for the suspension to pump up as you had to one the old ones.

You'd think so, but this one pops up to normal height more or less in a couple of seconds. It definitely doesn't take any longer than my '00 Xantia - I'd even say the STOP light goes out quicker on the old one...

[mk2_craig]

It's amazingly rust-free for a 15-year old Xantia.

Are they particularly bad for rot? I'd kinda assumed that most French tin since the 205 was pretty well rustproofed.

[stoterstangen90]

It's amazingly rust-free for a 15-year old Xantia.

Are they particularly bad for rot? I'd kinda assumed that most French tin since the 205 was pretty well rustproofed.

I did not see lots of rotten xantia's. Only breaks do have some problems

[r.welfare]

Isn't the rear wheelarch/doorshut area the main rotspot?

[Ross_K]

This is my other one. It lived in Scotland until 2005.

 

 

The rust is coming through nicely on the seam on both rear door shuts (just like on a BX), and the front struts are going to go any day now.

 

And that's with only 60000 miles of salty Scottish roads under its belt...

[j-j]

I never noticed that the early cars sank like all other Hydro Citroens but later ones didnt - when did they stop that? I like it!

 

Getting rare up here in Scotland!

'sinkers' as a bloke from French car Forum calls 'em were from launch 1993 till late 1994. The introduction of the (actually quite troublesome) anti sink valves coincides with the moving of the Chevrons from the bonnet to the grill. to make the Mk2 Xantia and continued to the Mk3 facelift type (about '98 onward)

 

I agree it was for aesthetic reasons but it was also a test bed for the forthcoming C5 with it's new version of the hydraulics using an electrically operated system.

 

The reason the early sinking Xantias pump up quickly is that they have higher output hydraulic pumps, with the intro of the anti sink, the PAS was no longer operated by the main hydraulics and was powered in the conventional way by a PAS pump. The weird thing about it is that they didn't then have 2 pumps (i.e. one for PAS and one for the suspension/brakes) but infact had one new type of pump with 2 different outputs called a 5+2 pump, 5pistons for the PAS and 2 for the suspension. It means that the suspension relies only on 2 pistons unlike the early sinkers where it was 7 pistons in the pump for everything. Result: they take longer to wake up after anti sink but obviously don't sink overnight.

 

Anyway , that's a really nice one you've got there I like the S1 the best. You can also tell a Xantia (and BX and Xm for that matter) with the original PAS powered off the main hydraulics by a bizarrely loud intermittent hissing sound that's loud enough to be heard from across a busy street!

 

Here is mine (just sold)

 

ran on 100% veg oil until the prices went mental and a genuine 28K from new.

[Richard]

I had the grey Xantia sold it back to the previous owner when I got the red one. The red one has the fantastic HDi 110HP. If Citroen had just changed the engine it would have been a great car but sadly they cheapened the interior, ruined the looks and added a load of electronic gimmicks that can't be deleted without plugging into a computer.

 

I'd planned to look for an older estate on eBay and take the interior but I discovered the door cards wouldn't fit. That was the last straw and I did a deal to get the grey one back.