Wobbly ride

[Dollywobbler]

Well, the TXD Turbo has gone to its new home. Had one last drive in it before it departed. It really is a lot nicer to drive than the TZD! The clutch and throttle are lighter, the gear linkage is an absolute delight and there are far fewer clonks and bangs. The TZD will shortly be improved by a balljoint and inner track rod being replaced, but there's still something pretty majorly wrong with it. The ride is not consistent. It feels like one side is much softer than the other. It actually feels under-damped, which is not a sensation you often get in a BX. The front struts can be creaky going from high to normal, but that was also true of the TXD.

I'm still occasionally getting a loud creak too, which I can't trace.

I did try adjusting the tailgate today, as that rattles around a bit, but I can't get the catch tight enough to stop it moving slightly. Do I need a new seal? That'll improve the ride in one way, as the car won't bang over bumps so much!

[mat_fenwick]

I suggested on your blog that it may be worth swapping the spheres from side to side and seeing whether the problem follows. Does it sit level on flat ground? I was once supplied ARB drop links of different lengths, which would have a tendency to make one side sit higher if the torsion of the ARB was overcome. Can't see it making a noticeable difference though - unlike when one popped out!

What are the tailgate hinges like?

[michaelr]

If the spheres are coming off check carefully the stamped numbers... could it be that they got mixed up? Two fronts on one side and two rears on the other would certainly produce the asymmetrical symptom described.

[Tim Leech]

My TZi when I bought it had odd spheres on the front, one large and one small, ride seemed ok but I soon swopped them.

[citsncycles]

My first BX was like that on the rear - seemed to ride OK but then one started to go heard so I had them checked and replaced. Turned out one was the correct estate sphere and the other was a GS one!

If Timex is anything to go by, issues at the front seem to affect it much more than issues at the rear, although if the issue is side to side as mentioned above then that could get very interesting.

[Mothman]

Its not rear subframe mounting problems is it?
Ime sure my mate Tim told me a story where this happened and the Estate concerned's bodyshell came adrift and caused quite a scary moment. That area of the subframe and its mountings look very rotten on my scrapper.
just a thought.

Andy

[Dollywobbler]

I hope not. I have been beneath this car and it's remarkably solid - not easy to check the rear subframe mountings though I don't think?

[tim]

The guy who told me the story said that he was doing 70 when the whole car went into a proper wiggle-dance. When he came to a stop and had scraped the seat clean, he looked around and found that as Andy has said, the whole subframe had detached itself from the shell due to rust....

[citsncycles]

As far as the mounting points on the bodyshell are concerned, The rear mountings for the subframe are in the boot floor and can be accessed by lifting the carpet / mat and removing the tape over the holes. The front mountings are a little more involved as they are under the plastic trims at the base of the C posts, but a few minutes with a phillips screw driver should have them visible.

As for the mounts themselves, the rears should be visible enough to check them with the rear end jacked and supported by the bodyshell. I'm not so sure about the fronts but you should be able to see them with the wheels removed. Maybe a little gentle levering with a pry bar will be required to check if the mounts have parted company.

When I found the rotten mount on Timex, it was as a result of digging past a rottten rail at the front of the rear inner arch, so if it's looking solid round there I'd be surprised if the bodyshell has gone in the mounting points.

[Dollywobbler]

What's worrying me is that there's an oddly random creaking from the back end. It sounds like an arm bearing to be honest, though IIRC, the history file suggests they weren't changed that long ago. I did have a quick nose around earlier but couldn't see anything amiss.

[citsncycles]

I wonder how they were changed. Years ago a mate had a rather nice GTi which he paid the local garage to replace the rear arm bearings on. 6 months later one side in particular were so bad that the tyre was beginning to rub on the inner arch. This time they were done by a Citroen specialist at the Stratford meet, who explained that there were 3 different supplier used by Citroen for these bearings, and although they all fitted as well, the individual components weren't interchangeable as they each had a slightly different taper. Turned out all the original garage had done was replace the rollers, leaving the old cones in place.