Recently we have gotten several questions about Citroen CX brakes. Most often it is a case of the person replacing the pads on their front brakes, but not having replaced the rotors.

Here is the situation with this and any other modern car out in the real world when getting brake work done today. If you don’t want your brakes to pulse or chatter after you replace the pads, you have to replace the rotors also.

The manufacturers really don’t give you much tolerance to work with to turn or resurface the brakes anymore, so this is the best thing to do if you want to eliminate the chance of brake pulsing after you go to the work of replacing the pads.

This issue sort of popped it’s head with the late U.S. speced Citroen DS cars. Brake squeal and pad glazing was a problem, so the pads were made out of a harder and more aggressive compound, and the rotors were made from a softer metal. This got rid of the squeal and glazing for the most part, but it meant that rotors wore out much faster. This problem continues with the Citorën CX models that are in this country.

What you have to remember, is that as that rotor gets thinner and it’s mass is less, it does not have the same capacity to shed off heat that is built up during braking. It therefore warps easier, and things just get worse from there.

Turning or resurfacing the the rotor usually has very short term benefits, especially if the rotor is fairly close to it’s specs recommended by the manufacturer. Plus, a lot of mechanics feel that the metal has a bit of a memory, and it is only a matter of time after resurfacing and the rotor will be back to it’s old ways.

I know it is an additional expense to replace the rotors when you replace the pads, but if you really want to enjoy the high power braking that these systems demonstrate, then reach into your pocket and grab the change for an extra set of rotors when you replace your brake pads

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Question

My car is an 1987 Citroën CX that has an intermittent stall when the engine is hot. It starts straight away from the ignition switch. It doesn’t happen all the time.

Citroen Tech Tip:

The most likely cause is a bad ignition pick up sensor on the flywheel. We recommend everyone carry a spare with them. Because this is a very frequent problem an owner should always carry a spare.

One other area you should check on with a car like this with electronic fuel injection is the condition of the air intake manifold, hoses, and connections.

An air leak in this area can cause all sorts of drive-ability issues, as the ECU tries to adjust and readjust the fuel mixture to compensate.

Hope that this Citroen Tech Tip helps you,

Denis

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The Citroën CX introduced in 1974 was the the replacement for the Citroën D Series. It was the last car that was designed by Citroën before Peugeot took them over. A wonderful riding and quite car, the CX was made through 1989 and was then replaced by the Citroën XM.

Over the years working on the Citroën CX  one thing we found that needed attention was the rear suspension trailing arm bearings.Where the D Series car was equipped with very large tapered roller bearings for this function, the CX had light weight, (by comparison) needle bearings.

What would happen over time is these bearings would start to wear and begin to freeze up. This would cause the rear axle not to move up and down freely, and in extreme cases the axle would start to dislocate and cause the alignment to change with extreme tire wear being the result.

That amounted to quite a problem. You see these axles when they are worn in this manner can be very hard to remove and replace the worn out bearing. So what we started to do when a Citroën CX would come into the shop that had rear axle bearings still in good shape was a bit of preventative maintenance in the form of greasing the bearings.

Now to you died-in-the-wool Citroën CX people out there this might sound a bit extreme, but it sure worked for us. This was to locate a spot that was accessible on the bottom of the axle housing where the bearing is housed. (see arrow on parts drawing) Here we would drill and tap a hole into the hollow portion of the housing to accommodate a grease fitting. (As a side note when doing something like this you want to apply some grease to both the drill bit and the tap so that the chips and the filings you make will stick to the grease and not go into the housing).

Once this is done and the grease fitting is threaded in you can apply some grease into your Citroën CX axle bearing housing with your grease gun. You will find that the housing will take a fair amount of grease to fill it up, but use your better judgment and do not pump too much grease into the bearing housing and blow out or damage the bearings .You will know when you start to get a bit of resistance to the grease gun.  After this a pump or two at each service should keep the bearing in good shape.

Another option is to try and get higher up on the housing and then get some gear oil into the housing. You will want to have a plug to plug up the hole after you do this. Either way will get some lubrication into the bearings and that is what you want to do.

Good luck and always remember to wear some eye protection when you are drilling into this material. The use of a variable speed drill will also give you much better control of what you are doing with this project. Stay safe.

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