2.1TD Handbrake Cables

[CitroXim]

The 2.1TD I have acquired, amongst other minor problems, has a broken handbrake cable.

No worries, GSF do them for a tenner each. Looking on the GSF site I noticed they state they're not for the Activa. Knowing the Activa and 2.1 share transmission and braking, I dug a bit deeper.

pr.net say the ML5 gearbox'd Xantias have handbrake cables that are longer than lesser Xantias. The problem is that GSF don't sell these longer ones and Citroen want nearly £30 each for them

Question is, does anyone know if the shorter ones can ge "got away with" on the 2.1 and also, when pr.net (and GSF) state RH or LH sides, how do they reference this? Sitting in the drivers seat or looking at the car from the front or rear? I don't want to oreder the wrong side by mistake, especialy if the cable has to be bought from Citroen...

[jeremy]

Looks like Quinton Hazell do them - have their cables on my BX - excellent as they have a thick re-inforcer where the thing goes through the front guide which prevents the abrasion of the outer layer and consequent breakage.

If bracket abrasion is a problem maybe you could slice some garden hose endways and fasten it round the new cable.

Catalogue gives lengths.

http://www2.qha.com/catalogues/QH09BrakeCables.pdf

[CitroXim]

Thanks for that jeremy,

I have ued the hose trick in the past and it works well.

The QH catalogue was worth its weight in gold. Going on that, the offside one is 1333mm on all models and the nearside one 1262mm except the Activa, HDi, 2.1TD and V6 which uses a 1301mm cable. About 1 and a half inches by my estimation. Will using a slightly shorter one hurt I wonder Shame is, it is the nearside on that has failed.

Indirectly, I have answered my own question about sides. LH is the nearside

[admiral51]

Hi Jim

if they are similar to the "ordinary" Xantia then they are colour coded white and black ends go into the handbrake unit under the heat shield one goes top one goes bottom have not got by Bol to hand

colin

[CitroXim]

Hi Jim

if they are similar to the "ordinary" Xantia then they are colour coded white and black ends go into the handbrake unit under the heat shield one goes top one goes bottom have not got by Bol to hand

colin

Thanks Colin,

Question: Do you have to drop the exhaust off to get at the other ends of the cables?

You know me, I never read the BoL. This forum is my BoL

[admiral51]

Hi Jim
on mine no its a bit fiddly but i have read you have smallish hands

you can pop the heatshield retaining rings and bend the shield down a block of wood carefully placed gives you enough room to get hand in now comes the tricky part
you have to push the caliper end of the cable in towards its sheath and at the same time unclip other end and push it up/down(top up bottom down) to release it
remember whilst you are doing this vision is somewhat hampered

refitting is similar just need to play about trying to relocate handbrake end in its slots whilst pushing other end in

as an aside if you are doing one...............................

colin

[CitroXim]

Thanks Colin, excellent!

remember whilst you are doing this vision is somewhat hampered

I'm used to that, Xac and I swapped cylinder heads on his 1.9TD last week and what you describe sounds verymuch like the job of refitting manifolds, a job done more-or-less blind and by feel

A lot of Xantia jobs seem to be like that

My little hands were a godsend then although It still looks for all the world like I've been trying to slit my wrists They're covered in little scars and scabs from that job. Honestly, it was not such a bad job that I felt like committing hari-kari

[admiral51]

Hi Jim
one thing i did forget make sure you see all of the eyelets each cable runs through before you pull it through i must admit i missed one on drivers side and i just had the feeling it wasnt quite right and for once i was right....it was wrong

dont forget to have the swearbox close to hand maybe best to just lob a blank cheque in

colin

[handyman]

Why is it always the nearside cable that has the problem?

On the last one I replaced, I loosened the centre exhaust clamp which allowed the exhaust to drop by about an inch and removed the heatshield completely. It made life to much easier.

Next time I shall use a small child to do the job instead. Only joking.

Handyman

[Reblack68]

I replaced my handbrake cables recently and I can confirm that the shorter cable can't be "got away with". I wondered why my handbrake was pulling itself on at full lock until I read this thread.

My local factor listed the same cables for the whole range and his alternative catalogue wasn't much better, the longer cable was listed but the models were a bit random. I fitted a 1301mm cable yesterday and all is well again.

[CitroXim]

I replaced my handbrake cables recently and I can confirm that the shorter cable can't be "got away with". I wondered why my handbrake was pulling itself on at full lock until I read this thread.

Thanks Richard,

Just what I needed to know

[Reblack68]

I've just realised I didn't thank the contributors to this thread. I'll correct that now. Thanks especially to Jim for raising the question in the first place and Jeremy for posting the QH catalogue with the lengths. I'd never got round to investigating but I don't think I would ever have worked it out for myself.

As for fitting- I didn't find it that hard, when I saw this and realised I was going to have to do the job again my heart didn't sink at all. On my HDi there was a heat shield held on by two 10mm hex nuts and that was all I had to remove. There's a bit of blind faith involved in freeing the cable from the yoke end and fitting the new one in but it seems to work OK. It involves manipulating the cable from the outer end, maybe my long arms helped. The cable feeds in from the calliper end.

First time around I did it with the plastic tray in place but the second time I removed it because I was doing an oil change at the same time. It didn't seem to make a lot of difference either way.