My Zantia VSX has severe tyre wear on the outside edges of the front tyres. the inside edges are worn but not to the same extent. It is a 96 model with 84000 miles. I bought it 12 months ago with 72000 on the clock. I noticed the wear soon after I bought it privately. The tyres are not feathered that would suggest a tracking problem and a tyre shop said it would be a waste of time tracking it because this was a sign that it was not a tracking problem. the tyres do need air every week or so. I wonder if it is an under inflation problem or something more serious with the complicated suspension. A Citroen mechanic has checked the suspension bushes for wear and pronounced them sound. I will need to buy new tyres soon. One was so bad I have had to replace one with the spare, it has about 5 mm left across most of the tyre and completely worn down on the edge. any ideas ?
Peter
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Sounds very much like an inflation problem, and previous owner did not look
after his tyres.
Stephen
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Peter,
I would suggest that before looking for other problems as a matter of routine get the tracking checked before anything else, and make sure it is a company which has the latest in alignment equipment.
As mentioned before some ATS garages have the supertracker which aligns both front and rear together which is important.
Once that is checked you can look elsewhere but for the mechanic to suggest that it would be a waste of time dosn't make sense to me.
regards
Alvin
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Dear Alvin and Stephen
Thanks for the help. I will check out the supertracker at ATS.
Peter
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My g/f's Xantia VSX had exactly the same problem (97P 60K) 5mm down to not much - the local main dealer said tracking and charged 30 quid to sort it. Steering feel seemed a lot better afterwards, although too soon to tell whether the wear problem is sorted. She does have a problem checking the pressures though (ie she doesn't unless it's on its rims ;o).
As an aside, I have real problems with the steering, do you find it "different"? I find it very hard to judge what input is required - sometimes a v. small input has a large effect, othertimes the opposite. I gather the VSX has an "intelligent/learning system" - i guess it didn't go to the same school as any of the other cars I drive.
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Yes Ash this steering can feel odd. It is a known condition rather than a particular fault. As long as the car has a matching set of quality tyres inflated correctly and the front bushes/rear arm bearings are OK you will have to live with this.
The power steering is quite light with little feel and remember the car has a self-steering rear suspension set-up. This means it can feel a little like an old rear wheel drive car where the rear starts to oversteer at times. If you quickly tighten up the line on a fast corner the response to steering input will increase to safely take you round the corner, but it will give a variable effect and some don't like it.
Personally I like this trait and find my early SX TD very sure footed.
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