Folks, I'm about to embark on a 1700 miles roundtrip to France and I took my car in for a full service in prep for the journey.
The mechanic tells me that load compensation valve has seized and would cost between £300 to £400 to repair! its a Citroen Xsara 1.9 diesel.
I can't afford that. Should I risk the journey or cancel? I will be travelling with my g/f.
Is it dangerous?
Is the price fair?
I just don't know what to do!
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I am not familiar with this model but one of my VW's had some kind of compensator valve on the back brakes. I think it was to ensure that under heavy braking (particularly with the car loaded), the back brakes did not lock up before the front.
I am sure someone with more knowledge of this model will be more use.
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The price you quote is certainly a lot more than I paid the last time I replaced a brake compensating valve (even allowing for inflation in the interim) but if (I stress "if" as I don't know for sure) the Xsara has a traditional Citroen powered braking system and it's more complex, perhaps the price is valid.
What to do?
A quick Google for citroen owners clubs revealed quite a few such clubs on the web (I guess it matters not which country you end up in so long as the Xsara is a local model), some of which are free to join to use their forum. In your shoes, this is what I'd do.
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BTW - I f you come back and find this thread gone, it has probably been moved to the Technical forum, so don't worry.
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Yes, it's potentially dangerous - if it's sezied in the high load position, it could the rear to lock up and spin the car under heavy braking, or even turn it over under the wrong road conditions. If it's sezied in the no load position, and you load it up you risk the car not stopping in time if you need to in a hurry.
Having said that the valve appears to be about £75 from Citroen, and looks reasonably straight forward to fit, I'd find out what price the garage are quoting for the part and labour, and why they think it's going to cost the thick end of £200 (all day nearly?) to fit it. Might be worth asking you local dealer how much they'd quote.
For record the Xsara uses a conventional braking system.
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Mine seizes up every year and at MOT time it just gets lubed up and it works fine after that.
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Jsut as an off-the-wall idea, why don't you take it easy to the coast, then get it fixed when you get into France - probably a lot cheaper, and could be tackled by most garages not just a main dealer?
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