rear beam repair kits

[fixit]

hi, recently had to do the rear beam on my brothers 106 gti, it failed its mot on the bearings and had worn the axle. I searched for any repair kits available and could only find re-con services at £300, anyway I used to work for citroen and pretty much served my time on saxo's so know the car inside out. I have found a way to repair the axles rather than the costly replace or the second hand route, would anyone be interested in these kits as im thinking of producing a kit including a full instruction guide on how to do them they would probably retail at £100-120 for the kit which would include the modified bearings, seals and spacers and full instructions, if there is enough interest I can get the ball rolling, please let me know what u think cheers!
these kits would be available for all models.

[Timlowthian]

I defo be interested and im sure you will get some intrest! Im sure if you whacked a few on Ebay you would get some gone aswell!

[Curran]

if it could be done, yes it would be excellent. most days there are people on here asking about knackered rear beams so i'm guessing there's a good market for it especially as saxo's are getting on these days. it seems to be a common fault.

dont you need a large press for the pins though?

[fixit]

thanks for the reply I hope I get alot of interest, hope to save people alot of money, I was qouted fortunes to buy replacement parts even second-hand were expensive and you never know how long they'd last, re-con also seemed to be expensive quoted £300 plus postage, hope I can get the kit made asap and will prob sell them on ebay.

[fixit]

hi no press needed you dont even have to replace the pins just a replacement bearing kit

[Curran]

most the time the pins are worn though so will need to be replaced

[Lozza_vtr]

Yeah, if the axle has too far gone then the only option is to replace the pins as it would only cause the bearings to fail again.

The rear arm repair kit costs £57.75 for both sides from 106 parts.

[fixit]

yes the pins get worn but you dont have to replace the pin with this kit, it uses modified bearings, I have now done a few of these to test the kits and find the reliability and so far so good had no problems

[willsy]

With many rear axles if the initial fault isnt diagnosed quickly enough you often find that the knackered bearings will have started to grind on the axles stub pins

This is there the main ball ache occurs since citroen do not make these replacement pins and instead you have to fork out £350 for the full centre of the rear beam.

So by just fitting new bearings and seals they will quickly fail and cause problems again simply because they no longer have a smooth surface to operate on.

Reconditioning services on ebay i dont know whether they simply just replace the bearings and seals which you can buy all those bits direct from citroen for well under £100 (which includes both sides!)


A service offered by jpsaxo and piggy123 (brothers who fully refurbish rear beams with their dad Andy) is the full reconditioning. They have somewhere that remove the old knackered stub pins and press in the brand new ones. They then fit all the new bearings and seals and reassemble the beam.

You'll need to check on prices with them but im pretty sure its around £300 and to my knowledge is the ONLY GUARANTEED way to ensure that you have a perfectly new rear beam that wont cause problems again a few months down the line like buying 2nd hand or just swapping the simple bits would do.

I have seen their work too and can whole heartedly say that its a damn good deal that they offer for the price. Furthermore they offer lowering services aswel

[fixit]

the repair kit from 106 car parts is just a replacement kit this is no good if your axles worn as it will make no difference to the play in the axle, if you use that kit your right you would need a new axle or pins, I took me a while to find a way round this but it works

[Curran]

how have you found a way round this?

you may not want to give it away but i think your going to have to tell people how it works before they will pay out for something that may be no better than the kits already available for around £60.

[willsy]

mmm would also like to know a little bit more then, how are the bearings modified?

[fixit]

sorry I cant tell you the way round it but it does work, when the kits are ready I will show exactly the way the kits work they will also be guaranteed for at least 1 year

[Curran]

if it works and you can guarantee it then hopefully it will be ok.

i would certainly want to see it for myself though before i paid up.

get some kits made up and see how it goes.

[willsy]

Being honest 1 year isnt much of a guarantee, thats probably around the time that a simple bearing swap might last for depending on milage etc.

At this stage you're still unlucky if you've experienced some form of rear beam failure, most are probably from older cars which are pushing 10 years old or have seen a hard life over bad roads.

With a fully reconditioned beam id rather pay £300 for the guarantees of new parts etc for at least 5 years or so (approx) than worry about paying over £100 for something which may only last 12 months.

Sorry for being picky, but i do take some persuading.

[saxokid100]

1 year isnt much of a guarantee...

[silversaxo113]

Originally Posted by willsy

Being honest 1 year isnt much of a guarantee, thats probably around the time that a simple bearing swap might last for depending on milage etc.

At this stage you're still unlucky if you've experienced some form of rear beam failure, most are probably from older cars which are pushing 10 years old or have seen a hard life over bad roads.

With a fully reconditioned beam id rather pay £300 for the guarantees of new parts etc for at least 5 years or so (approx) than worry about paying over £100 for something which may only last 12 months.

Sorry for being picky, but i do take some persuading.

ive just paid 280 for a reconded rear beam (02 reg vtr but has given me a hell of a lot of trouble before this)with guarntee seems the way to go mate unless you can show people what they will be getting for there money before they buy again if or when you show them and it does work you shouldnt have any problems shifting a few

[LeeM]

no way this will work

[fixit]

I can understand I'd like to give more of a guarantee and maybe able to, need to see what the bearing companies can guarantee there bearings for. The only problem with the guarantee is 99% of the kits fitted will last for 5 years under normal driving conditions but thers always 1% who will hammer there cars and then blame the kit theres always the 1% that ruin it for the rest. Also cant give a propa price yet it all depends on how much interest there is, to have the kits made will cost alot of money the more I order the cheaper the kits if i order enough the kits could easily come down in price, I may have to sell at 100-120 for the first batch and then the price may come down as i said it just depends on the interest and if this a common fault on these cars cheers!

[fixit]

it already does why would I bother to ask and go to the trouble of producing a kit if it doesn't work it would be completely pointless and a waste of your time and mine????