rear not sat right, creaks

[Wolverine1091]

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[powerandtorque]

Very unlikely to be the shocks I'm afraid, and if it's at that stage already, it might be beyond a simple rebuild too.

Easy enough to disconnect one end of the shocks to prove, but it's almost certainly a dead beam.

[Wolverine1091]

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[powerandtorque]

Unfortunately, often replacing a ~15 year old beam with another ~15 year old beam is often a false economy as an ever-increasing percentage of them are dead or dying.

If you can find a proven good beam then great - but I'll warn you now as someone that's rebuilt dozens, that a lack of failure symptoms does not mean that it is good, merely that it's not completely f**ked. The only way to be sure of condition is to strip them down and inspect (and if you've gone that far, it's silly not to rebuild IMO)

[Wolverine1091]

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[Alan_M]

So get a cheap beam and rebuild you reckon?

Have the correct tools for rebuilding beams (I'm talking of stubborn bastard beams here!)?

The Xsara VTS beam I've just rebuilt needed hydraulic pullers/slide hammers, the pinnacle being a 10T press to get the bars out.

As Anthony says, it's pot luck with beams these days. It took me over a year and 3-4 beams till I found a good 205 one. All 'appeared' to be OK, moving freely and no nasty noises. It's only when you strip them, can you decide whether it's a good one or not.

[powerandtorque]

To be fair Alan, Xsara VTS beams are often a complete a**ehole of a job to strip as Citroen didn't appear to grease the splines at all from what I can work out, hence they seem to seize into the arms and tube far worse than 205, 306 etc. The last couple I've just ended up cutting the tubes on to get the arms and TB's out.

You best bet in my opinion is to find a late, low mileage base model beam as that's likely to be in the best condition in terms of the tube and shafts, and then use the arms, torsion and anti-roll bars from either your current beam or a dead doner GTi or equivilent spec one.

Don't get me wrong, there's still good used beams out there for 306's, but they're getting thinner and thinner on the ground as time goes by.