600€ later and here it is back in business as usual. This is a really nasty feeling I have, because I never noticed anything wrong, and the van feels to me exactly the same as before. Luckily no harm has come from the broken spring. Going through the tab, I have a pair of springs, strut bearings, a laser axes measurement/alignment, that was mandatory for passing the MOT after the broken spring failure, 4 man-hours and taxes. It has now 186k km, and its net worth is around 3500€. Next workshop episodes are change of clutch, that will cost a similar amount of money, and a new particle filter (450€, i will try to change it myself), if nothing else goes wrong.
Do you think it is worth it?

Just an update. Last July I fitted new tyres to the rear. The nearside tyres, which are the offside tyres here, were retained on the front. As advised I increased the pressures all round. Fronts to 2.75 bar and the rears to 2.9 bar. The rears are wearing evenly with no discernible edge wear and I suspect they are less that half worn after 12 months which is about 10k miles on average. The fronts, which I thought would last only a few more months are still on the car. The edges have not really got any worse and the remainder of the tyre has worn evenly. They have about 1mm before I hit the wear bars so I will get them replaced in the next couple of weeks. I am hoping the rears are going to last two years at least and I will get the tracking checked before I have the new fronts fitted.

I read somewhere (on here?) or saw something on TV about the steering being adjusted to compensate for the road camber, so for example if you have a UK car in France it will setup to compensate for a left banked camber and may wander to the right. Maybe an urban myth!
I skimmed through this thread and can't see this mentioned here, but may have missed it.

(10-07-2019, 02:44 PM)!cancunia Wrote:  I read somewhere (on here?) or saw something on TV about the steering being adjusted to compensate for the road camber, so for example if you have a UK car in France it will setup to compensate for a left banked camber and may wander to the right. Maybe an urban myth!  
I skimmed through this thread and can't see this mentioned here, but may have missed it.

I have never read that and somehow I can’t see them being that precise as they seem to just throw the suspension together in the factory. I know in our case, I bought the car at three years old with 16k miles and it was already on a second set of tyres which had wear on the edges even then. I asked for new tyres to be fitted and had replaced them all again within a year. I have had Michelin’s, Goodyear’s, Firestones. All wore out in 12 months or less. I had a set of Kingstars which lasted two years....just and the Hankook. Two lasted a year and the other two have just made two years but now need replacing. The rears are a year old and look pretty near perfect now that I have increased the tyre pressures. I think that’s the way to go,

I suspected that the camber compensation might be an urban myth but thought I'd mention it just in case, if increased tyre pressures are helping that's clearly the way to go. The front tyres on my M59 are wearing on the outside more than the middle so I might well follow your example.

I've used increased tyre pressures for years now and currently have 38 front 36 rear

The amount will vary for manufacturer so keep an eye to begin with for even wear.

(11-07-2019, 06:27 AM)cancunia Wrote:  I suspected that the camber compensation might be an urban myth but thought I'd mention it just in case, if increased tyre pressures are helping that's clearly the way to go. The front tyres on my M59 are wearing on the outside more than the middle so I might well follow your example.

I can’t see that it’s just a coincidence. It’s worth a try, what do you have to lose? Good luck. Hope it works for you.

Been running our M59 1.6 HDi on 36 psi front and 38 psi rear all the time - wear is even. (Keep the rears high for towing). If you're wearing both edges then you're running under pressure, wearing the middle then over pressure.

Changed the mixed bag of tyres that were fitted when we bought it about a year ago to 4 x new Goodyears. Average mpg went from 51 mpg to just under 60 mpg (didn't change anything else that could affect it).

(12-07-2019, 07:06 AM)GraemeT Wrote:  Been running our M59 1.6 HDi on 36 psi front and 38 psi rear all the time - wear is even. (Keep the rears high for towing). If you're wearing both edges then you're running under pressure, wearing the middle then over pressure.

Changed the mixed bag of tyres that were fitted when we bought it about a year ago to 4 x new Goodyears. Average mpg went from 51 mpg to just under 60 mpg (didn't change anything else that could affect it).

I didn’t realise the earlier models had the same problem, I thought it was unique to the B9. Whatever the case it would appear that Citroen’s pressure recommendations are completely wrong.

I wasn't aware of the M59 having B9 issues.

My over pressure tyres are due to finding the long soft supension travel on a Citroen makes the tyres prone to premature edge wear even with good condition / new suspension components.

As said earlier you keep an eye on the road contact marks and tyre wear to affirm the pressure suits the make and model of tyre you use.

A side benefit to a more suitable pressure is a sharper and better steering feel with less squidging going around corners.

I most certainly believe Citroen have specified the wrong pressures they are not infallible just think back to them upping the spec on their 1.6 Hdi engines.