Citroen Xsara Engine Parts: Buy Genuine & Aftermarket Parts

The block houses the cylinders. Inside them, pistons travel up and down and push the connecting rods, which turn the crankshaft and give you rotation. On top sits the cylinder head with the valves and camshafts, and a timing belt or chain keeps the crank and cams in step. Around all of that you have the oil pump, water pump, gaskets, seals and sensors, and on the turbocharged cars a turbocharger. On a Citroen, one detail matters more than most: the older TU petrols and every HDi diesel use a timing belt with a replacement interval, while the 1.6 VTi and THP use a chain. Get that wrong and you either waste money or lose an engine.

Noise, smoke, oil and lights, roughly in that order of urgency. A knock that follows engine speed is worth stopping for. Blue smoke means oil is getting into the combustion chamber, white means coolant is. On the HDi diesels, hard starting with black smoke usually points at injectors or the turbo rather than the engine itself, and on the 1.6 VTi and THP a one to three second rattle from the front of the engine on a cold start is the classic worn timing chain. That last one gets more expensive every week you leave it.

It depends entirely on the part. Timing belt kits generally run R2,600-R5,800, water pumps R750-R2,800, gasket sets R1,150-R4,750, camshaft position sensors R650-R1,750 and oil pumps R1,450-R3,450. Workshop labour adds roughly R750-R1,450 an hour and major top-end work can absorb six to twelve hours. For the bigger items we quote separately, because a used or reconditioned turbo, cylinder head or complete engine is priced off what is actually in the market that week rather than off a list.

Timing belts on the TU petrols and the HDi diesels are the one genuinely non-negotiable item — check your service book, budget somewhere in the 80,000-120,000 km range, and do the water pump at the same time because the labour overlaps. Spark plugs want doing every 30,000-60,000 km, oil and filter every 15,000 km or annually, and air filters every 20,000-30,000 km, sooner if you spend time on gravel. The 1.6 VTi and THP have no belt interval, but they do want short oil intervals and the correct PSA-spec oil, because that is what keeps the timing chain alive.

For filters, gaskets, sensors and most service items, a quality aftermarket part from a known brand is a sensible saving and we supply plenty of them. For timing components, pistons and turbochargers we would steer you to OEM-equivalent, because a fitment that is nearly right on a timing kit is not right at all. Bosch, Gates and Continental all make parts to PSA specification and are widely available here. Where a good used original makes more sense than a new copy, we will say so.