A couple of weeks ago, while a friend of mine was over helping me install a rebuilt hydraulic pump, we noticed the rattle from my engine was coming from the air cleaner. On further inspection, I found the bracket was broken. I was luckily able to get a good used one. A friend had one on hand. It had some rubber grommets that were obviously missing from my previous bracket. it also looks very slightly different, so I guess the Citroen DS air cleaner bracket was changed during production.
The ‘new’ one on the left looks a bit sturdier too. The stiffening piece in the middle is full length, instead of just around the mounting holes. That isn’t how mine failed though. Changing the Citroen DS air cleaner bracket was really easy. I had already sprayed penetrating oil on the nuts, so they came right off.
The easy part of the job was over. Re-installing the air cleaner to the bracket is a major pain. The first thing I noticed was that with the grommets, the air cleaner no longer fit on properly. The air cleaner housing has three captive bolts that go through the holes on the Citroen DS air cleaner bracket. There are also spacers on these bolts, that hold the air cleaner at the right height. Probably, because the rubber grommets were missing on my old bracket, there were also some nuts after the spacers. I removed those, so there was enough room to bolt the air cleaner to the bracket.
I used a washer with each nut on the underside of the Citroen DS air cleaner bracket. This job is really fiddly. You can only get about two fingers of each hand under the bracket. A magnetic pick up tool is a must as it would be impossible to not drop the washer and nuts a few times. I found a long spanner was the most useful for the drivers side front bracket, a socket on a thumbscrew for the drivers side rear, and a short spanner for the passengers side. The whole job took about two hours which was about three times what I thought it should.
I think this was a pretty poor design on Citroen’s part. If the captive bolts were in the bracket, and the nuts inside the air cleaner housing it would be a very simple job indeed. I suspect this would have been more expensive to produce.
Starting the engine, I didn’t notice the rattle any more. I wasn’t able to take the car for a test drive, as it was parked in by four other cars, but I will do so soon. When I first heard that rattle, I thought it may be from the engine, so if this is the complete fix, that is excellent news.
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