Xantia Hydraulic pipes

farnellp · Post by **farnellp** » 07 Aug 2006, 09:46

Hi,
I was replacing some badly rusted hydraulic pipes on my 96 Xantia TD estate yesterday, they were the long ones running front to back under the car in a plastic tray under the passenger side (UK) of the car. All very routine stuff untill I disconnected the pipe connected to the rear height corrector. This pipe had about 2 feet of single core wire inside it, with about an inch of wire sticking out into the inside of the height corrector. Is this normal?
My suspicion is that Citroen use a thin wire in the inside of the pipe when they form the bends, to prevent kinking, then pull out the wire when the pipe has been formed. I suspect in my case the wire had snapped inside the pipe (probably at 4PM on a Friday afternoon

Has anybody with experience of changing a rear height corector seen this wire before? - the car seems ok without it, Citroebics seem to perform as normal.
Cheers,
Pete

AndersDK · Post by **AndersDK** » 07 Aug 2006, 23:05

Never seen it, never heard of it.
Pipes are ready bent in machines - not as a handjob - and they dont use wires inside the pipes. Wires would be clamped solid.
You can purchase handtools with bend rollers (wheelrims) for any diameter of pipe - and for any bend radius that will not overstress the pipe.

I believe what you have seen is one of those things that happens - but cant really be explained.

I once worked as engineer in a company who made all the automatics installation for a Danish pipe factory - supplying pipes for BMW & Mercedes.

Pipes are fed in large (endless) rolls one end of machine, cut to lenght, flared, then pressed into shape and finally transported out on a carrier tree. Fully automatic. And quite funny when things screw up

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 08 Aug 2006, 00:52

I've heard of people doing this to try and slow down the response of the rear height corrector - I guess to try and minimize the amount of height correction going on during driving. (Due to acceleration squat)

Seems like a stupid idea to me, and the fact that the wire got pushed half way into the height corrector shows how stupid it can be

Highly unlikely to be an "accident" at the factory...

Regards,
Simon

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 08 Aug 2006, 07:58

as Anders said never seen anything like it in all the years i have worked on and around citroens,as Simon said if it was done intentionly blinking stupeedo
regards malcolm

slim123 · Post by **slim123** » 08 Aug 2006, 10:10

Been there and seen it !!

This pipe with the wire inside is fitted to the height corrector function return.

I think (and it is only a guess) that this wire is shoved in as a restriction to stop the full return flow from the rear height corrector from blowing the pipe off at the tank.

Not there on all models, there was maybe a very few did this and the restriction was an experiment?? They did this on some DS models years ago.

Personally I have just made up a new pipe and fitted it with no restriction and never had a problem.

Regards
Slim.

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 08 Aug 2006, 11:23

Seems highly unlikely that it would be there to prevent the return pipe blowing off at the tank....

Having said that I suspect my HA2 Xantia could have this crazy wire in the return pipe from the rear height corrector as the back is relatively normal at rising, but very slow compared to other Xantia's at falling.

For example going from right up to right down the front has gone right down before the back even starts falling.

It's at least twice as slow at correcting down than up at the rear when adjusting for weight changes.... maybe time to go looking for a wire ?

(Note: I don't mean the time delay before the height corrector responds to a height error - that is normal, its the movement speed correcting downwards that is unusually slow...)

Regards,
Simon

deian · Post by **deian** » 08 Aug 2006, 11:31

me too! i must have it, becuase the back of my car is always the last up and the last down, i know the engine is in the front helping to lower the front quicker, but you'd have expect the back to go up quicker than the front wouldn't you, mandrake, can you let me know how you get on with this project if you do it? thanks

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 08 Aug 2006, 12:02

deian wrote:me too! i must have it, becuase the back of my car is always the last up and the last down, i know the engine is in the front helping to lower the front quicker, but you'd have expect the back to go up quicker than the front wouldn't you, mandrake, can you let me know how you get on with this project if you do it? thanks

Whoa, steady on there... its just speculation at the moment

I didn't say the back of my car was slow coming up - the back always lifts before the front in the morning, which is normal for an unladden boot.

What's slow is how slowly the back goes down if you take some weight out...(a wire in the return line would only slow the falling, not the lifting...)

Regards,
Simon

deian · Post by **deian** » 08 Aug 2006, 12:21

ohhhh! Ok LOL

farnellp · Post by **farnellp** » 08 Aug 2006, 13:00

Many thanks for the replies guys, it will be interesting to see how the car drives on the road without the wire, I suspect I won't see (feel) any difference. It will probably be another week before I get to try it, next weekends task will be replacing the front flexi brake pipes, then back to the MOT station.

If anybody wants to borrow a flaring tool for 3.5mm pipes they are welcome, I live in Halifax, West Yorks. I wouldn't be keen on posting, you'd need to collect.
Regards,
Pete
-------------------------------------
96 Xantia SX TD Estate, 176,000 miles and still going, some of the time!
98 Saxo 1.5D 75,000
Mazda MX5 47,000 and enjoying the sun!

citronut · Post by **citronut** » 08 Aug 2006, 18:57

can you put some picys on here of you wire and pipe
regards malcolm