Strange Xantia Suspension Problem

CypherPunk · Post by **CypherPunk** » 28 Jul 2007, 20:25

My 1997 Xantia V6 passed it’s MOT yesterday (without a single advisory!) however while I was driving it back from the garage today I noticed that the suspension felt really stiff and the car was crashing over every bump, when I got the car home I tried some citaerobics and noticed the following problems.

When the car is set to maximum height, the rear won’t go all the way up to the bump stops, it rises by about an inch and stops, I left the car for 10 minutes and it stayed the same.

If the car is set to the minimum height and then set to maximum height the back of the car won’t rise at all, again I left the car for 10 minutes and nothing happened. If the car is set to normal height the rear suspension will rise as normal.

Once the car is turned of the rear sinks down, about 15 seconds after the engine is turned off the back drops down about an inch quite quickly and eventually it drops all the way to the bump stops. My old Xantia used to drop down overnight as well, however you could easily lift the suspension off the bump stops, with my new car is feels like the something is pushing the suspension towards the bump stops and it doesn’t move at all.

Has anyone got any ideas what the problem could be? I’m guessing it’s something to do with the rear height corrector, but it’s a little strange as the car felt fine before the MOT.

Post by **CitroJim** » 28 Jul 2007, 20:31

The first port of call has got to be the plastic link between the anti-roll bar and the height corrector. The symptoms suggest it has popped off.

An enthusiastic (zealous) MOT Tester may have disturbed it

Make sure please, the car is well supported on axle stands before venturing under to have a look. Playing with height correctors on an unsupported Citroen can kill.

CypherPunk · Post by **CypherPunk** » 28 Jul 2007, 20:40

My initial though was that perhaps the link had broken, however if that was the case then surely the car wouldn't rise at all? At least that’s what happened when the link broke on my neighbour’s car.

Post by **CitroJim** » 28 Jul 2007, 20:58

CypherPunk wrote:My initial though was that perhaps the link had broken, however if that was the case then surely the car wouldn't rise at all? At least that’s what happened when the link broke on my neighbour’s car.

Yes, one would have thought so. As a first port of call though, it has to be worth a look. As it happened during the MOT then logically, something was disturbed. I wonder if the MOT tester has accidentially bent a linkage or bent some part of the height corrector mechanism to cause this.

Hope he has not squashed a pipe jacking it up or done some other equally silly thing during the test. Some MOT testers do seem to be rather vicious when doing the test and are not as careful as one would like them to be

Mandrake · Post by **Mandrake** » 29 Jul 2007, 05:06

Have you checked to see if the LHM tank is topped up properly ?

The fact that the rear will rise in the normal height position but not in maximum height makes me wonder if it is running out of oil when trying to lift both ends of the car right up...

If it is in fact happening it needs to be rectified ASAP as running the hydraulic pump with no oil flowing through it will quickly damage it.

Regards,
Simon

CypherPunk · Post by **CypherPunk** » 29 Jul 2007, 15:26

Well I think I’ve managed to sort it. I jacked the back of the car up and it was obvious straight away that the rear height corrector was absolutely caked in some clay-like dirt, I cleaned it up, gave it a quick spray with some WD40 and the back now rises all the way up, even if the suspension was set to minimum beforehand.

I’ve noticed something else a little strange, every so often I try some citaerobics to stop everything seizing up, however, for the first 5 minutes driving afterwards, my car feels like it’s suddenly got suspension made from jelly, its almost like the suspension is barely damped at all, is that normal in a Hydractive Xantia?

deian · Post by **deian** » 29 Jul 2007, 19:23

Do you give it time to reach normal driving height?

As for the car not reaching full height with a broken link... it will do so, think about it... the car pumping all the hydraulic fluid into the struts, it will fill up and raise the car, drop the height lever and it will all go back to the reservoir and the weight of the car will drop it down.

All the height corrector does it correct the height when you add/subtract weight from the car, nothing to do with max/min adjustments, unless it's broken in which case it will go to either min/high levels but not normal.

CypherPunk · Post by **CypherPunk** » 30 Jul 2007, 20:17

Hi Deian,

Yeah, I always give the car time to settle at the correct height, compared to my old Xantia it gets there pretty quickly; it drops down overnight but only takes about 10 seconds for the car to rise again.

In fact, even if I leave the car overnight after running through some citaerobics, when I set off in the morning the car still feels like it’s got jelly suspension for the first 5 minutes of driving.

Post by **elma** » 30 Jul 2007, 22:11

My friends car had the same thing. Never worked out why but driving it for a month and going up and lot seemed to cure it. Bleeding it however didn't help.

jorgy · Post by **jorgy** » 31 Jul 2007, 00:35

cyberphunk,

is it perhaps that u experience the true Citroen softness only for 5 mins after each time u've done citaerobics?? R u positive it's citrobics related and not that e.g at some point of time after about 5 mins in your usual trip, your speed exceeds a point?? (I m thinking of a sensor gone wrong and car sticking to had). If not it sounds like ur struts are sticky? Of course it is not possible to know wha u feel but "like jelly" sounded to me like it *should* be -at least when travelling on straight line-.

George

CypherPunk · Post by **CypherPunk** » 31 Jul 2007, 18:25

Hi Jorgy,

I used to own a normal (non-Hydractive) Xantia and although it took a while to get everything sorted, I would say that the ride quality in my newer car is actually much better. My old car was sold to a friend of mine so I still get to ride in it quite often and compare.

I had a few problems with the Hydractive ECU sticking in hard mode a while back; however I fitted a repair kit from eBay and sorted the problem.

The car almost feels like the height is set to maximum (whenever I’m doing any work on the car I always set the suspension to maximum and drive onto a set of ramps) however I’ve checked and the suspension always returns to the correct height.