Xantia rear suspension goes to low position upon start

This is the Forum for all your Citroen Technical Questions, Problems or Advice.

Moderator: RichardW

Post Reply
Tore
Posts: 1
Joined: 27 Mar 2008, 21:25
Location:
My Cars:

Xantia rear suspension goes to low position upon start

Post by Tore »

Hi..

I've been searching the forums and read a few posts and it seems my problem is related to the spheres or anti-sink, but which one, or which sphere I'm not quite sure of. I therefor post a message regardning my spesific symptoms

Model, including year: Xantia VSK sedan, 1994
Engine Type: 2.0, 123 HP, non-turbo, non-16valve, manual transmission
General Location and Country: Oslo, Norway
Any recent work done on the car: Nothing recent. Changing oil, oil-filter and air-filter 10 months ago, changing clutch two years ago. Replacing rusted rear hydraylics valve thre-four years ago. All work done at garages.
Approx. how long you've owned the car: Since 1998, from 78 000 km to 230 000 km today.

The car has a lever placed between the front seart for operating the hydraulics manually if needed. Theres also a comfort/sport suspension button in front of the lever.

Theres a sphere next to the hydraylics reservoir, another straight down from the radiator and several more connected to the suspension-system.

My hydraylics reservoir with hoses and pipes going off it looks exactly like in this picture.
Image

The hydraulic fluid is at its approiate level measrured with the car raised to its higest position.

Relevant history:
As mentioned the rear hydraulics valve was replaced at a garage a few years ago. This du e to the car beeing stuck at the lowest level one morning and not raising neither automatiacly or by operating the lever. The rear valve was rusted shut.

Current problem:
When starting the car the rear immediatly drops down to the lowest/a very low level in the rear and stays there. Also there are no brakes until the hydraulics are pressurised. The front is in the normal position.

Using the manual lever the car will go down to the lowest level both in the front and the back. Moving the lever back to normal or the semi-high position will raise the front to either position but the rear will not respond. Raising the car to the highest position will raise the rear as well. Usually it raises the front first and then the rear, but sometimes they raise simultanously, Thats usually when the car has recently been driven. The car always sinks down when starting, regardlessly of the length of the stop. When raising the car to the highest level a loud ticking (from the pump?) will start up as the car reaches its highest level. It starts of ticking 2-3 times a second and after a minute or so its reduced to 1 pr 1-1,5 seconds. This stops when the lever is set back to the normal position again.

After beeing raised to the highest level the car is set to normal and the front lowers to this position while the rear only sinks about half an inch, and then slowly sinks to the lower position during driving. This usually happens over a period of 5-15 minutes. The brakes works perfectly even if the cars drops down again, once the initial pressurising has been completed.

I think this happened, or I first noticing after lowering the car to its lowest position once, and the car would not raise up again when going to the normal position. After some juggeling of the manual lever the car finally raised again. I found the rear heght corrector to be rusted off at the bend close to the mounting. I've replaced this and I think I've done it correctly, but this has not affected the cars behavior in any way. Could it be more than one thing wrong or should I have some proffessionals redo the height-corrector replacement?

Any tips on which spheres might be the problem, or is it the anti-sink? Any help will be mostly appreciated.
User avatar
myglaren
Forum Admin Team
Posts: 25366
Joined: 02 Mar 2008, 13:30
Location: Washington
My Cars: Mazda 6
Ooops.
Previously:
2009 Honda Civic :(
C5, C5, Xantia, BX, GS, Visa.
R4, R11TXE, R14, R30TX
x 4888

Post by myglaren »

I had identical symptoms on my Xantia and it was the linkage between the anti-roll bar and the height corrector, plus the height corrector was corroded a bit.
Linkage replaced, height corrector cleaned up. Took about an hour (not me, the mechanic that does my Citroens) minimal cost - around £20.

Welcome to the forums Tore :D
Peter.N.
Moderating Team
Posts: 11563
Joined: 02 Apr 2005, 16:11
Location: Charmouth,Dorset
My Cars: Currently:

C5 X7 VTR + Satnav Hdi estate Silver
C5 X7 VTR + Hdi Estate 2008 Red

In the past: 3, CX td Safaris and about 7, XM td estates. Lovely cars.
x 1199

Post by Peter.N. »

You'r about right there.
citronut
Posts: 10937
Joined: 29 Apr 2005, 00:46
Location: United Kingdom east sussex
My Cars:
x 92

Post by citronut »

sounds like your acumalater sphere needs replacing firstly, i also think you rear hight corrector linkage is sticking, i would give it a good dose of duck oil then once you hve got it working properly libraly plaster it in grease
regards malcolm
User avatar
CitroJim
A very naughty boy
Posts: 49526
Joined: 30 Apr 2005, 23:33
Location: Paggers
My Cars: Bluebell the AX, Polly the C3 Picasso, Pix the Nissan Pixo, Propel the duathlon bike, TCR Pro the road bike and Fuji the TT bike...
x 6160
Contact:

Post by CitroJim »

This problem was fairly well coverd a while ago in this thread: Sinking on Startup
Jim

Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
Post Reply