Xantia hard rear suspension

[Downunder]

Rear will not go up when high setting is enacted. Front goes up and down properly. Also, rear has stiffened up, i.e. harsh effect going over bumps.

I replaced rear spheres 4 years ago with CX spheres.

Car is standard suspension (not VSX). I have replaced LHM 1 year ago.

Some help from Northern hemisphere would be appreciated.

[Mandrake]

Does that rule me out then, being in New Zealand ?

In any case - four years ago ? That is well beyond the reasonable life expectancy (for maintaining good ride) of rear spheres, unless they had been regassed at the 2 year mark and I'm guessing that's not the case.

After 4 years of use on the car they are probably well below half their original pressure which makes them a poor candidate for regassing successfully, especially given that they are CX spheres and not Xantia ones, so they really ought to be replaced with new, Xantia ones. I know they're expensive downunder - they are here too, so I feel your pain.

As for the ride height - does the rear ride height look correct, and do you have ANY control over the rear height with the console lever ? A very rough rule of thumb is that the top of the rear tyre should be in line with the guard above it at normal height, at minimum height the wheel will be well up inside the guard, and in maximum height there will be a large gap.

My Xantia has just developed a problem where the manual height lever won't lift the rear to maximum height, but it can still lower it to minimum height, and normal ride height is ok, I think the spring on the override linkage has snapped but I haven't had time (and weather) to investigate.

If the ride height is stuck at the bottom it will be VERY bouncy and stiff regardless of the condition of the spheres, as it will be riding on the limit stop rubbers. This could even potentially damage the suspension not to mention being unsafe to drive.

So the first thing to check is that the ride height looks correct - and if you want to measure it accurately, check here:

http://homepages.igrin.co.nz/simon/imag ... ia_height/

Or for a simplified and less accurate method:

http://homepages.igrin.co.nz/simon/imag ... height.jpg

Note: ride height regulation by the height corrector is independent of the sphere condition - even if the spheres are stuffed, the height corrector will still maintain the correct ride height, even though there will be no "give" in the suspension for bumps.

If the height is correct within 20mm then the next step would be to get those rear spheres replaced with the correct type.

Regards,
Simon

[Downunder]

Simon
After citroebatics got the rear to go back to normal. I wouldn't drive the car on lowest ride height - too uncomfortable if for no other reason.

I replaced the accumulator yesterday. Although it has nothing to do with ride height, things seem to have corrected themselves to some degree.

I have ordered another set of rear spheres today. At over $145 each, they are not the cheapest thing in the world. I thought they should last more than 2 years.

[Mandrake]

Simon
After citroebatics got the rear to go back to normal. I wouldn't drive the car on lowest ride height - too uncomfortable if for no other reason.

I replaced the accumulator yesterday. Although it has nothing to do with ride height, things seem to have corrected themselves to some degree.

It won't have had anything directly to do with it no, but operating the manual height lever may have freed up the linkage a bit if it was getting stuck.

I have ordered another set of rear spheres today. At over $145 each, they are not the cheapest thing in the world. I thought they should last more than 2 years.

I feel your pain - they're even more expensive here, about $180 (NZ) each, but dirt cheap in the UK - something like $55 AUS, exchange rate included, so we really are being taken for a ride down here...

On the other hand, petrol is so expensive now that 1 1/2 tanks of gas is the same price as a sphere

Typical life span of the rear spheres is about 3 years without regassing until the point where the ride becomes unacceptable, depending on how fussy you are. If you're really fussy about maintaining the best possible ride reduce that to 2 years. By 4 years they'll be getting pretty stiff and by 5-6 years the diaphragms will have ruptured rendering the ride rock solid. (And the sphere being scrap)

If you have a local Citroen car club you might want to look into regassing - the new price downunder makes it worth doing, whereas in the UK its cheaper to buy new.

Your existing spheres will be too far gone to regass reliably but if you regass the new ones at the 2 year mark they will last another 2 years and so on, up to 10 years or so.

Some Xantia's were fitted with multi-layer diaphragms on the front spheres (mine is) you'll recognise those by 3 dimples around the filler plug at the end - this type of sphere will give an acceptable ride up to nearly 10 years, but they were never used on the rear suspension unfortunately.

If you have those on your car the front spheres will vastly outlast the rear ones and you'll probably replace/regass the rear spheres at least 4 times for one set of front spheres.

I've had the same set of front spheres for 3 years on mine now and there has been no noticable change at the front, but the rear ones are due to do again.

Regards,
Simon

[Downunder]

Thanks Simon I can now move on to my coolant problem.

Don Willing

[Peter.N.]

I could replace four spheres on mine for the price of a tank of diesel! But at least its warm down there.

[DickieG]

I could replace four spheres on mine for the price of a tank of diesel! But at least its warm down there.

Not necessarily http://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=

[Mandrake]

I could replace four spheres on mine for the price of a tank of diesel! But at least its warm down there.

Not necessarily http://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic ... highlight=

LOL,

Nice pics. It depends on where in New Zealand you are though, we have all seasons here depending on location - for me up in the north in Whangarei it's the warmest and driest winter I can ever remember, and we never get snow up here, not even now.

Yeah we have had quite a few days that have rained hard this winter, and the mornings are cold, (still above 8 degrees though most of the time) but at least 50% of the days so far this winter have been fine and sunny with blue skies - including today, which is a crisp but comfortable 16 degrees and sunny, which is unusual for winter.

On the other hand in the south of the south island I can't even begin to imagine what the weather will be like - I'm sure it would be cold and snowy and icy enough to make even an Englishman blush

Those pics although from the north island, are from a high altitude area near the middle of the island which is known for snow and ice in the winter...

Regards,
Simon

[myglaren]

That chateau is a very impressive looking place. Wonderful scenery as always with NZ.

[evildiesels]

Nice pics. It depends on where in New Zealand you are though, we have all seasons here depending on location - for me up in the north in Whangarei it's the warmest and driest winter I can ever remember, and we never get snow up here, not even now.

You were saying Simon...