Bouncy Xantia but spheres are good?

[Jiffy]

Hi, the front suspension on my Xantia is very hard causing a bouncy ride but it had 2 new front spheres 7 months ago. The problem began in an intermittent manner - it was sometimes bouncy and sometimes fine. Now it's always bouncy.

It's a M reg Xantia with 6 spheres. The accumulator sphere needs replacing but it doesn't sink at all. I've just replaced the rear spheres and the back is nice and soft.

The previous owner was an elderly gent who never exercised the suspension so, when I got it 5 months ago, it was very jerky going up and down. It's better now but still a little jerky occasionally. I've also had trouble with the height adjustor. The back would sometimes not rise but a dose of Plusgas seems to have fixed that. Usually the front goes up first then the back but the back goes down first. Sometimes it moves evenly at each end.

The car goes into low, normal and high just fine but there doesn't seem to be any difference between high and service high.

I'd appreciate your help as it I'm wondering if it's a problem with the height adjustor or struts rather than the usual spheres. Thanks!

[Peter.N.]

I would check your spheres by bouncing each side and seeing how much movement there is, it will only be a couple of inches in hard mode (assuming yours is hydractive) but about 4 - 6" in soft mode, if one side or both have no movement at all the sphere/s have failed. Also check the ride height, if its very low or high it could be hitting the bump stops, normal is more or less with the drive shafts parallel to the road.

Peter

[Xaccers]

Peter, if it only has 6 spheres it is a LX/SX and so no hard or soft mode that a VSX has.
At normal height you should be able to get 3 fingers between the top of the front wheels and arches, any more or less can give a harder ride.
Where were the spheres from? They could be iffy regassed ones (rather than good regassed or new), had them before and they lasted no time at all.

[Jiffy]

Hi guys, the ride height seems spot on. Three finger fit neatly at the front. The spheres are IFHS ones. They're dated January and April 2010 but were just fitted in November by a garage specialising in Citroens.

The rear ones were mismatched and looked like something off the titanic. One was dated 2007 and the other looked much older and had a REGASSED sticker on it. When the car got bouncy I just assumed it was the rear since they were in such a state and the fronts had been recently replaced. They definitely needed done anyway.

The front feels solid. I think any compliance is tyre sidewall and rubber in the suspension rather than the spheres. The rear sinks and rises easily under pressure but the front is like pushing on solid rubber.

I've got some lithium grease here so I'm going to try lubricating the struts. I'm also going to try putting one of the old rear spheres on the front and seeing what that feels like. Don't worry, I won't be driving around with it on!

I just can't work out why the bouncing was intermittent at first. No, it wasn't due to being on different roads.

I've just spoken to another Citroen specialist who suspected the struts may be 'buckled'?!?!? Sounds expensive! I might take it round to him tomorrow for him to have a look at it.

[Xaccers]

I would expect massive leaking if the front struts were buckled but still able to move from high to low.
It definitely is a LX or SX model with thin pipes, a couple of mm wide, going to the front corner spheres and not a VSX with 6mm wide pipes?

[Jiffy]

It's an SX with plain hydropneumatics, no hydroactive or activa.

[Peter.N.]

I still reckon its the spheres.

Peter

[addo]

Aye, they need pressure testing before you say they aren't at fault.

[CitroJim]

You may have hydractive spheres fitted by mistake; they'll make it hard...

[Jiffy]

It's got XA 55 FC ones at the front which I reckon are correct. If they were the wrong spheres, wouldn't the car be bouncy from the moment they were fitted not 6 months later?

Many thanks by the way for the excellent writeups you guys have done. The 1m bar with a loop of M6 did the job after I broke my chain wrench trying to remove the rear spheres.

[Jiffy]

**** UPDATE ****

Sorry guys! I thought I'd check the paperwork of the car and what work has been done on it and I've made a mistake. The spheres were replaced 19/5/2010, so just over 2 years ago. The rears were replaced 2007.

Yesterday, I went ahead and ordered new front spheres, accumulator and 6 litres of Total LHM Plus from AEP Direct at 4:30pm. That arrives between 2pm and 3pm today and work begins!

I've changed the rears already so hopefully that's the worst of it over.

[Jiffy]

*** FIXED ***

I'm not long back from garage. I changed the front spheres and it was soft again. I changed the accumulator sphere but it was very difficult to get access with the homemade tool so I used a big 38mm socket between the bar and the sphere and managed to get it on tight and that did the trick.

The LHM fluid looked like sewage when it came out of the tank! The filters were black too. I gave it all a good clean and after a good session of citrobics it's magic carpet ride now.

I've still to bleed the brakes but ran out of time so I'm back to the garage tomorrow to do that.

Two problems:
1) The ride height was perect when I went out to the car this morning but when I got to the garage I noticed it was high. I could stick my whole fist in the gap. After doing everything, it's sometimes right but mostly too high. I guess this is something that's been written up before so what should I search for on the site to fix it?
2) I gave the struts a good dose of Lithium grease but I'm really struggling to get the gaiters back on. Any tips?

[Peter.N.]

Good you got it fixed. Re the varying height you will probably find that the height control valves are sticking, give them and the linkage several good doses of WD40 over a few days and they should loosen up.

Peter

[Xaccers]

For the gators I get as much on as possible and then pull the rest on by gently using some long nosed pliers.

[Old-Guy]

To get the gaiters back on:
- check there's no crud above/behind the rim of the top strut mount that the gaiter fits over.
- release gaiter at bottom (from strut)
- push whole gaiter upwards hard, fitting it over retaining rim at back first and working round both side towards you so you can see to work it over the last bit
- gently stretch gaiter downwards and fit over strut (much easier than top).
Temperature makes a lot of difference - when it's really cold, the plastic goes stiff and fights against you. If a gaiter has been loose for a while, it's likely to have got buckled and distorted and so keep popping off; some gentle heat (hair-drier or fan heater) will help relax it to its original shape but don't re-fit it while the plastic is really warm - you might stretch it permanently.

The erratic front height is down to the height control. Get the mechanism well lubricated, and now the system is full of fresh LHM, do plenty of Citarobics to flush any crud out of the control valve and free up the mechanism. With luck, you won't need to remove the front height controller to dismantle the mechanism or (last resort) rebuild the control valve.