c5 rear spheres lose pressure over night

[colin machin]

rear spheres loose pressure over night and the rear end sits right down once pump t up is ok till its left over night and it goes down a gain .it drives well and feels good fault just started this week .vehicle done 50,000 any info much appreciated

[myglaren]

It won't be the spheres but the fluid in the rams leaking back to the reservoir.
Either leaking ram seals or a defective electrovalve.

Most C5s will lose a little height overnight. Mine drops perhaps half an inch but it should be no more than that.

Squeeze the rear gaiters and see if you can detect a lot of fluid in one, which would indicate leaking seals.
They should leak, but not a lot. The gaiters catch the leak and return the fluid to the reservoir.

[colin machin]

thanks for your reply the car was ok till last week and did only drop a little like yours i put it in raise and put it on ramps to change engine oil and filter i also changed the fuel filter .the next morning it started to sit down it may only be a coincidence .i came on holiday yesterday and the car engine vibrated when i pushed it and seemed to run on 3 cylinders .this morning it up and away Ive only had this one 6 months its a 173 bh diesel it goes well but it seems to get its second wind at 3.000 revs and really goes well .could you please tell me where the electrovalve is located as it sounds the most likely as it only happened after i raised it to put it on the ramps .ive had two Citroen xm very good cars .a 2002 c5 hdmi and this one sorry for rambling on c machin

[colin machin]

sorry im having a senior moment hdmi is a cable on my sky box its a diesel many thanks c machin

[citronut]

sorry im having a senior moment hdmi is a cable on my sky box its a diesel many thanks c machin

i thoght you had a plug N play high definition C5 there for a moment

[myglaren]

could you please tell me where the electrovalve is located as it sounds the most likely as it only happened after i raised it to put it on the ramps

Sorry Colin, I couldn't say where the electrovalves are to be found. I would guess at the junction of the return from the rear return pipes from the rear rams or in the vicinity of the pump/reservoir.

I'm sure that before too long someone who has been involved with them will pipe up and say where to find them.

[colin machin]

update on suspension problem ,thanks to MYGLAREN for good advice i decided to tackle the problem and the most likely course was one of the rear ram seals ,to find which one i removed the oil return pipes from the gators which are there to collect any oil leaking past the ram seals on both sides and replaced both pipes with short lengths of plastic pipe and fed them in to a bottle (one each side ) and left it over night .next morning one side bone dry other side nearly a pint of oil so its obvious whitch one is leaking.spares in short supply so im waiting for them (reading the haynes manual) they say seals in the ram can be replaced in situ it looks difficult but i will try . il keep you posted how i get on later

[myglaren]

I recall someone replacing the seals on a front ram and the seals costing around £13.
This was some time ago and they will be more now but still considerably less than a replacement ram.

I wouldn't even attempt to replace them in situ as the working surfaces need to be spotless, any contamination will result in accelerated wear of the new seals.

Someone here has recently had rear rams out and found them to be badly corroded where they seal to the sphere.
Examine the rams carefully before removal if you are going with that option. Yours with low mileage may be fine but you should factor that in to your repair options.

[citronut]

if you send me the last 8 digits of your chassis/VIN No. i will get you the price and part No.'s of the seals required from service citroen

[colin machin]

thanks Malcolm ( 76773306 ) i hope to find my rams to be in good condition as i all ways waxoil my cars Maine agent tells me when they take the rams of the pressure pipe to the rams normally seize in with rust and have to replace the pipes i will have a good look at the job to see which way to take it on when i get the spares .thanks for your time c machin.

[colin machin]

quick update on rear spheres .ordered the ram seals from main agent using chassis number (parts on back order so had to wait ) when they arrived i decided to see if i could replace the ram seals in situ to save taking the ram off i jacked the rear of the car up and lowered the suspension and released the suspension hydraulic pressure .i stripped the bits and pieces off to expose the ram it was a very simple job to do on removing the ram piston i could see the piston had score marks on it and there where signs of score marks in the ram .(NOT GOOD SIGNS ) new ram £158 plus vat .i used a very fine wet and dry and removed the score marks from both the ram and piston very easily (with very little loss of metal at the price of a ram its got to be worth try ,) so now to fit the new seals (simple yes ) no new seals to small rang main agent and the are adamant they are the right seals due to chassis number keeping my cool i informed that they were wrong .after a lot of phone calls they came to the conclusion that my car has estate car rams on which ore larger rams (they suspplied 37 mm mine where 40mm seals) as they had the chassis number ........... they said they could not take them back as i had opend the package (HOW DO YOU KNOW IF THERE RIGHT IF YOU DONT TAKE THEM OUT OF THE PACK TO SEE ) THERE NOT EXPENSIVE IT THE PRINCIPLE ) JUST GET ME THE RIGHT ONES .

9

[colin machin]

SORRY CUT OFF IN MY PRIME IM NEW TO COMPUTERS . parts on back order car off road ,clean up the ram and piston refit old seals to last till i get new ones .next morning the car is sitting up like a new one .i will put the new seals in when they come .it is only a 2 hour job keep you informed as it goes.

[colin machin]

this morning the car is back to normal with no height loss at all i will see how it is when the new seals do come if its ok il leave it alone .the two sets of seals cost less than £20 pounds .

[Xantidote]

Very interesting. Well done with the temporary repair using wet & dry. Let us know how you go on. I'd be tempted to leave it as it is, as it seems to be OK, and keep the new seals for another time

[colin machin]

this morning its like a c5 on the blue tablets .it has not gone down at all it seems to be a success and if it carries on this well i will leave it a loan THE MYSTERY AT THE MOMENT IS HOW THE RAM AND PISTON GOT SCORED IN THE FIRST PLACE , to do the job once you've assessed which ram is leaking is easy and to do it in situ saves taking the spheres off and undoing pipes that might be Rusty and making more work . when using wet and dry i use a very fine grade so as not to cause deep scratch marks and i lubricate with duck oil (which is releasing oil) ie WD40 .diagnosis the problem in the first place was the hardest once that was done the rest as thay say was easy .thats enough rambling from me c machin