Hard Rear Suspension On A BX Estate

clivetheitman · Post by **clivetheitman** » 01 Sep 2004, 14:51

Now I have finaly sold the spare subaru car we had, I now have some space and time to start working on my new BX estate bought off ebay for £100. the rear suspension is rock hard no give at all, while the front suspension is fine, push down on each front corner and it pushes back to normal height after a second or two. the regulator clicks are spaced at least 30 seconds apart so the accumulator seems good. when doing citrobics the front and rear suspension moves up and downt through full travel. occasionally when moving from full height to lowest height then back to full height with a couple of seconds between each move the front sticks down at lowest height, but setting to lowest height again then selecting normal height gets everything working ok again. the car was stored for the last 6 months unused by the previous owner. so does the accumulated knowledge of the forum think the problems with the suspension is due to sticking height adjusters front and rear or could the rear spheres be flat as well. the car is a BX 1.6i 1994 m reg petol estate with 160k miles on it. the engine runs great and everything else in the car works correctly except the dashboard lights which I will track down after the suspension is sorted, already tried shorting out the dimmer switch but no effect. any suggestions [:)]

tomsheppard · Post by **tomsheppard** » 01 Sep 2004, 16:09

The struts will move even if the spheres are flat so the HCs are working. New rear spheres are what you need! Read the posting in hints and tips for lubing the front struts and you'll have a magic carpet.

alan s · Post by **alan s** » 01 Sep 2004, 16:14

It could be flat spheres or it could also be rear swing arm bearings. I've just done them in my sons TZi and still have to do them in my 16V and both are/were very stiff yet neither showed the usual classic signs of "knock kneed wheels" In our case, there were slight signs of tyre wear on the inside of the tread as well as a slight "crack" whenever we got in the car first thing in the morning.
The front sticking down can also be caused through the adjustments on the height control rods being adjusted incorrectly. From memory, they should be set 7mm from the front and 5mm from the rear of the slot that is in the control rod. This needs to be set prior to the adjustment being made on the sway bar adjustments front & rear. I mention this as some people (including "specialists) have been known to try to adjust suspension heights using these adjustments on the control rods instead of the oines on the sway bars (my sons car being a case in point.)
The front struts also will need lubing for sure and a way of doing this is shown on tips and tricks on this forum.
Alan S