Activa Ram Bulk Buy

[ken w]

Hi Activa Owners,

I saw a post earlier in the year about perhaps organising a bulk buy of Activa Rams. Was there any outcome from this initiative?

My Activa has 270kkm on the clock and I have already had to put a copper tube on the leak return of the front RAM and the gaiter has several splits in it too. I suspect one of my RAMs is bypassing some fluid as I have a continual slow nose drop on the front passengers side corner which the roll corrector adjusts every minute or so. And I have a bush rattle on the rear RAM as well. I also wonder how long Citroen will continue to make these RAMs.

So I am thinking I should make an investment in some new rams pretty soon. I am checking out some pricing in Australia at the moment but I am sure they would be cheaper in the UK. Does anyone have current part numbers and pricing for the UK?

Cheers,

Ken W

[CitroJim]

Hi Ken,

I think the fact that we now have a repair method for them has taken the urgency away somewhat.

Have a look here for a repair method that has proved very successful for me. I did this job on two very leaky rams on my Activa project car and so far in daily use, no problems at all

The basic health of a ram can be tested (as described on the website) by plugging the high pressure ports and pumping vigorously. The ram should become very stiff and at least one of the plugs will pop out explosively if the ram is good. It's usually scoring on the piston that kills them and a duff gaiter can cause this. If, despite plugging, the ram can be pumped easily it is scrap.

New rams in the UK are around 400 GBP each

Therefore it is worth a repair attempt or to search out leaky but otherwise good ones to refurbish.

Rear ram bushes can be made from nylon quite successfully. Although a new ram comes complete with one, a new bush on its own costs 150GBP

Sounds like your Activa is doing the shuffles. This is not normally caused by the rams themselves but wear in the roll corrector link rods where they pass through the nylon blocks on the subframe. Both these rods and the blocks are surprisingly cheap to replace

A very worn rear ram bush can also give rise to shuffles.

Hope that helps a little...

[DHallworth]

I was going to look into doing a bulk buy on this but there were several things that put me off.

One of them being the money side of things.

Citroen require them to be paid for in advance of them being ordered. Trying to collate a list of 10 or 15 people who wants these and chasing payment from them could be a nightmare.

If I were to pay for them outright and people changed their minds I'd be stuck with a load of Activa rams!

If there's call for it and people are interested them I will see what discount I can get on them.

David.

[ken w]

Well I have spend some time reacquainting myself with the Citroen Service website and I have the part numbers for the 'jacks'.

Front anti-roll jack - 5090 02
Rear anti-roll jack - 5090 04

I will ring the local Citroen repairer and get a quote on these tomorrow. I am also trying to get a price from a third party importer in Melbourne but it has been several weeks and all I get is 'many hundreds of $' per jack.

I have already replaced the guide blocks as the shuffles when I first got the car were quite violent. The rods didn't look too worn when I did this and the spring pressure from the centre plate assembly that compensates for the changes in ride height seems to keep the system pretty tight.

I have already studied in depth the XM steering return collar leak return solution but have initially opted for the simpler copper tube under hose clamp solution tried by others on here - no goop and it is doing the job using the softness of the rubber on the ring to seal against the copper flange OK so far.

When I had the front jack off and full of LHM, I got an assistant to block the two pipe ends while I tried to pump the jack. I think there was some slow movement up and down which would result from a scored piston and/or bore.

I will report back on quoted Aussie pricing for these jacks when I find out - that should scare you. I think a quote for a radiator was $1200.

Cheers,

Ken W

[ken w]

Activaphiles,

I have some quotes from Australian Suppliers for the front and back anti-roll jacks and they are asking amazing prices for these. Seems all Activa specific parts seem to start about A$1200 out here.

Can anyone suggest and give me contact details (company name, email address, phone number, contact name) of Citroen Agents who you think would charge more reasonable prices for these parts and might be prepared to ship to Australia via DHL or UPS?

If there is any interest in a bulk buy, I could see if anyone else in Australia was interested in joining in.

Cheers,

Ken W

[KP]

Thats only £690ish quid.

even with VAT ours aren't that bad and it would work out cheaper to buy them here and send them over as they must only be about 3-4kgs each maybe??

[myglaren]

Adam has had some heavyish parcels lately and could perhaps indicate the prices of shipping.

Figure in for customs & excise, import duty, VAT or your equivalent - if they are going overseas there is no VAT payable here BUT there are regulations concerning exported goods and it may have to go through a registered shipping agent to qualify.