Changing rear spheres - 'standard' Xantia mark II

rmunns · Post by **rmunns** » 22 Mar 2011, 16:22

I've just this afternoon changed the three rear spheres on my year 2000 Hdi90 saloon. The car has don e 63000 miles. From the service history it had four new spheres in 2006 at 35000 or so IIRC.

It had become a little bumpy recently - we live in the sticks and some of the road surfaces are more like cart tracks than metalled roads.

I found the job fairly easy. First - crack the two corner spheres with the susp. on high, then lower and undo the bleed screw at the front.

So the suspension was then fully down and depressurised. Luckily I have a convenient place near my house where the land falls away and so I can reverse the car until the rear of the car is overhanging. Then it's easy to get underneath and, mopre importantly, safe.

Quite a bit of fluid came out of the offside sphere but virtually none from the nearside one. I guess this is indicative of something?

The most difficult thing I found was getting the new outer spheres properly located onto their threads. But then they decided to co-operate.

The centre sphere was also surprisingly easy despite me not having a 9mm spanner. It's simple enough to undo the carrier that holds the pipes, allowing this assembly to be pushed a little out of the way, allowing access for a small adjustable. And the screw came out easily.

Replaced 4.5mm tubing, all back together.

Test drive. Mmmmmmmmmmmm. For the first few braking tests the braking seemed very much more front-end. That is, the front dipped.
But then it seemed ok again, in fact just as before I changed the spheres.

All-in-all, very pleased. No leaks, no knuckles ripped, no fluid up my arm and the car now sits properly according to the 3-finger, 1-finger test. I'm hoping it now won't sink overnight.

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 22 Mar 2011, 16:28

good stuff

have used the overhang idea before, neat

John

Post by **CitroJim** » 22 Mar 2011, 16:28

Great stuff

The fact that more fluid came out of one sphere than the other is possibly indicative of one of the spheres being ruptured or just simply that the interconnection between the spheres allowed most to drain one side before the other sphere was removed. It's nothing to worry about...

Yes, you need to take care threading on the new spheres and agreed, it s a bit of a task. damage to the threads is all too easy as the cylinder threads are light alloy...

An interesting way of doing the anti-sink sphere

Dommo · Post by **Dommo** » 22 Mar 2011, 18:30

RE the front end dive, I would suggest the brakes may require a bleed. Not a difficult job though luckily!