Xantia Suspension behaviour

[chinkostu]

Recently the old girl has been feeling a little bit irregular, Still smooth but nowhere near the softness levels I have had previously. all clamps on the octopus are nice and tight, and I've done the "10 minute mod" which seemed to help previously.

the strange thing is, usually you'd stick the car on LOW to push any air thats getting in back up to the tank, and then release the screw to empty anything from the accumulator. this just seems to make no difference at all to mine.

HOWEVER

the other day I ended up in a layby when a warning light came on. i'd pulled her over and stuck her in HIGH incase it was anything suspension related while i browsed the handbook for the symbol after realising it was the water in fuel sensor having a fit, i dropped her back to normal ride hight and drove on


Needless to say, the ride was amazing. properly wafty and soft, no bumpiness at all. since then i've been testing it by putting her in high, and i've noticed if i put her up and leave her on high for a few minutes it improves the ride. however the ride soon went back to being odd, usually about 15 minutes later


is there any reason for it to operate, as it were, backwards? i've tried lubing the struts and it doesn't seem to make too much difference, spheres on front are new and rear ones are soft but not 100% (on the list!), filters are clean and ACC sphere is new.

[RichardW]

My guess would be one or both height correctors is a bit sticky, and this is leading to the height being wrong (too low probably). When you put it on high, this puts it nearer the right height when you come back, then as the stiction releases, it settles back into its old ways. What does it look like from the side at 'normal' height?

[chinkostu]

sounds likely. both have had a good liberal coating of grease so might need removing and cleaning through.

have got a wodge of pictures, from a glance it looks the same coming from low as it does coming from high, but i'll get the tape measure out and test it properly!

this is her after coming down from high

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[Mandrake]

HOWEVER

the other day I ended up in a layby when a warning light came on. i'd pulled her over and stuck her in HIGH incase it was anything suspension related while i browsed the handbook for the symbol after realising it was the water in fuel sensor having a fit, i dropped her back to normal ride hight and drove on


Needless to say, the ride was amazing. properly wafty and soft, no bumpiness at all. since then i've been testing it by putting her in high, and i've noticed if i put her up and leave her on high for a few minutes it improves the ride. however the ride soon went back to being odd, usually about 15 minutes later


is there any reason for it to operate, as it were, backwards? i've tried lubing the struts and it doesn't seem to make too much difference, spheres on front are new and rear ones are soft but not 100% (on the list!), filters are clean and ACC sphere is new.

Welcome to the world of intermittent ride harshness!

Similar symptoms on my Xantia V6, and the two Xantia's I owned before that, to differing degrees... all of them Hydractive 2, but interesting that yours being an LX is not Hydractive 2, and yet you're seeing a similar thing...

I would tend to agree with Richard's suggestion as the thing to check first - the ride height is really critical for good ride, as little as too high or too low by 15-20mm will have quite a big impact on the ride. If the linkage is sticking/seizing then it can cause the ride height regulation to be very inaccurate with a lot of overshoot.

This means that the height that it settles at will be quite different depending which way it corrected (up/down) and whether it made a small or large correction. This leads to inconsistency in the ride height as you drive and an inconsistent ride quality.

The rear ride height is affected by acceleration so there will be some correcting going on during normal driving due to this, and the front ride height is affected by steering lock - when you turn sharp the front ride height will increase due to the way the roll bar is attached to the struts, when you turn straight it will drop back to the normal height again, but if the linkages are sticky it will never arrive back at the same height consistently.

[chinkostu]

Is it worth trying hydrocincage first before stripping stuff down?

Seems just bad full stop today :-/

[Hell Razor5543]

Well, Citroen recommend the LHM is changed every 36,000 miles, and that the system is flushed on the third change (so around the 110,000 mile mark). I have done this on both of the Xantias I had (as well as the BX), and although I cannot categorically say it helped things, there was a distinct change in colour of the Hydraflush from when it went in and came out. On the BX it was black!