C5 2009 Estate 2.2 Suspension

[aburrow1951]

Hello.
My first post here so please excuse any stupid questions. My C5 estate appears to be suffering from suspensionitus! It started with the rear suspension randomly 'bobbing' up whilst driving.Then a while later 'bobbing' down again. It also started to sit down whilst parked, but sometime it did and other times it didn't. I discovered a leaking n/s front strut and that has been replaced with a new unit, LDS topped up whilst suspension at its lowest. No leaks discovered since. But. . . very slow to rise and fall, rear rises before the front. The boot button does not work. And annoyingly the random 'bobbing' up and down still going on! Any help would be welcome whilst I still have hair. I'm based on Suffolk/Norfolk borders so any recommendations for Lexia in this area would be welcome.
Thanks Alan.

[GiveMeABreak]

Hi and welcome.

When the strut was replaced did you bleed the system?

Follow this procedure:

• You first get to level ground
• Undo the LDS cap
• Then raise it to the highest suspension level
• Then lower it fully to the lowest setting
• Then SLOWLY turn the wheel lock to lock 10 times (but do NOT hold the steering wheel at either end of the lock for any length of time).
• Check the fluid levels are as per the diagram and no higher. Repeat several times if necessary.
• Check that there are no bubbles in the LDS - if so, allow 3-5 minutes to de-gas with the engine running, but do not move the steering wheel during this process.
• Then complete another 5 lock to lock slow turns.
• When complete, raise the suspension to the highest setting and back to the lowest setting again.
• Re-check fluid levels
• If all is well, and there are no bubbles, replace the cap and return to normal height and do a road test.

Then advise as to whether it is still behaving like this.

There is what they call 'hunting', usually when parked or stopped at traffic lights where the vehicle will raise and lower by small degrees.

But if the car raising or lowering when moving off / whilst driving, I would suspect either height correctors or one of the firmness regulators.

[aburrow1951]

Many thanks for your response Marc. I’ll go through the ‘bleeding’ procedure tomorrow and repost. In the meantime, on some occasions the rear suspension will suddenly rise with a distinct “clonk” as if it was stuck down and then releases. Let’s hope bleeding system will stop this too.
Alan

[aburrow1951]

Hi

Bled the system today and on a test drive it seemed to be better. . . but then ‘boing!!, up it went, and after while it dropped back to normal. Then, in response to a lot of advice I checked out the rear height adjuster, I was almost happy to discover the ‘dog bone’ pretty much seized so spent some time cleaning, greasing and freeing it up. Feeling confident I ventured on a 5 / 6 mile test drive and all seemed well. Hooray for our side!!!

But not so fast, just checked out the car on the drive and the blasted thing was down at the rear. I stated the engine and stood back to watch the car stand up, very slowly with the pump whizzing away it tried to rise, then with a distinct and quite loud ‘clonk’, apparently from the near side rear, the back leapt up. It really seems as if something is jamming and under pressure from the pump eventually ‘lets go’ and the rear springs up!

Any suggestions would be welcome it’s driving me nuts. Could it be the firmness regulator that Marc mentioned? Where will I find it,,

Thanks in advance.
Alan

[GiveMeABreak]

Have a read of this thread on C6 owners. It saves me regurgitating it here. Citroen will of course only replace the whole firmness regulator assembly - they won;t do this sort of repair. But it seems to be similar to what you are experiencing - but I would certainly make sure the rear height corrector is functioning ok and not seized or rusted up first of all.

I had an issue with my height correctors a few years ago - had the suspension max speed 55 MPH warning, and my directional headlights stopped being directional - which was the clue. I couldn't raise the height occasionally or lower it - then it would work. As the directional headlamps won't move if the suspension height data is incorrect, then it had to be the height correctors in my case. Had both front and rears one replaced and problem solved. They do wear and corrode with age and salt on the roads.

[aburrow1951]

Hello, again.
More intrigue today, it seems like one forward and two back. Having been quite happy with the suspension problems after following good advice given on here, took my car for MOT retest today. Got a call from the garage saying that they had found a leak in the rubber pipe from the rear height adjuster ( the one with the connection to the roll bar) and that cars rear suspension was hard down and won’t go up. A bit odd as it was fine before they got it!!! I scuttled off to the garage and the situation was that the front suspension reacts to the control buttons but the rear refuses to rise. Could the leak in the (return?) pipe cause the valves for the rear to stay closed, or something like that? Unsurprisingly I’m starting to show signs of insanity. Any help / suggestions welcome.
Alan..