Can I just chage the rear spheres?

SethY · Post by **SethY** » 19 Apr 2005, 17:49

The ride on my Xantia is getting quite hard now and it seems that it’s the rear spheres that have gone as the front still has lots of movement on the suspension where as the rear has virtually no travel.
Is it common for the rear spheres to go before the front? Is it ok just to change the rears or should I be doing the front ones at the same time?

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 19 Apr 2005, 18:57

Yes, your description sounds about right for flat rears, they tend to last longer than the fronts, perhaps the fronts are more recent?
Stewart

alexx · Post by **alexx** » 19 Apr 2005, 19:27

My front spheres are multilayer, and after 6 years still at 45 bar. Rear spheres were refilled about a year ago, because they went below 10 bar. They lost about 7-8 bar since. There's no need to refill front spheres if they are still good

SethY · Post by **SethY** » 19 Apr 2005, 19:38

Thanks for your help. I'll go ahead and just replace the rears then.

rory_perrett · Post by **rory_perrett** » 19 Apr 2005, 21:15

Not sure why but the rears on the Xantia seem to need replacing before the fronts. This has been the case on both our Xantias. On the previous BX it was the fronts that needed doing first.
Rory

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 19 Apr 2005, 22:11

The front carries more weight generally, and they have more gas pressure in them. They need more gas in them to carry the weight so when they loose gas you feel the effect of it not being there earlier than you do in the rear. The rear spheres are underloaded most of the time because most cars have empty boots and no passengers but have to have the capacity to carry passengers and luggage plus a trailer at times.

alexx · Post by **alexx** » 19 Apr 2005, 23:36

Front spheres last longer if they are multilayer (450 ccm only; there are also non-multilayer 400 ccm front spheres), like on C5. Other spheres have an older membrane type

Gregg1100 · Post by **Gregg1100** » 20 Apr 2005, 00:11

Hi All,
How does one check out the other spheres on the car. There are, I think 7 or 8 of the little gits on my car. The four corner ones are easy to check, but not sure about the Hydractive one(s). I think one may be puntured/flat because braking going backwards sometimes is not too clever, as if there is gas in system.
Thanks,
Greg