[?]Hi i have just bought a xantia VSX estate the first ? is it runs to high at the front and back its nearly at the 2 level it still drives ok but looks silly how do i adjust the height using the brakets on the antirolbars
[?] when parked the suspension creeps up even higher then when i start it,it sinks at the back then returns to its normal hight
[?] the switch for turning the suspension from soft to firm should there be a noticable differance as i cant really notice any change at all
regards cyber-shot
3 questions about my xantia
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cyber-shot
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Taking the last first, you wont notice any difference immediatly you switch to 'sport' mode because it just increases the sensitivity of the 'stiffening' mode so that the suspension goes into goes harder, earlier.
To alter the ride height, the clamp needs to be rotated around the anti roll bar, with the engine running, when doing this make sure you have adequate clearance under the car or it could drop on top of you!. Before you try adjusting it, try lubricating the height corrector and its linkage with several applications of WD40, as they tend to sieze up.
To alter the ride height, the clamp needs to be rotated around the anti roll bar, with the engine running, when doing this make sure you have adequate clearance under the car or it could drop on top of you!. Before you try adjusting it, try lubricating the height corrector and its linkage with several applications of WD40, as they tend to sieze up.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by cyber-shot</i>
[?]Hi i have just bought a xantia VSX estate the first ? is it runs to high at the front and back its nearly at the 2 level it still drives ok but looks silly how do i adjust the height using the brakets on the antirolbars
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
"2 level" ?
First you need to establish whether it is just an incorrect height setting, or whether the height corrector is stuck in the full up position. Unless someone has fiddled with the adjustment, it won't have changed.
Can you press the suspension down at all ? If it was stuck fully up it would be pretty much rigid, if it has some downwards travel, try sitting on the front of the car (bonnet open, engine idling) and see if it corrects the height change due to your weight both hopping on and off. If it does then it may just need adjusting.
Warning! Don't do what I did and loosen the wrong rollbar clamp [:D] On a Hydractive 2 model such as yours there are TWO rollbar clamps on the front rollbar, one in the middle, and one to the right a bit.
The middle one is the height corrector, and is hidden behind a plate with a hole in it, so you may go for the other clamp by mistake - the one to the right is the clamp for the Hydractive 2 "body movement sensor", don't touch this one. If you already undid it, try to put it back to where it was as closely as possible and you should be ok.
You MUST put the car over a pit, or drive it onto moderately high wheel stands to adjust the height. You MUST be able to comfortably get under the car with the suspension in the fully down state otherwise you run the risk of being crushed to death...not a pretty sight.
It's also important to know what the right height is to set it to - contrary to the occasional advice on this forum to just set it to "half way" between the full up and down setting, it must be set based on a ground clearance measurement. See the following table:
http://citroeny.cz/servis/xantiaser/nas ... dvozku.jpg
My tyres are 185/65 and I ended up using the bottom table entry, which was the closest match for wheel diameter.
I won't go into the details why the "half way" approach doesn't give the right result, but suffice to say it ends up with the height as much as 20 to 30mm too high, which seriously upsets the handling and cornering stability of the car.
If you're using stands, you're faced with a problem - you can't measure the ground clearance to the indicated point while on the stands. The approach I took was to measure the ground clearance first, and work out what the error was, then measure from the bottom of the wheel rim to the edge of the wheel guard, and then based on the error, then work out what the wheel rim to guard measurement SHOULD be.
Then drive the car up onto the stands and use the wheel rim to guard measurement as a guide, and when you're finished measure the ground clearance again with the car driven back down onto the ground.
When the car is up on the stands or over a pit leave the engine running, loosen the clamp on the middle of the rollbar, then by pushing the manual height control lever one way or the other you can manually adjust the height - with the clamp loose, whatever height you leave it at when you return the height lever to the middle is the height it will stay at. (No automatic correction can occur with the rollbar clamp loose)
After a bit of trial and error you should get the height right, then simply tighten the clamp on the rollbar again. It helps if you apply the torque on the ratchet bar when it is at right angles to the rollbar so you don't end up turning the clamp and moving the height corrector while tightening it.
If possible get someone to sit on the front while you measure the height, see what height it comes up to, then get them to hop off, and measure the height it returns to - they should be within 20mm of each other. (Ideally less than 10mm different)
If there is a large difference in the correcting up and correcting down height, the wheels could be "pinched" and experiencing some side thrust causing the height corrector to overshoot - if so, back the car down the stands and back up again to ease any side thrust and check the measurement again.
If you havn't done it before you might need 2 or 3 goes to get it right. A bit of a tedious and time consuming job, but not that difficult.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
[?] when parked the suspension creeps up even higher then when i start it,it sinks at the back then returns to its normal hight
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Hmm, that doesn't make a lot of sense. I would suggest ignoring this until the height is correctly set then see if its still happening. (My guess is not)
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
[?] the switch for turning the suspension from soft to firm should there be a noticable differance as i cant really notice any change at all
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
The switch only changes the thresholds at which the computer chooses to switch between hard and soft. If you're crusing along straight ahead at a steady speed it will be in soft regardless of the switch, and if you're cornering or braking hard it will be in hard regardless of the switch. What changes is the times inbetween.
In the normal mode it takes fairly vigorous cornering or stamping on the accelerator pedal or brake to switch to hard mode, while in the sport mode even moderate corners switch to hard (almost pre-emptively before the car rolls) and a light flick of the accelerator will also put it into hard.
What you need to be checking is whether the soft/hard change is working at all. Try this:
Open the drivers door window and close all the doors and tailgate and let the engine idle. Try doing a bounce test both at the front and the back - should be fairly soft to press down and travel quite a distance.
Now turn off the key and wait about 20 seconds, then try the bounce test again - the front and back should both be MUCH stiffer now with much firmer damping. This is the hard mode that the computer selects dynamically when needed while driving.
If you notice no change at all at the front or back, the most likely cause is that the centre hydractive sphere at that end of the car is faulty - effectively putting it in hard mode all the time. There are other possible causes too.
Unless you find the ride really bumpy and fidgety this is probably not the case, as the hard mode is a VERY hard ride indeed if it is stuck in that mode all the time...
Regards,
Simon
[?]Hi i have just bought a xantia VSX estate the first ? is it runs to high at the front and back its nearly at the 2 level it still drives ok but looks silly how do i adjust the height using the brakets on the antirolbars
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
"2 level" ?
First you need to establish whether it is just an incorrect height setting, or whether the height corrector is stuck in the full up position. Unless someone has fiddled with the adjustment, it won't have changed.
Can you press the suspension down at all ? If it was stuck fully up it would be pretty much rigid, if it has some downwards travel, try sitting on the front of the car (bonnet open, engine idling) and see if it corrects the height change due to your weight both hopping on and off. If it does then it may just need adjusting.
Warning! Don't do what I did and loosen the wrong rollbar clamp [:D] On a Hydractive 2 model such as yours there are TWO rollbar clamps on the front rollbar, one in the middle, and one to the right a bit.
The middle one is the height corrector, and is hidden behind a plate with a hole in it, so you may go for the other clamp by mistake - the one to the right is the clamp for the Hydractive 2 "body movement sensor", don't touch this one. If you already undid it, try to put it back to where it was as closely as possible and you should be ok.
You MUST put the car over a pit, or drive it onto moderately high wheel stands to adjust the height. You MUST be able to comfortably get under the car with the suspension in the fully down state otherwise you run the risk of being crushed to death...not a pretty sight.
It's also important to know what the right height is to set it to - contrary to the occasional advice on this forum to just set it to "half way" between the full up and down setting, it must be set based on a ground clearance measurement. See the following table:
http://citroeny.cz/servis/xantiaser/nas ... dvozku.jpg
My tyres are 185/65 and I ended up using the bottom table entry, which was the closest match for wheel diameter.
I won't go into the details why the "half way" approach doesn't give the right result, but suffice to say it ends up with the height as much as 20 to 30mm too high, which seriously upsets the handling and cornering stability of the car.
If you're using stands, you're faced with a problem - you can't measure the ground clearance to the indicated point while on the stands. The approach I took was to measure the ground clearance first, and work out what the error was, then measure from the bottom of the wheel rim to the edge of the wheel guard, and then based on the error, then work out what the wheel rim to guard measurement SHOULD be.
Then drive the car up onto the stands and use the wheel rim to guard measurement as a guide, and when you're finished measure the ground clearance again with the car driven back down onto the ground.
When the car is up on the stands or over a pit leave the engine running, loosen the clamp on the middle of the rollbar, then by pushing the manual height control lever one way or the other you can manually adjust the height - with the clamp loose, whatever height you leave it at when you return the height lever to the middle is the height it will stay at. (No automatic correction can occur with the rollbar clamp loose)
After a bit of trial and error you should get the height right, then simply tighten the clamp on the rollbar again. It helps if you apply the torque on the ratchet bar when it is at right angles to the rollbar so you don't end up turning the clamp and moving the height corrector while tightening it.
If possible get someone to sit on the front while you measure the height, see what height it comes up to, then get them to hop off, and measure the height it returns to - they should be within 20mm of each other. (Ideally less than 10mm different)
If there is a large difference in the correcting up and correcting down height, the wheels could be "pinched" and experiencing some side thrust causing the height corrector to overshoot - if so, back the car down the stands and back up again to ease any side thrust and check the measurement again.
If you havn't done it before you might need 2 or 3 goes to get it right. A bit of a tedious and time consuming job, but not that difficult.
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
[?] when parked the suspension creeps up even higher then when i start it,it sinks at the back then returns to its normal hight
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Hmm, that doesn't make a lot of sense. I would suggest ignoring this until the height is correctly set then see if its still happening. (My guess is not)
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">
[?] the switch for turning the suspension from soft to firm should there be a noticable differance as i cant really notice any change at all
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
The switch only changes the thresholds at which the computer chooses to switch between hard and soft. If you're crusing along straight ahead at a steady speed it will be in soft regardless of the switch, and if you're cornering or braking hard it will be in hard regardless of the switch. What changes is the times inbetween.
In the normal mode it takes fairly vigorous cornering or stamping on the accelerator pedal or brake to switch to hard mode, while in the sport mode even moderate corners switch to hard (almost pre-emptively before the car rolls) and a light flick of the accelerator will also put it into hard.
What you need to be checking is whether the soft/hard change is working at all. Try this:
Open the drivers door window and close all the doors and tailgate and let the engine idle. Try doing a bounce test both at the front and the back - should be fairly soft to press down and travel quite a distance.
Now turn off the key and wait about 20 seconds, then try the bounce test again - the front and back should both be MUCH stiffer now with much firmer damping. This is the hard mode that the computer selects dynamically when needed while driving.
If you notice no change at all at the front or back, the most likely cause is that the centre hydractive sphere at that end of the car is faulty - effectively putting it in hard mode all the time. There are other possible causes too.
Unless you find the ride really bumpy and fidgety this is probably not the case, as the hard mode is a VERY hard ride indeed if it is stuck in that mode all the time...
Regards,
Simon
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cyber-shot
- Posts: 21
- Joined: 13 Sep 2005, 01:37
- Location: United Kingdom
- My Cars:
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cyber-shot
- Posts: 21
- Joined: 13 Sep 2005, 01:37
- Location: United Kingdom
- My Cars:
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by cyber-shot</i>
Hi do i have to slacken both clamps at the same time before adjustment thanks
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I presume you're refering to the two clamps on the front rollbar ? If so, DO NOT slacken the clamp to the right, this is the hydractive 2 movement sensor.
Only slacken the one in the middle - the bolt is visible through a small plate with a hole in it at the middle of the rollbar.
Regards,
Simon
Hi do i have to slacken both clamps at the same time before adjustment thanks
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
I presume you're refering to the two clamps on the front rollbar ? If so, DO NOT slacken the clamp to the right, this is the hydractive 2 movement sensor.
Only slacken the one in the middle - the bolt is visible through a small plate with a hole in it at the middle of the rollbar.
Regards,
Simon
if you mean by the two clamps at the same time,no you dont need to you just set one end at a time,also if a new H/C has been fitted at the front it would not have allterd the corect hight unless who ever fitted it moved the adjuster,which is not usuly necersery when just fitting a new H/C,if you realy feel the urge to fiddle with the adjustment make sure you have enough space under the car when it is fully at its lowest position,because when you move the adjusters the suspention can and will drop very quickly,and if you aint got enough room to move your elbows you will get trapet or even squased
regards malcolm
regards malcolm