deian wrote:I've quietly been a fan of it, as well as the 'different' (shall we say) suspension. Although never been in one.
Ok,
If you've never been in a Xantia, you wont know what to expect of the suspension when you're test driving ones for sale and may end up with one that is not working properly without realising.
(The ride is so good when working 100% that most people not familiar with Citroens would not notice something wrong until there was dramatic deterioration in the ride)
I would suggest that if you know somebody in your area with a well maintained HA2 VSX that you go for a drive with them - perhaps some kind soul on this forum lives near you if you state your location and would be willing to oblige.
If you've driven a good one, even once, you'll have a much better idea of what you're looking for and whether you're getting a good deal or a lemon.
I've done lots of research on the suspension, and facts and figures on the Xantia but I have more specific questions, so here goes (quick fire round):
3. Can anyone describe the feature of the hydractive suspension for me? What does it do, I know it uses air to spring and fluid to dampen as well as adjust the height using speheres and valves, but what about it's functions? what buttons do what, and how does it act accordingly?
Hmm, a bit hard to condense into a paragraph or two, but I'll try. First consider standard hydropneumatic suspension of the SX model - a hydraulic ram on each wheel connected to a sphere.
Inside the sphere is a pocket of gas (nitrogen) behind a diaphram - this is your springing element. In the neck of the sphere is a damper valve. A height corrector measures the height (via the rollbar) and lets in more oil or removes oil in the gap between the sphere and the hydraulic ram, thus changing ride height.
Good points - if you add more load to the car it will initially sink, but the height will then be corrected back to normal. As well as this the springing stiffness will become proportionally stiffer, thus maintaining the same ride/handling characteristics with extra load. Because of the height correction, it makes possible much softer springing than is possible with steel springs, (and therefore much better ride) because the height and stiffness are always appropriate for load changes.
Bad points - no inherant roll resistance in the hydraulic system because left and right sides are piped together. This means the mechanical roll bar is the *only* thing resisting roll. Because of this Hydropnematic models tend to roll a lot. (Although not nearly as much on a Xantia as older models such as GS and CX, as the Xantia seems to have a fairly beefy rollbar) As with any conventionally sprung car, the choice of springing and damping rates is still a compromise between crusing comfort and tight handling/cornering in extreme circumstances.
Enter Hydractive 2 - basically you have a system that can switch on the fly between a soft comfortable ride mode which is even softer again than normal Hydropneumatic syspension, and a firm mode which has quite a bit stiffer springing, MUCH stiffer damping, and has the left-right flow path blocked off, which can be used during hard braking, cornering etc. (The firm mode is stiffer even than most conventionally sprung passenger cars, more what you'd expect from a "performance" car)
A computer measures road speed, steering wheel angle and velocity, front brake pressure, accelerator pedal movement, and front suspension movement to decide when the suspension should be soft or hard, its all fully automatic.
Waft along at speed in a straight line with comfortable ride, and then take a sudden corner with hardly any body roll, and tight handling, that is the basic experience of driving a Hydractive 2 model.
The switch on the centre console (labeled comfort/sport) simply makes the sensors more sensitive - mainly the steering wheel angle, causing it to switch to the firm mode for a less sharp corner, thus biasing the characteristics of the car more towards handling rather than ride.
In either switch position it will still be soft during straight ahead crusing, and still be firm in hard cornering, its only the point at which it changes over that the switch affects.
Personally I hardly ever use the 'sport' mode setting, as I find the comfort position switches at about the time I think it should.
4. I'm under the impression the Hydactive II is a misunderstood system (people don't like difference), but works well and isn't too hard to work on once understood. I know it's complex and computer controlled, but in theory what's it like to work on to keep the car working?
Well...... it does depend a bit on whether there are any problems in the system to begin with. It *can* be diagnosed by the home mechanic with a bit of electrical knowledge (and a lot of help from this forum
) but it is a relatively complex system.
Fortunately the most complex part of it - the computer system and sensors, seems to be very reliable and seldom gives problems.
In hydraulic terms it has two extra spheres than a standard model that need replacing/regassing when the get old, and it has two control units that include an electrovalve, and the electrovalve does seem prone to wearing out and leaking internally, a problem which I'm having with mine, and which a few other forum members have had.
The symptoms can be intermitant harsh ride, and a seeming lack of damping. Apart from that electrovalve the rest of the system seems pretty reliable.
5. Oh and the headlight issues. Not heard good things about the dipped beam, or was this on the XM, can anyone shed some lights on that for me.
I have a Series 1 Xantia, and no, the dip beam isn't great, but after I adjusted the angle a bit more carefully, and in conjunction with the "driving lights" (basically uncoloured fog lights at the bottom) they are acceptable.
The driving lights really help to give a little bit of "fill" to the areas outside the focus area of the main headlights.... enough to see the edges of the road better, and where the white line is going up in the distance. Without the driving lights it wouldn't be very good driving on dip....
9. What will I get in the way of features on my choosen car (prob a VSX), i know the vsx comes with hydractive 2, but anythng else? leather, ac, cruise? trio computer, sunroof, etc etc,
Seems to depend a lot on the country! I'm in New Zealand, and my VSX came with:
Hydractive 2, Electric seats, Air-Con, Outside temp guage, Airbag, ABS, Auto Parking mirror, steering wheel radio controls.
You might need to get the "exclusive" model to get leather seats, not sure on that one. Cruise control is an option in the UK on VSX, I don't think we ever got it over here. Sunroof is an option on any model, and I don't think any Series 1 model got any kind of trip computer system, and not sure about the Series 2 either.
Regards,
Simon
, not a bad car, old and tatty, but still a nice introduction to french motoring (and also thoroughly impressed with my cousins 306 rallye etc etc).
won't be buying that one anyway, don't wanna be messing too much at start, thanks
and it's black 
