xantia rear suspension stuck on high

piccy · Unread post by **piccy** » 13 Apr 2006, 14:31

Bit of a 'same old chestnut' this one. My xantia diesel estate sank down at the rear and wouldn't rise with the lever. Jacked it up and found the rear height corrector link had sheared - so far, so fixable!. I replaced the rear height corrector and the link and repressurised the system. The car came up but wouldn't settle to the normal ride height. The rear was rising to almost max and the car very bouncy to drive. I have tried altering the rear ride height by loosening the link clamp on the anti roll bar and levering the corrector with a screw driver all to no avail. Anybody got any suggestions

AndersDK · Unread post by **AndersDK** » 13 Apr 2006, 17:23

Soak the linkage system in WD40 - several times over several days.

citronut · Unread post by **citronut** » 13 Apr 2006, 18:59

may be you have put the pipes back in the wrong sockets,you certainly should not need to adjust the ride hight when your just replacing the hight corecter,you also shoulsd not need to replace the H/C when replacing the plastic link
regards malcolm

piccy · Unread post by **piccy** » 13 Apr 2006, 19:06

Thanks for the quick replies guys. The height corrector was a new unit so I don't think it's sticking. As for the pipes in the wrong holes I was particularly careful to replace same in same but I have heard this one lots of times - could it be that the new unit would be reversed (pipe wise) to the old one?

AndersDK · Unread post by **AndersDK** » 13 Apr 2006, 19:36

Nope !

Get the rear wheels on ramps which raise the car at least 10" for safe workspace under the car. Block the front wheels and apply the handbrake.
Take care of the exhaust gasses.

While engine idle (supplying system pressure for the suspension) lube and work the rear linkage until the rear suspension springs into life.

As Malcolm says it should only ever be necessary to adjust the rear height if is fairly out of normal setting caused by any repair work on the linkage. It should never be adjusted as a means of repair alone.

BonceChops · Unread post by **BonceChops** » 13 Apr 2006, 19:49

piccy wrote: I have tried altering the rear ride height by loosening the link clamp on the anti roll bar and levering the corrector with a screw driver all to no avail. Anybody got any suggestions

Did you wait long enough for the height corrector to change the height?

Mandrake · Unread post by **Mandrake** » 13 Apr 2006, 21:06

As BonceChops said, did you wait long enough ?

If the back is fully depressurized it takes a long time of the height corrector being open before it will start to lift - at least a minute. Also you have the activation delay of the height corrector - you have to push on it steadily for at least 5 seconds before anything will happen.

The best thing to do in this case is to slacken the height corrector clamp on the roll bar, idle the engine, and use the manual height control in the centre console to get you in the ballpark.

When the rollbar clamp is slack, the centre console lever will now behave like this - low position - keep going down, high position - keep going up, middle position, stop at whatever height its currently sitting at.

So if you set the lever to high and wait a while until you see it going up, then quickly set the lever back to the middle when the ride height looks right, and it should stop moving. (Try to do this without getting in and out of the car)

NOW you can do the fine adjustment from underneath.

If it still doesn't seem to go up even after a couple of minutes you could have the two side by side pipes back to front. To test this theory put the height control down instead of up and wait a couple of minutes, and if it starts going up you know you have the pipes reversed.

(In that case be sure to set the back-to-front lever in the opposite direction to fully lower the suspension again and open the regulator bleed screw before attempting to swap the pipes)

Regards,
Simon

piccy · Unread post by **piccy** » 14 Apr 2006, 00:34

Many thanks guys. I'll have another go tomorrow with your ideas.

Monkeyfeet · Unread post by **Monkeyfeet** » 14 Apr 2006, 10:28

I have had a similar prob, I stripped down height corrector unit, cleaned thoroughly, replaced - same as before.Then noticed that the brazing had failed on the clamp unit (to the roll bar) new clamp fitted and bingo!
Agree with above posts- you can check height corr. by pushing lever in /out and car should move, mine did within 10 secs.
Don't get squashed

piccy · Unread post by **piccy** » 14 Apr 2006, 10:44

Praise the Lord and Frenchcar forum. I followed Simon's advice and all is well. Many thanks to all who responded. I love you all!!!
World Peace and Citroens for everyone.
Tony

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xantia rear suspension stuck on high

xantia rear suspension stuck on high

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