to get softer soft ride?

[Mandrake]

I think some HA2 are malfunctioning like mine which sticks to hard mode all the time. I still have not found out the problem as car is being overhauled. Perhaps those with hard mode permanently on will benefit from non-HA spheres most. Of course it would be best to find out the cause but in my case, I've regassed all spheres, changed front electrovalve (to used unit) but only slight improvement. I've bounced the front of other HA2 Xantias and they are very soft, perhaps even softer than non-hydractive cars. I will continue to investigate after my car is fixed.

Hi John,

If you've checked both the spheres and the front electrovalve and its still stiff at the front, I would suggest checking the voltages coming from the computer.

If you refer to my other thread where I show pictures of installing diodes by the ECU you will see which wires it is - you can simply use a small pin attached to your multimeter positive probe to stick into one of the white wires and connect your negative to the chassis.

You should expect to see 12v for half a second when a door is opened, and then dropping to an average of about 3v until 30 seconds after the door is closed. You should see the same on both white wires. (Front and back)

An analogue meter is probably better for this as the 3v is actually a pulse waveform.

If you see only a brief pulse of voltage and then nothing, the most likely cause is a broken connection to one of the electrovalves - which the computer detects as a fault and shuts off the output for one minute before trying again briefly.

If you suspect a broken connection to an electrovalve, try unplugging the white plug from the computer (remove the fuse first! also there is a clever little wire clip that has to be removed..) and measure between pin 1 and 8 for the front valve and pin 2 and 8 for the rear valve, it should measure about 3 to 5 ohms.

Regards,
Simon

[deian]

he's french?

[Clogzz]

Not quite, from Belgium.
Let me know what needs translating, and we may get somewhere, though some technical terms may require some thinking or searching on my part.

[bernie]

thanks bernie

is that the same as hydractive 2?

now where's my french dictionary?

I believe it's HA2 because HA1 had electro valves F & R joined whereas HA2 were independant.

It looks like the 'interrupteur' is the user switch

[JohnCKL]

OK, simon, I will try out your suggestion when the overhaul is done. Besides overhaul, I'm doing suspension, repainting, the works, so it'll be a while.

[deian]

thanks cloggz, seems like i can work the electrical diagram out anyway, not too hard is it really.

[pwatson]

Hello again all,
Long time no post with a problem, though I still read posts regularly!
Very interesting thread with some great technical knowledge displayed! Much of it is a bit beyond me, I gave up fiddling with Cit suspension when I bought a Berlingo and sold my old BX and even then I had rarely gone further than changing LHM, spheres and an octopus. However, for last three years my wife has run a Xantia HDi Exclusive, now with 83k on the clock and so far the ride/suspension has been faultless (not even a sphere to change!).
But, and this is where you might be able to help, last week we set off for a few days break in France and as we went through the village and went over a "speed table" thing it felt as if we had no rear suspension - very hard indeed like when you put the suspension on high, but only at the rear. First reaction was that both rear spheres had "gone" but over second speed hump, suspension seemed as normal - odd - but to my mind mind not a sphere problem?. We continued and on motorways (and some subsequent speed humps) things were as normal. During the next few days the fault reappeared intermittently, and we kept saying "suspension (at the back) has gone hard again" - occasionally on autoroutes for a few seconds, more often in towns when driving slowly on rough (cobbled, potholed) surfaces but only for a few (say 10?) seconds. Our local independent (good knowledgeable bloke) says it could be the electrovalve (I'd not heard of it before!) but could be other things (ECU??) he will investigate next week - after investigating a slightly leaky rear height corrector (4 or 5 drips per night on the drive). I have tried the tuning of radio to 171 and listening for changes, but interference seems constant whether doors open or not.
Now, questions (and please bear in mind my technical ignorance! and the fact that I am of an age where lying under a Cit getting covered in LHM and other oily bits no longer appeals!!)
1. Does it sound to you like an electrovalve fault?
2. Could it be "something else" (expensive?)
3. From diagrams the electrovalve seems to be part of a "central sphere assembly". Is it a separate"bolt on" part?
4. How expensive are they? Couldn't find it on GSF parts list!
5. Is it a long job to replace?
6. Is the leaky height corrector likely to be connected? (if you see what I mean!)
Sorry for long post, and thanks for any help - your expertise is valued!

[deian]

Electrovalves are £85 each from GSF. And there is on in front and one in the back.

All it does it switch the centre sphere in and out of the system. It's a bolt on 'kind' of thing yes, if you crawl under the front of the car you will see the centre sphere pointing towards the passenger side (left) with a 'thing' (electrovavle) coming from it and a cable with a two pin plug in. It will turn round in the housing.

When you open a door (tailgate too, and bonnet i think) it should start humming after the relay clicking, and when you close it the relay will click again and the humming will stop after 30 seconds.

Now I would blame the electrovavle in your case too. And to hear it on the radio you will need to know when the changes happen to notice when the valve cuts in and out.

See here... http://www.stevenbraud.demon.co.uk/manual2/index.html

Picture here:

You may have an internal leak too. But I think that would cause weirder problems for you as well as this random hardening up.

[pwatson]

Thanks deian.

[Mandrake]

Although it could certainly be an intermitant electrovalve, first I would be checking that it isn't the rear outer suspension spheres.

With Hydractive 2, if the left and right rear spheres are punctured, the suspension will be completely rigid in the hard mode, but NOT in the soft mode, as you still have the middle sphere giving you some springing. It will be a bit stiffer than usual, but nowhere near rigid.

Thus every time the computer legitimately switches into hard mode, the rear will go rigid. (Going over a judder bump faster than about 25Km/hr will typically cause a switch to hard mode)

So first of all check the rear suspension in hard and soft mode. Thats a little bit difficult to do because if you open the boot, it triggers the door switch that tells it to switch to soft mode. So you either need to temporarily pull the Hydractive 2 ECU fuse, or leave the boot shut.

So let the engine idle and try bouncing the rear suspension by hand - it should be really soft such that you can push it down to the bump stops easily.

Now turn off the engine, close all the doors (including the boot) and wait about 30 seconds (or remove the fuse) and you'll hear a click which is the electrovalves turning off. Now try bouncing the rear and it should be quite stiff but NOT rigid.

If you sit on it, it should still go down a couple of inches (fairly slowly) and then slowly return again when you get off. (Hard mode has very slow damping rates) If it won't budge you probably need new rear strut (outer) spheres.

If it seems ok then you might be looking at an intermitant electrovalve instead. (In which case you'd want to do quite a bit more testing to find out for sure as they're NOT cheap)

It's highly unlikely to be the Hydractive ECU, as it switches both front and rear electrovalves together, but from what you say its only hard at the rear.

Regards,
Simon