Xantia - Ride height, softer spheres, idling irregular

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rusty1
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Xantia - Ride height, softer spheres, idling irregular

Post by rusty1 »

Hello!

Need some help on the 4 problems listed below…. Maybe you can guide me!

I need to adjust the ride height of my Xantia. Do you know of any link/information which could help - with measurements etc..

On my 2.0I 8V Xantia, idling is not stable! When I stop the car and leave on idling, revs start to go up to 2000 and down again - hunting! Can you indicate the cause?

I need to make ride softer. Somewhere I’ve read that if I widen slightly the bore of the spheres, ride will soften coming closer to a BX. Any ideas?

Any idea where I can get a detailed CD or decent manual for my Xantia. Haynes really is of no help!

Please advice,

MANY Thanks,

Stefan
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Post by jeremy »

You may be able to download something useful here:

http://citroeny.cz/servis/servis.htm

Much is in English and is excerpts from the official Citroen manual etc.

Why do you think your ride height is wrong? Any variation from the manufacturers setting is usually due to damaged or siezed linkages. This may also have an effect on the ride quality.
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AndersDK
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Post by AndersDK »

Ride height should not be adjusted unless components has been replaced/repaired in the height correction linkage.
The spheres never influences the ride height - only the ride softness.

Most accurate ride height setting you can get (to achieve best ride and steering) :
1) Set front height to make driveaxles perfectly horizontal.
2) then set rear height to make the body sills parallel to ground. You will notice then that this is where the rear swing arms are exactly horizontal.

All given conservative height setting figures found in manuals are accurate ONLY when the prescribed conditions are met. That is exact tyre size, exact tyre make and type, exact inflation, new tyres and perfectly even workground. These conditions are rarely met :!:

It is possible to get softer ride by enlarging the sphere center bore. What you actually do is decreasing the damping factor, as then larger amounts of LHM is allowed to flow in/out the sphere cavity.
If you decide for this route, be careful not being too radical and go for a welldefined drillbit diameter (not just the 2.0 or 2.5 standard bit found in your toolbox :wink: ) such you know by which percentage you have enlarged the bore. Note that this is calculated using the bore area, not the bore diameter :lol:
Anders (DK) - '90 BX16Image
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Post by Peter.N. »

If your car is hydractive, have you changed the centre spheres? These are the ones responsible for the soft ride.
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Post by rusty1 »

Hello All!

Well, I'll be grinding open an old non-working sphere by the end of this week and will have a look at the inside. My idea was to widen the sphere bores by a little bit.... say if the original bore is 1.5mm, I would try to widen to 1.6 or 1.7mm (just a little bit). Will try to simulate this on an old sphere and will use a powerful vacuum to keep any swarf at bay!
A local Citroen agent X mechanic mentioned taht to soften the ride height of a Xantia is to increase the pressure of the spheres....say from 55 to 65. He's got the equipment to do it!
Does it make sense to increase pressure?

Would love to have a softer ride as otherwise for ride comfort I would have opted for a Peugot 405....maybe not a refined and not as appealing as the Xantia, but softer and much less complicated at the end!!

Any ideas?

Stefan
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Post by Peter.N. »

For the ultimate soft ride, fit non hydractive spheres and drive it in sport mode. Then for a super soft ride put it into 'normal' mode.
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Post by FrenchLeave »

Rusty,

The damper hole that you are thinking of enlarging is the rebound damper and will not affect softness, its purpose in life is to prevent oscillation.

For a soft ride you need maximum sphere volume available when the car is on its wheels with the diaphragm displaced. There are two ways to obtain this, by increasing initial (charging) pressure or by fitting spheres with a larger volume; that is the way that hydractive works, by increasing the available volume by sticking in an additional sphere.

You should therefore either accept ypur meachanic's offer to increase the pressure, or alternatively for maximum effect fit larger spheres with, say, 10bar extra pressure. I would advise staying with the standard damper sizes.

Derek
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Re: Xantia - Ride height, softer spheres, idling irregular

Post by Mandrake »

rusty1 wrote:Hello!

Need some help on the 4 problems listed below…. Maybe you can guide me!

I need to adjust the ride height of my Xantia. Do you know of any link/information which could help - with measurements etc..
If you do a search of the forum you'll find 2 or 3 message threads which describe the process and also give a diagram of where to measure the height... but first - what do you think is wrong with the height ? Unless something is broken or someone has fiddled previously it should be correct.
On my 2.0I 8V Xantia, idling is not stable! When I stop the car and leave on idling, revs start to go up to 2000 and down again - hunting! Can you indicate the cause?
Mine does a similar thing too - although only up to 1200rpm, and only sometimes...(and I havn't found the cause yet)

Check the air intake from the throttle butterfly backwards and all the small pipes connected to it for air leaks - in particular there are two small pipes connected to the right hand side of the throttle butterfly mechanism - one goes to the MAPS sensor (which is located way back near the right hand wing) and the other one, if leaking, will cause the idle to increase dramatically.
I need to make ride softer. Somewhere I’ve read that if I widen slightly the bore of the spheres, ride will soften coming closer to a BX. Any ideas?
Whoa there.... :lol:

Increasing the bypass hole in the centre will reduce the rebound damping and make the ride floaty and potentially unstable. I wouldn't recommend it at all. (Not to mention its a one way change - rather hard to undo)

Instead of trying to redesign the suspension you should be looking for faults first.... are you sure the spheres are ok and not low on gas ? Are you sure they're the RIGHT spheres for the car ? (Fitting of wrong, or "near enough" spheres seems to be a common place problem)

The spring washer valves in the spheres have more influence on the ride than the small hole in the middle (which primarily controls rebound) and they're NOT adjustable - so if they're the wrong spheres and those valves are wrong, nothing you do to the centre hole will fix the ride.

Is it just the front or back or both that aren't riding well ? Is the car Hydractive 2 ? (VSX or Exclusive spec) Have the front struts been lubricated in the last year ?

There are a myrid of possible problems that will worsen the ride (especially with Hydractive 2) that should be investigated before attempting to modify spheres...fix whatever those problems might be and I'm sure you'll find the ride is fine.

Regards,
Simon
Simon

1997 Xantia S1 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive in Silex Grey
2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

2011 Peugeot Ion Full Electric in Silver
1977 G Special 1129cc LHD
1978 CX 2400
1997 Xantia S1 2.0i Auto VSX
1998 Xantia S2 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive
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Post by FrenchLeave »

Do you ever get the feeling you're invisible?
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Post by DickieG »

FrenchLeave wrote:Do you ever get the feeling you're invisible?
Who said that?
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Mandrake
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Post by Mandrake »

DickieG wrote:
FrenchLeave wrote:Do you ever get the feeling you're invisible?
Who said that?
I didn't hear anything....

It must have been the wind.... :D

Regards,
Simon
Simon

1997 Xantia S1 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive in Silex Grey
2016 Nissan Leaf Tekna 30kWh in White

2011 Peugeot Ion Full Electric in Silver
1977 G Special 1129cc LHD
1978 CX 2400
1997 Xantia S1 2.0i Auto VSX
1998 Xantia S2 3.0 V6 Auto Exclusive
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