xantia 1.9 sd front suspension not raising

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whitehead
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Joined: 05 Jun 2006, 16:29
Location: manchester
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xantia 1.9 sd front suspension not raising

Post by whitehead »

have a t reg xantia 1.9 sd estate.
front suspension not working properly. the suspension is on the floor when i start up and will only raise when i put the suspension selector in the higher of the two intermediate suspension settings but this is too high to drive in .it's like driving a bouncy castle on wheels. When i then put the selector to the lower normal riding position it's fine for a while but the front slowly sinks to the floor. i have checked fluid level and is ok and there is no leak.
the rear suspension is fine. Can any of you citroen experts out there help??
I have bought a haynes maintenance manual. I won't ever make that mistake again. didn't know they had found a way to print on toilet paper.
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CitroJim
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Post by CitroJim »

Welcome to the Forum!

A T reg Xantia should have anti-sink so it should not collapse down at all.

The first symptom points to a seized or partially seized height corrector, most likely the little plastic link between the anti-roll bar and height corrector has popped off due to wear in the link itself or a seized height corrector putting excessive load on the link. The front height corrector is hard to get to, being buried in the front subframe. Get the car up on axle stands (VITAL for safety) and crawl under and have a look. Give the height corrector a good dose of WD40 and slap some grase on it. Usually though the front height corrector gets plenty of lubrication from oily muck that collects in that area!

This will account for the sinking as the height corrector is most likely stuck in the low position due to the link being adrift and in forcing it with the height lever you are in effect taking it to the maxium height so your ride will be terrible, either rock hard or very bouncy. The suspension cannot work properly unless the height corrector is working well. The ride is only good when the ride height is correct, even small deviations either side can have a big impact on ride quality.

The Haynes manual is useless for many Xantia tasks but this forum is a perfect substitute :D

If the above fails to resolve, come back and get the next instalment!
Jim

Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
whitehead
Posts: 3
Joined: 05 Jun 2006, 16:29
Location: manchester
My Cars:

Post by whitehead »

thanks for that jim
I'll get underneath and have a look. when it stops raining.
Manchester eh!! :lol:
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