Hydractive or non-hydractive please???

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falling-out-with-my-car
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Hydractive or non-hydractive please???

Post by falling-out-with-my-car »

Hi, I have a citroen xantia 1.9 Turbo diesel estate SX 1989 of which I am told is a MK2 or a hybrid between MK1 and Mk2 in either case the bonet is attached to the front grill and the nose is the newer shape of the two.

After thourgher inspection The car has six spheres with two accumulators one front and one rear.

I want to replace the accumulators as she is not holding her height as she was esspecially at the rear, the suspension strut spheres were replaced about a year ago but funds dictated that the accumulators would need to wait a while.

I went to the auto factors yesterday £23.50 + vat each not to bad but when they said hydractive or non-hydractive I was pretty confused.

any ideas please?

thanks in advance all the best Nigel.
Citroen Xantia S2 1.9 TD estate 189K soon to be broken for parts Jan 2017 headlamps & radiator fan assembly already spoken for & A 1987 Citroen 2CV6 special just for fun.
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Re: Hydractive or non-hydractive please???

Post by CitroJim »

falling-out-with-my-car wrote:Hi, I have a citroen xantia 1.9 Turbo diesel estate SX 1989 of which I am told is a MK2 or a hybrid between MK1 and Mk2


Must be a very early pre-production prototype at that age :lol: :lol: Are you sure you don't have a BX there? late 1997 was the changeover to Mk2 so I reckon if yours is a '98 model it's a MK2.

Sorry, if yours has six spheres (one in each corner plus an accumulator and an Anti-Sink) then it is a non-Hydractive one. In the case of a Hydractive, the sphere count goes up to 8.

Essentially, if you use Hydractive spheres on a non-Hydractive car you will end up with seriously hard but very well damped suspension :lol: In a Hydractive car, the corner spheres are only fully effective in "hard" mode and Hydractive Centre Spheres are swiitched in via electrovalves for the "soft" suspension mode.

The rear accumulator in an anti-sink car is just that, a rear brake accumulator. Although it is called the "Anti-Sink Sphere" it does nothing of the sort except to help prevent leaps in height when you start up after a long stop and to ensure a prompt and postive closure of the rear anti-sink valve.

Although replacing the accumulators may help sinking, it may not bring about a magical cure. You may also need to renew the rear corner spheres as well. Bothe these and the "Anti-Sink" sphere has to be good to ensure the rear anti-sink valves closes promptly and positively.

You may also have a small hydraulic leak at the rear. Even a very, very tiny one can play havoc with the anti-sink system.
Jim

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falling-out-with-my-car
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Post by falling-out-with-my-car »

Thanx Jim, its def not a BX had one of those for years good car though.

I think I know the difference between the models by now, except to say for the hydractive bit anyway thanx for that theres no leaks in fact shes pretty well maintained I call her the money pit.

arm and a leg shes been but I love the damm car to bits no matter how much she deepens the old pocket.

Thanx again thae auto factors made the mistake of ordering hydractive spheres, they think they know to and they don't.

regards Nigel.
Citroen Xantia S2 1.9 TD estate 189K soon to be broken for parts Jan 2017 headlamps & radiator fan assembly already spoken for & A 1987 Citroen 2CV6 special just for fun.
New addition Citroen C5 2.0 HDi Exclusive Hatch purchased 09/12/2016 with 83K on the clock.
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Post by Xaccers »

I've had that before, when I first got Cassy I replaced her rear spheres and was given hydractive ones!
You could push her boot down to the stops and it would stay there until the hight corrector kicked in.

As for the cost of keeping a Xantia in good working order, I think of it like this; my last new car was a megane2, and nice as it was, I was paying £350 a month for it, plus several hundred on servicing, so in a year that's probably about £4500.
Cassy on the other hand, in the 2 years I've had her has cost me probably £500.

The friend who got me into Citroens 11 years ago (although I already liked Peugeots of that era) dove a green 2CV.
He spent £2000 once having the chassis rebuilt, simply because his normal running costs (total, inc fuel, insurance and tax) was only £500 a year.

It makes financial sense to keep such a great car as a Xantia on the road.
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Post by falling-out-with-my-car »

xac are you still running on 100% veggie oil or finding it ludicrously expensive like diesel, I wondered if you find you get better mileage from mixing diesel and veggie and whats your best ratio? I usually find around 25 litres veggie to a tankfull extends the milage significantly.
got some inside ifo on diesel being thinned for profit running neat diesel in my 1.9TD SX estate only yealds around 350 miles to a tankful yet mixing veggie and diesel to the right ratio returns around 700 miles if your very gentle with your foot, more agressive driving returns about 530miles to a tankful and I found that burnning neat veggie gives lousey mileage esspecially when you up your speed to around 70mph ish.

just wondered what your findings were? thanks for your input on the above I wont be buying hydractive spheres now.

regards nigel.
Citroen Xantia S2 1.9 TD estate 189K soon to be broken for parts Jan 2017 headlamps & radiator fan assembly already spoken for & A 1987 Citroen 2CV6 special just for fun.
New addition Citroen C5 2.0 HDi Exclusive Hatch purchased 09/12/2016 with 83K on the clock.
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Post by Xaccers »

I pay 87.9ppl for mine from costco.
Get the same economy from veg as I do from diesel, and previous experiments showed that on veg Cassy has a top speed 5mph higher than diesel.
Even with a trip to Portsmouth and back from MK at breakneck speeds most of the way will still give me 500 miles to a tank. I actually think my driving around MK with it's roundabouts gives lower mpg than my normal motorway driving.
I run 100% unless I can't get to costco or need a diesel reciept for expenses and my parents haven't sent me one of theirs, or it's icy and Cassy has trouble starting.
Started adding Redex boost as a cetane improver, can improve it by up to 2, and halfords currently do 2for1 so it works out at £5 for a bottle that's meant for two treatments, although I normally bung the entire bottle in a single tank full. It seems to make a slight difference to the power, probably not enough to be worth £10 a treatment though, so once they stop the 2for1 I'll probably stop using it.
Will be interesting to see how Craig's old TD does on veg this afternoon.

Jim and I were talking about the mesh filter and gunk in people's fuel tanks on the way down to Wales yesterday.
We realised that while most people say to change the fuel filter after the first 500 miles of veg and then slightly more regularly than the normal service interval afterwards if you find it needs it, people don't often mention the mesh on the fuel sender in the tank.
I checked mine and there were flakes of debris on it, not totally blocking it though, so I cleaned it up. The tank was practically empty when I checked so I was able to scoop out the flakes/grit that I could see inside the tank.
It's definitely something worth checking, even on derv only Xantias, and also the return pipe from the pump. Very important that it's clear.
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Post by Steviebax »

Hi.

Just thought l'd offer a little advice if anyone out there needs to know the spec of their car... e.g hydractive or non hydractive ?? etc

Call your local citroen dealer and provide them with the last few numbers (think it's the last eight numbers) of your cars VIN number.

With this they will be able to provide you with the full specification of your car.

Helps to take the guess work out of it all.

Enjoy
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