Tales of a C3, a Goddess and some BMW's.

Tell us your ongoing tales and experiences with your French car here. Post pictures of your car here as well.
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DHallworth
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by DHallworth »

They are indeed prone to failure on the C6, mine has a damp one just now, in fact, it's the same strut that was replaced 13k miles ago by Citroen!

There is a chap on the C6owners forum who repairs these struts, I'll get his details for you shortly.

David.
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DHallworth
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by DHallworth »

Here's the post from C6 owners...
Thank you for your enquiry and sorry for late reply but I was travelling.
Please find below answers to your questions:

1/ How many of these C6 AMVAR dampers have you repaired

We have repaired around 100 of shock absorbers to C5, C6 for Polish customers and around 15 units of C6 AMVAR. The repair of C5,C6 and C6 AMVAR is practically the same.

2/ Is it possible to repair a leaking strut, how long will the repair last., is it a matter of replacing seals or does the sliding surface need to be replated and polished.

Yes it is possible. The repair lasts around 3 working days. It is a matter of replacing seals and/or replacing or polishing of sliding surface and/or replacing the rod.

3/ How do you achieve internal fluid cleanliness, do you work to any international particle counting standards

I don’t understand your question. Could you please explain.

4/ what is a typical repair turnaround time for a strut posted from the UK
The repair lasts about 2-3 days. The shipping to UK lasts around 3-4 days with DPD courier.

5/ Do you replace the mounting foam at the top of the shock

No, we don’t replace the mounting foam as there is no need to do that. We have never experienced any damages in this part in the restored shocks.

6 Do you have a standard repair cost for a leaking hydraulic strut.

The price is 150 Euro per unit. You receive 1 year warranty.

You are welcome to post our answers on the Citroen C6 Owners dot Org forum.

Best regards / Mit besten Grüßen

Monika Nagengast

Tel. + 48 609 600 566
PUH NAGENGAST
ul. Malczewskiego 103
80-107 Gdańsk
POLAND
Website is http://www.nagengast.pl/index-en.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Email address is info@nagengast.pl

David.
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Stickyfinger
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by Stickyfinger »

I wonder what they would do with an Activa Ram ?

Great link David, thanks

(PS, is your DS going to Coventry ? )
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by DickieG »

Yes a great link David thank you, are you aware of any C6 owners having had their struts repaired by this company and if so the result?

I see they also list Mercedes as a make they refurb, I wonder if they repair the struts on their ABC (similar to Citroen) hydraulic suspension as they are prone to leaks and cost £1,000 a strut new from Mercedes, there could be a lot work for this company in the UK.

Sticky, are you asking me about the DS and Coventry? If so I'm not aware of what you mean.
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by Stickyfinger »

Sorry...yes I was...my error (brain fade day, too much thinner :) )

The PSA HQ Staff do in Coventry on Friday.....starts 3.00pm at the HQ buildings.....they want some classics there.
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by DickieG »

I was quite busy last weekend changing both front struts on my C5, not a particularly difficult job but you do need to remove the upper mount complete with the wishbones in order to manoeuvre the strut out, something I hadn't bargained on was that just undoing the top nut on the drop links didn't allow them to slide out due to the acute angle being beyond the range the ball joint can cope with due to the length of the upper stud which locates the bottom of the strut, needless to say one of the lower nuts wouldn't play ball and had to be cut off requiring me to purchase a replacement drop link.

Once the struts were sorted I flushed through the brake fluid on the C5, C3 and the BMW after discovering that cars fitted with ESP require a different brake fluid from standard in that the fluid is thinner to allow the ESP to operate faster.

Image

The mess the O/S strut left on the inside of the wheel/tyre.
Image
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CitroJim
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by CitroJim »

I'm shocked at how leaky the old ones are Richard :shock:

I trust the wishbones on the C5 are easier than on a 407... Did one the other week and they need to have the driveshafts removed first, at least on the 4HP20 equipped ones.. It was a right 'mare :twisted:

Brake fluid in a C5? I still see that as wrong, very wrong :(
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DickieG
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by DickieG »

CitroJim wrote:I'm shocked at how leaky the old ones are Richard :shock:
They were only leaking from the shaft seals, the mess at the top of the strut is fluid that leaked out during removal, the O/S one was a fair bit worse that the N/S which in fairness was only seeping. Bizarrely sometimes the O/S strut would leave a small pool of fluid when parked then sometimes nothing at all with nothing I could distinguish as to why the difference, no change in what the car had been doing etc.

One strange thing about the struts is that the O/S one has a bleed nipple at the top whereas the N/S one doesn't.
CitroJim wrote:I trust the wishbones on the C5 are easier than on a 407... Did one the other week and they need to have the driveshafts removed first, at least on the 4HP20 equipped ones.. It was a right 'mare :twisted:
Once the mounting plate the strut top bolts onto is released you can manoeuvre the strut out without removing the driveshaft, I did undo the driveshaft nut and pushed the shaft in through the hub so that I didn't pull the shaft out from the diff.
CitroJim wrote:Brake fluid in a C5? I still see that as wrong, very wrong :(
It does seem strange and TBH not as easy to bleed as LHM brakes but there you go, that's "progress" AKA giving the customer what they want, new car buyers don't appreciate traditional Citroen brakes and after spending out £500 I'll admit I'm starting to wonder about the wisdom of the hydraulic suspension with seven sphere's @ around £100 each.

I pressure tested the front sphere's and discovered they have gone from 45 to 35 Bar so I might well be in for yet another large bill. Heaven know's how on earth you are meant to get to the front centre sphere without removing the engine :roll: I can see another Mercedes appearing over the horizon and into my garage at this rate.
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by lexi »

That was a photo feast Richard, excellent quality and content. I spied a Rover P6 in the corner, probably a 3.5s. I had a Police spec model with the hotter cam.
It put about 175hp IIRC on twin SU'S. Loved that car and it was a supple, comfortable ride.

How are people supposed to keep C5X7 on the road with these repairs? Guys who would have to use garages with labour costs have no chance.
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DHallworth
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by DHallworth »

Plaedies can regas the later flying saucer shapes spheres now. I spoke to them when I got my C6 back as I wondered about having the spheres done on that.

Apparently due to the shape of the sphere, a much smaller pressure loss will make a much bigger difference to the ride quality when compared to the traditional spherical sphere.

I've got a damp strut on my C6 at the moment but I can't work out whether or not to have them reconditioned or replace them with new ones.

Are you going to have your old ones reworked as spares or just throw them out now?

David.
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by DickieG »

lexi wrote:That was a photo feast Richard, excellent quality and content. I spied a Rover P6 in the corner, probably a 3.5s. I had a Police spec model with the hotter cam.
It put about 175hp IIRC on twin SU'S. Loved that car and it was a supple, comfortable ride.
That particular P6 is ex Special Branch from the Callaghan/Thatcher era, at present its off the road due to a badly leaking core plug at the rear of the engine which requires separating the engine/gearbox for access.
lexi wrote:How are people supposed to keep C5X7 on the road with these repairs? Guys who would have to use garages with labour costs have no chance.
My thoughts exactly and when you bear in mind the number of people on this forum who own X7's can't be much more than say a dozen, the number of expensive failures forum members have had on items such as steering rack's (£1,177), suspension pump's (£925), plus window winder mechanism's (£267) and so on, not to mention the extra expense of sphere's I'm left seriously wondering whether I should get shot of it before the costs build up. It's such a shame as I really love this car, the shape, size, comfort, gadget's, performance are excellent but the thought of some of the failures that might be just around the corner has caused me to consider moving it on.

On the suspension side of things I've been having a think about similar failures that Mercedes have on their hydraulic suspension (struts/pumps) which is commonly put down to not changing the fluid regularly allowing debris to flow around the system causing excessive wear (just like automatic gearbox's) and whether changing the LDS fluid may improve durability. Whilst it's not easy to remove the LDS tank I think I'll use my suction pump to pull the present fluid out as when I changed the struts it looked rather grey rather than bright orange.

Also on the subject of sphere's, as saucer sphere's are far more expensive than traditional ball's which are far cheaper and more readily available, whether its worth looking into the compatibility of changing saucers for ball's.
DHallworth wrote:Plaedies can regas the later flying saucer shapes spheres now. I spoke to them when I got my C6 back as I wondered about having the spheres done on that.

Apparently due to the shape of the sphere, a much smaller pressure loss will make a much bigger difference to the ride quality when compared to the traditional spherical sphere.
I'll give Martin a ring and see what he has to say on this, a good idea if only as access to the centre front sphere is well non existant.
DHallworth wrote: got a damp strut on my C6 at the moment but I can't work out whether or not to have them reconditioned or replace them with new ones.

Are you going to have your old ones reworked as spares or just throw them out now?
I've kept the old struts for the time being whilst I work out what to do about keeping the car, if I do sell it I'll offer up the struts as a spare set for reconditioning.
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by DickieG »

It's been quite a while since I was last on the forum, update car wise is that I sold the C5 to my BIL and replaced it with a two year old BMW 535D Tourer which is loaded with extra's including the all important "Adaptive Drive" which in English means "Activa style" non-roll suspension (done by electronics rather than mechanic's/hydraulic's) and adjustable suspension where you can alter the firmness of the suspension and waft along Citroen style. I fancied an automatic but it would have to be a "proper auto" as in a torque converter box and not one of these DSG/Powershift computer/hydraulic malarkey trick boxes which limited my choices to BMW or Mercedes and as the E Class is too big/ugly a BMW it had to be. I spent months scouring the country until I could the specification I was after which including the suspension mentioned, pan roof, nappa leather (standard BMW leather is similar to Rhino bum hide) and head up display. In addition to those options my car also has the "Adaptive LED" headlights which are a technical marvel, they literally work as per this video and never cease to amuse/amaze me, wonderful technology.

Following a decent offer from a trader I sold the latest SL55 for a reasonable profit after 18 months motoring so quite a result there. Wifey also replaced her BMW convertible for a X3 3.0 litre.

The Goddess (DS) which will back on wedding duty for a friends daughter later this year, all is well with the car, nothing of consequence to report with that one.

My daughter still has the C3 which has just started misbehaving which is a shame as she loves the car and it suits her well, cheap to run but this latest problem is testing my patience due to the fault code (P0598 - Controlled Thermostat Signal short circuit to earth or open circuit) not making a lot of sense/being able to trace but I'll write more detail about that issue in a specific thread.
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by CitroJim »

Hi Richard, good to see you on here :)
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

Unread post by Stickyfinger »

Ditto
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Re: Tales of a C3, a C5, a Goddess and the Beast.

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Welcome back.
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