Leaky Xantia

ekaftan · Unread post by **ekaftan** » 31 Oct 2008, 01:15

Just when I thought I had fixed all the suspension gremlins (I even installed diodes!) all my LHM was dumped today to the ground.

The leak comes from just fron of the rear-left wheel (passenger side for the UK, drivers side for me). Any common leak spots there? Will I be lucky and only have to replace/patch some low pressure return hose?

I lost enough LHM to start losing steering in a 30 minutes drive to my place. Leak started after I had left my parking spot at work so I pressed on after checking that the handbrake did stop the car

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 31 Oct 2008, 07:34

Up in that area Ekaftan, you have the Hydractive sphere block and hard/soft electrovalve.

Have a check of the block and especially the electrovalve leakage return pipe. I've a feeling there is a "Y" junction in this area to link a couple of leakage return lines into one. It never fails to amaze me how much LHM a disconnected leakage return line can spill.

Unread post by **RichardW** » 31 Oct 2008, 12:23

The return from the rear hydractive starts off in rubber, then joins onto a hard plastic pipe above the LH side of the rear subframe - this join relies on the friction between a smooth plastic pipe and the rubber hose only to keep it together

. If the valve gets a bit leaky, then the flow can blow the joint apart - and it can lose a lot of LHM quite quickly. Access is poor, but improved by removing the spare wheel and carrier. Fitting the pipe back together is a pig - a pair of long nosed pliers through the hole in the subframe helps. I secured mine by fitting cable ties either side of the joint, and wiring them together

Might not be your trouble, but worth a look as a starting point.

ekaftan · Unread post by **ekaftan** » 31 Oct 2008, 23:17

You both were right on the money. It was the juction between the rubber and the plastic hoses from the return pipe of the electrovalve...

Its now supported in a couple of tiewraps.

ekaftan · Unread post by **ekaftan** » 05 Nov 2008, 23:22

ekaftan wrote: Its now supported in a couple of tiewraps.

Tiewraps were not good enough... it started leaking 10 minutes after leaving the house monday. I removed the fuse for the hydractive ECU and it does not leak, will try again next weekend, now replacing the hose from the valve with a longer one and adding a hose clamp...