C5 Loss of suspension fluid

[birstall]

Walked down to my car after work and the suspension was sat right down at the back. A pool of suspension fluid under the middle of the car and trailing down to an adjacent rain water linear drain gulley. Not so good for the fish in the adjacent brook!

I've left it there and plan to look tomorrow. The cars on flat concrete in an underground car park but not sure that you can get it up on ramps with the suspension so low?

Should I just get a mechanic to pick it up on a trailer?

If not, any clues as to where is the best place to look first?

My initial thoughts are to look for either a corroded pipe or a loose connection.

I've noticed a noise over the past couple of days when starting off in the morning but thought this was something else. I now think it was the hydraulic pump working overtime.

They say things come in threes so thats the droplink, the suspension fluid and also yesterday the return of the dreaded Anti-pollution fault warning (due to a dodgy downstream lambda sensor I think - although I haven't checked the fault code yet).

Cheers

Pete

[AndersDK]

Hi Pete -

Hope I may spread some light in your dark ...

The droplink and Lambda sensor are quickies, no big trouble replacing for any handyman.


Could be a cylinder itself which have developed a pinhole by corrosion, but I really believe this could only happen to very early high mileage C5's.
My pennies on the suspension problem is most likely to be a corroded pipe to one sides cylinder.
The other sides pipe will not be far behind, so purchasing both pipes as a set will ensure you can do a fast repair.
Remember to carry a supply of fluid as well.

Your first task is to lever the rear.
This is best done using a 1m piece of lumber at least 2" by 4" under one of the jacking points. An assistent could then quickly place wooden blocks or stands under the rear.
Once you get it up near enough normal height, a hydraulic jack will get under no problem.
You may then choose to clamp a wooden block between the rear suspension arme and any solid chassis member, to keep the rear high, to aid picking it up on a carrier.

If you plan to work on the car in-situ, then take all necessary pre-cautions that the car will not tilt down, or roll away.

[birstall]

Hi Anders

Thanks for your reply. Your suggestion of clamping the wooden block in there to keep the suspension up is a great idea. I may then try to get it up on some portable ramps to see whats going on.

Cheers

Pete

[dnsey]

An old-fashioned scissor jack is a very useful tool when dealing with a 'collapsed' HP car - many will fit under the sill jacking points even with the car on the bump stops. My own version came from a Rover 800, and works on a strange tilting principle as it extends.

[birstall]

An update: I didn't get back to the car until Monday and by then for some reason the back end had gone up again.

I decided to try topping up the fluid before getting a trailer out to it. Fortunately, I didn't use the LHM that GSF had given me to top it up! I remembered that I'd read here that it wasn't LHM, so sent the missus back for some LDS. So this forum has saved me a bit of cash there! The guy at the GSF counter was a bit bemused, apparantly, when she asked him for a bottle of LSD! Bless her! After topping up, the leak was only dripping fairly slowly, so drove it up to my local indie guy.

He's just called back to confirm that it's the long pipe that's corroded. He spoke to the local Citroen dealer who advised that he has replaced three of these pipes last year, so seems like this is a common problem on C5s.

[CitroJim]

He spoke to the local Citroen dealer who advised that he has replaced three of these pipes last year, so seems like this is a common problem on C5s.

Cue a nice opportunity for the Indies to make a bit of a living from re-piping them, just like in the heyday of the BX

Funny how the Xantia was/is relatively immune from corroded hydraulic pipes and the C5 seems to have gone backwards in that respect...