Aftermarket Sphere Life

addo · Post by **addo** » 20 Dec 2010, 20:49

Anyone else read this thread?

http://www.forum-auto.com/marques/citro ... t15495.htm

It starts with a bloke asking about Febi brand spheres. Then another fellow basically says "Good luck; they explode well" - and produces a photo when challenged.

In typical forum fashion, one poster doggedly promotes the idea this sphere failed by explosion because the complainant used incorrect fluid. Eventually, a pro steps in and points out it has to be metallurgy.

Then - in a fashion not unfamiliar to FCF participants - the thread goes O/T with a discussion on height correctors...

Deanxm · Post by **Deanxm** » 20 Dec 2010, 20:57

I can see it but its in euro's so i cant read it, that sphere looks nasty, ive never seen anything like that before, what did he do to it to make that happen, couldnt of happened in normal use

D

andmcit · Post by **andmcit** » 20 Dec 2010, 21:06

Crumbs, that's quite a failure and certainly looks like a manufacturing
defect and the cirumference beading does look flattened out. Maybe it
was dropped onto concrete from height?

Andrew

Post by **myglaren** » 21 Dec 2010, 00:09

Pleiades · Post by **Pleiades** » 22 Dec 2010, 10:24

First of all, Humble apoplogies for ignoring this forum for a while, I was computor less for a while and got out of the habit.

I spoke to a forum member whist changing his spheres and he suggested that I may wish to make a comment on this posting.

New years resolution.

I promise to chat more often.

In the meantime, it's been great to meet lots of the folks from the forum and also, thanks for the reccomendations for people to come over with the car, it certainly has kept us busy and now as well as myself and Phil, I also have my son Kevin working with us as an apprentice.

As for the spheres, well we have a fair bit of experience in this area and the quality of spheres has allways been a priority for us. Citroen spherers are of obvious excellent quality and take to recharging very well, but only if done properly, ie, the diaphragm inspected for damage.
GSF Amtek spheres are again excellent and they are our preferred choice when we get low on spheres for reconditioning. AEP IFHS spheres are again excellent quality.

There are however some spheres out there that I would not touch, some new and some re-con.

Spheres are normally very well made and the diaphragms do not deteriorate with age, it is the running of these spheres with low gas pressure that kills them, if caught before the diaphragms have been punctured against the top, they can be re-charged time and time again.

As for the pictured sphere, I have seen this before, only too often. The cause is not likely to be a dodgy sphere, but more liable to be user error. The picture shows the typical results of a main accumulator failure caused by one of the following.

1) The flow distributor valve plumbed up wrong, the 2 larger pipes at the bottem switched round, yes this happens a lot!!

2) The regulator has failed causing the pressure in the system to go up and up untill something breaks.

Regards and best wishes for Christmas and the new year.

Martin.

addo · Post by **addo** » 22 Dec 2010, 10:42

Regulator failure is an interesting comment.

Elsewhere I seem to remember you have been quoted (and I'm sure you love it when people ascribe comments to you!

) as saying something to the effect that regs never go out more than a comparatively small amount.

Based on that, I'd never imagined anything on a newer car could fail in a manner to produce this catastrophic outcome "down the line".

That aside, I have fitted a new Citroën accumulator (dated 146th day of 2010 and painted that new metallic grey), which immediately dropped the tick rate back to about 23 seconds at normal ride height and idling with motor/hydraulics up to temp.

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 22 Dec 2010, 10:53

Like anything mechanical pressure regulators can wear, in my own personal experience I have the one I use on my sphere tester which does not cut out even beyond 200 Bar pressure so that one will stay where it is! Another, the one on my DS was cutting out too early and allowing pressure so subside so I bought a reconditioned one from martin which I'm pleased to say works very well indeed

Pleiades · Post by **Pleiades** » 22 Dec 2010, 13:37

The pressure regulators did very rarely go wrong. Untill that is when Citroen improved them back in the days of the BX.

What happens is that especialy if run with a flat accumulator sphere,(contstant tick tick tick) the spool valve housing inside the unit will move very slightly backwards. Now due to the tight tolerences of the spool valve this will either trap or snap off the cut out spool, making the system have npo cut out pressure at all. I know (because I tried it) that a Citroen pump is capable of creating 6000 psi, that is the point where I got scared and shut it down.

I dont know at what pressure it would blow the sphere, but I guess that it's a lot!!

Regards
Martin