Xantia S1 New Spheres - Ride not as soft as expected!

[Rhothgar]

Hi all,

Thought I would do a general post on this.

I replaced all my spheres on the Xantia with the exception of the rear anti-sink which I need to do when I get the time.

Many thanks to CitroJim and Vince for both their individual inputs via PM and phone.

Those who will have read some of my previous posts will be aware of my list of things to do on my 1996 S1.

Friday night, I started work on replacing the spheres and LHM change. Car has had Hydrarincauge in for the last 3000 miles so this was part of the work.

Filters in the reservoir looked worrying clean and I was disappointed not to find loads of crud washed through. This and other things leads me to think that perhaps my return pipes are blocked!

Finally got all the spheres removed and replaced with exception of rear anti-sink as not above.

My car is 1996 SX TD 1.9 (Non-Hydractive) with 6 spheres in total.

I did not bleed the brakes after completing the LHM replacement. This, I realise, I will still have to do.

On the drive home, I was very surprised with the ride for all the wrong reasons. I had visions of wafting along on a magic carpet like the old BX. Whilst it seems to be tauter on cornering, when I hit speed bumps it feels almost rock hard.

When I bought the car back in July 2008, you could hit a speed bump at 30mph and it's as if it wasn't there. I expected that level of comfort to be restored with the spheres being changed.

So my question is....

What is wrong?

Strangely, there appears to be no clicking from the pump anymore whether stationary or changing ride heights. This seems extremely bizarre. Come to think of it, I cannot say I have ever heard it regularly.

I did hear it once on Saturday and set my stop watch going, 4 minutes later still NO click!

I dismantled and cleaned the rear height corrector back in Jan this year and it was immaculate inside. Not got around to doing the front HC as yet.

Could the return lines be blocked solid with crud? Do the return lines only come from the height correctors and should I blow them through gently with compressed air? Presumably they are the unclipped pipes on the reservoir?

Really hoping someone can shed some light on this.

[CitroJim]

The first things Roger, is to ensure you have the right spheres and that they're good.

Often new spheres will have stronger damping characteristics and this can have the effect you speak of.

I'm wondering if you have inadvertantly been supplied with Hydractive corner spheres for your non-Hydractive car; these will certainly make it feel harder due to their different damping characteristics.

It would be unusual if you had a fully duff one but it's not unknown. Were they brand new from a well-known supplier or were they regassed ones?

How do they feel when you push down on each corner?

Does the car rise and fall and height-correct properly? One cause of the ride beinga s it is, and it may be connected, is if you have very low main system pressure keeping your anti-sink valves closed. If this was the case however the car would not height correct properly. I'm thinking the long tick may be just a result of all new spheres and a very good accumulator coupled with a system having very low internal leakage.

Do the sit in the boot test to confirm the pressure is good and the antisink valves are open-wide. Witht eh engine idling sit in the boot and feel the ehight fall. After 15-20s the rear shoukld rise back to normal ride height. Ditto when you get out - it should rise high and teh fall back to normal. You can dot eh same test at the front by gently sitting on the slam panel...