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

This is the Forum for all your Citroen Technical Questions, Problems or Advice.

Moderator: RichardW

Post Reply
Rhothgar
Donor 2023
Posts: 1758
Joined: 22 Nov 2004, 00:21
Location: Nottingham - UK
My Cars: 2013 Peugeot 3008 Allure 1.6HDi - FD63 FWA VF3**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]
1995 Citroen Xantia 1.9TD S1 - M728 GDL VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]
1996 Citroen Xantia 1.9TD SX S1 - N707 MGP (Currrently laid up)
2000 Citroen Xantia 2.0 HDi S2 - X435 JGJ VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff] (Clutch died Dec 2017 - Resurrected Easter Sunday 2021)
1997 Citroen ZX SX TD - P788 AJL
1959 Landrover Defender S2 - Two owners from new
1968 Triumph Vitesse Convertible 2.0
1980 Ford Escort RS2000 Customer - 2nd Owner
1988 Saab 900 T16S - A 1980's exercise in understated Hooliganism...
Oh! and two Harley Davidsons - A 1990 Sportster and a 2003 Fatboy 100th Anniversary (the only vehicle I have owned from new)
x 78

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

Post by 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.
User avatar
CitroJim
A very naughty boy
Posts: 49532
Joined: 30 Apr 2005, 23:33
Location: Paggers
My Cars: Bluebell the AX, Polly the C3 Picasso, Pix the Nissan Pixo, Propel the duathlon bike, TCR Pro the road bike and Fuji the TT bike...
x 6163
Contact:

Post by 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...
Jim

Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
Post Reply