A few questions

mongoose100 · Unread post by **mongoose100** » 09 Jun 2011, 15:35

Slowly getting to the bottom of the Xantia's niggles, however I do have the following issues;

When going over a speed hump (suspension set in either NORM or SPORT) at a pace fast enough to make the car go into hard mode, when it resumes its soft state, the bum of the car feels like it drops (or lifts - cant remember now) slightly when the change over happens. Is this normal? Returns back to normal height very shortly afterwards.

Have finally sorted front ride height, some freak of nature had decided to adjust the height by moving the manual adjuster linkage to set it! Talk about drama's getting it back to normal.

Other issue is that the car always seems to sink when engine off and doors open - happens both front and rear and about the same timing for both ends. I understand that I may have a leaky electrovalve, but 2??? Surely not?

Lexia shows no faults...

I have a spare MKI lying about, are the electrovalves the same on both MKI's and II's?

Sorry bout the length here

Unread post by **Peter.N.** » 09 Jun 2011, 16:56

Hi Regan

First fault probably sticking height corrector/s, give the linkage several doses of WD40 over several days.

Sinking is caused by internal hydraulic leakage, every car seems to be different but if it drives OK I wouldn't worry about it as a lot of time and money might be involved - needlessly in my opinion.

Peter

Unread post by **CitroJim** » 09 Jun 2011, 18:49

Hi Regan,

Yes, engine off and doors open will keep the suspension in soft mode. A leaky valve can cause sinks.

Try the same thing with the Hydractive system forced hard by removing F8 from the engine bay fuse box. If the sinks don't occur then the electrovalves are suspect. Also, unless you have proved otherwise, the Hydractive centre spheres could be flat or nearly so.

This may be connected with your speedbump effect too. The easiest way to test electrovalves easily is to again force hard mode and time the regulator ticks. If they are substantially shorter in soft mode compared to hard mode then they're suspect. If they are leaky then there may be a sufficient loss of pressure on switching to cause the rear sink

There are some good guides on here concerning renovation of electrovalves.

First and foremost, before delving into electrovalves, confirm all spheres are good and also, if possible, have the mainline hydraulic pressure measured. If the mainline pressure is low then the electrovalves may not switch smartly and thus leak or get stuck in an indeterminate position and cause generally some very odd behaviour...