rear suspension
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peter mawer
- Posts: 25
- Joined: 29 Jul 2003, 21:07
rear suspension
The rear suspension on the wifes xantia will not raise to the standard driving level when first starting the car, wee have to put it to high, let it raise itself then reselect the standard height and let it fall.Occasionally it jams at high level. booked into the garage they say it sounds like the spheres are on the way out, but surely if this was the case it would not rise at all?. Help
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jeremy
- Posts: 3959
- Joined: 20 Oct 2002, 16:00
- x 2
You're right - spheres will make no difference to the eventual height. What will happen is that if a sphere is ruptured or nearly flat is that the car will rise faster at the affected end as there is no gas to compress in the sphere and it will not have squeezed the LHM back.
This sounds to me like general stiffness. It may be the height correctors and their linkages - relatively simple to clean and lubricate if you can get at them from underneath. Another possible cause (or additional) is that the struts and / or rear suspension is stiff. If this is the case there is usually some creaking and groaning as the car rises and falls and you may be able to temporarily ease the problem for diagnostic purposes by greasing the exposed part of the strut (under the palstic covers if its like a BX)
My BX had a tendancy not to rise at the front sometimes, despite several attempts at lubricating the front height corrector. I recently replaced a worn strut and it now rises first time.
If you search on this board you should find the strut testing procedure explained in detail. If you load the car with the engine running (by sitting in the boot!) the back should sink and then rise again after 20 secs or so. same for front but more difficult.
jeremy
This sounds to me like general stiffness. It may be the height correctors and their linkages - relatively simple to clean and lubricate if you can get at them from underneath. Another possible cause (or additional) is that the struts and / or rear suspension is stiff. If this is the case there is usually some creaking and groaning as the car rises and falls and you may be able to temporarily ease the problem for diagnostic purposes by greasing the exposed part of the strut (under the palstic covers if its like a BX)
My BX had a tendancy not to rise at the front sometimes, despite several attempts at lubricating the front height corrector. I recently replaced a worn strut and it now rises first time.
If you search on this board you should find the strut testing procedure explained in detail. If you load the car with the engine running (by sitting in the boot!) the back should sink and then rise again after 20 secs or so. same for front but more difficult.
jeremy