Shelf life of Xantia Spheres

[DHallworth]

On Friday I ordered a set of spheres for my Activa from AEP in Rutherglen.

They've just been delivered this morning and upon inspecting them I've noticed that a couple of the spheres are date stamped 2 years ago.

Does the quality of a sphere deteriorate from just sitting on a shelf?

Usually they're pretty good and they only stock new spheres but am guessing the anti sink and Activa spheres are something they rarely get asked for.

David.

[addo]

Test them. All else is speculation.

[Mandrake]

When I got my spheres from AEP a year ago, all the spheres except the front hydractive regulator were 2-3 months old by the date stamp, including the anti-sink sphere. The hydractive regulator was 11 months old.

The answer to your question is really "it depends". They should be ok but I wouldn't be happy accepting 2 year old spheres as new unless I pressure tested them.

[DHallworth]

I've posted many times about aep spheres being 'old' and when tested low on pressure. Send them back, unacceptable.

What sort of age would you class as acceptable?

Is there an easy way of testing them?

David.

[Mandrake]

A tester can be made from a few spare parts from a car - a pressure regulator to mount the sphere on, a hydraulic pump, a tin to act as a small LHM reservoir, a little bit of piping, and a pressure gauge to read the oil pressure.

Citrojim has posted pictures of his test rig before, see if you can track down the pictures. Some people have used a small hydraulic bottle jack with a pipe welded in place of the piston instead of a rotary pump off a car. Anything that lets you pump the oil pressure up to at least 80 bars will do the job.

You pump up the oil pressure higher than the anticipated pressure of the sphere then open the bleed screw on the regulator slightly so the pressure slowly falls, when it reaches the gas pressure of the sphere the oil pressure reading will jump instantly to zero. The pressure that it showed just before it jumped to zero is your gas pressure.

It can be done on a car as well by disconnecting the output line from the pressure regulator that goes to the priority valve and connecting a pressure gauge in its place. Then you have a pump, pressure regulator etc at your disposal. Each sphere that needs testing is fitted one at a time in place of the accumulator sphere.

Not very practical on a V6 though due to lack of access to the pressure regulator!

[DHallworth]

Here's the dates on the Xantia Spheres that I've got...



The other thing that doesn't make sense is the labelling of the spheres... According to what I've got here there's two rear regulators and a front regulator.

There's one sphere on the receipt that just says Sphere - Xan / XM Centre.

Problem is if I test them and put any LHM near them then AEP won't take them back...

David.

[CitroJim]

I've known spheres to be ten years old and still spot-on..

Generally off the car they deteriorate very slowly indeed.. It's on the are they deteriorate...

[Citroenmad]

Yep, I've found that they last a very long time in storage. Best to pressure test them before fitting but I would be surprised if they are not within spec.

[Hell Razor5543]

I believe that (from what I have read recently on the forum) there is a metal button in the diaphragm that helps to slow down the gas leakage when the spheres are on the shelf.

Second post on page 5 of this link;

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 01#p376501" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So that might mean the spheres won't have lost much pressure. However, when I asked the question of a Citroen parts guy, he told me they returned green spheres with a date stamp more than a year old.

[red_dwarfers]

Another one for testing the spheres if you are unsure. I've had a 4 year old fitted Xantia sphere which needed replacing and also a 22 year old Pleidies regassed one which I didn't bother replacing on the GSA as it's still riding as well as a new one.