Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

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thundermaster
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Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by thundermaster »

Hi to all,

In my car two or three days now, I have a suspension problem. The car goes completely down to the front side and when I unlock, or sit to on the drivers seat, it delays to rise at front, about 6-8 seconds. In the motorway everything seems to be ok, but in small speeds, the front goes down and the front suspension is bouncing from time to time. When the car is parked, the suspension height control button works ok and rises the car in all height levels. Any ideas? Spheres? Height sensor? By the way, where is the front height sensor?

Thank you so much...
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Hi and welcome to the Forum.
There could be a few possibilities. As you are in Greece, we don't currently have any members listed with Lexia kits that could help with a diagnosis. So I would start with checking the height correctors first. Be careful not to undo the clamps or brackets - as any movement will alter the height settings and will require resetting. I would make sure that the linkage is well-lubricated on each and then raise the car fully up and fully down several times to work the lubricating oil in. Here are the locations of the Front and Rear sensors:

Front
(Spray around the ends of the linkage at 2 & b)
Front.png
Rear (Spray around part 6 & d)
rear.png
Overall (Parts 2 & 3 are the brackets that hold the correctors (1) on the Diagram - don't undo these or move them!)
overall.png
If your BHi (hydraulic pump) is raising and lowering the car ok, is would seem to be functioning - but if it struggles to raise the car up and the whining noise is strained - it may be that the pump is on it's way out.

There's a post here on the BHi unit here:
https://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/ ... hp?t=56094
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by thundermaster »

Many thanks Givemeabreak for your response.

Latest news:
A Citroen service shop near my job connected the car to lexia and lexia didn't show anything. The car was going up and down when was parked there. They told that if it's not the height corrector, it could be the suspension ECU!!!!!. I took the car and after ten minutes they phoned me to say that there was a big leakage to the place I had the car. I went back and they put the car to the lifter. The right "bottle" (the inox column under the right front sphere, they call it "bottle" in greek) was swimming on LDS fluid. It took 2 litres of LDS to the reservoir and after that the car stopped doing strange things. Scooped the "bottle" and we were watching the car for about 40 minutes, going it with the buttons up and down continuously and absolutely no leakage found from the "wheel bottle". Now it seems to be OK on the road, even on not-smooth surfaces.
After parking it at home 15 minutes before, I noticed a "released-air" noise from the right "bottle" which stopped after 10 seconds with a tick noise...

I don't know what to say, even they... I will have the car there again on Friday to see if the leakage is done during driving...
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Just keep an eye on it - a leak will occur for a reason. If you are loosing LDS fluid from underneath the reservoir - this could still be down to the the BHI unit.

One thing you need to remember - if you are lifting a Citroen with Hydraulic suspension off the ground, where the wheels will be suspended and hanging free - you MUST raise the suspension to the high setting and unscrew the LDS cap from the reservoir first before raising the car off the ground. When you have lowered the car back onto the round, replace the cap. Failure to do this can result in a vacuum caused by the weight of the wheels and tyres putting additional pressure on the suspension seals.
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by Stickyfinger »

Just a note: it is not a vacuum, it pressurises the tank....it will either make a jet of LHM out of the cap or Blow-Up the tank itself, this increase in pressure is what blows the seals I was told.
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Stickyfinger wrote:Just a note: it is not a vacuum, it pressurises the tank....it will either make a jet of LHM out of the cap or Blow-Up the tank itself, this increase in pressure is what blows the seals I was told.
I meant a vacuum first if the suspension is not raised with the weight pulling and the cap sealed - but yes a possible bang on returning to ground :wink:
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by Stickyfinger »

Nope, when the MOT garage "forgot" what I told them and raised the car (the bonnet was up ready for the cap to be removed), it squirted LHM out of the cap splashing off the bonnet all over the garage and car.....I heard the scream and removed the cap with a rag...LOTS of pressure and lucky I was only a few feet away and happened to notice the golden shower (ummm) ! ....so it must make pressure when the wheels hang ?

Reportedly some caps do not have a very good air hole and the tank goes BANG !
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by Sloppysod »

The last part of this thread is very interesting, however, I have never experienced this issue with any of my Citroens, I have sometimes had all wheels of the ground by raising the car up, placing stands underneath, then moving the lever back to the low position, Have I just been lucky? :o
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by GiveMeABreak »

Sloppysod wrote:The last part of this thread is very interesting, however, I have never experienced this issue with any of my Citroens, I have sometimes had all wheels of the ground by raising the car up, placing stands underneath, then moving the lever back to the low position, Have I just been lucky? :o
There are plenty of cases over on the C6 Forums Stu with split LDS tanks. They did do a replacement LDS cap with a larger hole on later tanks - but opinion is that they should make the warning a lot more obvious than in the service documentation that end customers will rarely ever see!
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by Sloppysod »

Marc, Alasdair - Thank you, any new advice to keep the car on the road is welcome, so even though I have not been doing it, I will from now on,.......................if I remember!
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by thundermaster »

Recently, about 15 days ago, I had the car to a repair shop for changing the rear bumper (I don't know if they lifted the car too). I don't know if the problem has to do something with that but in any case I will keep an eye on it.
Thank you all....
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by thundermaster »

Good morning,

Today the car started again going up and down, it looks like it takes the normal height but can't preserve it. To the highest suspension level, it is ok, don't doing up and down. The "up and down exercise" affects the normal and 40km/h suspension level. A strange slight air-decompression sound can be heard from the right wheel, when the car goes down. In any case, I went to the super market 10 minutes ago and the suspension is bouncing, probably because it can't preserve the normal driving height. However I didn't see any leak in the place I parked it.

Maybe a little amount of wd40 to the front height sensor..... But is it to the left, to the right, under the car, can be localized from the bonnet or a lifter is required?
thundermaster
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by thundermaster »

Right suspension cylinder-piston is leaking. It is quite obvious now and this is the reason the car can't preserve it's normal height. Scooped the cylinder yesterday and today it is wet. The left is completely dry...
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by GiveMeABreak »

The loss of that much fluid would give it away. I'm wondering if all that hard bouncing whilst driving may have also damaged the sphere integrity? If, when you have the strut replaced, the suspension is still hard on that corner, then the diaphragm may have been ruptured by the spikes in the saucer sphere, necessitating a replacement.
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Re: Citroen C5 2.0i 16v strange suspension activity

Post by thundermaster »

Hi Givemeabreak!

No, the sphere is OK. The cylinder has been replaced with a new (used). The behavior of the car seems to be good now.
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