C5 suspension failed

[Citralex234]

Hi . I need urgent help, yesterday I changed a bottom ball joint on my 05 C5 . When I finished I found that the suspension wouldn't rise . As I'm meant to be going on holiday with my caravan tomorrow I'm up the proverbial s*** creek. Regards John.

[Hell Razor5543]

It is possible that the suspension pump will need to be primed (assuming you do not have an LDS leak). The easy way to do this does rely on you having fairly strong lungs (one of the forum members has done this and had it work). What you do is to open up the bonnet, and then remove the cover from over the LDS reservoir (standing in front of the car, looking at the engine bay, the cover in question is on the left hand side). Then undo the reservoir cap (black, with red lettering that should read "Direction Assistee - Power Steering"), clean up the neck of the reservoir thoroughly (but make sure nothing drops inside), seal your lips around the neck, and blow HARD into the reservoir. It only takes about 7PSI to prime the pump (you probably need to have the engine running when doing this, so the pump can react, but I am NOT certain of this!). Pop the cap back on, start up the engine (if it is not already running), and see if the suspension is now working properly.

The reason this has happened is quite common. When you jack a C5 up so that the wheels are hanging down it can cause air to be drawn into the suspension system past the strut seals. This can then cause the pump to have a problem. What you should do before lifting a C5 off any of her wheels is to loosen the LDS reservoir cap. That way air can be drawn into the system via the reservoir (as the fluid heads off down the system), and should only remain in the reservoir. Then the pump remains primed, and should not misbehave when the C5 is back on her wheels (which is when you can do the cap up properly and re-fit the cover.

[GiveMeABreak]

Hi . I need urgent help, yesterday I changed a bottom ball joint on my 05 C5 . When I finished I found that the suspension wouldn't rise . As I'm meant to be going on holiday with my caravan tomorrow I'm up the proverbial s*** creek. Regards John.

The first thing to do is check that you haven't disturbed anything near or under the BHI (Suspension pump and ECU) on the driver's side. As it was a ball joint, it might be possible you have upset something when banging the joint. Make sure the plugs are firmly attached to the ECU and Pump (under the LDS reservoir).

Do you hear the pump making any noise when unlocking the car?
Next check the battery is in good condition and the fuse.

[411514]

That has happened to me a couple of times before when I have forgotten to set the suspension to 'high' before jacking the car up with wheels off the floor.

Try jacking the front end of the car up slightly with a trolley jack whilst pressing the 'up' suspension button. I usually find that jacking up the car a couple of inches, not so much as to raise the wheels off the floor, works.

[Citralex234]

Hi, thanks for the help. My son fixed the car,it was a blown maxi fuse.I didn't even know where they were. Regards John

[GiveMeABreak]

No problem, but I would now be wondering what has caused the fuse to blow. There have been a few cases here where it has been changed and then blown again shortly after. The cause was motor strain / overheating due to all the carbon deposits and crud build up. It needed cleaning up / replacing IIRC. So just to be prepared in case...