Water or something else in LDS

[torneol]

I'm going to buy a C5 X7, but there might be an issue with lds fluid. See picture.

If it is water or something else, will the system be ok after fluid has changed? Probably it should change twice...

Car goes down and up, but not to highest position. Hydraulic pump works quite hard. It also take a bit more time to rise the car than usually.

Can there be somekind permanent fault after wrong liquid in system?

[myglaren]

Definitely something wrong there.
Hard to tell from the photo but could it be foam? Can you use a syringe to extract some and have a better chance to see what it might be. If it is foam then it must be sucking air in somewhere.
That should affect the suspension and the power steering.

If it isn't foam then I would drain it and replace it, run it for a couple of weeks and see what happens and if nothing then drain and replace again to get any contaminant residue out of the system.
If it is contaminated, maybe before you bought the car by a previous owner, or have you had it worked on by someone who could have added something to the reservoir that has no business being there?
If so then there is also a possibility of damage to seals that may manifest later.

[Hell Razor5543]

If you do buy that C5 might I suggest an early job to do would be to strip and clean the hydraulic pump motor? Over time the carbon dust (from the brushes) can combine with any spilt LDS to produce a conductive paste that can kill the motor. I had this happen on my current C5, and it burnt out the windings. Fortunately the local scrap yard had a similar C5 and I was able to get the motor from that, clean it up, and get my C5 back on the road.

[torneol]

Thanks for quick replys!

The car is still at dealerships yard. It will go to workshop tomorrow and they will change that liquid. It's not Citroën service and I have some doubts about how they are going to do it, but I probably get it changed later for my own money.

I have to talk to dealer about this once again.

[torneol]

Definitely something wrong there.
Hard to tell from the photo but could it be foam? Can you use a syringe to extract some and have a better chance to see what it might be. If it is foam then it must be sucking air in somewhere.
That should affect the suspension and the power steering.

If it isn't foam then I would drain it and replace it, run it for a couple of weeks and see what happens and if nothing then drain and replace again to get any contaminant residue out of the system.
If it is contaminated, maybe before you bought the car by a previous owner, or have you had it worked on by someone who could have added something to the reservoir that has no business being there?
If so then there is also a possibility of damage to seals that may manifest later.

I can't see any foam. Steering works fine. I check the situation before I buy it. If it seems to be ok, I'll get that fluid change once again after a while.

[myglaren]

Most likely that someone has substituted something for LDS. Generic power steering fluid probably.

[torneol]

Does it do any harm for system?

[myglaren]

Certainly inadvisable. Not known what the effects may be but ruined seals a high probability.

[torneol]

Damn. I have to think if I purchased that car or not again.

[myglaren]

Wait until you have a few more voices chipping in, there may be alternative opinions.

[GiveMeABreak]

LDS should be a brown / orange colour. You may get some 'fizz' after your remove the cap, so wait for the air bubbles to dissipate and see if the colour returns to normal. I assume that picture was taken with the suspension setting on the lowest setting? If not, and the suspension is on normal setting, then the reservoir has been over-filled and this can put too much pressure in the tank.

If you suspect the incorrect fluid has been added, then the system should be fully drained and refilled with LDS fluid as soon as possible.

[torneol]

They are going to remove that old staff. I wonder, that 'cause it's not a Citroën service, they don't know how to do it. I am not sure, how they can handle, if I give them any advice...

If I buy it, I will get that operaation done once again in proper Citroën service. Hopefully there is nou damage for the system.

[GiveMeABreak]

It’s more likely to be third party garage or a previous owner that has put the wrong fluid in (if this is actually the case) and not Citroen. They are trained on these vehicles which is why you pay a premium. LDS is also used in some Peugeot and Citroen vehicles for the power steering fluid, so they will be aware if this.

[torneol]

That's exactly right. That's why I'm going to get it service to carage, who knows these things, if I buy it.

[Jay-Bruce]

That looks like emlusified oil, wonder is some not very bright person has "topped up the water" into the LDS tank, mistaking it for the coolant expansion tank? For getting the fluid out, with the vehicle lifted ideally on a four post ramp, with jacking beam / "pit-jack", lower the suspension to lowest setting, and if possible depressurise the system using a good diagnostics tool such as delphi or PSA Lexia. Once as much of the suspension fluid has been returned to tank as is possible with the tools at hand, lift the front of the vehicle on the aforementioned jacking beam and remove the front right hand road wheel. Now remove the wheel arch liner, which will allow you to see a hose that comes down from the LDS tank on the right-hand side of the engine bay, towards the power steering pump; remove that hose and drain fluid. The final steps are reassembling the hose, arch-liner, wheel, thenefilling the tank, bleeding the power steering, raise the suspension up and down a couple of times, and lower it to lowest setting and checking the fluid level.

If, as I suspect is the case, the LDS fluid is emulsified, this need this procedure done a couple of times, as by draining the tank you don't get all of the fluid out, so you empty the tank, refill it with fresh fluid, that will mix with the contaminated fluid, become diluted and thus contaminated itself. Do it again, and the second time the fluid will be less contaminated, but is still contaminated to some degree. By the second or third time flushing the system, the contamination should be minimal.

I was also thinking about this, rather than just put LDS in the tank after draining it, I'd be very tempted to go with "Hydraflush" / "Hydrorincage", which is the special cleaning fluid for the earlier LHM based Citroens. I know that LHM is mineral based, and LDS is synthetic, but having studied their datasheets, they are close enough as wont make much difference, and "slightly wrong but clean" hydraulic system flushing fluid is going to be many times better than the current badly contaminated / emulsified fluid. I'd also wager that using hydraflush would help remove the contaminated fluid from the system quicker than LDS would.

Short version, I believe the fluid is emulsified, I'd say replace the fluid with hydraflush, run the car for a thousand KM, do another fluid change and replace the hydraflush with more hydraflush, do another thousand or so KM, change the fluid again, and probably replace the hydraflush with LDS. I'd say buy the car, at a discounted price, and get the garage to agree to doing the flushes I've described as part of the conditions of the sale. Negotiate along the lines of "You need a discount on the car to give you a contingency in case the contaminated fluid has shortened the life of any of the expensive hydraulics components". It's not an actual concern, just trying to save you some money on the car.