c16rkc's mad house

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MattBLancs
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by MattBLancs »

Hurrah! Glad it's back on its feet

5 litres, that's loads!
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c16rkc
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

Yes I was pretty shocked how much went in. I guess it did not help that I was lazy and depressurised by releasing the bleed valve, rather than using my Dogbox.... :roll: :lol:

Now its all over, I do wonder what the garage would have charged to do this work; I'm trying to justify all this chaos with the idea that I might have saved some cash :mrgreen:

I'm thinking they would have charged an arm and a leg for the strut and Sphere if I had not free issued it, but I am guessing there is a couple of hundred £££ of labour here too.
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c16rkc
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

Oh rats!

I feel more work coming on... because this morning I noticed a small amount of fluid near the front drivers side wheel where I replaced the strut.

It's not all over the strut itself, so at least the new strut is not leaking! 8-[ But there must be a leak somewhere else.

It will need more investigation to pinpoint, as when I laid on the ground and looked underneath, it appeared to have dripped in a few places from holes in around the undertray (or it might have been from various suspension or engine bits... I did not look too thoroughly).

It appears I have adopted a very naughty Citroen! :lol:
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CitroJim
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by CitroJim »

c16rkc wrote: 24 Nov 2023, 13:25 It appears I have adopted a very naughty Citroen! :lol:

It's not just yours Chris, they all are...
Jim

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c16rkc
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

I guess I'll choose to say it has "character" then.... :roll:
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CitroJim
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by CitroJim »

c16rkc wrote: 24 Nov 2023, 14:40 I guess I'll choose to say it has "character" then.... :roll:

Yes, good choice :) No Citroen is ever short of a bit of that... In fact, most have a very good quantity of it :D
Jim

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c16rkc
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

I've found the source of the leak. It's coming from the new Sphere.

The instructions I read said "hand tight", but I'm guessing that was not quite tight enough... its as tight as I could get it though...!

I have depressurised the suspension tonight, I'll have a go refitting the Sphere tomorrow.

What a pain... :roll:
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myglaren
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by myglaren »

Hand tight should be sufficient, otherwise you may have extreme difficulty when it comes to changing them, as with disposable oil filter cartridges. Jabes (Hellrazor) always recommends loosening them every six months to avoid then becoming immovable.
My guess is there is a problem with the seal or mating surfaces.

This is second hand information, despite years of owning hydraulic Citroens i have never needed to change a sphere.
Armidillo
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by Armidillo »

I've no C5 experience, but the spheres on the earlier models (including Xantia & XM) are sealed by an O-ring that has a square cross-section, rather than the usual round cross section. Using a (*) seal of the correct size & with the correct cross section is obviously very important.

* The word "new" deleted on Jim's advice
Last edited by Armidillo on 25 Nov 2023, 09:12, edited 1 time in total.
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CitroJim
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by CitroJim »

Unless obviously damaged, Xantia and XM sphere seals are almost infinitely reusable! I always did...

Like you Alec, I have no C5 experience so the above may not apply...

Pleased it's nothing serious Chris :)
Jim

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Armidillo
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by Armidillo »

When I bought new IFHS spheres, they came with new seals. Could have put them on e-Bay I presume, but in a fit of extreme profligacy, I used them :-D .
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CitroJim
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by CitroJim »

Armidillo wrote: 25 Nov 2023, 09:21 When I bought new IFHS spheres, they came with new seals. Could have put them on e-Bay I presume, but in a fit of extreme profligacy, I used them :-D .
:-D :lol:
Jim

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c16rkc
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by c16rkc »

It was indeed the rubber seal on the Sphere... :roll:

The New Sphere came with a new seal, which I duly used. This new seal was identical to the old one, so no issue there.

However the problem was actually the new strut... :evil:

The recess where the seal sits has been made fractionally deeper. While the seal stuck out by about 0.25mm from the orifice on the old strut, giving a snug cushiony surface for the Sphere to sit on...

...on the brand new strut, the orifice inside the strut was slightly deeper than the seal is thick. This means that the seal was not even touching the Sphere...!

So my solution was to fit both the brand new and the old seals back to back in the orifice, luckily it was deep enough to hold both seals straight while I fitted the Sphere. I then washed everything down and waited. It's been two days now, and not even a drop of fluid has leaked, so that seems to have solved things :-D

Crisis over... I'll step down from Red alert to Purple alert :lol:
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CitroJim
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by CitroJim »

Excellent!
Jim

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Armidillo
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Re: c16rkc's mad house

Unread post by Armidillo »

Really good job diagnosing that one! What a ridiculous issue - should never happen.

If for some reason the strut recess has to be modified, then a new type thicker washer should have been supplied with the strut, as clearly the sphere manufacturers are not expecting such variation!