How often should the hydraulic pump cycle?

[bump_draft]

Mine cycles every 8-10 seconds depending on temperature. That seems very frequent?

I just bled the system via bleeder screw on the regulator + brakes. The main accumulator is new as of this year, and the corner spheres are new as of last year. I don't see any leaks, but there might be a dot of fluid under the regulator when it's parked.

Is that too often? Is there anything else I can check, or fix?

To specify this is a 1990 XM with the 2.0 motor

[xantia_v6]

I would expect the cycle time to be more than 30 seconds, preferably a minute or more.

I am not too familiar with HA1 systems (my Citroens have all been later with anti-sink), but checking with height at minimum or with hydractive fuse removed may help isolate the leakage.

[aerodynamica]

I'll second that.

If it cycles this often even with a new accumulator then there is likely a component sinking the pressure. Setting the suspension to low takes the suspension and the rear brake circuit out of the equation so that the accumulator is then only holding pressure for the front brake circuit. If you find that the cycle time improves with the suspension on low it points to the suspension or brake valve as a start.

I had this same issue on my 1993 Xantia Hydractive 2. Setting to low increased the cycle time but only by a small improvement. It pointed to the brake valve though. Next, pressing the brake pedal to full pressure and holding it improved it even more until it was nearly 50 seconds. This told me the brake valve was the cause as full brake pedal press connects the pressure to the calipers completely effectively bypassing ay wear in the brake valve in its rest position.