Hydractive 3+ what should the ride be like?

[JackoJuaquo]

Hi all,

Just had the spheres changes in my C5 X7, and while it rides quite well it’s not much different than a car with springs, there’s nothing special as such. However- on a motorway I will say it’s great, but then again there isn’t much bumps on motorways.

I was (perhaps naively) expecting something like videos I’ve seen of CXs being used as camera vehicles on race courses.

What should the ride be like?

[mickthemaverick]

As far as I have found the Hydractive 3 is more about giving good handling characteristics in the bends than smoothing out the bumps but it should feel pretty smooth in general driving.

[the-termin8r]

It's a weird oxymoron of both a bit wallow-y and also quite planted. Around town the body should move around a bit and feel almost like it's under-damped. On the motorway it should feel like it's on rails but with some smooth heaving occasionally. The specifics of how the body behaves vary based on which engine you have, I've attached an excerpt from my comparison review between my 2L and 3L X7s.

Suspension and steering:

This is a weird one, you'd think that they'd be the same, but they really aren't. I suspect is has a lot to do with the extra height sensors, ECU and weight in the 3L. Both are incredibly comfortable and will shred the competition. But the 2L actually feels closer to a normal car than the 3L in terms of ride behaviour. Though if you get in a normal car after the 2L it will feel like rolling down the side of Mt. Everest in a wooden barrel.

The 3L is oddly wallow-y both around town and on the motorway and feels more like a classic Citroen rather than being significantly more comfortable than the 2L. You can definitely feel the extra 200 Kg in the car. It's not unpleasant, but definitely something to get used to, the 2L feels much tighter in relation. On the motorway, the 2L will just heave over larger undulations whereas the 3L pitches a little as well as heaving when going over large undulations. Both are incredibly planted though, like nothing I've ever driven, they feel like they're on rails. They just hunker down and get on with the cruise.

Around town the wallow-y-ness is what makes bump and hole handling harder to judge. I feel like the added heft of the 3L helps it better absorb the sharper jolts, despite the smaller side walls. Whereas the 2L almost feels slightly over-sprung and you feel the sharper bumps more and they make a bit more of a muted thud than in the 3L (both cars being mechanically sound). Both are very good, but the 3L takes some getting used to after 11 years in the 2L.

The steering really threw me off though. Around town the 3L is noticeably lighter than the 2L (not that the 2L is heavy). I immediately noticed this when I briefly test drove another 3L a couple of years ago as well. Where things change is on the motorway, the 3L becomes the heavier one and the 2L is lighter (relative to each other, not themselves, at a given speed). Both feel great, but the change is odd. I suspect it's to do with the 3L having the extra suspension ECU and the steering being handled by that.

[Peter.N.]

Have you changed the centre spheres? they are the ones that give you the soft ride. Mine has one at the front but the two inner ones are equivalent to the centre front ones on the rear. I bought a quite nice hydropnumatic last year and changed all the front spheres but we had a house fire in August so nothing much has been done since. I have the car on the ramp now but there are a lot of other things going on at the moment, I will let you know the outcome when I have done the job.

The last conventionally sprung one I have gives a superb ride so its got to go some to beat that, but its suffering from old age so I bought this one to replace it.

I looked at several but there aren't many decent ones around but I will say that one I looked at in Nottingham which I declined due to its scruffiness had rear suspension like an XM with about 4-6 inches of vertical movement, this one doesn't at the moment but I have yet to fit the new spheres.

Peter

[JackoJuaquo]

Thanks for the replies! You’ve all hit on some interesting points, it’s great on motorways, it’s the best car I’ve ever driven on a motorway, completely effortless, like it’s on rails.
It is the around town and back roads where it’s jerky and bumpy, it works out bumps slightly better than springs but not much. However - the front centre sphere was too much work to get at, the guy who worked on the car is a specialist, he had checked all the spheres and they were low or burst and he’s changed them, however he said getting at the front centre was too difficult and cost prohibitive, so it’s still on its original - 18 years, so likely nearly flat.
So I guess I’m lucky it’s riding as good as it is!

I would say a 3L never made it to Ireland due to tax rates, the 2.2 was rare also.

[the-termin8r]

It's weird to me that the smaller engines have the central sphere deep in the bowels of the car. I accidentally found the central sphere on my 3L when I pulled the bumper to fit the facelift clusters. Turns out the massive engine means that the sphere has to go where the power steering pump is on the smaller engines, which is to say more or less between the front right wheel and headlight cluster. All you have to do is pull the bumper to get to it. I also don't know why all the V6s and some of the 1.6 diesels got engine-driven pumps while all the others have electric pumps.

The 3L is stupidly rare in the UK too. If this is to be believed, there's only 31 left on the road in the UK. I've been monitoring it periodically and seen the number go as low as 26. The data supposedly comes from quarterly registration info and somewhat-real-time MOT info.

[Peter.N.]

Mine is a 2.0.litre and the front centre doesn't look to bad to get at, its at the back of the n/s wing liner so hope its as easy as it looks.

Peter

[Kees]

Remove the front bumper to change the sphere at the front of an V6.......No!!!!
Just Remove the right front wheel and the mud protector, and there it is.
@JackoJuaquo:
One of the reason that the car feels smooth on the motorway is that if the speed is above 100 Km/H then the suspension is lowered by 10 mm, so then the suspension is a bit softer, but however when you meet a bump/put hole it changed to stiff.
The problem with the X7 is, that almost everything you do with the car like changes the throttle, steering wheel, apply the brakes the system kicks in the stiffness mode.
I was riding the XM V6/3.0 for 20 years and don't like the suspension behavior of the X7, so i have changed it in a way, that it's always in the soft mode by disconnecting the stiffness regulators and connect a resistor at the connector, so the system gif no errors.
Greetings,
Kees.

[JackoJuaquo]

I’m going to try this, if it works I’ll keep the car, if it doesn’t then I really see no great advantage as the car has quite a few other annoying niggles.

Remove the front bumper to change the sphere at the front of an V6.......No!!!!
Just Remove the right front wheel and the mud protector, and there it is.
@JackoJuaquo:
One of the reason that the car feels smooth on the motorway is that if the speed is above 100 Km/H then the suspension is lowered by 10 mm, so then the suspension is a bit softer, but however when you meet a bump/put hole it changed to stiff.
The problem with the X7 is, that almost everything you do with the car like changes the throttle, steering wheel, apply the brakes the system kicks in the stiffness mode.
I was riding the XM V6/3.0 for 20 years and don't like the suspension behavior of the X7, so i have changed it in a way, that it's always in the soft mode by disconnecting the stiffness regulators and connect a resistor at the connector, so the system gif no errors.
Greetings,
Kees.

[Kees]

Because you have a 2.0, not a 3.0 it's a bit different, you have to find the right wires on the connector from the BHI (black box on top of the pomp).
Then you have to connect the resistors 10 Ohm/10 Watt on these ones.
But before you do this, you can remove fuse G39 first to see how the car behaves when it's in the soft mode, you get an error on the dashboard, but even so you can drive the car for a while.
Here you see the the connections that you need, it's:
G2,G3 for the front and G4,H2 for the rear stiffness regulator.