Spheres -Disappointment and a silly question.

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rory_perrett
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Spheres -Disappointment and a silly question.

Post by rory_perrett »

Finally got round to replacing the pipe to the anti-sink sphere which I sheared 6 months ago when changing the rear spheres on my ’98 2.1TD hydractive. Really not missed it at all but as I’d bought a new sphere I thought I’d better fit it and at £6.51 from the local Cit dealer the pipe was a bargain. Anyway as all the front spheres except the accumulator are original and the car’s now done 156k miles I thought I would do the front ones at the same time. Not that it was particularly bouncy.
Disappointment – Much to my surprise, I really can’t feel any difference, not like the BX that was always transformed with new spheres. Now I haven’t had time to do the Citrobics but I’ve driven 180 miles today surely I should notice some difference.
The silly question. How does the air get out of the system? You stick on a new sphere, it is effectively a dead end but presumably full of air. Or does the air just stay in there compressed by the hydraulic oil and is accounted for in the design?
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rg
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Post by rg »

Citaerobics.
Plus bleed off at the brake nipples. This may have an effect on ride.
rg
alexx
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Post by alexx »

Did you drive without the anti-sink sphere in the meantime (and were the rear brakes working ok in that case)?
Front (corner) spheres are, if 450 ccm, multilayer type, like in C5, and they could last very long. On mine, they are only 5-6 bar down from the original pressure ('98 also).
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Post by uhn113x »

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The silly question. How does the air get out of the system? You stick on a new sphere, it is effectively a dead end but presumably full of air. Or does the air just stay in there compressed by the hydraulic oil and is accounted for in the design?
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Not quite a dead end, Rory. The fluid in the spheres all comes out when the car goes to sleep, and there is a flow of fluid back to the reservoir via the height correctors every time they compensate for excessive ride height, then more fluid comes from the line when the car is raised. Citaerobics speeds up this process.
What state is your LHM in, and have you tested the height correctors? They may be blocked.
rory_perrett
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Post by rory_perrett »

Alexx
Not saying I would recommend it but yes I've driven about 15,000 miles without it. Really could feel any difference either with just me on the commute to work or packed to the gunnels with the wife and kids and all the holiday gear. It also sailed through its MOT without it. No obvious dropping of the back under braking.
Mike - LHM is about two years old, doesn't look that bad but a system clean is on the cards. Height correctors seem ok. I think its just the contrast with when I did the back spheres in Feb, there was a dramatic improvement - may be the fronts didn't really need doing. Mind you the old Xantia still rides better than the Mercedes C Class hire car I've got this week for work.
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Post by alexx »

Rory
When a bought the car (almost a year ago), rear spheres were, unlike front ones, at only about 8 bar. It was similar in all Xantias '97-'99 I tested. Mechanic said that rear spheres usually don't last very long. It was quite a difference after we refilled them.
I changed LHM last week, at 60.000 km. It was 6 years old, but there is no difference in ride with new one. My father was driving his GS about 15 years with the same LHM anyway, and the ride was still very smooth.
Did you change the middle (hydractive) front sphere also? It's the one that controls the 'floating' of the car.
The reason why I asked about antisink sphere is because I consider to (temporary) remove it (how did you plug the pipe?), to see if it's the reason why air/nitrogen is coming into rear brake circuit, causing the delay of rear brakes (as I described in another post). Malfunctioning of rear brake circuit is indicated by rising (-not dropping-) of the back under braking.
rory_perrett
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Post by rory_perrett »

Alexx
Yep - changed all four at the front. I've heard that on the Xantia it is the rear ones that go first which has been the case with both the Xantias we have at the moment. Opposite to the BX I had previously, the rears on that seem to last twice as long as the fronts.
The reason why I ended up without the antisink sphere was that I twisted the pipe taking the old one off and it broke. As the pipe was already scrap I had nothing to loose so I cut it off about 50mm from the end, welded the cut end up and screwed it back in.
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Post by alexx »

thx
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