XM (1990, 2.0i, Y3, manual, leather) in Finland

[MTXM]

The hoses you illustrate look more like coolant lines although I do not know your engine like the V6! Best of luck with the MOT retest and nothing too serious to deal with! With regards, Matthew T.

[Rojekti]

Hand brakes mystics clarified, someone has installed the spring of the Y-section in quite a peculiar way. I dont think that it's the right way to install, here's a beatiful Paint impression of the thingy:


Spring was like that:

The spring is ridicilous and the wires from Y-section to brakes moved only some millimeters.

LHM-leak is somewhere over the sphere. Pipes and hoses over it seemed dry. Only ball's surface is moist with fresh LHM. Could they leak from their root etc?


Motor oil leaked from somewhere up. Those hoses are apparently water hoses since other of them goes to the cooler.

[Dean]

Motor oil leak found,



, what are those hoses, are they oil pump's lines to upper parts of the engine? Easy to fix, but out of interest, what are they.

The red circled one is the fill from the header tank, it runs around the o/s engine mount, the blue one comes from the radiator return to the water pump which it in that alloy housing.

D

[Rojekti]

Ah yes I forgot to write about that, yes, I noticed what they were when I got my eyes open ;D

Leak comes from somewhere up, gotta check that out later. First, the brakes and LHM-leak. Leak is a bit harder, looks like I should take the sphere off to see anything?!

[Rojekti]

Well, leaks have vanished.. No motor oil or LHM leak. They're both just gone.

I didn't do anything, just drove back from MOT and have been driving for about 50km after that.

I drove for 30 mins and still no leaks.

So I'll just go to the MOT again with fixed hand break.

If it gets accepted, I'll drive as soon as possible to a Citroen repairer who could fill all the spheres. That should be first step as the ride wasn't as smooth as I would've excepted.

[Rojekti]

Someone said that a sphere could have lost it's virginity (fiml broken inside the accumulator): that would have caused a kind of hydraulic flush in the system, causing LHM to flow from tank's "over fill hose" to somewhere in the mid, making it look like there is a leak, even though there is no such.

I, then, suspect my XM's hydractive sphere could have broken. It has been changed in 2004, 20 000 kilometers ago, and has not been filled. Other spheres are also changed 20 000 tkm ago but they have valves so I think they have been filled after 2004. The suspension is boat-like but still hard. You can low and lift the end or front by sitting etc over 20 centimeters, that feels like the Xantia I had, but when I drive dirt road, resonance is quite hard, I feel every bump, and so on. That's not Xantia-like so I dont think everything is all right. Main suspection is the hydractive sphere, currently.

What's a normal filling interval? What about changing the spheres?
edit. What about pump's click interval, what's normal case? Mine clicks normally every 15-25 secs, and when I put the car to UP position, it seems to run all the time.

Could someone please measure the following, while car being in up-position?


I suspect the "meter" in the cover is struck since it doesn't seem to change it's value when I lower or rise the car. Also I'm not sure whether I got too low level of LHM: the warning light is lit when I start the car, then disappeares and comes in 15 minutes on again, staying that way for the rest of time.

[xantia_v6]

I would suggest that you connect a small light bulb or LED accross the hydroactive valve so that you can see the mode switching while driving, and you will see whether you hash ride is due to the system switching into hard mode.

The STOP light on the dashboard is also driven by system pressure (which is why it comes on with the engine stopped, you should try to work out which sensor is putting it on after 15 minutes.

If your system pressure is low while driving, that could cause the hydroactive to go into hard mode (regardless of the electrical control) and cause harsh ride.

[White Exec]

The distance you wanted is 12cm. This is with suspension on Highest, and fluid at the correct level - should show as the yellow disc being between the two red rings.

If you run with low fluid level there could be problems, eg air in fluid (poor suspension) or pressure warnings. If you overfill the reservoir, even by as much as a litre, there shouldn't be a problem.

The level indicators (float meachanism, incorporating the level switch) can get stuck, as you say. Easily taken apart and freed up.

Can you post a photo of the refill valve you have in one of your spheres? We can then confirm whether it's a Valprex valve, or something else. If there's a plastic cap over the valve, take this off before taking the photo!

[Rojekti]

Thanks.

I measured the distance. It's 8½-9½ cm in the highest. The floater is stuck, indeed, but why is LHM-level warning light sometimes on and at sometimes it stays on?
Pressure warning is a bit random. I did citrobatics about 10-15 times, it was sometimes ON, usually OFF. Test drive - there was no lights on but ride was hard.

I'll take such sphere photo soon.

I think the hard mode and the valve works. Sport-indicator in the screen works. I did following:
1) Engine ON
2) Set normal height
3) Engine OFF
4) Get out, shut doors, keys off
5) Front and end felt very soft
6) Waited 30 s ecs
7) Loud CLICK came from front end
8) Front and end felt suddenly very HARD!
9) Opened door
10) CLICK
11) Front and end felt, in an instance, very soft

So the system SHOULD work, right!

Am I just overreacting. I test drive the car in a bumpy road around the barn. Lots of bumps there. Should I except the car to absorb it all on a quite bumpy road or is it normal for interior to shake and rattle. When I drove a longer way (asphalt and all), suspension felt allright. Systems seem to work but perhaps the spheres are just dull.

Also I realized the front spheres have NOT been filled so they ARE 11 years and 20 000 kilometers old.

EDIT.

Since it was a nice day, I shot a time-lapse video of the event.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxVs2sE ... e=youtu.be[/youtube]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxVs2sE ... e=youtu.be

[xantia_v6]

You have done correct testing of the static operation of the hydro active, but the ecu will dynamically to sports mode while cornering, accelerating or braking. The display does not show this, so you need to add your own warning light to see what is really happening.