Dean wrote:Dieselman wrote:It sounds like the accumulator might be flat, listen to how often the pump cuts in and out again.
thats the problem Will, the reg should not be cutting in or out at all as the pressure should not reach 175bar because it should all be leaking away to raise the suspension, they all do this when the system is not happy, mine used to.
D
To be precise (for readers that are not familiar with hydropneumatics

), the accumulator would probably *be* a mediating factor here, but not the problem *per se*. The problem is, like u say Dean, that the pressure regulator "sees" cut-out pressure that it shouldn't see in a well maintained XM. Both my XMs were like this golden one when I bought them, even if they had had fresh LHM and all new spheres, incl accumulator. They were only completely corrected after 1/lots of up/downs on hydraflush, and 2/after I re-adjusted the pressure regulator cut-in and cut out points. On an old unmaintained XM, usually it will be some combination of both, i.e. dirty hydraulics and a lower-than-standard cut-out threshold.
I don't remember details now as this was a few years ago, but in the black V6 I had evidence of the front struts been sticky -it's all in the write up in the other club-xm. On the green 2.1td I also had this -the lhs front would sometimes stay put (compressed) after braking, then a few secs later pop back up, couldn't believe it!! It's cured now.
As soon as it was adjusted to 145-170bar, the black V6 front would go up to position with maybe 1 intermediate "click" from the pressure regulator, other times with no click at all -just a click once in position. And we r talking of a car I got with 147k miles/230,000 killometers, and today has 175k miles/280k, and still behaves as should.
The 2.1td is still not as good, although it has improved alot compared to when I bought it; I'll be looking at the pressure regulator next and adjust accordingly to completely fix it.
In relation to all this, I never miss the opportunity to say that
1/so often I've read of people looking at their pump as the culprit for slow rising or stiff steering, when it rarelly is; it's most likely one more case of an unmaintened hydraulic system that will become again almost 100% just with a good hydraflush session! If this doesn't improve things dramatically, only then look at having a real breakdown somewhere! Note: Citroen reccommends hydraflushing as standard maintenance every 60,000 miles, and I'd not be surprised at all if Cit UK *never* has advised any UK owner of this
2/ dirty LHM tank filters have no influence whatsoever in all this!! Confirmed on both my XMs, with 2 different pressure regulator types (1- and 2-outlet type), two diffrerent steering systems (DIRAVI and DIRASS), where I only washed up the filters after the whole operation had been completed, when they were black like soot while the car had already found its full health!
George