Rear Suspension Cylinders, re-furb

[jorgy9]

Hi all

I wanted to ask, has anybody here ever refurbished a rear hydraulic cylinder on a Cit -any model-?

From what I read, except of extreme cases where something structural has broken, those do not need anything else than 2 new rubber and 1 teflon seal to get a new lease of life -shame throwing our whole units away-. As opposed to the "strut" type of suspension -as used on the front of BXs, Xants, and XMs- it seems the "cylinder" type not only is unbreakable and not weary -except for the 3 seals- but also a very easy operation to replace those seals -the cylinder literaly falls apart open when one of its bolting points is freed-. Could even turn out that the 3 seals an XM needs are identical to the ones a CX or Xant need.

I now feel silly to have bought a new rear cylinder for my XM -I had found mine leaking a bit-.

So, any info on that?

cheers
George

[DerekW]

Hi George,

One other thing, Plaedes had a "Black Museum" which included a number af badly corroded rear cylinders including a couple with holes.

Derek

[jorgy9]

Hehe, you mean similar to that (probably much worse) :



That's from a DS. But they were good enough to become like the one on the right again. I notice that the interior cylinder is in good shape:



G

[techmanagain]

Even in extreme conditions, I don't think any XM rear cylinders would be "scrappable" yet. There is a very faint chance that they might get slightly worn oval if heavy loads are carried continuously.

[jorgy9]

BTW those 3 seals in photos are the ones needed.

[noz]

Hi Jorgy,

I agree with Techman. I had two badly leaking rear struts on my silver 2.5TD. I bought the o-ring kit from Pleiades and refurbished them both. I put them back on the car and they leaked like seives. I removed them again and when they were off the car I noticed that the bores of the struts had worn into a very distinctive oval shape. As such the new seals wouldn't keep the pressure being that the strut was so out of round. The piston, being steel and constantly bathed in oil was of course in perfect condition.

In the end I fitted two second hand struts from the car I got the front strut tops off in France.

Hope that makes you feel a little better. Just persuade yourself that your strut bores had worn past their useable limit.

Cheers

noz

[jorgy9]

Hi guys

Thanks for the good info. Also good to know Pleiades sells the refurb kit. As my old struts are still on the car, I might replace one with the brand new one and inspect it to see if it's round-ish, so will refurb it and put it at the other side.

Noz, it's interesting to relate this to your car's history. Would you know if it had an average life or anything more extreme?

Another way the cylinders can be damaged is that the end of the piston's rod (at the arm's side) can simply fracture. A result of going around bad roads with flat spheres, I guess. This hapenned to someone's XM from the planete-citroen forum -he had noises from the rear till he opened the thing up and the pieces fell in his hands-.

cheers
G