Hydraflush And "hydronet 2000", ...and the happy ending of an Odyssey!

That sounds a better idea. Less volatile than petrol

Hi Jorgy,

Thanks very much for your hard earned information. I know you've stuck with this problem a long time now and your hard work has paid off.

I would like to benefit from your hard erned info by trying it on my 2.5TD. I'm not happy with the ride because I know it can be much better than it is. I've checked the pressure in all my spheres only last weekend but they were all within 5 bar of their specified pressures.

Can I just push you for a little more detail on the Hydronet? The chances of getting some any time soon is slim since it looks like a trip to France for someone maybe the only way. So, I'm trying to establish if the Hydronet passes the 'Duck' test. I.e. if it smells like petrol, tastes like petrol, feels like petrol, burns like petrol etc etc then.... it must be petrol. With a reasonable degree of certainty that it is petrol with some window dressing then I think there's no harm in trying it out.

Thats not such a far fetched concept. My father worked for a while in an automotive wholesalers. He used to buy litre bottles of Wynns diesel additive to boost his...ahem...fuel.... The plastic container had a sticker on the front with the usual product details. However, the label was doubled over and held by some light glue. When the outer label was peeled back it revealed a little concertina style booklet. On one of the pages of the booklet it told you the ingredients. It said in black and white that 98% of the additive was kerosene! And it was about £8 + VAT for the bottle!!! We live in a world where you can bottle fresh air and sell it to the masses as long as you have the right window dressing and the right advertising. Nutella just got done yesterday for claiming that their product was healthy !! They've been running that ad for ages.

So, can you describe Hydronet in a little more detail? If you think its very close to petrol I'm going to give it a bash.

Cheers

noz

Are we making any progress on this front? A friend of mine goes to France a few times each year to his house there. Is the stuff readily available out there?
Has anyone dared try petrol with the LHM?

Yes, I put some petrol in yesterday. Quite surprised at how quickly the car now drops when going from high to low; the fluid is noticeable thinner, hopefully will dislodge any remaining gunk that's harboured in the system.

I'll leave it in for a few weeks and drain the fluid again.

It's not so brave , let's face it Citroen say you can use monograde engine oil in place of LHM as a temporary measure if LHM is not available. As long as it's mineral based there won't be any compatibility or contamination issues.

I don't think adding petrol / diesel, etc to LHM is something to recommend to the layman - let them stick to Hydraflush or hydranet - moreso an educated option for those of us that understand the system and are changing the fluid regularly anyway

Having had problems with the rear suspension for about 12 months I changed the LHM for Hydraflush about 3 months ago. When I was washing the filter and the resevoir I lost the tiny spring which fits onto the filter. I fitted the filter back in without the clip.

Today, having read about Hydronet 2000 this week I thought to hell with it and I'll add some petrol, nothing to lose. (I'm having all the spheres done this week so I thought it might be a good time to try it. When I removed the housing which holds all the hoses it looked like the filter was just floating around. Removed it anyway, several particles of crud in the filter and the Hydraflush was really quite dirty having done less than a thousand miles. Anyway, I removed some Hydraflush and put in about 3/4 litre of petrol.

The good news.... a marked improvement instantly in the ride and the LHM pump has quietened right down. Hopefully the new spheres will return the majic carpet ride then I'll change the fluid after a couple of weeks

The bad news..... The filter. Is it held onto the resevoir by the spring or held onto the top section with the hoses. Should I just try and source a new resevoir?

This post has been edited by jackyboy on March 02, 2008 07:35 pm

Hi Jackyboy

The two filters are held in place in the top section by a single clip, maybe you could get another from a local stealer, or someone may have one they are willing to part with????
It is very interesting to hear of some success with the petrol, being a coward though i will leave it a while to see how you both get on with it . There should be no problems, i cant see any reason why the petrol could do any damage when used over a short period of time.

Dean

Hi Jackyboy,

Your loose filter would have to be the eliptical shaped one - this filters fluid returning to the reservoir. The other conical filter locks clockwise into its own tube independently and should not be loose even if the spring clip has gone AWOL. The conical one filters fluid going from the reservoir to the pump, so it's a belt-and-braces filter arrangement.

Try delving your hand into the reservoir and feeling around at the bottom - I'm guessing you'll maybe find the spring clip in there. They do pop off very easily as you pull and tug at the assembly to remove it. I've found you have to release the reservoir mounts to give that extra couple of mm to get the pipe stack out. I didn't have to on the Xantia - there was enough free play on the pipes.

Glad you've tried the petrol also - strangely, my pump got slightly louder, although it sounds tired anyway.

I think I'll need to get another one. I lost the clip when I was cleaning it last time. Swirled the petrol round and round in the resevoir then threw it out into some long grass. sadly the clip must have come off and went also. If anyone has a complete resevoir unit I'd be happy to buy it.

Incidentally, the filter in mine is a 'D' shaped cylinder

This post has been edited by jackyboy on March 03, 2008 09:45 am

Hi all

Noz

Hydronet 2000 composition:
Unfortunately on the tin it doesn't say anything; the closest chemical descritpion can be found in the technical doc I have attached onto my original message, and it reads:

"Coupe pétrolière severement rafineé et additifs"

"Coupe pétrolière" means:

[Désigne en raffinage un mélange d'hydrocarbures obtenu dans un intervalle de température très précis lors de la distillation fractionnée]

" Means, in reffining, a mixture of hydrocarbonates obtained within a very precise temperature interval "

So all in all it should mean:

"Product of severely distilled petrol plus additifs."

Now, in practice, excuse my ignorance of odours, but it reminds me very much plastelicine, the one we used to play with. I only guess that's near the odour of Diesel, isn't it? Sorry, never owned a diesel car so it has never happen to me taking a sniff off it! The only thing I can confirm 100% is it does not smell at all like Unleaded (ie what we call Petrol in the UK).

Sorry if I cannot be more helpful.

Noz, what do u think if I sent you a sample, say 200ml, and you tell us what it is (and u keep it of course.)
cheers
George

This post has been edited by jorgy9 on March 03, 2008 09:28 pm

Hi all,

Forgive me if I go into "eggsuckin, how to do it" mode but I think the confusion here is because of the British bastardised use of the word petrol.

Petroleum is the correct name for the complete mix of hydrocarbons that are collectively known as "crude". The light distillates that we burn in our ignition engines was given the name "petroleum spirit" and this was abbreviated in common usage to "petrol". The scientific term is "gasoline" which the Americans abbreviate to "gas".

So although it may be OK to use gasoline as a flushing agent, as George says Hydronet certainly is not gasoline.

I would be reluctant to use gasoline because, at the temperature that the hydraulic system operates, there is bound to be lots of vapour generated at the reservoir. All you need is a spark.......

Derek

This post has been edited by DerekW on March 04, 2008 12:56 am

Spot on Derek: in the French definition "petrol" refers to the heavy raw thing as received from the earth.

This said, do u think that plastelicine smells anything like diesel? Or am I totally wrong?

G

Hi George,

It's a long time since I played with plasticine - my youngest son is now 44 - but I think it smelt more like kerosene, or maybe paraffin.

Now there's a thought, how about using kero or paraffin as a flushing liquid? Only problem I can think of is that they are hygroscopic.

Derek

Hi all,

What surprises me is the numbers of posters who will happily chuck arbitrary amounts of petrol/diesel/kerosene/othe stuff into their close tolerance hydraulic systems which they would not (I hope) dream of putting in their engine oil for the same purpose!
When I was a kid my grannie swore by castor oil for "flushing the system" as she put it. Any takers? .

Robert

Hi Derek

precisely paraffin was what I was thinking of. As I wrote, Hydronet 2000 is pretty much transparent -with a greyish shade-. As I read, kerosene and paraffin are the same thing, just UK/US alternatives for the same substance? I read paraffin is a good lubricant and also detergent.

G

As it's unlikely that Hydronet 2000 will be available to us (and in light of recent comments I'm a bit reluctant to try introducing petrol, diesel, parafin, etc into the hydraulic system), what other flushing agents are available on the market?

I found one on the internet called 'Total Hydraurincage'

http://www.citroenz.com/BX/flushfluid.html

Has anyone tried this, or know if it's even available in the UK?