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

Sounds like your S1 is in urgent need of a long flushing session then...In mine this -that was as loud as a siren- was gone after I first hydraflushed it for 1,000miles. At the same time some external leaks I never found were gone -I needed to top up LHM every week back then-, a sign that the clogged up situation inside obliged the oil to leak outside. Now the whisteling comes back when raising car in "hard" mode, obviously the old same weak point is being reactivated when pressure circumstances it faces are as when the system was very clogged up overall!

cheers
George

Happy Easter all!

All this talk of Hydraflush and Hydronet makes me envious. Neither is available in this part of the world according to the Citroen agents, and my indie gave me the 1000 yard stare when I asked him for some. I got him to change the LHM for me before Xmas (too busy at work to do it myself) and his approach to flushing the system was to replace the LHM and clean the filters, run the car up to temp while changing height settings, and then replace the LHM again after cleaning the filters etc. The suspension seemed firm for about a thousand Ks or so, and then softened up.

I guess it was the new LHM settling in - does that happen?

Regards,
Kiwi

Hi Kiwi

yes this happens, a matter of air trapped being bled away while LHM flows as you use the car.

As for hydraflush, perhaps Jan Burgel can help you, I think he resides in Japan where it is normally availabe.

cheers
George

Cheers George,

We are thinking of spending next Xmas in the UK or Europe (always wanted a white Xmas), so if we do I'll organise some Hydraflush to take home. Am trying to convince my wife that we could maybe buy a late model XM to use in the UK instead of a rental - and then take it home!

Regards,
Kiwi

Don't come to the UK then. No chance of a white Christmas. Your best bet would be US/Canada or somewhere in the mountains in Europe.

I have a friend who works for Shell, and I sent her the info on Hydronet to see if there was a Shell equivalent available here in New Zealand. This was the reply from their technical staff:

"We do not sell a hydraulic system cleaner as such. I am making an assumption that the contamination being discussed on the XM Forum are heat based deposits resulting from braking temperatures and long service.

If he is going to the trouble of flushing it himself he can try oil like Rimula X 10W or Rimula X 30 as a flush because they are high in detergent, but the dissolving of the sludges may be slower than he wants. There is some comment about this approach in the XM Forum.

Alternatively, he can use 2 to 5% v/v of butyl cellusolve (from APS Chemicals), also known as diethylene glycol monobutyl ether dissolved in the LHM. Problem is it is likely to come in 20L pails"

The last sentence sounds interesting!

Regards,
Kiwi

He can, it is and he does. But he will be away the first two weeks of April.
Kiwi might opt to wait till his dream Christmas, get rid of some of the wife's souvenirs and stuff the suitcase with Hydraflush

Get back onto your friend?

Butyl DIOXITOL* is the Shell Chemicals brand of diethylene glycol monobutyl ether. Shell website

I think these are still just solvents at the end of the day?

Cheers Wirdy,

Apparently APS handles some chemicals for Shell NZ. Probably because of our small size - eg Shell LPG is retailed via a different company.

I think I'll hold out for some Hydraflush or Hydronet on my next trip to your part of the world.

Regards,
Kiwi

If it's that hard to get hold of, over time you could recycle hydraflush through your fleet.

When I drained my last lot of hydraflush out, I put it into large cola bottles and left it in the shed to see how much debris settled. After a month it was almost clear again with all the crap at the bottom and entirely reuseable

I joined the flushing team on Friday as my serviceman drained the LHM, disassembled the tank, thoroughly washed the filters ("I have seen dirtier ones") and poured "Hydraurincage" to the system. Much more prompt and swifter upping and downing and both ends moving simultaneously are the first changes I notice these days, although I also have a feeling that the flushing liquid is somewhat softer as sinking occurs faster.

Hi George,

Do you think you could produce another video showing suspension travel when forced into hard mode please?

The amount of travel on mine in hard mode is tiny at the front and I would like some kind of reference if possible.

Thanks.

Steve.

Hi Steve
I ll try but not promise -I m super busy till April 24th, not writing on forum if u noticed-, FYI in hard mine's also tiny, front almost nothing, 2cms perhaps.
cheers
G

Good grief George.......do you really want to broadcast this kind of info on an open forum..........(snigger )

...............sorry.........it just appealed to my schoolboy sense of humour

I... er..... see. (just joining in with the spirit of things!)

OK George, thanks for the info. That does sound about the same amount of suspension travel as mine.

Steve.