Rear Suspension Slow

[Peter.N.]

Hi all

The rear suspension on the red car has always been slow to rise, about 30 secs, but today I noticed that it also drops very quickly when you stop, within a few seconds, although my son says that it doesn't always do that. As this is yet another problem that I havn't until now experienced, can you suspension experts tell me where to look first. We are off to the North of Scotland for a couple of weeks tommorow with both cars so I hope it's not going to suddenly cause problems, although I suppose we can always make one god one up out of the two

Peter.N.

[John Malkovich]

Same here! In my case there is an internal leak somewhere between rear struts and the rear braking valve, although the whistling sound when rising indicates the latter.

[Peter.N.]

Thanks John

I suspect something similar here, anyway, I shant worry about it until we come back from holiday.

Peter.N.

[magic carpet]

Hi there! have you cleaned or changed the fluid filters recently?
Mine was getting slow to rise in the morning and developed leaks from the both rear trailing arms. I changed both filters which were clogged up, now the car rises very quickly and it doesn't leak anymore. The filters must have been so clogged the fluid just couldn't get around the system. That's a real result for a few quid.

[citroenxm]

Peter.

How interesting! I had a Xantia VSX which was slow to cme up, and sank quicker then Titanic ! Almost immidietly!

I changed EVERY THING!! And I mean everything! Thats, pump, regulator, rear anti sink, rear electro valve, brake valve (doser), and guess what... she still did it!

Never solved it and sold it... buyer was happy about it..

Rgds
Paul

[John Malkovich]

My contribution to the knowledge base on this particular symptom (rear end lean when rising, dropping quickly, whistling when engine turned off and electrovalve triggering every two secs):

yesterday evening I picked up my car from the Citroen service with all hydraulic components replaced (got a good price on everything) except struts and flushing the system for 3,000 km - and she still does it. The culprit is one of rear struts (or both). Xantia's struts won't do. C5's maybe. Will keep everyone posted.

[citroenxm]

CAREFULL JOHN

C5 struts are designed for a YELLOW new fluid NOT The old Green mineral fluid, so may be completely different again. Id look again ay a Xantia VSX strut..

Rgds
Paul

[John Malkovich]

Thank you, Xmexclusive. In my understanding, the yellow fluid is more corrosive than the green one and so XM-to-C5 would be impossible, whereas hydraulic parts running on yellow fluid would fit fine on XM - as long as the part compatibility allows it.

[Peter.N.]

Hi Paul and magic carpet.

I'm back. The filters are the first thing I would have suggested - but I havn't checked them yet

Paul - Re your xantia. Its strange isn't it, that all hydropnumatics seem to behave differently, I suppose due to the number of different components all having different tolerances and ammounts of wear. It still works OK after 2000 + miles around Scotland, so I think, at least for the present I will leave it alone - except possibly for checking the filters.

Peter.N.