My "new" C5 (2010) has traveled less than 50k. It has the look of a well cared-for car.
A service/belt change and check for problems showed a rear sphere was needed.
A couple of weeks later a roadworthy check showed that control arm bushes were showing signs of age.
New arms have been fitted and they improved general steering response. Sharper turn-in and less steering adjustment is required during cornering. Excellent result.
Having been over the same road quite a few times in the past month (to and from the best Citroen garage) and not noticed any problems. I was surprised to have the front left suspension compress to give a very solid thump to the body. It happened on my return trip - 4 times.
I have tried the car out on a few occasions and apart from a little less rebound damping than a good spring/shock car I was impressed with the way the C5 worked.
On this last trip two of the bumps were on the left only. A raised lateral edge at a bridge was about 50mm high with a patch forming about a 30 - 40 degree ramp up from the road surface to the lip. A 50kph approach had the left wheel thump up with an abrupt halt at the top of its travel. The right side had a smaller step and it handled the bump with no drama.
One bridge had about 25mm lip right across and the bang was violent enough that I couldn't tell if it was both sides or just the left. The fourth event was a short sharp depression on the road edge. The wheel dropped down and the thumped hard on the far side of the half metre long dip. Bang again as it hit the end of its travel.
There seemed to be no compression resistance, or not enough to stop the travel.
The impacts were enough to make me wonder if my new wheel alignment is now altered.
With the engine idling to keep the system pressurised I pushed down on each front corner. Maybe the left side is slightly softer and recovery from the bounce is slightly slower. But only slightly.
Being a newbie to the wonderful world of Hydractive 3+ I cannot quite understand why this is happening.
Are short shape bumps not managed very well by H3+ ?
Is it a failing sphere, or are they OK until they have an obvious failure?
Is the hydraulic pump not giving the required pressure to the system?
Is there anything that a reputable Citroen specialist might have done during the control arms replacement that could have prevoked deterioration in an ageing sphere.
I am at the point where I am wondering about having all 7 spheres replaced. Then I would know what the baseline performance was and know that was all I could expect.
Other than these problems I love the C5 Exclusive with 2.0 diesel (163bhp) RHH. I bought it for a very reasonable price and it is so pleasant to be in that the poor Peugeot 309 SRi hasn't moved for over a month.
I have searched the subject but have not found many results. I think most of the knowledge on C5 X7 must be known by this forum. They seem popular with froggers over there in Australia.
Hopefully someone can enlighten me about this problem.
Thanks to all the members for their contributions to this site. I really enjoy my frequent visits to here.
Bryan
A service/belt change and check for problems showed a rear sphere was needed.
A couple of weeks later a roadworthy check showed that control arm bushes were showing signs of age.
New arms have been fitted and they improved general steering response. Sharper turn-in and less steering adjustment is required during cornering. Excellent result.
Having been over the same road quite a few times in the past month (to and from the best Citroen garage) and not noticed any problems. I was surprised to have the front left suspension compress to give a very solid thump to the body. It happened on my return trip - 4 times.
I have tried the car out on a few occasions and apart from a little less rebound damping than a good spring/shock car I was impressed with the way the C5 worked.
On this last trip two of the bumps were on the left only. A raised lateral edge at a bridge was about 50mm high with a patch forming about a 30 - 40 degree ramp up from the road surface to the lip. A 50kph approach had the left wheel thump up with an abrupt halt at the top of its travel. The right side had a smaller step and it handled the bump with no drama.
One bridge had about 25mm lip right across and the bang was violent enough that I couldn't tell if it was both sides or just the left. The fourth event was a short sharp depression on the road edge. The wheel dropped down and the thumped hard on the far side of the half metre long dip. Bang again as it hit the end of its travel.
There seemed to be no compression resistance, or not enough to stop the travel.
The impacts were enough to make me wonder if my new wheel alignment is now altered.
With the engine idling to keep the system pressurised I pushed down on each front corner. Maybe the left side is slightly softer and recovery from the bounce is slightly slower. But only slightly.
Being a newbie to the wonderful world of Hydractive 3+ I cannot quite understand why this is happening.
Are short shape bumps not managed very well by H3+ ?
Is it a failing sphere, or are they OK until they have an obvious failure?
Is the hydraulic pump not giving the required pressure to the system?
Is there anything that a reputable Citroen specialist might have done during the control arms replacement that could have prevoked deterioration in an ageing sphere.
I am at the point where I am wondering about having all 7 spheres replaced. Then I would know what the baseline performance was and know that was all I could expect.
Other than these problems I love the C5 Exclusive with 2.0 diesel (163bhp) RHH. I bought it for a very reasonable price and it is so pleasant to be in that the poor Peugeot 309 SRi hasn't moved for over a month.
I have searched the subject but have not found many results. I think most of the knowledge on C5 X7 must be known by this forum. They seem popular with froggers over there in Australia.
Hopefully someone can enlighten me about this problem.
Thanks to all the members for their contributions to this site. I really enjoy my frequent visits to here.
Bryan