Dropped Rear Suspension

[markyspark]

Hiya, really hope someoe can help me, i parkeds my 1.9td lx xantia up.
Went out to it later and the rear of the car had dropped and was solid, it has stayed that way ever since. The front of the car is fine. I have tried moving the level selector in the car, the front rises and fall but the back wont move. I have checked the linkages from the selector and they operate fine. Any ideas, thanks

 

[DoubleChevron]

You must live in the UK... This is a common problem over there. The plastic link has probably dropped off the rear height corrector. SUPPORT THE CAR ON STANDS before climbing under there to re-attach it. YOU WILL BE SPLATTERED FOR SURE IF YOU TRY THIS WITHOUT RAMPS/STANDS/HOIST ... Nevrer get under an unsupported Citroen.

good luck !
Shane L.

 

[Alan S]

You must live in the UK... This is a common problem over there. The plastic link has probably dropped off the rear height corrector. SUPPORT THE CAR ON STANDS before climbing under there to re-attach it. YOU WILL BE SPLATTERED FOR SURE IF YOU TRY THIS WITHOUT RAMPS/STANDS/HOIST ... Nevrer get under an unsupported Citroen.

good luck !
Shane L.

If he's skinny enough to fit under a hydraulic Cit with it's assend sitting fully down, d'ya really think there's a problem? :roflmao: :roflmao:


Alan S :joker:

 

[DoubleChevron]

If he's skinny enough to fit under a hydraulic Cit with it's assend sitting fully down, d'ya really think there's a problem? :roflmao: :roflmao:


Alan S :joker:

From what I've read about the link dropping off ... somehow 'high' usually works (I don't understand how either). Crawling under a 'high' Citroen is natures way of killing of the mentally challenged :roflmao:

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[The Gonz]

Darwin Awards

Funny you should mention nature's propensity to observe Darwin's law of evolution. It's my turn to do the final Spanish radio hour for the year (103.1FM 5EBI 11:00am-noon 31/12/2005) and I've collected a page of Darwin Award recipients for the year - funny stuff. I'm just wondering how the oldies are going to take to my dark humour and a list of stupid deaths.

 

[Alan S]

Funny you should mention nature's propensity to observe Darwin's law of evolution. It's my turn to do the final Spanish radio hour for the year (103.1FM 5EBI 11:00am-noon 31/12/2005) and I've collected a page of Darwin Award recipients for the year - funny stuff. I'm just wondering how the oldies are going to take to my dark humour and a list of stupid deaths.

You sound like me when I used to be on the air; they used to have to take the phone off the hook or if not, tell irate callers the program was pre-recorded!! :nownow: :roflmao: :roflmao:


Alan S

 

[The Gonz]

Don't be good, just be noticed.

Hehe, you seem to share my philosophy. The older I get the more I prefer to cause a fuss and be noticed than to quietly do the mundane thing. It's just so much fun getting people excited, for whatever reason, good or bad.

Anyone know of Bob Francis? The guy is a cranky old Vietnam Vet who just abuses the crap out of his listeners, but they all keep calling in. At midnight after an evening doing cadet work on Wednesdays, I drive 30km home and there's nothing else on the radio, so I sit there and laugh at people who call him to have it out, then he just cuts off their line and calls them stupid w*nk**s after they're gone. Pure gold!

 

[Mandrake]

From what I've read about the link dropping off ... somehow 'high' usually works (I don't understand how either). Crawling under a 'high' Citroen is natures way of killing of the mentally challenged :roflmao:

seeya,
Shane L.

Hi Shane,

The imfamous "plastic link" connects from the rollbar clamp to the spring assembly, and only affects the automatic correction. Old Citroen's as you would well know used a nice simple torsion bar from the clamp to the height corrector to allow the rollbar to move further than the height corrector without damaging it. (And to allow for a correction delay)

For some reason on the Xantia they decided they would replace it with a two way override spring. The clamp on the rollbar has a very short steel rod (only about 20mm long) coming out of it with a balljoint on the end and it is this which the plastic link attaches to.

At the other end of the link is a balljoint sticking out of the side of a sliding plate which is attached to one end of the spring, and the top section of plate has a gate in it which then activates the height corrector.

The way its designed the spring takes up all the slack in both directions on the connection to the height corrector, so the only slack in the entire correction mechanism is the small amount of slack in the plastic cups on the plastic link.

The manual override control connects to a completely different spring, and this second spring is attached to a peg in a slot and only touches the slot (connected directly to the height corrector) when you move the height control away from centre. Thus manual height settings have one spring working against the other.

The manual height control will still work with the plastic clip disconnected, my guess is the OP is just not waiting long enough for the back to lift, as on a 6+2 pump if the rear is fully depressurized it would probably take a couple of minutes to start lifting. (Or if it never lifts in the high mode it could be something else like a stuck anti-sink valve)

The problem with the plastic link and spring arangement is it is converting rotating motion into linear motion, and every time the car goes over a dip or rise in the road the plastic link is moving the spring mechanism back and forth under a lot of strain, and in one direction it is pulling downwards trying to pull the cup at the sliding plate end off...

I just had the front height corrector and assembly out of my Xantia a few weeks ago, and if I had half a brain I would have taken a few digi-pics at the time... :crazy: :crazy: :crazy: and I also stripped down the height corrector and cleaned it in the process, which would have made for a good series of pictures to show people that reconditioning a height corrector is actually an easy process...(once you get it out that is... getting a front height corrector out of a Xantia is not for the faint hearted, I managed to use up a months supply of expletives in one day... )

Regards,
Simon