Ride Comparision

[twm]

Hey There

I have a BX16v and a BX 16trs

I must say that the TRS ride is far more comfortable than that of the 16v, is that normal or should they be similar?

 

[UFO]

You are correct. Others such as Alan may expound more on the theories, but the 16v is firmer suspended than the TRS for obvious handling reasons.

 

[DoubleChevron]

Yeah UFO is right, it's all in the sphere valving. Chuck the BX16trs spheres onto the 16valve and see how she rides (the front struts aren't binding are they).

seeya,
Shane L.

 

[Alan S]

Strangely enough, if you did swap the front spheres about, you really don't notice all that much difference with the ride as much as you do with the handling, if you start playing around trying to make it ride softer.
I've never done too much investigating as to why, but I would expect a bit more stiffening via the sway bar (higher pre-load or thicker bar) and wider wheels/tyres could be part of the reason; whether these are even there I'm not even 100% sure.
The "softer" spheres have longer travel which may make it that bit less jarring, if in fact you feel as though it is jarring, on small bumps, but this is also a safety issue if you go overboard and start using things like CX spheres or as happened in the case of one of our fire cars where spheres of unknown origin had been used and I had spoken to a couple who were contemplating buying prior to the fire and all had commented on its instability. I guessed this was the same car when we got it home, so I swapped the spheres to my car just for curiosity.
I discoverd that when entering a sharp corner, when under hard braking, the front dipped so far that it threw the entire geometry of the car off to such an extent, it would "tail wag" on the approach, proving it was these spheres that were causing this instability.
My common response to anyone wanting to make a 16V ride softer, is to advise them to buy a CX Pallas; they were designed for comfort whereas the BX16V was designed for performance and both do what they were designed for particularly well. To change either to do what the other was designed to do is to aspire to mediocrity in that department. :crazy: :crazy:

Alan S

 

[twm]

Strangely enough, if you did swap the front spheres about, you really don't notice all that much difference with the ride as much as you do with the handling, if you start playing around trying to make it ride softer.
I've never done too much investigating as to why, but I would expect a bit more stiffening via the sway bar (higher pre-load or thicker bar) and wider wheels/tyres could be part of the reason; whether these are even there I'm not even 100% sure.
The "softer" spheres have longer travel which may make it that bit less jarring, if in fact you feel as though it is jarring, on small bumps, but this is also a safety issue if you go overboard and start using things like CX spheres or as happened in the case of one of our fire cars where spheres of unknown origin had been used and I had spoken to a couple who were contemplating buying prior to the fire and all had commented on its instability. I guessed this was the same car when we got it home, so I swapped the spheres to my car just for curiosity.
I discoverd that when entering a sharp corner, when under hard braking, the front dipped so far that it threw the entire geometry of the car off to such an extent, it would "tail wag" on the approach, proving it was these spheres that were causing this instability.
My common response to anyone wanting to make a 16V ride softer, is to advise them to buy a CX Pallas; they were designed for comfort whereas the BX16V was designed for performance and both do what they were designed for particularly well. To change either to do what the other was designed to do is to aspire to mediocrity in that department. :crazy: :crazy:

Alan S

Thanks to All

I dont want to change the ride it was a question of curiosity and learning.
I have not got my head around what the spheres actually do yet.
Alan, I recall Peter mentioning that he changed some spheres for a different model, I must go back and ask him what it was he did, maybe this is what caused the funny steering wobble I was talking about.
Or is it easier to go and source the correct ones which I would have to do anyway I suppose. Is there a way of identification of the spheres?

I agree that the worst thing you can do is start playing with the suspension geometry on any car, eg with the Range Rove it has soft long travel suspension, will go anywhere,climb over anything and sways from side to side. Peole have been known to get sea sick in a RRr :crazy: ., guys get these things beef up the shocks, springs bars etc and then wonder why the FWD dosnt work as well, maybe cause the wheels cant move up and down as far as easily .

The citroens suspension is not what you would call average and the last thing I would wont to do is start changing it, unless it is back to standard.

 

[Alan S]

If you look at your spheres, there'll be a number painted on in black; if you look at the files section on Citroentech, you'll find a list of spheres with their numbers, brands and specs shown.
The dimensionsa are Volume (400cc or 500cc) pressure (stamped near the charging nipple on the top. (ie) 45 bar) and the bore size at the bottom on the silver part and usually on either side of the small hole (ie) 1.4 (hypothetical examples on sizes)
Besides these there are damper plates which can usually only be determined by us mere mortals based on the sphere catalogue number, but for ease of identification the volume, pressure and bore size is as close as we can get to accurate.
Genuine 16V spheres are as rare as rocking horse 'it so usually they can be replaced by rear Xantia Estate spheres, very close to 16V in specs or by using ordinary BX spheres, lthough most repairers will claim them to be the correct ones. In all honsty, there's so little difference in ride and performance using them, I doubt you'd notice.


Alan S