Hi Adrain,
Thanks for the advice; very much appreciated. I cannot check the
ac***ulator
'psst' noise as I am abroad again, 4,000 miles from the vehicle! Sounds
like
I have some work to do when returning in March.
Is there a recommended place to buys the spheres from? I have looked at
the
Pleiades website but it jumps to another site which appears to have little
to
do with Pleiades!
The Xanita is definitely worth putting some effort in. It was my
mother-in-
laws almost from new and is immaculate, reliable (until now!), amazingly
economical and has I'm sure at least another five years of sensible life
left
in it.
Thanks again.
Ian.
Adrian wrote:
>ZD8I ("ZD8I" <u40580@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were
>saying:
>
>> Firstly for a very long time, the rear-end has sunk overnight which I
>> now believe from reading other posts is a faulty anti-sink sphere. A
>> relative who had a BX advised that this was a common Citroen fault and
>> we lived with the minor inconvenience.
>
>Yes, together with a worn brake valve (think master cylinder) allowing
>the rear suspension pressure to leak back more easily. The rear brakes
>take their pressure feed from the rear suspension, to ensure that the
>braking effort is load-related.
>
>It's merely a minor inconvenience and causes a small extra delay in
>rising. Nothing serious.
>
>> Then around 1,200 miles ago after not being used for a year (the car
was
>> in storage while we were out of the country) a fault appeared where the
>[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>> end sunk immediately and required the 15 seconds of fast idle to regain
>> its composure.
>
>Partially down to the problem above, because the system's losing pressure
>more quickly than it should, but it's not helped by a flat ac***ulator
>sphere. Think of the pump as the alternator and the ac***ulator as the
>battery. The ac***ulator stores pressure, which is then released through
>the system. If there's no store left, the pressure can't be supplied as
>quickly - hence the slow pump-up.
>
>When the engine's idling and the car's at normal height, how long is the
>cycle time? You should hear a psshhht-click-<pause>-pssshhht-<click>. The
>duration between clicks should be a minute or so, but can be almost
>nothing. The psssht is the pump working to recharge the ac***ulator.
>
>If you've got a flat ac***ulator, and the engine cuts whilst you're
>moving, you will have NO BRAKES in very short order.
>
>> Until the suspension reaches its full height, the brakes barely work at
>> all.
>
>Ummm, you don't drive off until it's fully up.
>
>> When at normal height, the suspension is comfortable and the brakes are
>> excellent although I have never really liked the on/off nature of the
>> brakes, the lack of feel through the pedal and ease at which the ABS
>> modulator cuts in. Is this another fault?
>
>No. That's down to the fact that your foot isn't creating pressure, like
>a normal master cylinder, but opening a valve to release stored pressure
>into the system. Expect the pedal to be have in the same way as a normal
>one, and you can over-brake very easily. It's not as "bad" in Xants as
>earlier hydraulic Cits, because there's a spring in the pedal linkage to
>give some artificial pedal travel - but some people never do get used to
>it. By the sound of your comment about "on/off nature", you may be one.
>
>The other possible cause is that the brakes need bleeding. That's quite
>likely if the ac***ulator sphere's totally flat, as the little gas left
>in it will have been released into the system when the diaphragm
>punctured. Whilst the suspension and steering are self-bleeding, the
>brakes are a "dead end", so need to be done as on a normal car. Rather
>than give a spongy feel, air in the lines on a hydraulic Cit leads to a
>delay when you start to brake - during which time, you naturally brake
>harder. As a result, when they do kick in after a few moments, they do so
>too hard.
>
>> We believe all spheres are original so would it be sensible to replace
>> all six of them together and is this likely to fix all three faults?
>
>ORIGINAL? After 12 years? They're meant to be replaced roughly every
>three years or so... Definitely get 'em all changed. Being an SX, you've
>only got the six - the anti-sink's a bit of a bugger to get at, but the
>rest are easy. Definitely change the fluid, too. If the fluid's never
>been done either, it'll be filthy - change it for flu****ng fluid -
>available from GSF etc. After a thousand miles or so, change it for clean
>LHM. The actual fluid change is dead easy - don't forget to bleed the
>brakes through fully to get all the old out and the new in.
>
>If you think the suspension's comfortable now, wait until you try it in
>full health. I'd be amazed if you don't have several completely flat
>wheel spheres, leading to no suspension travel on those wheels.
--
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