The oleopneumatic suspension that many Citroen cars have is reliable and trouble free as long as it is maintained properly. It is recommended that the LHM hydraulic fluid is changed and the filters cleaned every 18,000 miles or 3 years, whichever comes first. Older vehicles with LHS2 fluid should have the fluid changed annually. When was yours last changed?
Keeping the fluid clean and contaminate free is the key to minimising the internal wear of your hydraulic system. Changing the fluid regularly is a lot cheaper than not changing it and having to replace all the worn out components! Citroen Classics can not only service your hydraulic system using flushes and fluids recommended by Citroen, but we can also repair or replace metal, rubber and nylon pipe work, replace rubber gaiters, clean and check hydraulic components, and if necessary replace worn components with high quality reconditioned parts.
Most new or reconditioned parts supplied by Citroen Classics carry a 12 month warranty, but we are able to source many hydraulic components including height correctors and power steering racks which are as good, if not better, than the part that your car left the factory with, and these carry a 2 year warranty.
Have you recently replaced the spheres on your DS or ID with reconditioned original type spheres and still feel the ride is firmer than you expected?
We can now supply original type 2 piece spheres with new softer riding dampers, but these are strictly on an exchange basis. See our parts shop for details.
If you have the post November 1974 type one piece welded together spheres, make sure you have proper D model ones, it's usually written on it. We often find D's with CX or even BX spheres fitted but these provide an inferior ride compared to the correct ones.
Please note that the correct D model front one piece 75bar sphere IS NOT the same as a CX front 75bar sphere. It might look the same, have the same pressure and even the same sized bypass hole in the damper valve, but the damper valve shims are much thicker (stiffer) in a CX sphere which is why it gives a stiffer ride. Anyone that tries to tell you differently is wrong.
There has been much talk about short “pump cycle” times, which affect many older Citroens.
This is due to internal wear of the hydraulic components which lets the pressure escape from the “working” side of the system to the “return” side and back to the fluid reservoir. This causes the pump to cut in and replenish the pressure that has been lost. The faster the pressure leaks back to the reservoir, the more often the pump has to cut in and replenish it and the time from the pump cutting out after replenishing the pressure until it cuts in again is the “pump cycle time”. This should be 30 seconds or more on a good system. The main accumulator sphere acts as a pressure reserve so that the pump doesn’t have to cut in so often, but if this has lost its gas over a period of time, as they do, it will no longer be working as a pressure reserve.
If the sphere has not been replaced within the last 3 years, the first thing to do is bring it to us to check its gas pressure, or simply replace the sphere with a new or reconditioned item. If the cycle time is still poor, there is wear in one or more components. Sometimes a single component is the culprit, but sometimes it is a combination of worn out parts. Citroen Classics have the experience and equipment to diagnose the problem and advise you on the best remedy.
A related problem is the suspension sinking too soon after switching the engine off. This is easier to diagnose and fix as the cause can only be one of 2 items (or both) on the front and one of 3 (or all 3 – but unlikely) at the rear. After visiting Citroen Classics to have this problem fixed your suspension will stay up for days (no we do not pop a Viagra in the fluid reservoir!).
