i feel a debate coming on

[Dean]

Hi Gents

Being on holiday this week i thought i would press my new L/H engine mount in, change the aux belts and do a service, i also got a nice genuine Citroen front hydractive sphere from DickieG of FCF fame which i thought i would try for no real reason as the gsf one thats on there is only 6 months old.
I have not had a chance to do the oils yet, mainly because ive just had to cough up to have my front room window taken out (2 points for guessing why) and now i have a problem and an interesting finding too.
Firstly the new mount, great, no more feeling the engine jiggling about through the car, no more dull thudding over bumps and snatching as i apply release the throttle but the trouble is now i can hear the Hydraulic pump rattling away in the car, but not outside, its as if its mounted on the dash and it sound really harsh and frankly rather nasty. Nothing is touching and the mount is fitted fine (ive tripple checked) it cant be heard so badly when ive been driving for a while or if i stay below 2k revs but its driving me mad so any ideas welcome, could the new hard rubber of the mount be transmitting the rattle of the pump to the body of the car???

Second is the sphere, the car is riding like a dream, like it did when i first got it i really cant believe it, all the jiggly ride is gone at the front and it is now a joy to drive, the thing is though the amtex sphere that was on wasnt flat and ive been through 3 hydractive Amtex spheres in as many years trying to make sure that they wernt flat to no avail. Another thing i noticed between genuin and amtex is the fluid port drilled in the two makes of sphere look very different, i think with the genuine article i can see the membrane sat accross the port whereas with any of the amtex ones you cant, seems strange all those amtex ones havnt been able to cut the mustard and this Citroen one brings back the waft......................

What do you all think?

D

[davetherave]

Ill let you know when ive fitted my new hdractive front, also from Dickie G!
Glad that yours has its magic carpet ride back though!

[Dean]

Fingers crossed for you, good thing Richard knocked off the Citroen dealers really, those spheres are usualy fairly expensive

D

[jorgy]

Dean,

Very glad to hear it rides like a dream now, but wait for a few days/trips before it's confirmed it's permanent....

Always been wondering about Cit spheres as well.

cheers
George

[Dean]

Hi George

I know what your getting at exactly but it feels different to the air in the system feel, its riding bumbs that i used to think it rode smoothly but now i just dont feel them, even cats eyes i cant feel i just hear them. even with the low profile tyres its brilliant again.

D

[Vince]

That is interesting Dean,

One tip i picked up from Dickie G was to fit non hydractive spheres to each corner on my Xantia.....it did ride alot better and apparently the hydractive system works just the same.

We (GSF) do still stock a small quantity of genuine Citroen Spheres...but they are running out and being replaced by Amtex ones. If the genuine ones make that much difference then i might swap mine over too

[jorgy]

Hi George

I know what your getting at exactly but it feels different to the air in the system feel, its riding bumbs that i used to think it rode smoothly but now i just dont feel them, even cats eyes i cant feel i just hear them. even with the low profile tyres its brilliant again.

D

Dean, you just described what I felt in 2006, and for 1 day only, as soon as I had set my pressure regulator right on my V6. "Feeling nothing", precisely. Was driving aimlessly all day around just to savour this unique feeling. Then, I decided to finish by bleeding the brakes and I had the car on "highest" for 1 hour, and at the next dive it had passed to the "not so soft" behaviour....never to be as soft again, despite all the improvement -especially the rear has not come back 100%-. Hope your lasts, very glad for these news.

btw, mine was on unknown-brand regassed spheres back when it felt the smoothest ever.

cheers
G

[Peter.N.]

I have never had one that will ride smoothy on the flint based forest track over which we access the road - except one day when I experimented with two accumulator spheres as corner ones, that gave a fantastic ride but also seasickness. The ride on all of them has been superb on the open road providing the system is working properly , but I just don't think that they are capable of riding well over short sharp bumps.

I think that the major factors in assessing the ride quality are, tyres, type and pressure, the ammount of rattles in the car and lastly your blood sugar level at the time

Peter

[robert_e_smart]

but I just don't think that they are capable of riding well over short sharp bumps.

This is true, it is the main weakness of the Citroen Hydropneumatic suspension. Also going over bumps at low speeds make them more noticeable than when going over at high speed.

I have found that the suspension is at its best when the car is fully laden with passengers or luggage etc. They are designed for this rather than having only a driver in it though.

The best test I had for the Xm suspension was driving over the concrete section motorways in Poland and East Germany, the roads were truely apalling, the faster I went the better it was. I was going along them at 80, and all I could hear was a thump, thump, thump from going over the different concrete sections, couldn't feel a thing. It was the only stretch of road where I wasn't being overtaken by Audis and BMWs and Mercs flying past.

[Jan-hendrik]

The best test I had for the Xm suspension was driving over the concrete section motorways in Poland and East Germany, the roads were truely apalling, the faster I went the better it was.

I know exactly what you mean. In the 1980s there still used to be many unpaved roads, or roads being prepared for paving in the provinces, rural districts. Driving my CX on these surfaces could be a pain, but increasing speed, let's say to 60 km/h, would cause the car to float and no steel sprung vehicle could keep up.
Trying this in our XMs in today's murderous urban traffic is a definite no-no