1992 2.1 Sd Auto Estate

[Dieselman]

After heavy rain, or washing the car, for the first few times when braking after pulling away from rest, the sunroof, even though the mechanism is seized solid, is still able to give the "luxury" interior waterfall onto the front seats,

I have previously rodded and cleaned the corner drains and confirm that are all functioning properly.

Remove the glass section by unscrewing the sliding trim from the inside front and sliding it back, which then exposes the six side guide screws for the actual glass unit. The glass cartridge can then be lifted out, exposing the mechanism in the main cassette.

The way tilt and slide sunroofs work is that the exterior seal is really a wind reduction seal, water is allowed to drain down into the main cassette and be carried away by the corner drains.
Due to the rear edge having to accommodate the sliding glass cartridge it has a floating gutter that slides with the cartridge, which catches dropping water and channels it away to the sides of the main cassette.

The issue I have at present is the water from the rear edge of the glass is falling down onto the sun-blind, then onto the front seats and into the headlining/lights console, especially under braking.

The internal floating gutter needs to be clear of debris and properly shaped/crowned, to allow water to readily drain away. What I believe was happening was the gutter had sagged/been pressed down and was filling with water and not draining. On moving away, then braking, the water then sloshed over the front of the gutter and into the car. It's possible the sun-blind was also filling with water when the gutter over-flowed as the car was standing.

I thought the glass to cartridge frame sealant might also be leaking, but having tested again it seems sound, with no apparent leakage, or glass movement. I have had one glass panel come unbonded, previously.

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The gutter was essentially clean, but I flushed it completely clear and reformed it to ensure it drained at the edges and has a good centre crown.

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I tested by squirting water from a bottle and the gutter appeared to drain quickly and fully, so hopefully this is resolved.

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At some stage I will remove the headlining and sunroof cassette to deal with the seized mechanism.

Yet another vote here for the sunroof appreciation society...

[Dieselman]

Since putting the estate back on the road I've not really been happy with the ride quality, partially because I was comparing it to Xm saloons, but also it was stuck in hard mode originally.
Even after ensuring it was in soft mode for normal driving it seemed brittle and over-sprung, compared to the saloons. Some of this is because to accommodate the additional weight of the estate and also it's huge payload of 630Kg, it has stiffer anti-roll bars and the tyre pressures are set higher, which both lead to it feeling a less settled.
The spheres are all correct, the rears are genuine Citroen and the fronts were new IFHS.

I had previously re-gassed the spheres and checked the damper centre drillings. Estate rear spheres are different to saloons being 2*400cc and 1*500cc, pressures being 40Bar for all three.

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The estate rear rams have larger pistons than saloons, so move 20% more fluid per unit of wheel travel, hence the Hydractive sphere is 20% larger and the corner sphere dampers are also larger at 0.7mm instead of 0.5mm.

I recently fitted some genuine Citroen spheres to the front, which I knew have the dampers drilled slightly larger. Standard is 0.6mm for Hydractive 1, for all models other than 2.0i and 2.1d (atmo).
I had noted the ride was noticeably improved, but felt the rear was too stiff, both when driving and performing bounce testing.

I removed the rear spheres and checked the pressure, which all were fine. I didn't want to drill the rear dampers as all estate versions from start to end of production use the same corner spheres. I wondered if Hydractive-2 might use more relaxed dampers, as they saloons do. Hydractive-1 was deliberately setup for performance driving to counter criticism of Citroens rolling in bends.

To soften the soft mode, without affecting hard ride (for safety on the limits when loaded), I chose to increase the rear Hydractive sphere pressure from 40 Bar to 48 Bar. This reduces the spring rate so the ride feels more cushioned.

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I removed a Citroen sphere from the front to check the damper drilling size and found it to measure 0.75mm. The standard size for these is 0.6mm, which makes the ride a bit jittery at low speed, but does give very flat cornering.
The enlarged drilling gives a more settled ride at the expense of more roll when cornering.
I understand Pleiades drill all Hydractive corner sphere dampers out to 1mm, which imho, gives too soft ride quality.

Later Hydractive-2 corner spheres are larger spheres and had the damper holes enlarged to 0.8mm, so give a more compliant ride generally.

I drilled the IFHS spheres to 0.75mm before refitting them to the saloon they are now on.

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I drove the Estate on a county lane test route and it seemed noticeably smoother and more composed generally. I can live without the absolute sports car handling, though have to admit it has been surprisingly good...especially for an estate. When it was stuck in hard mode it was like driving on rails.

I think the issue is that the rear gas volume was increased to accommodate the larger ram pistons, the rear corner sphere damper drillings were also increased, but the centre Hydractive block dampers weren't, so can't readily pass more volume than the saloons.
This leads to the centre sphere being less effective and more of the wheel movement being transferred to the corner spheres. Reducing the spring rate of the Hydractive sphere means it more readily accepts fluid, absorbing more wheel movement.
I don't intend to adjust the hydraulic block dampers.

The way I remove front corner spheres without mess is to use scoops to catch the spoon-full of fluid that leaks out.

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