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 the 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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[Dieselman]

I looked at the height of this car and thought it might be a little high at the front, so measured it and it was about 15mm too high.

To adjust this, run the car onto ramps (if you have access to one, a four post ramp is ideal), push the body up until the height corrector draws fluid out of the system and pulls the car down, allow it to rise back to it's normal ride height, then take a measurement.
As I only had the front of the car raised I took a central measurement and had to allow for the rear wheels not being raised. the car was also on a sloping drive so unlevel in both directions, which affects the measured readings.

Adjustment is a case of slacken the height corrector rod clamp on the Arb, operate the height corrector using a lever, once the height is correct, tighten the clamp and test by pushing the car up until it comes down, etc.

After each setting I had to take the car off the ramps, drive it a short distance and park on level road to measure.

It's a fiddly adjustment and took me a quite a number of attempts to set this correctly, but it was eventually set.

Arb 11mm headed clamp bolt is accessed from behind the subframe. Apologies I was a bit too close with this image, but hopefully you can see the ratchet extension feeding behind the subframe to the bolt head.

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Use a lever to adjust the height corrector.

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Ensure the height setting control "Flag" is set so the rod its midway, to give it free play when driving.

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Final position.

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I drove the car on a test route of sub-urban and rural roads and it feels much more supple and yet more planted: it was previously more jittery and sharp feeling than Xm saloons.
Speed cushions are now significantly less pronounced, instead of the sharp jolts they were giving.
I know a road with full width speed humps that this car was transferring through to the body, but my Saloons literally make them disappear, to the point I sometimes had to look in the mirror to be sure I had actually gone over one...

[Dieselman]

I had noticed an oil patch under the car where it is parked so had been monitoring wetness on the hydraulics regulator.

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I removed the bracing and it was wet on the inside face, so definitely regulator base O ring is leaking.

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Due to the regulator being in a confined space, with a lot of pipework round it (this car is automatic with A/c), I was going to attempt to replace the base and side O rings without dismounting the regulator, so compressed the base using a bottle jack. The base disk was extremely jammed, leading me to believe these are the original 34 year old O rings.

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After about an hour of trying to remove the base circlip I gave up. I could push the circlip inwards, out of the retaining grove, slide a hacksaw blade under it to stop it being able to re-engage the grove, but then due to poor access round the pipes, couldn't hook the circlip outwards.

The side cup is also extremely difficult to access, so I will remove the regulator to split and re-seal it.

Has anyone been able to hook out the base circlip with the regulator mounted on the engine, if so, how?
I don't want to go down the route of drilling a hole through the side of the regulator body to push out the circlip.

[Dieselman]

I removed the hydraulics regulator to perform a re-seal to stop the leaks.

After lowering the car and depressurising the system, from underneath I removed the base support plate and as many hose clamps as you need to to make the pipes loose, unscrewed the three hydraulic unions, 2*6.35mm, 1*4.5mm.
To gain access to the upper 6.35mm union unscrew and pull out of the way, the 4.5mm union.

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Once all three unions were free, from above remove the accumulator sphere. On the Td the easiest way is to remove the solid boost pipe.

A single light tap with a lump hammer and it unscrewed easily due to having applied grease to the mating flange when installing it.

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Unplug the push fit nylon return pipe from the rubber connector.

After removing the two mounting bolts, the regulator will still be located on the upper 6.35mm pipe, so move it sideways then downwards, before fiddling it out of the maze of pipework and down out of the engine bay.

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Using a block of wood and plastic protector over the sphere aperture, I used a G clamp to press the base plug into the regulator body, but couldn't force the lower circlip out of the retaining groove. This is why people drill the side of the body, to be able to push the circlip inwards.

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I clamped the regulator down onto the workbench, now with an aluminum sheet under it as a protector, pressed the base plug into the body and used a small screwdriver and hammer to drift the end of the circlip out of the groove slightly into the body, then slipped a junior hacksaw blade behind it to stop it retreating back into the retaining groove.

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Restraining the hacksaw blade, I then hooked the end of the circlip out of the body and went round prying it out using a small screwdriver.

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After unscrewing the G cramp the base and spring were free to come out.

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Change the, 29*3mm, O ring, lubricate and refit in reverse being careful to ensure the O ring slides into the body without snagging.
Once the base is fully pressed into the body fit the circlip into the groove and release the G cramp.

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To change the, 32*2mm, O ring under the plastic cap is a similar operation. Clamp the unit down, unscrew both Allen headed bolts, release the G cramp.

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I had recently fitted a new 6mm O ring to the pressure relief bolt, so didn't do that, so the parts used for this job are three pipe seals and two O rings. I actually inverted and reused the pipe seals, so only two O rings were required.

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Fitting the regulator body back into position is a bit awkward, work it into position, fit the pipe seals to the pipe ends and work the regulator onto the pipes before installing the support holding bolts.
Ensuring the seals are deep enough for the pipe unions to start gripping the thread is the hardest and most long winded part of this job, not helped by reusing the old pipe seals as the ends were slightly flared.
The best method is to insert the pipe and seal, then push the seal in using a small screwdriver, then while applying pressure to the back of the back-nut, tighten it. I used the end of a pry bar to apply the pressure.
Once the nut has gripped it can be fully tightened just using a spanner.

Once the regulator is in position and removed clamps are back on and tight, and all pipes including the nylon leak off, are connected, grease and screw on the sphere.

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Start the engine, after 30s, or so, tighten the 12mm pressure relief bolt, allow the car to raise and check for leaks.

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I had noticed this car being a bit un-necessarily squealy when taking roundabouts, so checked the front tyres. I've also felt the steering was a bit dull and uncommunicative in feel. Xm normally have great steering, really alive.

When commissioning the car, the steering gear was partially dismantled and a few parts missing, so I rebuilt it and used my tracking gauges to set the tracking. Mine are mechanical gauges and can sometimes be a bit fickle in operation.

On checking the tyres the wear pattern is mainly good across the width of the tread, but by visual observation and by sliding the palm of my hands backwards and forwards round the outer circumference of the tread, could feel it was wearing unevenly, with sawtooth leading edges of the outer tread blocks.
The outer tread blocks are wearing unlevel, with the leading edge having a sharp saw-tooth, and the trailing edge being slightly rounded down. Apologies no photo.

This outer tread block wearing in sawtooth pattern indicates the tracking is out. If the leading edge has the saw-tooth the tracking is toe-ing out too much, if the training edge has the saw-tooth, the tracking is toe-ing in too much.

Rather than mess about with tracking gauges at present I marked and adjusted tracking rods 1/6th of a turn each. As the steering rack is mounted behind the hub pivots, to make the steering toe in I adjusted each arm slightly longer.

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A test drive revealed no leaks and slightly lighter and better feeling steering.

[Dieselman]

While adjusting the steering I checked the anti-roll bar drop links for play and found the bottom ball joint on the right side had some, so fitted a new one.
Interestingly, only the bottom ball joint had any play on what must be the original, adjustable, Citroen, link. Citroen stopped fitting adjustable links at some stage, so it has to be original fit.

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I've never seen transparent ball joint covers before.

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