Xantia spheres

I would advise on fitting new speheres instead of regassing them and a complete new lot of LHM in the system as well as you will notice a better ride and it will last a lot longer than re-charging. why pay the same for a re-charge wen you can get comeplete new spheres??!

Thanks - that's what I intend to do - I'm just wondering whether there is any difference in the spheres available and where to purchase.

I used to buy from Andyspares - now Swedish & German?

Derek

Just in case you don't know you have 6 spheres, one for each corner and a main accumulator and an anti-sink sphere at the back....

Yeha just go into GSF or look online and they will stock them, if ya go into the shop they may ask sum stuff about the car mainly what age and stuff. cant memba if ya use grease on the threads when re-fitting or some LHM! got a feelin its LHM though to stop any contamination. Will

Back ones can be a pain to do and accum as well due to access!

lizard ( snipped-for-privacy@ukfsn.org) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

The anti-sink sphere does make a difference to the ride, too.

If the LHM's black, it's probably worth a flush, too. It's probably never been changed yet.

You need to get flushing fluid from GS&F or EuroCarParts, change the LHM for the flush, drive for a thousand miles or so, then change for fresh LHM. Bleed the brakes through thoroughly, too. I'd probably do the spheres with the second change of fluid, from flush to fresh LHM.

Thanks - I hadn't realised that - my XM had one but I didn't realise that the *standard* Xantia had - now I've looked I can see it.

All 6 spheres will be changed next week - fluid is OK as it's been genuinely fully serviced by main agent who I know from the days when we both had multiple DS's.

Derek

Derek A Briggs ( snipped-for-privacy@thebriggs.plus.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Early ones didn't. IIRC, the change came at about the same time as the first facelift, when the chevrons moved to the centre of the grille.

94/5ish? Same as XMs - early ones sank, later ones didn't. It's partly so they could get away with fitting a cheaper, crapper pump that takes the thick end of a week to raise the car at idle...

Not necessarily a guarantee - a main dealer put brake fluid into my mother's Xant....

Ah. That probably makes a big difference - which dealer is this? Sounds like they need to be recognised as being a bit different to the normal Citroen dealer.

I don't know who his dealer is obviously but I have taken the Activa to Duxford service station before when Pleiades ran out of steam with regard to a problem I was having with it and all I can report is that Duxford service station are fantastic and really knew what they were doing and what they were talking about.

In comparison the local dealer near here got very confused and upset when I wanted a new hydraulic ram/jack for the Activa and I had to take the car to them and point at the bit I wanted (the parts guy tried looking under the bonnet for it!) I was also asked "is it diesel or petrol?" and "what engine size" which seeing as they only every sold a 2l CT variant in the UK made it all the more laughable...

lizard ( snipped-for-privacy@ukfsn.org) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

I needed a boost control valve for my TCT XM - eventually, I had to take over the parts computer from the guy, as he admitted defeat. I found it on there in the end - bizarrely, a widget with three pipes to the inlet tract and one electrical multiplug came under the Lubrication system...

Probably thought it was yet another "limited edition" tarted up LX. TBF, the continentals got a V6 Activa.

Another excellent Citroen dealer appears to be Duff Morgan in Norwich, I just called them to find out how much a service would cost (going to do it myself anyways) and ended up speaking to their quality control guy. He appears to have been a Citroen nut for the past 30 years and owns an Activa so knew all about them and which bits break ;) He also told me the answer to a couple of niggly things I have on the Activa atm and told me to drop by one day and he would check it over for free! (although, i think this is to satisfy his curiosity and to have a good natter with someone who knows a bit about Citroen, I could imagine some of the drones in the dealership wouldn't know what a DS was if it run them over)

Those lucky continental types also got an HDi version the lucky buggers :( the 26.8 mpg is a bit expensive at times :(

lizard ( snipped-for-privacy@ukfsn.org) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

Mmmm.

Wimp.... I reckon on an average of about 27mpg from my lardybarge TCT Auto XM. Mind you, I got an average 23mpg out of it over a 500mile motorway round trip the other weekend. (About the same as I used to get out of the CX GTi Auto all the time....)

Trouble was, there was a loaded car trailer tied to the back bumper of the XM.