More hydraulic woes

[Brian]

There is a possibility that one of your spheres is leaking nitrogen into the LHM fluid.
Have you carried out a bump test on all 4 corners with the car at normal height. One with less bounce may be the culprit.

Has the tick time from the pump reduced? if so the accumulator sphere could be the problem..

[citronut]

what unnecessary physical risk can be caused by slackenning a regulater bleed valve then closeing it back off,

i also did not say it would cure all or any of the guys problems,

but it certainly will not hurt

regards malcolm

[scarecrow]

You might admit defeat and take it to a Citroen specialist and let them sort it out, or at least tell you what the problem is. Sorry I can't be more helpful.

[tom]

There is always the risk that the car may fall when pressure is released. A minor risk but always best avoided.

Returning to the problem, if one actually exists, The suspension can and will rise slowly for a large number of reasons. Ticktime is the health indicator and on an old car, around fifteen seconds is an indicator of there being little wrong (Yes all you experts, I know that this is 45 seconds shorter than ideal but it is necessary to sort out the main problems before dealing with relative trivia so butt out for a minute while I try to help this guy)
Waiting for a couple of seconds after the car has started in order to use the brakes is part of Citroen life. These are not like any car you have owned before. They take time to learn what is normal and what is cause for alarm.
Losing coolant, for example is almost always worse than losing hydraulic fluid! THe system needs to be pressurised to work. The fluid needs to be a bright neon green if it hasn't had the goodness chewed out of it. If it is brown or yellow, then changing it and cleaning the tank filter helps with both the risetime and the speed with which it all starts working. Steering getting heavy after a few minutes is perhaps something that should be verified by somebody familiar with a BX but neither of your other two faults seem to be serious enough to be actual malfunctions.

Questions:
Does the red stop lamp go off shortly after startup?
How long after startup does the suspension thake to start moving?
How much longer does it take to get to normal operating height?
If you sit on the front bumper, with the car at operating height, does the car pump itself up again after a minute or so?
Does the same thing happen to the back when you sit on the back bumper?
Let me know, either on here or by PM and I'll see what advice you may need.

[citronut]

Tom i agree with most of what you ae saying, appart from the possible danger of the car dropping suddenly whilst loosening the bleed valve,
as i always aproach this from the top on BX's, although this is harder on a 16V version,

the other thing i disagree with is the attitude problem, as there is no need for it, as i was just answering the guys question regarding the bleed valve,


the other thing that can cause some of these faults is a pump belt not tight enough,

regards malcolm

[BX596]

Answers
10Immediately
2)after a few seconds
3)40 seconds low to normal,40 seconds normal to high
4)no
5)no
What tick time,I think the clock's stopped Seriously,no clicky clicky
I think you may have misunderstood my point about the brakes.When you press the padal at ANY time,it takes a second or 2 for them to come on after pressing the pedal,but they then work well
Many thanks for your continued attention

[tom]

Then the problem remains as before. You have air in the braking circuit.
The suspension starts to rise immediately and there is a decent tick time.
Anybody who knows these cars will tell you that there is little wrong here. Brake delays are due to air in the system because the rest of it is working fine. The suspension should self level but I think we'll find it does because the car gets to its feet well. Carry out the procedure as per my first posting on this topic. Worn rear suspension cylinders can allow air in over a number of weeks but this is air in the brakes which should be bled with the car in the uppermost position and with the rear wheels off the ground.

[BX596]

No,there's no tick time.there's no clicking

[Way2go]

Sounds like then, that you are not reaching cut-off pressure out of the pump or the regulator is blocked/faulty.

Have you got a legit accumulator sphere or has a suspension sphere been used by mistake?

[Aerodynamica]

No,there's no tick time.there's no clicking

My BX went through a period of not ticking. On mine at least, this was down to the FDV sinking too much of the pump's supply and so the regulator never reached cut out.

The PAS functioned nontheless (as it would) and the suspension would move up in addition to the STOP light being off (this only takes something like 100bar).

Tightening up the spring in the first valve of the FDV helped this but it never completely cured it - revving the engine allowed it to reach cut out.

[tom]

Let's just get this right.
The fluid is at a satisfactory level?
The pump never stops rattling?
There is never a quiet time once the suspension has settled?


If this is the case, then, in order of likelihood:


1.The accumulator sphere is flat; or

2.The pressure regulator bleed has been slackened and not fully tightened

3.The pump is drawing air (observe the return through the top of the reservoir which should be filled to within 1 1/2" of the top and look for foaming which is the tell-tale for this problem,) or

4.The brake doseur valve is leaking badly and will not allow the accumulator to pressurise (Rev the engine and see whether you get a tick time. If you do not, then 1 or 2.)

This is not an exhaustive list but should give a starting point.

The fact that the stop lamp goes off and the suspension rises promptly suggests that 1 is more likely than 2. If you have recently changed the accumulator sphere, refit the old one.

You report that the car will not self level. Does it move to all four positions with operation of the cabin lever?
Fully forward, the car should collapse completely; next stop, normal height; third stop, rough road height and fourth stop, fully raised and suspension rigid. If it does all this, then it should self level. (if it does not, there is a logical reason but it would be too unusual to include here right now.)
Is the STOP light intermittent? It may come on briefly when changing height, for example and this is not a fault if it goes off again but if it flashes frequently, this would indicate poor system pressure.

[citronut]

so how did you check the fluid level, and how did you go about bleeding the brakes,

as you use a diferent method to bleed hydralic citroen brake to what is used for other braking systems,

regards malcolm