MOT tomorrow... rear HC leaking?

[mnde]

Yes, it's MOT time tomorrow for my Meteor... and I noticed yesterday after a cursory inspection, that there's a fair bit of moistness in the depths of the undercarriage (oo-er!) which would be the reason I had to top up the LHM a tad a few days ago.

Here's some pics I took this morning - what do you think?



Hmm, a suspicious looking drip on the HC...









See the LHM on the crossmember under the strut/sphere in the top of the picture. It's all rather spread around...



I'd better ring the garage (Cit specialist) and warn them me'thinks that it needs looking at before it's put through the test.

Cheers,

Mark.

[PiLsY.]

Yuck....

Mark, mines getting MOTd at the end of this month. I've got a spare height corrector here incase mine needs doing. If it doesnt then I'll let you know and i'll see what we can arrange. Sorry if that's too late for you (I'm booked in for the 27th).

FYI, new height corrector is approx £80 - 90, plus 2.25 hours book fitting.... If it needs replacing then you're best off doing it yourself / with help as you'll be looking at probably £150 - £200 including labour depending on garage.

It looks to me like its the height corrector, but you may be lucky and it could be one of the hydraulic line joints going into the top of the HC. In that case its just a case of trimming the line by a cm or so and refitting with some sealant or a made up gasket.



Matt.[/img]

[jeremy]

Those hydraulic line joints are high pressure ones - so will be steel pipes with the usual Citroen olive formed on them and have the usual pipe seal which should never come near any form of sealer.

May be worth running a spanner over them to see if they are tight (they should not be very tight)

There is a rubber type return pipe somewhere - well worth having a good look at this as it may have rotted, split or dropped off. This can be clipped, sut off and re-fitted etc but I would NOT use sealant as there is a risk of it getting into the rest of the system.

[DavidRutherford]

I'd agree with the highlighted joints being the most likely to be the culpret.

Even if the HC is leaking, stripping, cleaning and fitting new seals isn't a difficult job.

As far as the MOT is concerned, if you clean up all the LHM there is all over the place at the moment, you may well get away with an advisory "slight leak" rather than a serious leak and hence fail.

[mnde]

Thanks guys!

I rang the garage earlier, and they said straight off it is possibly the joints because they commonly work loose. In fact, I think this happened at MOT time last year - the (different) garage said they nipped up the joints and that cured it.

Don't think I've got time to clean up tonight - unless I take it for a Gold wash at the Esso garage - which includes underbody wash... But I already washed and polished it two days ago! Car's due in at 9am tomorrow...

Well, the garage know to look at it first *before* it goes through the test anyway.

I'll let you know what happens!

Cheers,

Mark.

P.S. Thanks for the offer of your spare HC Matt, you're a legend

[PiLsY.]

No problem mate. Good luck tomorrow and let me know if you do need it.

Matt.

[Stewart (oily!)]

A little LHM around the place is not a fail, unless it drips in the testers eye
Stewart

[mnde]

Well chaps, I've just received word that my BX has passed it's test!!

Just needed a sidelight bulb, headlamp adjust and once they'd cleaned up the HC area and nipped up the unions, there was no leak at the time of the test.

Hallelujah!

Mark