LHM leak ! what to do ?

cacaolat · Post by **cacaolat** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:12 pm

My good old BX !
a week ago the Stop and hydraulic light suddenly came on. I immediately parked the car at home. I had to go abroad for a week and today I had a closer look. I started the car and had a look underneath. There is a LHM leak at the front drivers side.
What can I do? Is it easy to fix ? would a mechanic charge me a fortune ?
please see photos

Way2go · Post by **Way2go** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:17 pm

Octopus!

£100+ minimum at an Indi Garage.

Octopus to do yourself about £27 and is a dirty job that takes more than the garages 3 hours!

Vanny · Post by **Vanny** » Thu Sep 04, 2008 8:18 pm

second that, octopus!

ken newbold · Post by **ken newbold** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:23 am

Third it, really dirty job!

If doing it yourself, allow at least a good half day, maybe more if you've not done one before.
I've done so many now, I usually do them in a couple of hours if all goes well, but still get just as mucky.

DavidRutherford · Post by **DavidRutherford** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:27 am

I'll fourth that, but with the proviso that it could be the small octopus where it connects to the front height corrector, or the rubber/metal join for the rear height corrector (which is in the same area)

Put it on a couple of drive-on ramps, in high, and have a look underneath to see what you can see. The leaky pipe should be reasonably easy to find.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:37 am

I had the doseur return pipe go. Loads of LHM under it and dripping on the ground rapidly.

If you've got only one leak you may temporarily be able to repair the pipe - with suitable components (small steel pipe for sleeving, fuel tube, clips etc. How long temporary is - I don't know as obviously if one bit has rotted - others are close behind.

cacaolat · Post by **cacaolat** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 11:12 am

Thank you.....this sounds to complicated for me to do by myself. If you say half a days work for a beginner, that means 2 days for me.
I will ask my trusted indipended garage if they like to do it.
I hope if I top up the LHM I will be able to drive to the Garage, it is about 4 miles away ?

kiwi · Post by **kiwi** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 12:25 pm

DavidRutherford wrote:I'll fourth that, but with the proviso that it could be the small octopus where it connects to the front height corrector, or the rubber/metal join for the rear height corrector (which is in the same area)

Put it on a couple of drive-on ramps, in high, and have a look underneath to see what you can see. The leaky pipe should be reasonably easy to find.

Useful to know David thank you. My past experiances of the Octopus failure has been shall we say very fast draining, Funny enough the 19TRS just added to my collection has a leak from the same area, as soon as I saw my leak the alarm bells started as a bitch of a job.

Maybe worthy of a patch up jobby me thinks.

DLM · Post by **DLM** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 4:51 pm

...and it's always worth taking a look to locate the leak first if you can. Usual Citroen under-car safety procedures apply.

Just sometimes it's one of the plastic tubes from the rear which have popped off the rearward "tentacles" of the octopus. However it's normally leaking further back onto the rear edge of the front subframe if this is the case....

cacaolat · Post by **cacaolat** » Fri Sep 05, 2008 6:01 pm

Thanks for all the help. I have topped up the LHM level and driven the car to the garage. The stop lights did not come on again. I will find out on monday how much the damage will be.
keep you posted

cacaolat · Post by **cacaolat** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 5:22 pm

Huh...
My garage confirmed that it is the octopus. (they described it as the part with 6 pipes) but don't do the work.
I phoned one specialist nearby whose 3 hour labour cost alone would be nearly £ 200.
Can anyone recommend someone....the 100+ still sounded ok.
Help

Way2go · Post by **Way2go** » Mon Sep 08, 2008 7:13 pm

As you infer the labour rate is the killer from a lot of Garages, all you can do is check with those who know Cits and ask what they will do the Octopus for if you discount doing it yourself. The guy I used was ex-cit and set up as an independent, not even registered for vat at that time but it was a couple of years ago and he's quite distant to you.

There's a recommended list on the Main BXClub Site:
http://www.bxclub.co.uk/specialists/

Hopefully you will find one close but I guess you are faced with London prices unless you drive the car elsewhere. If you put the suspension in intermediate, you are likely to find you can make a journey with little loss of LHM except for when you turn the engine off and the car settles.

cacaolat · Post by **cacaolat** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:43 pm

I booked the Garage for next week, because I did not find anyone who would do it earlier. I have already booked my Airport parking for this Friday, so I really would like to drive to the Airport (about 35miles away) Since I discovered that there is a leak 2 weeks ago, I have only topped up about a quarter of a litre. (The photo above shows the car after it has been standing on the same spot for 8days) and I have driven for about 25miles. I guess I will be ok with a spare bottle of LHM and just keep driving it and topping up if necessary. or does this sound like a bad idea ?

Philip Chidlow · Post by **Philip Chidlow** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:55 pm

Sounds OK to me. I drove about 12 miles once with LHM just about pouring out. Needed half a litre after that.

cacaolat · Post by **cacaolat** » Wed Sep 17, 2008 6:39 pm

Finally some good news. I picked up the car from the garage. They only had to replace a return pipe (part cost £ 4.67). The octopus was fine.