Citroen dealers and mechs never heard of hydroclean

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 12:45 pm

As an aside, on a thread that's about hydraulic fluids

Have TOTAL officially stopped stocking their filling stations with LHM? They never seem to have it any more. I just got rooked because I needed some quickly and the only place I could get to after work before it closed was Halfrauds. Do you know they now call it a "Specialist" fluid, and therefore it's over £10 for 1 litre???

They seem to have pulled the Bendix/Castrol LHM which is what I used to get when I was in there.

Mark.

jonathan_dyane · Post by **jonathan_dyane** » Fri Aug 21, 2009 11:51 pm

Sadly, this would not surprise me, LHM seems to be getting more difficult (and expensive) to buy casually (ie not from someone good like Lockwoods).

Last time I went to GSF, I bought the last 3 bottle they had in stock, and the last time I went to a motor factors they had only 3 in also, and were somewhat expensive.

Vanny · Post by **Vanny** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 8:40 am

GSF still seem to be able to order in 20l drums, i dont know why people are buying it in 1 litre containers, when will you ever use just one litre? Always seems to be 20ml or 5litres for me!

Its not really a surprise that its getting rare, there are less and less HP cits on the road every year. That said you should be able to bulk buy 1 litre containers at the Stratford meet!

MULLEY · Post by **MULLEY** » Sat Aug 22, 2009 9:22 pm

20 Litres

I know my cars leak a bit of lhm, but even all 3 would struggle to get through that over 3 years

Ideally i'd like to buy a 5 litre can, but they only seem to do 1 litre jobbies, i'll be buying some more at stratford as they are normally only £10 for 3 litres

mnde · Post by **mnde** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 1:18 pm

Yeah, Stratford for sure. I never found anywhere that did a 5L can off the shelf. When I was last at Citromobile in Utrecht, they were flogging 5L flagons very cheaply. I picked up a couple of 1L bottles when I was last at the Carrefour in Calais, but I've gone through those.

Pesky rear HC leak

Mark.

Way2go · Post by **Way2go** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 2:27 pm

mnde wrote:I picked up a couple of 1L bottles when I was last at the Carrefour in Calais, but I've gone through those.

Mark.

That's novelty!

I normally only pick up wine from Carrefour in Calais.

Vanny · Post by **Vanny** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 6:35 pm

I normally only pick up sump plug washers in Carrefour, unfortunately last time i accidentally picked up packs for TU engines not XU engines, great for my mum, not for me!

kiwi · Post by **kiwi** » Mon Aug 24, 2009 9:02 pm

jonathan_dyane wrote:Sadly, this would not surprise me, LHM seems to be getting more difficult (and expensive) to buy casually (ie not from someone good like Lockwoods).

Last time I went to GSF, I bought the last 3 bottle they had in stock, and the last time I went to a motor factors they had only 3 in also, and were somewhat expensive.

I disagree it is getting harder to buy LHM!

For me it has always been hard to source a supply of LHM in the land of the long white cloud

Impossible to be able to get anything other than 1ltr even from Citroen. Although I have found a source that sells it from a bulk supply.

Yes it has become more expensive but I also doubt its becoming a specialist oil considering as I pointed out in another thread LHM is in use for Argricultural Machinery more. Then again maybe thats why its becoming expensive and harder to find? The blardy farmers are hoarding it

RxBX · Post by **RxBX** » Wed Aug 26, 2009 9:34 pm

kiwi wrote:I disagree it is getting harder to buy LHM!
For me it has always been hard to source a supply of LHM in the land of the long white cloud Impossible to be able to get anything other than 1ltr even from Citroen. Although I have found a source that sells it from a bulk supply.
Yes it has become more expensive but I also doubt its becoming a specialist oil considering as I pointed out in another thread LHM is in use for Argricultural Machinery more. Then again maybe thats why its becoming expensive and harder to find? The blardy farmers are hoarding it

MULLEY wrote: I'll be buying some more at stratford as they are normally only £10 for 3 litres

I think I will stock up on some LHM too, if the price is going up to these dizzy amounts

as listed by THIS e-bay seller

Edit/update 'E-bay/seller' has now altered the Start/bidding price from £99 to 99p , that's better

Way2go · Post by **Way2go** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 2:24 am

Seller wrote:Postage: £4.25Royal Mail 2nd Class StandardSee more services See discounts | See all details
Estimated delivery within 6-8 business days

Is it permitted to send these liquids via Royal Mail?

Post by **mat_fenwick** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 10:17 am

Why, are you tempted to have a cheeky bid?

I would think so - I've had LHM delivered (albeit via courier) before from GSF. It's the only way I can get it round here without a 20 mile drive...
I do tend to stock up on it (as well as the obligatory bottle or 2 of wine) when I go to France!

Way2go · Post by **Way2go** » Thu Aug 27, 2009 5:22 pm

No, fortunately I still have some supplies but I need to find the rubber pipe for the security valve or I shall be needing some more!

DLM · Post by **DLM** » Fri Aug 28, 2009 10:06 am

Could I suggest that a sticky - if anyone on here now has the means to do that - on various stockists of LHM would be a good idea?

I last made a distress purchase of LHM in the local branch of Partco - what used to be Unipart. More expensive than GSF/Eurocarparts but certainly much cheaper than the Halfrauds price quoted elsewhere.

They also had plenty of it in that particular branch, though that might be because they're used by a local ex-Citeroen mechanic running his own business now who services all makes but still has oleo-pneumatic-Citroen-owning customers (including one with a GTi 4x4 I saw and spoke to him about yesterday).

My most recent experience in France (ok - haven't been over there for about a year now) suggests LHM in the French hypermarkets is getting more expensive than it used to be, though at least it's still available there.

As for the larger sizes, would suggest it's a case of "grab it while you can" - and the European meets are probably a good source if you go to them. In reference to Total service stations no longer stocking lhm - in my experience it's been many years since their standard outlets have done so. This I think is particularly because many of their outlets are fast-turnover sites on motorways or main roads where mainstream but heftily-priced fast-movers have long been the name of the game for what's stocked.

Vanny · Post by **Vanny** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 10:39 am

please, not another sticky, you already have to scrol through the top 10+ posts to find anything new!

Post by **docchevron** » Mon Aug 31, 2009 2:51 pm

Just go direct to Morris oils, they fucking make it.