Progressive Hydraulic Failure

[Way2go]

The other thread where people were warning others about the loss of suspension, steering and brakes got me to thinking how many people had actually experienced this because it is not neccesarily instantly dramatic (but a nuisance nontheless!). In fact Citroen seem to have been quite clever in their design here.

I experienced it when a front strut let go big time on a journey and deflated the front suspension, the strut return burst under the pressure causing rapid loss of LHM. Although the front had gone, rear suspension remained for some time and so did steering. After a couple of miles of nursing towards home power steering was gone and at about 4 miles ish the suspension was too flat to continue but even still the brakes were fully functional.

(A new strut & a few litres of LHM and all was hunky dory again. )

Anyone else have stories about full LHM failure?

[Dollywobbler]

Funnily enough, I lost the steering on the TZD, which alerted me to the leak situation. Not tried driving beyond that though!

[mat_fenwick]

Yes.



I'd just put a BX on the road after a few years sitting idle, and on the first trip the belt started chirruping a little. Given that it was dark and raining (and I was in fancy dress), I thought I would wait until we got to the party before tightening it. Shortly afterwards the steering went heavy, then the STOP light came on. I had no problems going another few hundred yards before braking, and suspension was still up when we came to a halt. Fortunately I always carry a spare belt with me seeing as it's a single point of failure for so many systems, and we were quickly(ish) on our way again.

[mds141]

The HP pump belt snapped on the valver a couple of years ago. The first sign was a brief loss of PAS assistance. As I pulled into Sainsburys car park the brakes weren't as effective. I did my shopping, returned to the car and drove home, I managed the 3 miles home before the suspension settled to full low. I suspect a recently replaced accumulator sphere helped.

[Dollywobbler]

Is there a recommended change interval on the pump belt?

[citronut]

quite a few moons ago we got off the ferry at Dover after a day trip to Froggy land un my old N/A diesel,

just started heading up the M20 out of Dover and the stop light started flashing, steering went heavy, eventually suspension went flat, followed by brakes after quite a distance ern route back to Hastings,
just got back to Hastings and she discarded her rear exhaust box, ( was a bit moth eaten anyway ),

the sudden loss of all her citro blood was down to the walking stick shaped short pipe from regulator to flow valve fractured

still got us the near 50ish miles home even if a tad bumpy

regards malcolm

[Mothman]

Had my Dad's F reg Estate bleed to death in Tenderten in the late 1990's. Parked her up ok, but when i came back from buying new fire bricks for the Rayburn there was blood everyhere underneath the motor.
Drove her home ok, everything worked but not up to the usual Citroen standard. A pipe to the rear had gone.
She did it again a while later whilst on a trip to Looe, same problem as Malcolm. However, in both cases she covered 20 miles plus with no LHM in the system and survived with no problems.

Andy

[Tim Leech]

Not until I bought the TRS estate, which failed with and immense show of green blood!

[citronut]

i also many moon back recovered a G that had a rear suspension feed pipe burst, it happend out in the sticks a few miles from my workshop,

i removed the inspection plate in the boot floor ( very civilized ) to access the rear suspension feed union, removed the burst feed pipe end at the union, bunged a bleed nipple in and drove her back on three legs

regards malcolm

[Melchior]

Oh god this sounds like real doom and gloom and is not giving me happy feelings! For a while the STOP light has been popping on very occasionally when cornering left. There is plenty of LHM in the tank. The last couple of days it has been lighting up more often, still only when turning but now in both directions. This morning it flickered a couple of times when driving in a straight line.

Actually I was going to post up here about it but as this thread is already running then I won't. The pump doesn't seem noisy and the suspension is working fine (Citrobics is no problem). The steering is a little heavy sometimes though. Brakes are fine.

Am I heading for a pump or other failure??

[Dollywobbler]

Check the belt tension first of all. The steering is high demand, so if the belt slips, you'll lose pressure. Presume you have checked the LHM level with the suspension on high?

[Melchior]

Yes indeed, the LHM level is fine. If anything there's too much in there, I accidentally overfilled it the other day. (My LHM level chinese hat thing is stuck in its high position).

Will check the belt and fingers crossed, thanks for the tip.

[citronut]

the belt need to be very tight as the pump requires a lot of torque to turn it as its pumping up 2,600 psi ,

what mileage has the car done, if high it is possible the pimp is week/worn out,

also as you say the level indicator is tight up the top of the dome, i presume this is with the car fully up on its highest setting,
if so it has way to much citro blood

regards malcolm

[Way2go]

For a while the STOP light has been popping on very occasionally when cornering left. There is plenty of LHM in the tank. The last couple of days it has been lighting up more often, still only when turning but now in both directions. This morning it flickered a couple of times when driving in a straight line.

This is only related to Hydraulics if the LHM light is coming on as well. The STOP light has several sources of triggering, one being water level - have you checked this and what other light is illuminating at the same time as the STOP light?

[Dollywobbler]

That's a point. Hydraulic light is (!). Does the water level warning illuminate with the ignition on? Might be that the bulb has blown.