BX19 RD Leak in hydraulic system

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Harvey
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BX19 RD Leak in hydraulic system

Post by Harvey »

My BX19 RD estate has served me well for more than ten years, and I am loth to scrap it, but it has now developed a hydraulic leak. This appears to be coming from the hydraulic return pipe system, and more particularly from the confluence of several plastic pipes located in front of the front sub-frame on the driver's side.
This is not very accessible, so it is not clear exactly from which of the several pipes the leak is emanating. If I look on the other side of this joint, where a couple of rubber pipes lead up into the engine area, and then to the LHM reservoir tank, those pipes are dry.
As far as I can tell, this system of pipes, including the part where several thin plastic pipes join together, is one part, and I assume any repair will involve obtaining and replacing the complete part.
My question is where can I obtain this part, and are there any tips on how to approach the replacement job.
It also occurs to me that if this rather complicated array of pipes is no longer available, it should be possible to simply feed the individual pipes directly to the reservoir. The problem then would be where to find suitable tubing, and how to join that tubing to the existing tubing upstream of the leak point.
Any advice would be welcome.
Harvey
Stewart (oily!)
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Post by Stewart (oily!) »

Welcome to the club Harvey , from your description your octopus needs replacement, they are obtainable from Citroen for around £25, a search of this forum using octopus will enlighten you. Its not such a bad job
Stewart
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Xantia Td estate, going soft
ellevie
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Post by ellevie »

Welcome Harvey, You may even be able to do a short term repair, if you're lucky, until you can get around to changing the octopus

See http://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic ... ht=octopus
David

BX19TRS 118K E Reg 1992-2008
BX19TRS auto abs 96k F Reg
BX19TXD 150k K Reg
Mr B
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Post by Mr B »

I've currently a BX here with the engine out, I can post a picture of the octo if you want.
1991 Landrover Discovery
1995 VW Golf SE
Harvey
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Joined: Sat Jun 17, 2006 6:55 pm
Location: Buckinghamshire

BX 19RD Hydraulic leak

Post by Harvey »

Thank you to those who responded to my request for assistance.
I have been rather confused about which part is the 'octopus' and so would be glad if Mr B could post a picture as offered.
At the start of this problem, there was a major LHM leak, which showed itself when moving the height lever from high to low. The LHM fairly gushed out, and it was easy to locate a ruptured pipe which was attached to a small metal cylindrical device with I think three connections. The part which now leaks is located just below this device, and is made of plastic, with thin plastic tubes going across to the other side of the front sub frame and other tubes which appear to lead to the back of the car. As mentioned before there are two thicker pipes which lead up to the reservoir tank. From the replies I have received I gather that this plastic piece with connected tubes is the octopus. Is this actually a combination of several parts or is it, as I suspect, one integrated piece with all the tubes attached? Is it possible to change it without removing the engine?
Regards, Harvey
ellevie
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Post by ellevie »

Try these two links for a functional description of the octopus / return pipes :

http://www.mars.dti.ne.jp/~ynar/bxorg_a ... /m15e.html

http://www.rwbsmith.plus.com/citroen2/Hydraulics/
David

BX19TRS 118K E Reg 1992-2008
BX19TRS auto abs 96k F Reg
BX19TXD 150k K Reg
ellevie
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Post by ellevie »

The "small metal cylindrical device" that you mention is the front height corrector which regulates the flow of high pressure LHM to the front struts to raise and lower the car as required. In addition to the input and output HP metal pipes, there should be two rubber pipes facing the o/s wheel. The lower rubber pipe is the "flow back" pipe which takes the discharged LHM back to the reservoir from the front struts, when the car is lowered. The upper rubber pipe is the "leak back" pipe which takes a very much smaller volume of LHM, used to lubricate certain hydraulic parts, back to the tank. This rubber pipe is a known problem and is the one I referred to in my previous reply. It comes out of the corrector and bends downwards and back on itself in the space of a few inches, and connects to the head of the octopus. Because of this very tight bending radius, it often perishes and leaks along it length and also where it enters the octopus head. This is the pipe I was referring to in my previous reply referring to the link http://www.bxclub.co.uk/forum/viewtopic ... ht=octopus
David

BX19TRS 118K E Reg 1992-2008
BX19TRS auto abs 96k F Reg
BX19TXD 150k K Reg
Mr B
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Post by Mr B »

Image

The Octo is the bunch of pipes running along the chassis leg. They run from the LHM tank to a connection point at the base of the height corrector, then pipes split off to both front suspension legs and to the rear suspension. They can be done in situ with the engine still in place but it makes the job easier with the rear lower engine mounting removed along with the O/S drive shaft.
1991 Landrover Discovery
1995 VW Golf SE
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