samjmann

The car is in the garage at the moment. The suspension pump started to work on the way to the garage! The fuse must be ok. They reported that the pump was noisy and they thought it was running slow. The car is at the correct height at the moment. I've purchased a motor/pump/control unit from a scrap yard from a 2.0HDI 02' plate. (The pump looks the same as the one in the link). The garage was happy to remove the old unit if I could find a used unit. Just hope it works.... SJM.

Thanks for the link, paul.h. That's a good picture of the motor inards! Four brushes, at say 20amps running at 12V that's 240watts Quite a powerful motor. I'll post over the next few days to say what's happening.

I had Michelins fitted to the front and then the car aligned with a 4 wheel alignment specialist. It certainly drove 'dead straight' no pulling to either side. The outside wear started after around 1000miles. I have increased the fronts to 2.5bar as per the previous post. This helped a little. The fuel consumption reduced 3mpg! These cars to seem to be very tyre sensitive. The front pressure can be out just a few psi and you can feel it through the steering. SJM.

Any offers of help are always appreciated. I've read a post on another site of an easy way of measuring the front to back tyre distance using a length of threaded rod slid into a length of cooper tube. After setting the steering wheel straight, the cooper tube is put against the rear tyre and the threaded rod slid into it, the rod is the slid up to outside edge of the front tyre, a nut on the treaded rod is then adjusted to 'memorise' the distance. Ideally this should be the same as the other side! I reckon that this would confirm that each wheel is, or not, set the same. How you could say you've got toe in or out, I'm not sure? All of this is now starting to be less important, as I've now got no power the suspension pump, the car won't raise from the 24mph setting it's on now. The pump has been making squealing noises and of late has started to run slowly. This may have blown the 40Amaxi fuse. I think the pump motor has almost seized. A very careful drive to my Citroen garage is due tonight when the roads are quiet! Cheers, SJM.

Thanks for the replies especially Rookie 2 for such detail. If I'm understanding you correctly the wire passes through the centre line of the wheels all the way round. On the C5 the wheels are set into the arches quite a way and I think the wire would foul on the bodywork. Worth a try as you say, it's always a good thing before going to a garage to have some idea of what's happening. I've had the suspension checked at a local independent Citroen specialist and all is OK. That aside some cars appear OK and others not, so something isn't right! Regards, SJM.

I've owned a C5 110 diesel VTR Estate for the last 10 years, and I've been plagued by this same problem. I've had Michelins, cheap tyres, now Uniroyal, the wear pattern is the same - outside edge almost 'milled off' first. I've had the car 4 wheel aligned, normal alignment, they say it's fine. I'm lucky to get more than 10K from a front set. Some people have posted that the problem is the steering rack, in that the front wheels 'tuck in' and roll the outer wheel on to it's outer edge. The C5 facelift has a different rack which is supposed to stop this. I can't believe this - any thoughts? I've looked around lots of C5 MK1's and many have perfectly evenly worn front tyres, so I can't help think that this is more of a alignment problem. I don't drive fast, too many speed traps where I live, you can get 9 points on a trip across town! I had forgotten that on the C5 the front track is wider than the rear, specialised alignment gear needed? Regards, SJM.