Bouncing Suspension

[Guest Mark O]

Hello I have a question whilst driving my Xantia down the road the car is VERY bouncy I have been told the Spheres are gone. Are these easy to change?

[Johndouglas]

You must be very sure that the replacement spheres are correct for your vehicle. For instance front are different from rear; saloons are different from estates; even different engines may have different spheres - and they all look the same. There is a proceedure for changing them. Do a search on here or on www.frenchcarforum.co.uk

 

It's important that the correct method is used otherwise you may do damage to pipework (and yourself) Front spheres come off fairly easily. Rears are more stubborn.

[Guest Mark O]

You must be very sure that the replacement spheres are correct for your vehicle. For instance front are different from rear; saloons are different from estates; even different engines may have different spheres - and they all look the same. There is a proceedure for changing them. Do a search on here or on www.frenchcarforum.co.uk

 

It's important that the correct method is used otherwise you may do damage to pipework (and yourself) Front spheres come off fairly easily. Rears are more stubborn.

[Guest Mark O]

Cheers I will ensure that they are the correct ones and give it a go

[Guest superimp875]

Hello I have a question whilst driving my Xantia down the road the car is VERY bouncy I have been told the Spheres are gone. Are these easy to change?

 

 

Mark,

 

Sphere changing is one of those things that is like the holy grail that people avoid at all costs - for my sins I actually scrapped a 95 SXi over the fear of the costs...... On Friday a mate and I changed both front spheres and the acumulator in under 75 minutes !.

 

My tips to change them are either to have a good quality filter wrench (the strap with a handle that tightens on a oil filter to unscrew it) and / or a heavy duty 'jubilee' clip of sphere size. Engine on, suspension down, engine off, unscrew the 'de-pressurising' bolt by one turn. Prep up spheres by running releasing fluid around the joint to the sphere mount about 15 min before you try to unscrew. Cloths to avoid spills are good. If the sphere does not undo with the filter wrench, fit the large clip, tighten and encourage it to release with modest starter tips with med sized hammer. Once undone remove rubber seal from mount, lube new one up with some suspension fluid and carefully screw back in - this is only to a good hand tight.

 

Repeat on other side. I did the acumulator at the same time, if you are doing this, have the car on ramps or over pit before you start as access to the sphere is from underneath - same proceedure.

 

Start up, suspension up, top up resevior with fluid and spend 10-15 min playing with the suspension heights up and down.

Provarication is the thief of time - I put this job off for over 7 months, not using it really much since Sept, damaging my Xsara in a pot hole forced my hand, and it was embarrisingly easy.

 

Hope this helps

 

Ian

[Guest bigbade]

Mark,

 

Sphere changing is one of those things that is like the holy grail that people avoid at all costs - for my sins I actually scrapped a 95 SXi over the fear of the costs...... On Friday a mate and I changed both front spheres and the acumulator in under 75 minutes !.

 

My tips to change them are either to have a good quality filter wrench (the strap with a handle that tightens on a oil filter to unscrew it) and / or a heavy duty 'jubilee' clip of sphere size. Engine on, suspension down, engine off, unscrew the 'de-pressurising' bolt by one turn. Prep up spheres by running releasing fluid around the joint to the sphere mount about 15 min before you try to unscrew. Cloths to avoid spills are good. If the sphere does not undo with the filter wrench, fit the large clip, tighten and encourage it to release with modest starter tips with med sized hammer. Once undone remove rubber seal from mount, lube new one up with some suspension fluid and carefully screw back in - this is only to a good hand tight.

 

Repeat on other side. I did the acumulator at the same time, if you are doing this, have the car on ramps or over pit before you start as access to the sphere is from underneath - same proceedure.

 

Start up, suspension up, top up resevior with fluid and spend 10-15 min playing with the suspension heights up and down.

Provarication is the thief of time - I put this job off for over 7 months, not using it really much since Sept, damaging my Xsara in a pot hole forced my hand, and it was embarrisingly easy.

 

Hope this helps

 

Ian

[Guest bigbade]

Mark,

 

Sphere changing is one of those things that is like the holy grail that people avoid at all costs - for my sins I actually scrapped a 95 SXi over the fear of the costs...... On Friday a mate and I changed both front spheres and the acumulator in under 75 minutes !.

 

My tips to change them are either to have a good quality filter wrench (the strap with a handle that tightens on a oil filter to unscrew it) and / or a heavy duty 'jubilee' clip of sphere size. Engine on, suspension down, engine off, unscrew the 'de-pressurising' bolt by one turn. Prep up spheres by running releasing fluid around the joint to the sphere mount about 15 min before you try to unscrew. Cloths to avoid spills are good. If the sphere does not undo with the filter wrench, fit the large clip, tighten and encourage it to release with modest starter tips with med sized hammer. Once undone remove rubber seal from mount, lube new one up with some suspension fluid and carefully screw back in - this is only to a good hand tight.

 

Repeat on other side. I did the acumulator at the same time, if you are doing this, have the car on ramps or over pit before you start as access to the sphere is from underneath - same proceedure.

 

Start up, suspension up, top up resevior with fluid and spend 10-15 min playing with the suspension heights up and down.

Provarication is the thief of time - I put this job off for over 7 months, not using it really much since Sept, damaging my Xsara in a pot hole forced my hand, and it was embarrisingly easy.

 

Hope this helps

 

Ian

as much as i agre with ian i changed all the spears on my xantia nad had one that would not un screw i phoned a company who fit and supply them and a old boy talked me through the way they do it .you will need 2 hammers and a helper as you hit the spear near to the screw thread both hammers at the same time opp to each other your helper can unscrew the spear by hand this technek can also be used to split ball joints without damage i have now used the abouve method on 3 different cars hope this is some help .ps sorry about the spelling.