Suspension Won't Raise Or Lower

[charentejohn]

Hope someone can help with this.

I am in France (handy when buying a Citroen) and looking to buy a Xantia, mainly because I like the shape and concept.

Here the autotrader equivalent is leboncoin.fr where I have found a car with 'frozen' suspension for 1,500 euros (price for a similar one with no faults is 2,700+. You can find it, and others, by searcing for 'Xantia hdi' in the 'Poitou charente area.

So......

 

Any idea what this could be as I have tried garages with the usual 'bring it in and we will take a look' response. Not unreasonable as hard to say over the phone. However it is about 100 miles from me so I need to know if it is worth looking at.

 

I have read other posts and it seems the pump should be ok as brakes etc work. Most likely based on these posts is that something is seized or a sensor has failed / jammed ??

What I need to know is what is the worst case scenario, and the best. This will help me decide whether to buy based on the cost of repairs.

 

I haven't phoned the seller yet (language barrier) but a friend lives nearby and could do a preliminary viewing for me.

Basically I often like to know the answer before asking the question, so it would be helpful to have an idea of what to test / look for when I come to view the car.

 

Basically what would cause the car to lock in, what looks like, the standard ride height and not respond to the height control. Otherwise the car seems a good deal, less than 100K miles and a 110 HDI saloon reg in 1999.

Not quite too good to be true but just worried they have had a quote for repairs and don't want to do them because of cost.

I can do most work myself so that dosen't worry me, just that it may be really technical and out of my league / price range to fix.

 

Any help appreciated, John