2002 C5 Suspension Failure

[Ferdens]

Hi.

Decided to take my wife and 3 grandkids on a holiday.

10 miles from our destination we stopped for some shopping. Getting back to the car, the suspension had dropped. Starting the engine and pressing the button raised it slightly.

A few miles later, the car started to bounce over the slightest bump and the power steering failed. Managed to limp to the campsite with the rear scraping over every speedbump.

Checking the car, there was a trail of fluid behind the car,all over the bottom of the boot and back of the car.

Also a puddle at the rear drivers side wheel. Called recovery and the mechanic thinks the sphere has a pinhole in it.

Question is, is it an easy, fairly cheap fix, or should I just get rid of it.

Don't have loads of money to chuck at it.

I do most work myself but have heard the spheres are pain to remove.

Any advise would be welcome.

Thanks.

[paul.h]

To pay a dealer will be at most one hour labour, plus the cost of a sphere at about £40 on ebay and the lds fluid, about £10 a litre depending on where it is bought. Total amount is about 5 litres but you may not have lost all of the fluid. To do the job yourself you will need a sphere removal tool, probably about £15. There are different part numbers for the spheres depending on whether hatchback or estate.

 

To do the job it is something like slacken the lds tank cap and disconnect the battery negative lead so the pump will not want to run, jack up the car, put on axle stands. Then unscrew the old sphere and screw on the new one with a new seal. Lower to the ground, top up the lds level, put the lds tank cap back on, connect the battery (use the common problems topic procedure for battery disconnection/reconnection to avoid odd electrical problems by giving the bsi time to shut down and start up), start the engine and raise/lower the suspension, check the lds level again on low suspension setting, turn the steering lock to lock to bleed out any air. If the suspension pump does not prime itself if left overnight it often does it on its own, otherwise you might need to put a bit of air pressure in to the tank.