Ride Height Help

[Dr.Phiber]

Help!! I'm a newbie here but I have had Xantia's for 10 years and I have a problem with my current W 2000 1.8i16V saloon model.

The car recently started bouncing at the front and would not rise from cold start at the front end unless the manual lever was used to put the car into the highest setting (service mode) and then drop it back down to the lowest setting and "arrest" the height when it reached approx the correct level by grabbing the lever quickly and putting it into "normal" mode.

Having done this the car would ride perfectly until parked up overnight when it would gradually sink again.Using this as purely a temporary solution I guessed, as the car was riding ok, that the linkage had broken and arranged to put the car in my local garage ASAP.

Having just recieved the car back after forking out £145 for new anti-rollbar links X 2 (there was a knocking noise from O/S front over bumps) and a new suspension controller + lever I'm a bit miffed that the car isn't right.Having used the same garage for 20 years I don't want to make a fuss unless I know what I'm talking about but to me I think the guy hasn't set it right after fitting the parts and he's now talking about changing control valves and charging me more money to fix it.

Basically the car is now doing this:-

From cold start back end comes up front doesn't budge and front end sits lower than normal.This results in bouncing particularly as speed increases.

Using manual lever in lowest position car will sink front and back.

Putting lever to normal from lowest position only the back comes up.

Putting the lever to high mode front and back come up to high position.

Putting the lever to highest service mode front and back go up higher still.

Dropping the lever from high to normal will put the car in almost normal height (bit low at front still) and will drive ok until next cold start.

Now I'm not a mechanic or even any use as an amatuer but I have had these cars for years and the last time this happened I ended up forking out for the main dealer to fix it which cost about £35 and took 20 minutes, the thing is am I right in thinking this is just a setting and my local guy is ignorant of how to set it correctly and the main dealer would know or is there something else wrong as he suggests?

Can anyone help? :lol:

[Johndouglas]

Before you start playing with the ride height, I would make sure the height correctors are working as they should. Both of them should have a little arm connected to a ball joint. If the height corrector becomes stiff through lack of lubrication, the arm can break off.

[Dr.Phiber]

Before you start playing with the ride height, I would make sure the height correctors are working as they should. Both of them should have a little arm connected to a ball joint. If the height corrector becomes stiff through lack of lubrication, the arm can break off.

 

Hi John, yes this is what he replaced on the front end as it had snapped but now the car won't sit at the right level? :lol:

[Johndouglas]

With the car at normal height when you measure from the ground to the lower edge of the front subframe, the measurement should be 155 mm +/- 7mm. The rear measurement, from the ground to the pad on the rear subframe should be 425mm +/- 7mm.

[Dr.Phiber]

With the car at normal height when you measure from the ground to the lower edge of the front subframe, the measurement should be 155 mm +/- 7mm. The rear measurement, from the ground to the pad on the rear subframe should be 425mm +/- 7mm.

 

Thanks John armed with that info I'm off to speak to my garage man. ;)