Can anyone answer this subjective question? I'm not sure how smooth and floaty it should feel. It doesn't seem much better than my 405 estate.
Any comments from owners/drivers welcome.
Thanks.
Steve.
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Xantia HDi.
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As smooth as a baby's bum.
Very little even gets close to the smooth ride of a hydro Citroen. I suspect the spheres are knackered.
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As smooth as a baby's bum>>
Even smoother than that..:-)
Same for the XM.
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What\'s for you won\'t pass you by
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If all is working correctly the ride is the smoothest you can get - personally I find it disconcerting as you have no sensation from the road surface but that may suit you.
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It should (unsurprisingly!) feel like you are floating along. The sensation should be of gently undulations in the road, rather than any roughness. With the engine idling it should be possible to push each end of the car down 4" or so with very little hand pressure. If it's stuck in hard mode, or the spheres are shot, then it will feel more like a conventional car. Trouble is after a while you forget what lesser cars are like, and start to think the Xantia is going hard - then you get in a modern stiffly sprung car and, after you've had your fillings put back in, realise how good the Xantia's ride is. My mate's 54 Primera feels very very crashy after the Xantia - and mine operates far from perfectly!
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Like riding a velvet cushion on a maglev railway smoothered in warm butter and cushioned by the softest of feathers in your favourite silk pyjamas.
really, very smooth.
Lee -- There\'s no place like 127.0.0.1
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It depends upon the spheres, which do leak gas over a period of time, and whether or not the LHM fluid has been replaced at the correct intervals.
With our Xantia, a difference was noticeable after only a little over two years from new.
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When I was looking to buy a Xantia I test drove several. Yes very smooth. Yes very remote from any road feel. I liked them and if it was not for the fact that Swmbo wanted a higher and smaller car I would have bought one.
Floating on air is not the description I would use: but certainly very close to magic carpet. Better than any car I've ever been in altho I do remember a DS being good ...
madf
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As I said above there is very little that compares to a Citroen with a LHM fluid reservoir under the bonnet. If only Citroen used this in the C4 then I would get one. The C5 just looks too bland for me.
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Thanks for the comments. It seems that I may be changing the strut spheres after all. I've already changed the 2 hydractive ones and the antisink. Warm butter ride here I come!
Steve.
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Xantia HDi.
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Are you sure your Xantia is hydractive? Only VSXs and Activas are hydractive. The others are standard hydropneumatic (like BXs).
Standard hydropneumatic Xantias are smooth (but not as smooth as BX) and should be smoother than a 406 (no bad rider itself). If it's harsher, suspect the spheres are knackered.
Hydractive is quite a different kettle of 'poisson'. Even when set up perfectly it has a harder ride, but does counter this with less roll (even less roll in the Activa). It too is dependent upon good spheres, but also clean LHM fluid. There are sensors that have to be clean to work properly. I found our Activa benefitted from a regular flush.
The downside of the Activa was that if you were going round a bend fast the anti-roll would be working overtime and there was virtually no suspension travel left so-to-speak, and if you hit a bump, you certainly knew about it.
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Yes it's an hydractive type, it's an exclusive model which took over from where the VSX left off I think. Also there's 8 spheres on it in total. Anyhow last night I called at GSF an bought replacement spheres for the front struts, I decided on this because the front was a lot stiffer on the bounce test than the rear. It seems to have made a noticeable difference. I'm currently trying to decide if the accumulator sphere is knackered. My Xantia doesn't make a definate clicking sound like the old BXs did but the sitting in the boot after turning the engine off doesn't make it rise.
Steve.
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Xantia HDi.
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worth noting that gsf have been known to supply the wrong spheres - at least according to several posts on the XM forum. Sometimes the difference between spheres is almost nothing externally but the internal gubbins makes a big difference.
Advice seems to be that chap in east anglia (the best for spheres apparently - pleides or something?) or citroen centre in oxford.
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Xantia2 with hydractive and active anti roll front suspension spheres are part no 527162 from Citroen (rrp £67.71 + VAT) and are specific to that model. So double check as the spheres are different for normal Xantia, and for hydractive without active anti roll.
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>> Like riding a velvet cushion on a maglev railway
A bit OT but if you ever ride on the maglev railway in Shanghai you'll find it's surprisingly rough and noisy compared to a normal high speed train (e.g. TGV or bullet train).
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Hmm I have read elsewhere to check numbers when buying sphere's and I always do.
I use this as a reference guide -
www.gsfcarparts.com/downloads/sphere_table.pdf
The first time I bought some one of them was wrong so it's a good job I checked at the counter. They're a great bunch of guys at my local branch!
Steve.
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Xantia HDi.
Buy a Citroen and get to know the local GSF staff better...
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Buy a Citroen and get to know the local GSF staff better...
My local gsf there is a resident Citroen guy behind the counter, so better to ask at the start for the Citroen man, Otherwise another assistant may try to sell you a set of springs!
Gsf are very good in Leicester branch, and don?t forget to ask for discount, they sold me a bosch caliper at £77, for £70, elsewhere were around £40 more and less convenient
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>>maglev railway in Shanghai you'll find it's surprisingly rough and noisy
Well I never. Who'd have thunk it?! Thanks for the tip, I really had it down to being non-friction and thus smooth, but have never been on one so there you go. Guess that's another childhood illusion destroyed along with the hopes of a jet-pack.. :-)
Lee -- There\'s no place like 127.0.0.1
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