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"Suspension Faulty"! |
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gmerry
 
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   Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
Goboxy, if one was not too drive the car for a very long period, one could support the weight of the car on blocks, off the suspension or jacking points. That would also save flat spots on the tyres. Come to think of it, some of us have also sufferred from tyre problems? In the end, sphere replacement is not a big deal, once one gets one's head around it. Just part of C6 ownership. Regards G |
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Gobxoy
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  Member No: #786
Location: Essex |
yeah could put on blocks and save tyres too? Changed a few spheres in my time. I just keep  mine! Don't want flatspot syndrome.  .
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Quentin
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  Member No: #141
Location: Suffolk |
This thread is well-timed for me - I've had "Suspension faulty" a few times recently. I actually thought it was faulty before the car noticed, but then it's not very self-critical! The ride at the front seems coarse and "knobbly" sometimes (not always) on rougher surfaces, and the back lurches sometimes. On the M25 a couple of weeks ago, the warning came on and the whole thing defaulted into hard mode for a mile or two before resolving. To my eye, the front ride height looks wrong as well - too high. My dealer has so far just discovered that they don't understand the fault code, which just referred to a communication error in the system. Before I hand it over to them to diagnose properly, I would really appreciate a steer from anyone about what the likely cause might be. My current thinking is a sensor or height corrector, whereas yesterday I was thinking spheres - basically, I don't know. The intermittent nature of the problem leans me towards electronics as the culprit. Please help if you can! Thanks in advance. |
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dsharples
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  Member No: #119
Location: Woodbridge |
All this suspension talk is making me paranoid! My 2007 (really '06) C6 is becoming rather firm post speed-bump. Let me explain. If I cruise up to a speed-bump, well off the gas, and well off the brakes, it will generally crest over nicely. Very smooth and serene. Sometimes however, it will crash down the other side with a real thud, as if there is zero suspension travel (i.e. no springing) - and the rear end will bunny hop over the bump. The damping also seems very aggressive. There is no body movement until the car re-settles after the event - which you can feel. A bit mike a S1 XM going from hard-to-soft. If I dare to brake too late, or gently apply any throttle, the car will crash over the speed-bump with very little suspension movement - and a split second later, return to serenity as if nothing has happened. So this has set me wondering if my center spheres are working just fine, but my corner spheres are getting a bit low - which is accentuating the firmed dampening - or do the corner dampers restrict all fluid flow when activated? I've probably mixed my terms here so apologies - and I have no errors reported as far as I am aware. |
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gmerry
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Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
My pennies worth on this one, is to change the front stiffness sphere as a matter of course if there are any doubts as to suspension action. Only then if there are still problems would I change the corner fronts. The front stiffness sphere is the most severly stressed of all of the spheres (static pressure pre-charge is 70 bar plus it is switched in and out). There are no direct electronic diagnostics as to the state of this sphere. The change in improved ride was amazing after changing it. In terms of DIY difficulty, my experience is that anyone who had the ability/facilities/experience in changing say engine and transmission oil could manage this job. Regards G |
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timh
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 Member No: #875
Location: Perth |
@Quentin We just went through same symptoms on our 2nd hand 2007 that we took delivery of 2 weeks ago. The car as delivered kept warning "Suspension malfunction" and the front sat high and hard. It had just been freighted on a train from Melbourne to Perth (3,500km) and had the battery disconnected. It had some front suspension work done recently by a dealer in NSW. It was in with the dealer for a week to resolve (with help from citroen). Lexia was reporting a failure to communicate with steering angle sensor (which according to quite a few posts here is a bug in lexia). In the end the dealer cleaned and reset all sensors and mounting brackets and problem has gone away. |
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Gobxoy
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Member No: #786
Location: Essex |
gmerry wrote:- My pennies worth on this one, is to change the front stiffness sphere as a matter of course if there are any doubts as to suspension action. Only then if there are still problems would I change the corner fronts. The front stiffness sphere is the most severly stressed of all of the spheres (static pressure pre-charge is 70 bar plus it is switched in and out). There are no direct electronic diagnostics as to the state of this sphere. I think thats a good pennies worth, makes sense to change the one that takes the most load. Btw good pic of cutaway on other thread. Out of curiosity, if the front siffness sphere is changed, does the car need to be reprogramed? I'm thinking not as the wheel sensors values set the height? IF THATS the case and one can do the change themself, probably cheap(ish) starting point? |
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gmerry
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Member No: #21
Location: Scotland |
The sphere's are completely mechanical component, so replacing them doesn't require any re-programming. I'll post a guide, covering depressurisation, access, removal, bleeding out the air. I take it most folk with any kind of DIY interest have access to Lexia? Regards G |
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JimC
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 Member No: #229
Location: Scotland |
It turns out that my front LH sensor got 'nudged' when the ball joint was being replaced. I took it back and 3 hours plus a lot of head-scratching later, all's well. | ||
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dsharples
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Member No: #119
Location: Woodbridge |
Hmm. Been to dealer today for 60k (ish) service. Suspension Fault Not Found! They want me to take out a "technician" and demonstrate the problem tomorrow. G - please explain how can it be the stiffness sphere. The car is most firm in the "stiff mode" when the stiffness sphere would be out of circuit (or that's how it used to work on the XM) - or on the C6, does it work the other way round, with the front corner spheres effectively shut off, and the centre stiffness sphere carries the load? I'm keen to be educated. |
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Chevrons
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  Member No: #85
Location: N. Staffs |
Have you seen this excellent post by cruiserphil?: - Click Here - |
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rogerandoutman
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Member No: #466
Location: London |
I suffered from a collapsed front sphere and as it is a mechanical unit, citroen dealers were unable to diagnose the problem and assured me that all C6 rode the same way. The ride hight remained the same as LDS fluid was pumped into the faulty sphere. The simple test is to bounce the front up and down on each side and check if there is a difference in the rebound, just as one used to check for faulty shock absorbers on convential suspension systems. I had mine changed at B&L as I do not have a sphere removal tool or lexia to depressurise the system | ||
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C6Dave
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  Member No: #1
Location: Northumberland |
Apparently, the design was changed internally on the spheres (as noted by gmerry in an earlier post) to include the point to destroy the diaphragm in order to stop the spheres being 're conditioned' by unscrupulous 1/3 parties who were making a poor job of it. That information came from a well respected member of the Traction community. |
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rogerandoutman
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Member No: #466
Location: London |
I may be wrong but suspension travel or the springing of the suspension is provided by the nitrogen in the sphere, if you change to sport mode, by switching out the additional 'stiffness spere' what you are doing is analogous to cutting off some coils off a conventional coil spring, thereby reducing the suspension travel and therfore 'firming up' the ride | ||
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dsharples
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Member No: #119
Location: Woodbridge |
Sorry to labor this topic, but still struggling with my suspension! Dealer contacted Citroen Technical. Citroen Technical suggested checking, Ride Height (checked - ok), Suspension Update (already done), and then suggested it could have been the Winter/Summer Tyre change or my non-Michelin front tyres. I said "no" its got much worse over recent months.. I said, I think its the front spheres. I said how about we change the stiffness sphere? They said "we really don't want to do it, as we don't believe it will solve the problem - these new spheres don't fail. We have never changed one." Having run the car over 500 miles over the weekend, the symptoms persist. Every time the goes into a more sporty setting, the ride becomes ridiculously hard, almost like a Mk 1 XM with failed diodes! Its extreme. Looks like I'm going to have to take matters in to my own hands. Did we ever manage to work out a way of doing sphere changes without a Lexia? |
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