citroen hydractive

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deian

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Joined
Feb 5, 2013
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189
Location
Liverpool
Car
'01 W203 C200K Auto Estate
Hi all,

Anyone here a fan of the citroen hydropneumatic suspension systems. I am asking because I am as I've had a car that had a properly working system, and it's a wonderful thing. Contrary to popular to belief it's not too hard to fix either.

Just wondering if anyone else has had a Xantia, BX, CX, or XM, or C5 or even a DS, what are the opinions?

Thanks
Deian
 
Dieselman will be along any minute now . . . He knows his stuff on these cars.
 
I have a Citroen SM. Ignoring for a minute the Maserati bits, which do make it something quite unique, the ride is absolutely phenomenal. You are not troubled by potholes or lousy road surfaces. Braking and steering are spectacular - the latter weights up with speed and is directness personified. You do need to control your inputs though - it does roll a bit in corners if you turn the wheel too quickly.

Great things and as a retired Citroen technician who lives opposite me said, people are afraid of the hydraulics, yet they are pretty much rock solid and apart from the occasional leak, no problem at all.
 
I've had several BXs in the past and agree that they are really good, not just the suspension. Extremely comfortable cars to drive.
 
I had a BX. I forget what tyres I had on it, but imagine 15". Those together with the suspension gave the car the smoothest ride I've ever experienced. These days even a city car can come with 18" wheels with rock hard suspension tune for lap times.
 
Over the years I've had a BX, XM, Xantia and C5.

Suspension on all was superb with a super smooth, comfortable ride. Most problems were the spheres losing their gas charge and the high pressure fluid pipes corroding.
 
So glad to hear these comments, you really are not just MB enthusiasts but also car enthusiasts. I've had one XM, and three Xantiae in the past (one was a V6). And I only ask because the suspension on them were wonderful. Especially the hydractive two with three spheres on each axle, giving soft when cruising, and hardened up as soon as u hit a corner etc. I have a citroen technical manual for it somewhere, but yea, they were wonderful things, and u can buy a sphere (for £25 a corner, in comparison thats for a spring and damper), how sensible is that.

Doesn't that american chat show host have an SM, can't remember his name now. I'd love a DS tho, not just because it is my initials too.

I wonder how cool it would be to hook up the hydractive 2 onto a W202 (I won't of course, it would be a nightmare, even with an electric pump).
 
Doesn't that american chat show host have an SM, can't remember his name now. I'd love a DS tho, not just because it is my initials too.

I wonder how cool it would be to hook up the hydractive 2 onto a W202 (I won't of course, it would be a nightmare, even with an electric pump).

Jay Leno.


Fitting a car with Hydractive wouldn't be as bad as you might think, but would need competent engineering skills and due to the rear rams operating at a much greater fulcrum ratio, would need some calculation to get the correct ram size if replacing the springs on a W202.

Mercedes SLS and ABC are basically the same as Citroen Oleopneumatic and Hydractive suspension...but not as reliable or cheap to fix.

Mind you, what I know about Hydractive isn't worth anything...
 
Bit of a laymans question here, but seeing as though it's universally accepted that the aforementioned Citroen's have such great suspension and ride, why is this technology/engineering seemingly not present nowadays?
 
I had a BX. I forget what tyres I had on it, but imagine 15". Those together with the suspension gave the car the smoothest ride I've ever experienced.

Always 15" wheels from 1955 until the 3rd Generation C5 and C6, which has 18" as standard.

The C6 still works OK...

BX are great cars, a bit plasticy inside, but still good. I drove a GSA a few weeks ago, it was fantastic, possibly the best use of Oleopneumatic suspension, ever.
 
If anyone has a penchant for these cars, the next meet is on Sunday 19th May at Weatherby racecourse.

All are welcome, in whatever make of car.
 
Always 15" wheels from 1955 until the 3rd Generation C5 and C6, which has 18" as standard.

The C6 still works OK...

BX are great cars, a bit plasticy inside, but still good. I drove a GSA a few weeks ago, it was fantastic, possibly the best use of Oleopneumatic suspension, ever.


A bit plasticky outside to. Iirc the roof and bonnet were plastc.

Best model I had was the Xantia 2.2 tdi. Great drive, reliable and a regular 45mpg regardless of how it was driven.
 
A bit plasticky outside to. Iirc the roof and bonnet were plastc.
.

The boot also I believe. I was told not to overload the bike rack because of this.

Decades later other OEM are now making one piece SMC plastic boots.
 
. I drove a GSA a few weeks ago, it was fantastic, possibly the best use of Oleopneumatic suspension, ever.

I saw a late GSA Pallas at Staples Corner during the rush hour on Thursday last week. It was in good nick and keeping up with the traffic. Good to see one still being used.
 
A bit plasticky outside to. Iirc the roof and bonnet were plastc.

Best model I had was the Xantia 2.2 tdi. Great drive, reliable and a regular 45mpg regardless of how it was driven.

Plastic bonnet and tailgate, the roof was steel.

These were very strong cars and lightweight (but more expensive) panels have no bearing on crash resistance.
Bizarrely, and apparently randomly, some cars had steel bonnets.

Like the AX, the BX was designed to be a lightweight car to give better performance and economy.
A friend took a 1.4 petrol to 140,000 miles before selling it and I have a BX to gas the spheres on sometime, which the owner recently purchased with...275,000 miles on.
 
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Nothing to add on the superb suspension other than to mention the party trick performed with my bx 4x4 estate when raising the car to position 3 for floods and 2 for straddling snow. Now if a bx gti 4x4 came along...
 
Bit of a laymans question here, but seeing as though it's universally accepted that the aforementioned Citroen's have such great suspension and ride, why is this technology/engineering seemingly not present nowadays?

Cost and acceptance.

If the public won't buy it due to fear, car manufacturers stop supplying it. Citroen would have certainly continued with Hydro-pneumatic suspension, but after becoming part of PSA had to curb their engineering ambitions.
In addition, they had to stop selling cars in US markets back in the 1970's due to constant bumper height regulations, so their market reduced.

At present the only Citroens to have hydraulic suspension are the C5 Exclusive as the C6 has new ceased production, due to low demand.

Other manufacturers continue to use hydraulic suspension on niche models.

There are many advantages to gas suspension, especially in comfort and handling.
 
Also, it would seem that ride features very low on people's priorities, alas.

One of my next cars will be a day to day Citroen, with hydro-pneumatic suspension. Each and every time I get in the SM, the ride is better than a Rolls Royce, and it is a thing of joy to drive. Compare that with crash, bang thump over each micro-pothole.
 
Had an XM - superb car, beautiful ride - even fully loaded.
 
One of my next cars will be a day to day Citroen, with hydro-pneumatic suspension. Each and every time I get in the SM, the ride is better than a Rolls Royce, and it is a thing of joy to drive.

I drove a similar car recently and it was incredibly good at both ride and handling.

Speak to Malcolm, mention me and get a great car.

CITROEN XM 3 LTR 24V EXCLUSIVE IN SILVER For Sale (2000) on Car And Classic UK [C367888]
 

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