Spheres - Replace Or Regas - CITROEN XM Internet Reference

Suspension

81 Spheres - replace or regas?

81 Spheres - replace or regas?
HI arthur
I dont agree with you. I have done so, replace all sphere instead of filling it. Then I 1 1/2 year later let my
local service man check the spheres, the front one only held 25-30 kg presure, it shoukd be 50-60 kg,
I suppose. He refill them and the car were much better in the suspension than before.Thats i different i
ride. I mean do I replace them with new one. The car is a V6 1992 wich today had cover 100 000 miles.
Urban
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It's nice that you mention this. Before I mounted the new spheres I checked them myself on the pressure
machine. Two of the seven new spheres had about 5 bars short of pressure. I ordered two new ones.
The other six spheres were only one bar short of pressure, f.a. my front suspension spheres in my XM
turbo should have 50 bars pressure, they had 49 and 48. This means that when the spheres leave the
factory in Caen(F) they don't even have the adequate pressure. BUt the fact that the diaphragm is new
gives the car a comfortable ride anyway. So probably the most comfortable sphere is a new one and
regass it with 5 bars more pressure than required.
And on the other hand, it depends how one drives his car. The diaphragm is still a soft membrane than
can tear if one drives like a maniac. You aren't surprised if I tell you that most right front spheres (left
front in the U.K.) go first are you?
Arthur
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Sphere Re-Charging
The saga was nearing completion but one thing continued to nag me whether or not the spheres
needed charging. A comment often made, when a suspension problem is proving to be troublesome is
'your spheres need recharging or changing.'
This did not I ring true but the unknown state of my spheres did arouse my curiosity, therefore at the
National Rally I managed to have all seven spheres checked and re-charged by Doug, from Westroen.
They were all down in pressure, one front sphere at a fifth of normal pressure, the rest between half and
two thirds down. Contrary to popular belief, my personal feeling is that the car is not quite so comfortable
as it was before recharging but maybe I was expecting too much. The car is certainly improved on
hump-backed bridges and the like, feels better on cornering with less body roll and together with the
knowledge that the spheres are now up to specification, makes the expense well worth while.
In conclusion, I hope that my jottings have been of some use or interest to those of you who own one of
these fine but sometimes troublesome cars.
(Thanks to Jim Davidson and the CCC)
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SPHERE INFORMATION
Andy Burnett has now corrected my short guide to XM spheres. Here are the basics, and I have a lot of
information available in addition to this, so ring me if you think I can help. I will publish more later.
Main Accumulators - always fit genuine new Citroen replacements.
118 Citroen XM Internet Reference Version 1.0
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