self levelling rear suspension on TE models

[RGubbioli]

How does the rear suspension work on the TE cars?

Is there any user interaction with the user (ie, switch on dash) or is it all done by the car itself? How can one tell if its gone faulty? Would it affect the ride quality? And finally, is this something very expensive to fix in the worse case scenario?

Thanks for any help.

Riccardo

[RGubbioli]

Oh, one more thing, was this a standard feature on all TE cars or was it an option?

Thanks again!

[LondonThing]

As I understand it, there's no user controls. The easy test is to put something heavy in the back and see if the car regains ride height. It's very similar to the Citroen gas-filled sphere system, if that's any help.

I don't know if it was optional equipment - I would have thought not, simply because there's so much kit associated with it (a pump, oil reservoirs etc)

[Toms]

The accumulators (spherical shaped items under rear area near gas tank) frequently go bad at 100k miles (mine went sooner). A messy but manageable DYI project.

Faulty accumulators affect ride quality.

Some say that after opening the hydraulic system that they need to be bled. Their is a bleeder nipple in the rear near the accumulators. Others say the system is self bleeding.

Hope this helps!

[alexnatt]

My suspension on the my 1998 TE was shot when I bought it. The car displayed a wild, very bouncy ride. The result of the repair is remarkable. Cost to repair was appx. $1,000.

[LondonThing]

Ouch, that's hefty. New spheres in the Citroen market are about £100 ($170); recharging the nitrogen in existing spheres is a bit specialist, but can get costs down to £15 per sphere...

[alexnatt]

Repair costs included labor at MB specialist, replacement of spheres, thrust links, etc.

[Greg in Oz]

See my reply in this thread for a description of the system:
HTTP://www.benzworld.org/forums/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=1168818&posts=21&fid=11