I put hydraflush in my Xantia at the weekend to see if it solved the problem of the dropping back end, although it needed flushing anyway.
You can choose to disconnect the pipes from their connectors if you want, but you don't have to. The main problem in getting the reservoir out is the clip bar on the left hand side holding the pipes. Once this is unclipped, the reservoir can be tipped to the side and the filter unit removed (of course you should remove as much lhm as possible before tipping it).
So heres how I did it:-
Here is the clip:- | 1) Set car to lowest height settings to return as much fluid as possible to reservoir.Switch off and depressurise system. 2) If you're going to siphon it out by sucking on the pipe, make sure you have a transparent pipe, and get one with a large diameter, and that's large enough to dangle into your fluid bottle. |
3) I got about 3 litres of fluid by siphoning, and there was about another litre left in the reservoir. | 4) Unclip the black bar from the front of the reservoir, and remove from back. 5) Remove the two nuts holding the reservoir to the car. |
6) Using a flat blade screwdriver, slide the top of the clip to the rear of the reservoir until it comes off the rail. | 7) You can lift up the reservoir now. You'll still need to remove the bottom part of the clip though. |
Note the spike on the bottom of the reservoir and the hole it goes into. | 8) Push the bottom of the clip away from the reservoir and it should come off easily. It's probably easier to use your thumb for this: |
9) Tip the reservoir to the left and you can lift up it up enough to remove the filter unit. | 10) Unhook the small metal clip holding the filters in. Twist the conical one and pull down - the D shaped one is held on by the clip and should just pull off. |
11) Place a plastic bag around the filter unit while you're cleaning the other bits to protect it. | 12) Give both filters a bath in either petrol or paraffin. You might use a toothbrush to clean inside, but be careful not to damage them. |
When you've cleaned them off, give them a final rise in new petrol/paraffin. | I also found this in the tank. It looks like the end off one of those battery acid testers. Perhaps someone tried to remove fluid in the past and dropped the end in? |
- 13) Wipe off the reservoir, and pour some petrol/paraffin in and slosh it around. I found about a litre of fluid left in the reservoir.
Fitting is largely a reversal of the above:- - 14) Refit filters to head. Insert the conical filter first and twist into place. Then replace D filter and push clip into place. Put filter unit back into reservoir.
- 15) Refit reservoir into car. This is a bit fiddly, as you have to get it lined up with the spike over the hole as well as over the bolts.
- 16) Secure two bolts at the back and replace black bar on top.
- 17) Add about 3 litres of new hydraflush/lhm, then restart engine.
- 18) Run for about 2 minutes to remove air from the system, then repressurise the system and set car to maximum height. It could take several minutes before anything happens, When the car rises, watch the level float and add more fluid as required.
- 19) Move car up and down several times to ensure everything is bled, and check fluid level again.
I've never changed the fluid before, and it wasn't as difficult as I imagined. The only real problem is getting the clip off the tank.