Replacement accumulator fixed heavy steering while parking

Last year I replaced my accumulator sphere on the DS. The main driver for this was that I was getting short ‘cycle’ times. (i.e. the hydraulic pump would kick in very regularly to maintain system pressure, which puts stress on the system). At the time, I did get an improvement in cycle time. Secondarily I was hoping to cure a problem where the power steering would get very heavy while parking. My theory was that there was not enough reserve pressure, which meant that the power assist was not working as well as it could.

However, the good news is […]

Changing the DS Accumulator Sphere

Previously, I had removed all my suspension spheres to check their pressure. Their pressure was checked at the Citroen Club tech day, and found to be acceptable. Given I had the system de-pressurized, I also wanted to change the DS accumulator sphere. The accumulator acts as a store of system pressure. This means that the pump does not have to run all the time but only when system pressure drops below a threshold. It is quite easy to hear the pump kick in, run for a few seconds then cut out again with a click. A faulty accumulator will cause […]