Today I saw an abandoned classic and took a pic thread!

kadman wrote: »

The cure was to use the recommended Rootes fluid, and it worked a treat.

Rootes Group? That'll be Hillman, Humber, Singer, etc. Flogged to Chrysler and then to Peugeot.

British Motor Corportation / British Leyland Motor Corporation / Leyland Cars / Austin Rover Group/MG Rover or whatever they were that week for many years had Unipart doing the parts side.

Anyway, it's Moulton Hydragas, it's also got green stuff, but not LHM, very bright luminous green water-based fluid - roughly half water to half ethanol with some dye and poison to stop it being drunk.

The problem with Hydragas is that over the years the nitrogen leaks out of them. To get the trim height of the suspension back to book, excessive pressure on the fluid side is sometimes used, which exacerbates the nitrogen issue. When you could get them, if they went hard, they could just be changed. When you can't get them, you need to add a valve of some sort to the sphere to recharge the nitrogen.

It's nice when it works, but it's a bit of a chore when it doesn't as nobody has the tools handy to do a proper job.

Metros of that generation have a weird Hydragas set up. The front displacers are independent and the rear ones are connected side-to-side. Even the suspension's inventor Dr Moulton had a Metro with them connected front-to-rear on each side, so god only knows what the management were thinking.

I prefer the bounciness of the older Hydrolastic, which tends to age a bit better being gas-less.