any peugeot/citroen mechanics on here, i’ve got issues with my rear suspension.
had new dampers and subframe mounts fitted approx 6 months ago and now for some reason the car feels like it’s squatting on the back end. brakes not as effective anymore under load either.
car is a 95′ 306 5dr by the way

French cars are a liability – a self-inflicted situation – sorry!

broken spring??

not springs, if it were i’d have it sorted by now. think they’re torsion bar. anyone got any ideas?

If I remember right, they do indeed have torsion bar suspension at the rear and you can turn it round to lower the rear end.
I did it on my 306dTurbo in around 98. Maybe it’s been positioned wrong?

If the brakes are not as good and the back is squatting it could be your brake shoes are binding (BTW it is torsion bars)

I’d have gone with brakes binding too.

Ignore the naysayers.

If the brakes are binding enough to pull the suspension down, you’ll smell them.
Won’t make any difference with the car stationary either.

now for some reason the car feels like it’s squatting on the back end. brakes not as effective anymore under load either.

That sounds like suspension to me – perhaps somethings gone wrong with the new parts? I would have agreed with binding brakes but you would smell that.

There isn’t a funny smell of burning around your car you have been ignoring is there?

torsion bar or collapsed shock mate 🙂

no brakes aren’t binding. dampers seem to work fine. ifit is torsion bars, how easy are they to fix, am i looking garage job?

definatly!!!

more than likely to be the end plates to be honest.

check for oil leakage under the plastic shrouding of the shocks. if nothing is there, simply unbolt it from the mounts. then you can see how much pressure is held when you try to push it together.

if it goes in easy its a easy job, replace for £30 from motor factor type thing.

but when you say they were replaced 6 months ago, unless they are faulty items, id go with your end plates. quite common on pug/cit

It’s not the shock absorbers. They don’t help hold the car up. You could completely remove them and it wouldn’t affect the ride height.

Do cars use load sensing valves on the rear brakes ?
On a truck or bus any simultaneous fault with suspension height and brakes would lead me to suspect a fault with the LSV, although with the suspension too far compressed I would expect the rear brakes to work too well and lock up easily.

It would be unusual for both torsion bars to fail at the same time.
More likely, one would fail first, causing the car to lean to one side before the other followed and it sat down completely.

My only experience with torsion bars is on a Morris Minor where it is possible to mount the bar in one of a series of holes, or to move the mounting round on the splines, to adjust the ride height. Maybe there’s a similar adjustment on your car and it was set wrong when you had the sub frame fitted.

they are splined but they cant move splines unless somebody physically removes them and turns the bar around. trust me its a bitch task.

on such an old car you would need oxy gas and a huge hammer and 50 cans of wd to even get the thing to budge.

they have a brake load sensor / proportion valve. thats located infront of the fuel tank. often rusted and foooked. but doesnt cause the car to ‘sit lower’ or reduce the height its purely for braking propertions. ie 40/60 ratio front to rear type thing

doesn’t sound promising then. have to say, all this is leading me to think that maybe it is a snapped torsion bar, or even worse, BOTH! the car does sit flat and level all round, just unusually low at the back

They dont snap, (well its remotely possible, and if they to you would REALLY know about it) they just go weak with age, i’ve had this happen on a 12 year old 306.

Does the top of tyre seem hidden by the arch, about 25mm or so?

What U31 is hinting at is that the torsion bar is worn, if it looks like there’s negative camber at the rear that is the obvious sign.

Did the car sag like this as soon as the shocks were put on? They might have put the wrong ones on for your model – IIRC a ’95 reg wil be a Phase 1 model and probably uses different shocks to the later versions.

The rear brakes do have a load-balancing valve. It’s a pretty obvious lever/rod/plate arrangement, you should be able to see underneath. They often stick and cause an MOT failure if so. I just used to smack mine (gently!) with a hammer to release it & grease it up.

the top of the tyre is visible, shocks are the right ones,sourced of the chassis no.
load sensors are in brake lines so dont think they’re the problem. cant say as there is a definite camber on the wheels.
only way i can describe how it sits is, it’s like i’ve got a fully loaded boot full of bricks and suspension is on its limit.

Have you checked the boot for bricks?

Can the springs be refitted incorrectly?

Have you actually checked the ride hight against correct?

If the brakes are binding enough to pull the suspension down, you’ll smell them.
Won’t make any difference with the car stationary either.

No you wouldn’t, I’ll show you mine – piston skirt is damaged on both rear calipers and they jam on dragging the arse end down for the first mile or so of driving, but never smell or get particularly warm, and it’s very noticable when they stop binding as the rear doesn’t squat on moving.

Could be shocks if it’s only slightly squatting as they do have SOME spring effect (take a new one and push on it, it will self-return with some force – I just replaced two and I’ve replaced a few dozen in my time!). But the effect will be minimal.

If your trailing arm bushes are shafted you’ll have boy-racer camber problems on th rear wheels and get lots oversteer issues – can be entertaining. But won’t affect the ride height unless the arms have collapsed enough to pop the torsion bars out of their splines, at which point I’d be worried!

The 306 normally sits with the tops of the wheels visible – here’s a stock one:

molgrips – Member

Have you checked the boot for bricks?

Can the springs be refitted incorrectly?
306s don’t have rear springs, they use shocks & a torsion bar.