Hydrolastic suspension........

Technical Help for the A & K Series Metro. Please state what year and model you're referring to for better responses.
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knac1234
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2022 3:41 pm

Hydrolastic suspension........

Post by knac1234 »

Hello,

I just bought a hydrolastic fluid pump from the UK to pump up my Metro suspension.

Fluid is readily available in the UK.....not so much in the US (one place only carries it and it totals out with shipping to $100+ per gallon!).

The pump manufacturer and numerous other places state that a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water is a good substitute.

I found this PDF from Penrite stating the same (but a different ratio of only 1/3 antifreeze to 2/3 water).

https://penriteoil.com.au/assets/tech_p ... 202015.pdf

Any thoughts on the difference in concentrations and also experiences using the substitute of antifreeze/water in general?

Thanks,

Julian
Dave VVC
Posts: 80
Joined: Thu Mar 16, 2017 7:40 pm
Location: West Mids

Re: Hydrolastic suspension........

Post by Dave VVC »

Hi, what you need to remember, is that the antifreeze not only has
freeze protection, but also has corrosive protection as well, so
imo, the higher the antifreeze strength, the better, as I have seen
brown fluid come out of suspension cans, when it should be green/yellow,
so cans were full of corrosion, which will effect the cans damping ability.
I know that the internal valving is stainless, but lumps of corrosion will
effect the cans valving.
knac1234
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Dec 29, 2022 3:41 pm

Re: Hydrolastic suspension........

Post by knac1234 »

Dave,

Thanks for the reply. I lean towards what you are saying, however I think I read in some other article somewhere that a higher antifreeze concentration might alter the damping in the suspension (it compresses differently than water apparently)??

Any thoughts??

Julian
Wibblyp
Posts: 94
Joined: Wed Mar 15, 2017 4:41 pm

Re: Hydrolastic suspension........

Post by Wibblyp »

Try it, easy enough to change.
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