Citroen XM Forum

I need to replace the front to rear pipes on my V6 Series 2 Auto. According to the dealers they are either totaly unavailable or are on back order to France with no timescale.

5270X7 Suspension 3.5mm X 3486mm
5270K8 Suspension 3.5mm X 3318mm
488550 Brake 4.5mm X 2757mm
488548 Brake 3.5mm X 3784mm

I am also told there are a couple of shorter pipes from the rear of the car that also need replacing but I don't have the part numbers for these yet.

Any help in sourcing these pipes will be appreciated.

Give Plaeides a ring, they will make them up to length.

Getting them made from a specialist is the way to go. They will also be made from cupelrelnickel pipe which means they will never rot again. The citroen supplied ones IF you would ever get them will be steal coated and will have a life again..

Just buy the rolls of pipe and connectors from Pleides or Malcolm Lockwood and make up and fit them yourself Rob as I did on one of my cars! Regards, Matthew T.

And buy the expensive flare tool thats specific and make sure you have the 3.5 and 4.5mm flare die sets too..

not everyone has the flaring tool Mathew and its notca standard lesser car type flarer either.

Yes good point Paul you also need the flaring tools! I bought the basic kit from Pleiades and I do not think they were that pricey. The task does take some effort and determination I would acknowledge! Regards, Matthew T.

A couple of years ago or so I tried to get a 4.5mm flaring tool from Pleiades.
I was told they were out of stock and no further ones would be made.
The beauty of the Pleiades tool was that it could be used in tight places on the car.
This is ideal when you need to add a joiner.
The down side of these little tools is the failure rate in bulge forming.
Seems to happen every now and again usually on the most critical pipe end.
Most other UK available tools are bench vice based and very difficult to use on the car.
There are some other forming tools available in Europe and others may have experience.
Such tools with Citroen dies are getting much more difficult to source.

I have investigated "Conex" type joints and obtained some samples.
IMHO they are not suitable for a permanent repair.
This design lacks resistance to high longitudinal pressure however hard you tighten it.
No supplier makes them in Citroen 3.5mm and 4.5mm sizes.
Those on the market are nearest oversize or drilled out undersize connectors.
The samples that I obtained were "Wade" 1/8", 4mm and 3/16".
The first two drill out to 3.5mm and 4.5mm while the 3/16 is 0.25mm oversize on 4.5mm pipe.
A few of these modified to size plus a simple pipe cutter and some short lengths of pipe may well be worth carrying as an emergency repair kit.
I would only class this as a get you home repair, even then with a bit of risk of service failure.

Over the years I have been to a couple of members cars in garage to flare pipes and fit joiners.
The last one threw up another option for 4.5mm pipe.
I ran out of joiners with one 4.5mm pipe to repair.
We eventually used standard 3/16" pipe and joiners to insert a repair piece in the 4.5mm pipe.
As far as I know the repair still holds.
We had to search the box of standard joiners and used trumpet flares on both 4.5mm and 3/16 pipe.
The flares were made with a standard garage tool that was easy to use on car.
I still need to investigate if this option can be used for 3.5mm pipe.
If so it will make the ideal on road emergency repair kit with the repair capable of service use.

John

Totton Motor Factors, give them a try.

Pleiades contact details:
tel 01487 831239
Unit 12A Brookside Industrial Estate,
Sawtry,
Cambs,
PE28 5SB.
pleiades.sawtry@gmail.com
"We supply pumps, spheres, pipes, racks, etc for DIY or fitted to your car".

Parts are now on order. Many thanks to all who have responded and given help. I look forward to getting the car back!