XM (1990, 2.0i, Y3, manual, leather) in Finland

[russ92xmsed]

Welcome to the forum. That is a very interesting colour Onyx. Not my favourite colour when they were new cars, but like the champagne gold, I have totally changed my mind. Really rare here now.


Interesting you say that Dean...I have noticed mine sinks quite quickly at the back now. In an hour it has pretty much sunk, not completely, but it's more or less down. Front stays up almost 24hrs. Also noticed the ride is on the slightly firm side particularly at the back I think, so might be worth checking out the rear spheres. I expect they need changing or re gassing.
Must check when they were last done.

[Dean]

Your English is great, probably better than mine. It was just the way i read it rather than the way it was written.

Cars that sink straight away will have a fairly substantial hydraulic leak internally, a healthy sinker such as yours should stay up for many hours, maybe 12, the front end should be up 24hrs later but its depends on the level of leakage from individual components.

D

This means that the pump has to work harder and it reduces it's age, I guess..?

Kind of, it will eventually get to the point where it just wont rise but other systems start to suffer long before that as there wont be enough capacity left in the pump. Clicks heard from the pressure regulator should idealy be 1minute+ apart at idle with a warm engine.

Russ it could be flat trailing arm spheres, could be leaky brake valve or rear strut, mine has started dropping the front overnight leaving the back where it should be, got a rattly knock from the n/s/f too and noticed good return flow from that strut, i think it could be not long for this world.

Interestingly my front and rear wheel spheres are on or above spec, the rear hydractive is about 25bar which isnt good and the acc was ruptured but i think i swapped it with the Activa when i bought it and took the xm off the road, so one is due up, they are 8 years old minimum

D

D

[russ92xmsed]

I hope it isn't a rear strut, only as I didn't mange to get them off the grey XM. I expect it might be more spheres.

It would be quite interesting to put a time lapse camera on it and see what it looks like sinking and how long. Just a thought!

[Dieselman]

Or not worry about it.

[Dean]

Or not worry about it.

Its that attitude that's kept you from earning your Mac

D

[Dieselman]

LOL...

[russ92xmsed]

Or not worry about it.

Pretty much what I am going to do actually!

[Rojekti]

A selfie under the car



She's nice.




Fixed the leak, you can see it in the selfie Terrible place, really.

Next it's checking the height adjustment mecanisms and petrol tank's collar.

[Rojekti]

A slightly better overall picture



The adjustment mechanism works in curious way, as if you slide it LOW, the car lows well, if you slide it to UP, the car goes right up, if you slide it to MIDDLE, only front goes to middle. If you slide it up and down few times and then leave it in middle, the rear end also goes to middle - if you're lucky.

That should indicate it's just rust.

I also got hundreds of pages of XM repairing guide (pdf), really cool, gotta check how the adjustment bars etc. work.

[Dieselman]

The description you give indicates linkage is just binding in the bearing.