V6 questions

[xantia_v6]

[quote=Old-Guy post_id=131334 time=1745322176 user_id=7494
Service parts availability, now and in the future?
[/quote]

Service parts for the engine and transmission are not a problem at present. and probably OK in the medium term as the engine was used in other applications, and the ES9A variant was in production until 2015 I think.

HP20: My understanding is that the filter can only be changed by removing and partially dismantling the gearbox.
Shouldn't be a problem at 58k?
Changing the ATF: Normal service item? DIY?

You would be very unlucky if the transmission failed before 120,000 miles, I had one fail at 150,000 which had never had the fluid changed, although I am not sure that changing the fluid really stops the filter getting clogged.

Since then, I change the fluid when I buy a car, but (for various reasons) I have not kept one long enough to require changing again. My current Xantia V6 has covered about 9000 miles since the fluid was changed 9 years ago.

Ride height:
Do XMs have the same height control design as Xantias with plastic 'dog-bone' link to a clamp on the ARBs?
I have a suspicion that the seller may have been in the habit of driving in Intermediate instead of Normal - if so, would you be inclined to walk away?

It is similar to the Xantia, but the height correctors are not (as far as I am aware) mounted on a folding cradle as they are on a Xantia, so don't suffer the rusty pivot syndrome, they do have plastic dog bones.

Cars with anti-sink do have a habit of parking nose-up if the anti-sink valve closes before the driver has got out of the car.

Cam belt: should have been done in 2009 and 2019 under the first 'no-expense-spared' private ownership; I'll check historic invoices for belt and water-pump.

Even if the belt and water pump have been neglected, it would not put me off a car, but could be a negotiating point.

Thermostat: rarely get changed until there's a problem, then it's too late. In my experience they slowly age like cambelts; a combination of miles and years; they need to be changed at the same time as cam belts - at trivial extra cost.

Is the ES9J's cooling circuit difficult to bleed?

Water-pump: should be O.K. despite the age? Change at next belt change?

The ES9 thermostat is an unusual design, and fairly difficult to change (the throttle body is somewhat in the way, and the hard line pipes to the hydraulic pump dertainly are. I have done it once as a preventative, and regretted starting the job. In 250,000 miles of driving ES9s I have never had a thermostat failure.

The ES9 coolant circuit seems to be self-bleeding, I have not had a problem with it on Xantia or XM. The Xantia header tank is mounted on the firewall behind the engine which is a better location for it. I do know of someone who cooked an ES9 in an XM after refitting the engine, he claimed it was due to difficulty bleeding the system, but I suspect that he didn't even bleed the radiator.

There was a change to the timing belt tensioner design after XM production ceased, and most cars should by now have the later design, which requires a slightly different water pump (beware when buying a timing belt kit). I have never had a water pump failure, and now assume that the water pump only needs to be replaced on mileage, not age, so not required every belt change.

I should also mention that there is a plastic "degassing tank" in the cooling system (behind the throttle body) which gets brittle with age and when they break it causes a rapid loss of coolant. Metal replacements are now available.

[xantia_v6]

One more point on the thermostat: The coolant temperature gauge will usually read a bit low and wander around, with symptoms that appear to be a bad thermostat, but the fault is with the placement of the gauge sensor on the engine. It is placed such that it mostly sees the temperature of the coolant entering the pump, which is a mixture of recirculated hot coolant from the engine and the cooler coolant from the bottom radiator hose.

[Old-Guy]

Once again, my grateful thanks. Off to carefully inspect it in the morning - and it's just started raining! Hey ho, take a tarp and hope it's stopped by the time I get there.

[Dieselman]

Why did you think the owner has a habit of driving in intermediate-high, setting?

I'm sure the sun will be shining when you are looking at the car.

[Old-Guy]

In brief: V353 JKV is now MINE! RP08151CJ = 4/3/99 Rennes la Janais. Is KPK Mauritius Blue?

As far as I can tell without being able to put her on a lift, she really is as good as advertised.

All the usual rust places are solid rust-free and never been welded. Between 2004 (ish) and 2021, the first owner did a few hundred miles a year and she was cosseted in a dry garage. She's in the sort of condition I would expect for a four to six year-old privately owned car that's been well looked after. I'll look inside the sills (bore-scope) ASAP.

Strut tops are like NEW top and bottom, but as far as I know have never been changed (and shouldn't need changing for a long time).

Complete and comprehensive documentation from Day 1 all carefully filed.

Underneath the genuine Citroen rigid boot tray, the boot is like a new car.

I love the interior - the seats are like a seriously expensive leather lounge suite!

She sits high at the front if the driver doesn't get out (collecting up shopping etc) before the safety isolator valve operates, otherwise not. In all other respects the suspension seems to work perfectly.

The only real 'fault' I could find was that the original unused spare tyre needs replacing and the spare wheel needs refurbishing (a little rust) - in 26 years, it's never ever been disturbed: the little tab in the rear carpet had never been lifted to get at the (unmarked) screw to lower the cradle - nor had the pristine wheel brace. I guess the jack may need refurbishing unless it was very well protected at the factory - I left it alone until I can get the car on a lift to clean and possibly free-off the cradle screw-jack. The whole shebang will be filthy!

I went single-handed so I could take as long as I needed to check her over. She drives beautifully - in Comfort mode, a bit too soft for my liking on rural Leicestershire roads, but in Sport drives like a well-sorted Hydractive Xantia. I like the autobox, responsive enough for me in Normal mode, but I need to know the car better and on a familiar road to explore her behaviour in Sport/Sport modes. I've got to collect her two-handed next week. I shall come home down the Fosse Way; by the time I get to Stow and onto a very familiar road, I expect to know the car well enough to find out what she's like as a cross-country express compared with the Subaru. I don't expect her to handle quite as well as the Subaru, but to be much more civilised. I'll have plenty of opportunity later to find out what she's like as a motorway cruiser - better than even than our beloved Xantia I hope.

Photo-shoot on a sunny day soon in a more salubrious location than Wickes car park!

A few little jobs to do including: OSR door central locking non-operative (deja vu - Xantias!), fob needs resyncing, gearbox inhibitor switch/relay issue, and the aerial wand looks as though it was savaged in a car wash long ago. Does it unscrew? I'll have to find another one.

[Dieselman]

Somehow, I thought this might be your next posting...those seats...

In no particular order:
The aerial does unscrew, but probably won't due to internal corrosion. Buy a new foot as well from Citroen.

Why change the spare tyre, you will probably never use it and being under the car it has been protected from UV, so the rubber won't have deteriorated. Is it visibly cracked?
Imho, the recent internet myth about tyres needing to be changed at 6/7 years is just that...myth, generated by marketeers. It's the same as needing winter tyres below 7 Celsius. It sells tyres.

I really doubt the sills will have any internal rust. They are galvanised, but not rustproofed, as built, but the spot welding and lack of seam sealer at the leading edge, behind the wheel-arch liner, allows water in. Seam sealer and rust-proofing wax works wonders for longevity.

To check the ride height, leave the engine running and observe/measure.

A late series 2, is a real wafto-matic machine, but the Hydractive gives formidable cross country handling. You might be surprised by the speed you can carry, once you become familiar with it. It won't feel fast, but will be.

Those spheres have been fitted/recharged by Pleaides. Martin told me they drill all Xm sphere centre dampers out to 1mm, which in my opinion makes the cars under-damped.
If that has been done, you could either, live with it, change the spheres to original spec ones, drill and tap the centre damper, install a new centre with the correct drilling. A locked in grub screw would work.

KPK is indeed Mauritius Blue Nacre Pearlescent.

What's wrong with Wickes carpark, as a backdrop?

[xantia_v6]

I have also known Pleaides to fit non hydractive spheres to "improve" the ride. Not my favourite.

Congratulations on the purchase BTW.

[Old-Guy]

How did you guess?

I like 'Wafto-matic'. I suspect I shall develop a habit of leaving suspension in 'Sport' mode most of the time, with Comfort for towns, dual carriageways and motorways. My first trip to family in S. Devon will be educational, every type of road and surface except city centre and off-road. Though I may modify my usual route to avoid the narrowest lanes as I don't want to scratch the car - behaving like typical Grockle!

I'll probably live with the spheres for some time before deciding what, if anything, to do. When I have the Plaides invoice to hand and time to spare, I'll check exactly what says: from memory, the accumulator sphere was replaced, 4 corner spheres were refurbished and a litre of LHM added. I took a sample from the tank and it was clean and green - not quite as bright green as I remember new LHM to be (in the past, I've seen plenty of dirty orange LHM!). I think there's some left in boot, if so I'll compare - yet another little job.

Thanks for the info on the aerial. The car, at least until recently, wasn't used much (if at all) in winter, so I hope it's not too corroded. I'll try a combination of penetrating fluid and patience to see if it will undo without undue force. Otherwise, is the aerial mount accessible by removing the interior light unit? I don't want the hassle of feeding a new lead down to the radio if it can be avoided. I'm neither a radio or music listener - used to have Radio 2 on for Sally Traffic and RDS set. BTW on the M5 across the Somerset levels, you get more traffic warnings for South Wales than for Somerset!

Good point about the spare tyre, and how rarely one needs a spare. BUT, after one bad experience with a car with no spare, a flat a vital hospital appointment a solid can of goo, I swore I would never have another car without a spare wheel and the where-with-all to easily change it. Apart from being a bit dirty, the XM's spare tyre looked OK from what I could see, but I wasn't going to start messing about with the cradle. I expect its jacking screw is seized as the spare hasn't ever been disturbed. First job will be to get the cradle freed-off to inspect tyre and jack; then do whatever is appropriate.

Good news about the sills. So, wheel-arch liners out to check the seam-sealing then wax treat the sill box-sections. Any views on what best? I have used Waxoyl in the distant past but didn't keep that car long enough to see how effective it was.

"Nacre Pearlescent" - typical Marketing tautology, (in case you didn't know, nacre is mother-of-pearl). It's a nice shade of deep blue, but I can't say it looked at all pearlescent even in the sun.

Wickes car park: I just think was an odd choice for a seller who lives in lovely rolling countryside. A mile or so away I parked (to grab a quick bite and drink) on a wide grass verge with a beautiful rural view - a far better backdrop. If it's a nice day when I collect her, I might stop there and take a few photos (with a proper camera). Not that I have any intention of selling the car for a good many years.

[xantia_v6]

You will probably find that the spare wheel cradle is quite crusty. Give a coat of paint before it dissolves completely.

Modern lhm os often much paler than the stuff we knew 20 yeah ago.

[Dieselman]

The aerial base has a nut available after removing the third sun visor, behind the rear view mirror. Two small Torx screws to remove the visor.
The interior light console gives access to the sunroof motor.

Mauritius blue is pearlescent, it is fairly bright blue in strong sunlight and becomes much darker in shade. A much more pronounced effect than metallic paint.
From memory, there were three pearlescent finishes for Series 2, Xm; Crimson red, Mauritius blue, Emerald green.

It's possible Pleaides fitted comfort spheres, but you won't really know unless you remove one and measure the centre damper orifice. V6 front spheres should be 450cc @ 40 Bar and with 0.7mm centre drilling.
The V6 ones are stiffer than others to reflect the more powerful engine and assumed more spirited driving style.

See private car books. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=11023