Save our Sills!

[Dean]

Matthew and Russ's photo's, credit where credits due!


D

[xmexclusive]

Will see if I can add a few sill photos.

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How it looked on the car.
Photos taken in 2009 - Car 14 years old - Full Citroen Service history, no expense spared.
Car claimed to have been garaged for much of its life.
Had been offered for some time at £2000 but not sold.

sills003.jpg

Now you start to see what I found with a probe.
Consider that you cannot poke and prod in this manner even if inspecting for purchase.

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Blow up of the ground where I tapped the open end of the front passenger side sill while positioning it for the photo.
See second photo for the rust pile on the concrete just above the sill.
When I brushed up after documenting these sills I had a small washing up bowl two thirds full of the collected rust.

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Bit of surface rust could be found particularly if you lifted the carpet but did not seem to be significant.
Nothing had upset the MOT man during its life.

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With the carpet and the thick foam underlay out the picture started to change.

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Once the car came to me as a scrapper I started using the trolley jack to lift and move it.
Pristine looking jacking points quickly retracted into the brown stuff.

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Now you see what the carpet underlay foam was hiding.
Also begin to get a flavor of the rust in the internal internal section, a washing up bowls worth of loose stuff.
Two sills one bowl.

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Something for Citroenxm because he knows all about rusty sills on XM's.

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John

[MTXM]

On the general subject of rust on XMs I have prepared a list of the issues I have encountered and please feel free to edit and add!

Structural

1. Sill front section around jacking point outer skin and including inner layers and floor pan if jacking point distorted and damaged and on inside face behind
2. Sill rear section around jacking point outer skin and including inner layers and floor pan if jacking point distorted and damaged and on inside face behind
3. Sill rear section at corner around wheel arch liner and especially on offside (fuel filler adjacent)
4. Front wheel arch at base against floor pan (cavity)
5. Rear subframe lower sections around hydraulic struts
6. Rear floor pan box sections against subframe mountings
7. Front bodywork around hydraulic strut mounts including on offside below coolant header tank (cavities)

Non-structural

1. Sill lower flange full-length and especially if distorted and damaged
2. Front wing lower sections
3. Front subframe behind below radiator and including on underside where exposed and horizontal and vertical faces behind wheel arch liners
4. Rear subframe generally elsewhere and including circular cross tube at ends inside and upper horizontal faces behind wheel-arch liners
5. Front and rear anti-roll bars surfaces
6. Rear bodywork vertical rail behind bumper and especially at corners
7. Front wing/bumper support outriggers and bumper inner steel beam
8. Spare wheel carrier and adjacent exhaust centre silencer heat shield
9. Doors along bottoms inside and especially horizontal faces and occasionally on outsides (quite unusual)
10. Front and rear wings around wheel-arch liners on outside (quite unusual)
11. Front and rear bumper supporting brackets
12. Engine steel sump plate
13. Rear hatch lower inside edge

It may be that this has been done before but I thought it might be a helpful exercise!

With regards,

Matthew T.

[MTXM]

Does the lack of response mean that I have covered everything - surely not? Regards, Matthew T.

[russ92xmsed]

Looks comprehensive to me. Is it worth making a document with photos of these areas and examples of how bad they can get, or is it so obvious, there's no point?!

[xmexclusive]

Have now managed to post some photos of sectioned sills in my yesterdays post.

John

[White Exec]

Those front-end sectional photos really valuable, John.
If I had the lump, I'd love to cut and photo a whole series of vertical slices from back to front, plus a few horizontal ones at the posts - and annotate them with access points.

This has been a really good thread.

[MTXM]

Thank you John for the further photos and Russ and Chris for the helpful and kind remarks! With regards, Matthew T.

[xmexclusive]

Hi Chris

There is a section in the Workshop Manual giving repair panels.

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John

[russ92xmsed]

Wow. Great photos, but that is really concerning how a car supposed to be in very good condition, was doing that within.
I'm not sure I have the nerves to find out what my sills are like internally!