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

[Rojekti]

Just do a temporary fix. Once you start driving the car you will get used to how the suspension feels and when it is switching.

H1 is normally pretty reliable.

True.

I had spheres filled. Front accumulator had 50/62 BAR. Front middle sphere had 40/70 BAR. Rear middle sphere had 20/50 BAR. Front spheres were okay. After filling, suspension immediately felt okay. During filling, the front midd ball had pressure behind it. A citroen expert then showed up and explained me that my XM's hydractive isn't working and said it's a world of it's own fixing it. True, I know that, but I've done all sorts of tests and the vent has been working.

In the end it appeared just bad luck that the vent was for some reason stuck at the garage..... the expert had a little test round as I requested and he came back smiling saying it feels like XM's supposed to feel and the Hydractive works fine. Whole operation costed 80-90 euros, a bit more because of the front mid sphere.

I'm not immediately going to install the light, thought it would be nice to know what the car is up to. The suspension now feels good. I can HEAR the bumps but I rarely FEEL them - someone said, that's how they are like.

Well. My experience of the XM so far, after few hundred of kilometers with working suspension, a brilliant radio with brilliant speakers and everything working fine, even the remote control central locking (awesome, I really must POINT inside the INTERIOR in order to it to work, not the same with modern cars)::

XM IS A CAR OF ALL CARS. Ive NEVER driven anything like this. Just brilliant. Awesome car. I wish I could use this rest of my life. Sooner or later, this will change. Meanwhile, I enjoy every last kilometer and fix all what I need to fix.



edit. Very fun to visit a Citroen garage with XM. There were all sorts of Citroen people, had a long chat with an old man who loved Citroens. He wasn't happy with his C5, he would've wanted an XM. The expert, who had dealt with XM's in 80's and 90's alot professionally, congratulated me for finding such a pearl with such low price. Dont' know whether it's SO rare but a GOOD luck at least, perhaps. He also told of a man who owns a 1990's XM with only 20-30 000 kilometers in it. That's a.....

[White Exec]

That all sounds a really useful and productive visit to the garage...and managing to get an expert on the car for an assessment. Your comments are interesting about an XM turning up today at a modern Citroen centre: they don't see many of these cars now, and some saw few of them, even when the cars were new!

You've managed to get the spheres regassed and sorted (except one!) just in time, when there was still some gas left in them. If allowed to fall below 15 bar or so, they can become damaged internally, and then go completely flat, which can do suspension damage. Well done on all of that.

You obviously love the car and want to keep it. Where you are, it is essential that the car is kept in a good state of rustproofing, and both the underside and body cavities are treated with a good wax-based product. Don't neglect this; rust-proofing is easy, body repair can be difficult and expensive.

Great photo above...'XM lurking...' ! Can you post some photos of the car's underside (when it's dry)?

[markgenesis]

Great thread and pleased to see you are enjoying the car

Some really great advice from White Exec, still have a lot to learn about XM's myself so it's all usefull info

[Rojekti]

First of all, i am now a proud owner of a Citroen XM mouse pad, based on my own photo:


Then sad news, my XM got beaten up by my brother's Suzuki Jimny - to the back, and two lamps and a stail broke. Jimny wasn't that lucky, his whole back bumper went shit. I guess XM is sturdier.

I bought new pieces; both left rear lamps and the stail that has the handle of the back hatch, and they all costed 100€. Pretty cheap, huh?

Not sure if the interior has been shown, but:


Then some fun:



I jacked her up and took the back sub frame off. Not completely, I only lowered it ~20 cm.It's hanging on couple very long bolts now. Thus I have a lot of space to fix a broken pipe. But since it's off, I decided to change all the pipes, or at least the ones that come from the front; there are 5 of them. They're in good condition, except at the place where they raise on top of the sub frame; the turn they make, they're all pretty ugly. So I make connections in front of back tyre, and change about 1.5 of each pipe, all they way to valves/wherever they go.

She's been on vacation for 5-6 months, Ive been busy and also had a burnout for my joy-ful full-day work at the diary farm. Economy's going spiraling down, so I kinda decided that I need at least something fun to my life - and that would be this car here. I put her on vacation after my brother crashed the car, I didnt have time and energy to do anything about it. Now I dont have the time, but I'll scramble some, and the energy is also near zero, but thought of driving this pearl gives me energy.

After changing these pipes, I'll do something about the hand brake, then they must accept she's in safe traffic condition, and I get to drive publicly.

Wish me luck.

[Rojekti]

That jacking-thing looks dangerous as shit, but the photo is older and WIP-JACK-photo. It's now safe, a person simply cant die under there now. I alreadyt changed 1/5 of the pipes. Dont have much time, but maybe tonight I can manage two. Changed the lights aswell, theyre fine, but the stail is wrong colour - when it's on it's rightful place, I'll take a photo and ask for instructions or proposals how to make it look good.

[Rojekti]

I wondered if i've misstyped the topic here, um I mean Y3's are the later models, right, and this would be then just Y1?

[xmexclusive]

No you are correct as originally written.
Y3 is Mk 1 XM
Y4 is Mk 2 XM

You can confirm this by checking the VIN plate on the car.
VIN number will start with Y3xxxxxx

John

[Dieselman]

That jacking-thing looks dangerous as shit,

I don't know what you mean...

What were you actually jacking under? It looks like the bar is under the bumper.

You can paint the trim peice with regular car paint and then lacquer it. Sand it lightly to key the surface, spray it. The paint code for your car is behind the left headlamp.

[Rojekti]

There's a photo where you can probably understand on what I jacked it.

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/ropkeit" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Sub frame bolted in, next assembling exhaust pipe and testing whether there are any leaks and after so many months, she'll get back on her feet again.

[Rojekti]

Today I had time to assembly the ass of the car. Immediately got her up and running and washed her.

Then I should find some time to start working on the hand brake and lambda's wire.

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