Citroen XM Forum

Oooh, I'm envious...that looks great.

Thanks Will

Monday was MOT time again - which it passed but with a few advisories:

Slight wear in both rear arm bearings
A not excessive oil leak
Centre silencer minor leak

The arm bearings came as a bit of a surprise given the mileage. It was a different (older) tester this year - he said he's repaired a few Xantias and C5s previously so knew exactly how to check. I've replaced CX Safari arm bearings in the past, which if I remember correctly wasn't that difficult.

The oil leak is either camshaft or crank (belt end) and there's a slight weep around the regulator. The exhaust was patched up temporarily 2 years ago so probably time to fit the one I picked up at Abbots Ripton last year.

Mileage is just over 45,000 now so things are obviously starting to wear a bit!

Ah he is useing his others wear out so do XM, Ive NEVER done Xm rear arm bearings... and they certainly seemed ok when i drove her... I think it could be overlooked.. they certainly dont appear desperate to do,,

He did check them properly and I was surprised how much of a clunk they made with the weight off. I was getting worried at that point but he said it's not enough to fail on.

OK fair enough...interesting.

As already alluded to by Citroenxm, I think the tester is mistaken, Xm rear arm bearings last a very long time, I would be very surprised if there is any wear at all in 40,000 miles. 400,000 miles maybe, but even then it's not usual other than for Xm that have been used for regular towing.

I suspect the tester is lifting the wheel after relaxing the suspension and jacking the body up. The movement is probably vertical movement of the wheel due to the free-play in the piston to arm connecting rod.

The only real way to test rear arm bearings is to disconnect the connecting rod and anti-roll bar, then try to twist the wheel top to bottom. If the arm twists the bearings are worn, or the pivot bolt is loose.

The bearings only wear if they have become seized, which is evident by sticky suspension movements and cracking noises.

Hopefully you are both right - there was a definite knock there when he moved the wheel. I think he was trying it along the front - rear axis but I didn't want to get in his way too much.

Jacked up the back end this evening to check for play in the suspension arms. Pushed and pulled in various directions and the only time they made a sound was vertically, as suggested by Dieselman. So nothing to worry about there.

I also took the opportunity to bleed the rear brakes (thanks Paul) which expelled quite a lot of air.

Final job for tonight was changing the middle and rear silencers, the latter being an estate type so cut the tailpipe off and will fit a stainless end.

The right turn indicator tell tale in the dash stopped working, so I removed the shroud and instrument panel. I thought it would just be a simple case of changing a bulb but can't see it.

Do I need to remove the panel completely and if so how does the speedo cable detach? Is it the 2 little bolts? Look like 6 or 7mm.