Citroen XM Forum

Hi all, I'm back in the fold with a series one XM 2.0 Turbo Manual (ex MTXM) I traveled from Glasgow to Norfolk to collect the car and drive back - felt quite epic on the return leg but an uneventful trip (my 6th long distance ancient Citroen collection! 100% success so far!)

Anyway it is going well so far and has responded well to an interior clean and some treatment to the bumper and side strips. New rear spheres to replace the awful 'comfort' types and bled the dodgy rear brakes - now performing well.

Replaced all of the rear light cluster bulbs and now the 'defective stop lamp' warning has ceased (for the left hand side that is..).

Interesting in that this is a 1992 build yet registered late as a 1993 'L' reg. Matthew tells me it was a full 18 months until it was registered. It's a series 1.5 but with Hydractive 1. It also is fitted with DIM-DIP lighting! It must have been one of the last cars to ave this fitted as I think this was stopped in 1992 (?) But the headlights come on at half brightness when the side lights are selected.

First quick snap:


And the interior cleaned up well:




And new spheres and brake bleed (LHM came out clear but full of bubbles - might be a leaking sphere or bad pump suction pipe)


There's one LHM leak that is coming from the steering pinion valve... I'e decided to ignore this temporarily. The FDV valve miraculously doesn't get stuck going Hisssss like my last XM!

Some plastic treatment to the bumpers brought them up a bit - not the clearest photo but they were quite oxidised at first.


I quite like this paint colour 'Anthracite'. New set of wiper blades were badly needed - opted for the Valeo 'flat' type and they work very well


Everything seems to be working though the front passenger window has packed up think the cable has corroded though hasn't broken - I had to help it closed by hand!

Front suspension is iffy - height corrector linkage has a lot of slop in it at the pivot bush and it looks like the wear is on the steel rod itself and not the bronze bush - will deal with it in due course. I think the Hydractive is working as it is quite soft at low speeds and after initial start up. I'd say it suffers from the problem of getting progressivly jiggly over a journey though such that I can't see any difference when switched to 'Sport'. A project to look at in time.

One thing I noticed today was that the wiring connectors to each fuel injector are fraying at the connection:

I'm not keen on leaving these like this too long (all four are like this) and was wondering if anyone has a spare wiring harness for the injectors up for grabs?

The car runs alright so far as I can tell though I note a sort of 'hesitation' upon opening the throttle for the first time possibly before it's fully heated. I also noted that the turbo is inaudible with the window down while accelerating - compared with my old 2.1 SD that had a turbo that sounded like a Rolls Royce RB211, well, a very small RB211..... I found a loose induction pipe with a jubilee clip missing so I fitted a new clip then found the original clip was there all along but loose and had fallen down out of sight! So I refitted the old one to tighten - possible slight improvement in acceleration (might be in my mind though)

The exhaust isn't very good though so will need some work in the near future the clamp of the centre pipe to the rear box looks like it's hanhng on for dear life! Back box is getting on a bit too.

There's a terrible little set of dents on the front wing too that I'd like to sort as they detract from an otherwise reasonable presentable car.

I have decided to name the XM ' Vader' as I think the darker paint colour and the drama of the XM's styling gives it a more sinister SciFi look than my former XM.

Quite a lot of observations for a single Sat-Sun don't you think? Can anyone help out with the wiring harness for the injectors?

Looks awesome Graeme. I'll see you on Saturday at Wetherby.

Cheers Mark! That's right got a boot full of goodies to bring.

It is the weight of the split corrugated tube on the cable combined with engine vibration that has split the insulation on those wires.
Chances are that any secondhand ones are like that or on the way.
On the one you show the contact wires do not look as though they have stated to fray and snap yet.
I doubt that Citroen will stock replacement new looms unless you are very lucky with a NOS find.

I would be tempted to try some builders silicone.
Unplug the lead, wipe clean and fill the end of the corrugated tube with the silicone then push the plug tight to the end of the tube.
When set the tube and plug should be firmly but flexibly joined exactly how Citroen intended but failed to achieve.

Paul (citroenxm) has much more experience than me of wiring loom construction so will no doubt comment if what I am suggesting is not wise.

John

Cheers John, I thought about silicone but wondered if out was an insulator out would short the wires. Wasn't sure it was obviously an insulator. Might well work

Another thing is that the trip computer doesn't work for fuel consumption but does show average speed. I suppose one of its inputs is faulty is there s fuel flow meter used somewhere as an input?

Some silicone fillers are acidic and will cause copper to corrode. Choose with care. Silicone gasket sealant should be ok.

Thanks, gasket sealant should be ok with the temperature too I'm thinking

Glad you like the colour Graeme, I like it on mine too, so unusual and rare. Be careful colour matching though, it's a bit of a sod to get right. A professional painter would no doubt do it perfectly.

Enjoy your new toy, sounds like you are!

It looks like the car is in very good hands Graeme and inevitably there are one or two things to fettle!! The front passenger window has always worked but been a little slow and a door switch might be defective. I had noticed the injectors wires were becoming frayed, but then most of my other cars are just the same! I am sure a good bodywork repair shop could easily sort those few small dents in the front wing, of which I only recently became aware. Best regards, Matthew T.

I have been on a round trip to Wetherby but unfortunately not on the Sunday.. Nice to catch up with some XMers there: Eddie Nuff and Mark (XM Central).

I've changed Anthracite's name to 'Darth' instead of 'Vader'. So, Darth performed well apart from the annoying throttle hesitation. I had been hoping to meet up with CitroJim for a session of the Lexia but he couldn't make it in the end so I'm none the wiser. I thought at first it was only a problem when starting from cold but this morning (Sunday) it ran beautifully from cold and was very willing. I then noticed later after a stop and restart that it was showing the hesitation again.

So it's an intermittent fault (my favourite type of fault )

Anyone have any ideas on this?

I can post in the petrol engine section if preferred but the symptom is this: Starts and runs. But upon reapplying the accelerator Eg. while changing gear the revs drop initially and it can almost stall if the clutch is brought in at this time, after the revs pick up as normal.

An analogy to carburetor engines would be a 'flat spot' in the throttle action. It would be like driving a carburetor car where the accelerator pump jet was not working and so pressing the accelerator causes near stalling initially.

I guess there is a fuel injection equivelant of that problem that I am getting here(?)

This is a 'CTC' engine and has the code 'RGY' I believe - might be 'RGX' since I don't know the difference.

It doesn't actually cut out or stall (so far) but it is annoying - it even does it at speed say going from 3-4-5th gear so makes me think it's not an issue to do with rpm.

The engine mountings are a bit worn and this exasperates the occasional jerk caused by this.

Any advice greatly welcomed!!

I have been plagued by the typical XM 'stop/tail/direction bulb' warning. I replaced all of the rear light bulbs and found no improvement. I was starting to feel something was strange if it DIDN'T beep after turning the indicator! Anyway I cleaned the contacts and still no improvement so I set about adding an extra earth point to each rear light bulb holder.



The blue 17a wire was connected to the second block connector on the bulb holder and then to a fixing point added to the boot side wall. I even tinned the wire connectors to make double sure I was getting a clean contact. The result was good - no more 'bulb defective' messages and nice bright indicator, brake and stop lights. I note that the tail lights no longer pulse with the indicator now so success. Both sides were treated to this. Is it true that the series 2 XMs gained an extra earth like this as standard?

Height corrector linkage.
The front suspension was sitting too high. It was also really hard to get it to adjust well with it ending up too low or high again I suspected the linkage from the anti roll bar as I've never owned a Citroen of any type that didn't have a sloppy linkage. This car was no exception and upon removal it turned out that the end of the rod that pivots in the bronze bush in the subframe was really worn. Refitting it but with the linkage slid slightly out so a new contact point was used made a tiny improvement but I found a brand new old stock XM corrector linkage on ebay from 'AEP' that's conveniently here in Glasgow. I know them quite well anyway and went to see the part that they said was for 'XM saloon front or rear'
Well, according to my info, the front and rear anti roll bars are different diameters and the various XM types also have different diameters. I took the part anyway to see if it would fit.
It looked identical to the item off the car

You can see the wear on the pivot point arrowed.

The new part was pristine but turned out to have a very small anti roll bar clamp.

Seemed to be about 21mm where the anti roll bar on the front of Darth is a measured 25mm. This goes against my information:

Saying the RGX-engined XM should have a 23mm front anti roll bar. Mine neasures at 25 mm for sure and the clamp of the linkage removed is seen to be much larger than the new one. So the part is wrong!
I went back to AEP and asked to see the one other height corrector clamp they'd advertised. It was said to be a 'series 2 XM estate' item. It had an identical structure at the pivot and hight corrector end but the clamp end had a bigger clamp and a slightly larger curve to the torsional rod. But was otherwise the same. Measuring the clamp showed it was about 25mm. Would this fit then?

Well, it did fit and it works a treat. I also got a new old stock bronze bush to fit in the subframe so there is absolutely no 'play' in the corrector linkage action now. I just wonder what the truth is behind the supposed 23 mm roll bar when it turned out to be a 25mm item. The information table there is taken from the 'Xantia Machanic's handbook' pdf. and covers the XM, Xantia and Synergie in detail. Is it wrong? is a 2.0 CTC XM supposed to have the 25mm roll bar at the front?

All three XM height corrector linkages together

It is possible the first one bought that was too small for the front roll bar might fit the rear if the rear roll bar is 21mm and that table suggests it will be 22mm - I haven't looked yet but experience has shown that the rear corrector linkage is usually worse than the front since it moves so much more.

Next oddity is that occasionally after parking and switching off the engine, there is a quite loud rythmic buzz eminating from under the floor. It sounds like some electric motor switched on for a about 15-20 seconds and then stops. I recall my old anti sink Xantia used to buzz at the rear and heard it was to do with some shuttle valve going nuts due to a pressure imbalance but this car is a sinker obviously so it's not that. Any ideas? I note the single electrovalve of the Hydractive 1 is near silent when active so wouldn't think it was that either.

Hydractive
This seems to work - the check light comes on and goes off, the suspension goes hard after the loud clonk of the electro valve so the hardware is physically working. I changed the front centre and rear corner spheres with only the front corners still needing changed (my sphere tester shows them both as having 37bar left). the suspension seems very soft at standstill and after first setting off but then it gets stuck in hard mode. I know this has been covered ad nauseum before but what is the likely fault if the system only seems to get stuck in hard mode after a journey and reverts back to 'working' next day? It sometimes sticks in hard mode even when parked for 10 minutes such as yesterday at a supermarket it was hard, parked up and I noticed it was in hard mode before the doors were even closed. Closed door, waited for the clonk of the electrovalve and nothing (usually about 30 seconds I think) and when I returned about 10 minutes later the second the door was opened it clicked and the suspension jumped up about 4-5 inches! It is as though the wait helped it reset or something. I am sure it is a small item that's causing this such as a bad diode or something. I have not yet looked at the ECU.

Does this sound familiar to anyone?

There is a LOT of brake dust coming from one front wheel - I'll be replacing the pads in due course.

Fuel computer
This doesn't work. The out side temperture works OK but the MPG, range etc all show up as blanks. I tried resetting it to no avail as it's as though one or more inputs is disconnected. But since I don't know what and where these are I am stumped! The average speed does display but only for a while whereafter it freezes and doesn't change. I think it takes fuel tank level and road speed but not sure if these are secondary sensors to the fuel tank sender and the speedometer drive.

Anyone know? It would be nice to see this working!

Greased up the sunroof runners so that's working faster. I'm amazed to find three of the window switches still light up!! Albeit very dim. I think I'm going to attempt Will's excellent LED retrofit solution to this (in the current CCC magazine) as it seems the ideal solution.

That's all for now - any advice on the problems above would be very welcome!!!!