Citroen XM Forum

jonathan_dyane wrote:Aye, could really have done with a pull Will but I had neither the facilities nor the money for that. Thankfully there was enough leeway in the bumper mounting poles to get away with the minimal movement of the chassis leg.

I once used a chain and a steel car-port support post for a pull, just reversed the car back until things were lined up again.

Dieselman wrote:Hmmm. A GS Club estate.

First car I ever drove was a 1977 Club estate.

Nope... both wrong leaves just one car.... yes saab 900 .. im not kidding johnathan got ALL the parts in his 5dr hatch 900

was well impressed!

How very unlucky to have such a nasty crash Jonathan and well done for saving the car, with invaluable help from Paul of course!! That comment of Will's reminded me of an old school friend of mine who used his tractor rear wheel to straighten out the frame of an old BSA Bantam we rescued from a scrap heap. Regards, Matthew T.

I'm still using this old thing every day, clicked over to 260000 miles the other week which got me thinking how nice it would be to get it to at least 300000... The main faults I have had to contend with since July have been a failed water pump (I treated her to a timing belt too) however the repair for this was complicated by the timing belt tensioner retaining allen bolt which sits recessed in a hole in the upper engine mounting casting was sadly both pre-rounded and over tightened. To remove it I had to take off the engine mounting casting and weld on a sacrificial allen key which I was able to loosen with stilsons. As I didn't have a suitable replacement bolt my repair consisted of simply more neatly welding a portion of the allen key into the bolt head. I also discovered that the reason it was sluggish was a split on the underside of one of the intake hoses; after wrapping it in self-amalgamating tape which improved matters but produced a loud farting sound on boost a silicone replacement was fitted and the power has been usefully increased.

There is one problem however which I must soon address. Ever since I got the car it has produced an unusual drivetrain noise which of course as time (and miles) has passed has only got worse. It's a sort of vibratory graunching noise which only occurs at speed (about 30 mph+) and when under load. I'm fairly sure it isn't a wheelbearing (corners don't change it in any way) and in any case if I dip the clutch or drop into neutral the noise disappears. I am hopeful that the problem could be the driveshaft intermediate bearing but I have a nasty gut feeling that it might be the diff. At the weekend I'm going to try and produce the noise with each front wheel in turn on an axle stand to try and identify the problem better, something I've been meaning to do for months but I've been putting off due to my differential related paranoia. Gearbox is an engine out job isn't it? Gulp...

Jonathan.

Pah Easy Johnathan to get the engine out!

Ive done a clutch with engine and box in situ.. but I couldnt calculate if the box would pass the engine and subframe and drop downwards... It might do actually if you jack the engine up far enough to clear the bell house.

I do fail to see it being diff, if theres oil they are rather hardy box's.... Ive had an intermetaite bearing disintigrate on my V6 12v Auto years ago, however, this was idetified by the fact when I accellerated the whole car shuddered side to side for a moment at certain speeds and then cleared.

Well at least I know none of the bolts holding the nose on will be seized!

I guess what worries me about the gearbox is that not only has it never been the best of gearchanges (and it often baulks into first even if you go for second first and sometimes fourth and fifth when on the move) when I dropped the gearbox oil there was an unpleasant amount of swarf stuck to the magnet on the drain plug. Oh and if you rest your hand on the gear knob you can feel the vibration coming through the gear lever

That ALL sounds normal to me there Johnathan....

Nothing new there.. Ive got a spare 2.1 box on the floor, Ive Also got another one, which I think is a 2.1 box, but no idea how to check if it is or not...

Good to know Paul! Here's hoping I'm just being paranoid and the problem is something simpler; if I pull the lump out to replace the gearbox I'd be worried that the next week the head gasket would blow

Keep that anti freeze at a 80% mix to anti freeze and it should be good!!!

Interesting, I will bare that in mind too come next coolant change. Mines on 50/50 at the moment.