I bought her as the Cx I'm restoring wasn't going to be ready for our honeymoon. We had plans for driving all around Europe as I'd never been.
So at the beginning of July I was looking at Cx's and Bx's when the idea of an Xm popped into my mind.
I'd always liked them since launch. I'd collected the video and brochure from the local dealership as a kid and still have them.
I decided what I'd like was a diesel, preferably a s1 and manual.
However with Xm's not being all that common and time not being on my side, the one that looked the best bet was a s2 auto that Medway citroen in kent had for sale.
It had 125k on the clock and a bit of haggling saw it gain 12 months ticket and I happily paid £800 for it.
These are the pictures from the ad.
I caught the train up to Kent from Dorset to collect her.
Unfortunately my introduction into Xm ownership didn't go so well. I stopped at Tesco a couple of miles down the rd to get some lunch to be greeted by a pool of lhm under the rear.
I took the car straight back and Medway kindly fixed the leak.
Onto the M25 I thought I best check the leak just in case. I must admit I was thoroughly enjoying driving the car despite its initial problem.
Unfortunately she was now leaking again but I decided to press on home after buying 3 litres of lhm. Regular top ups were needed
Just coming into Bridport (my home town) the big red stop light came on on the dash. Thinking I was low on lhm I rolled into the local petrol station only to realize there was steam coming from the bonnet and a radiator symbol with the stop sign.
Yep the head gasket had gone!
Medway offered me a full refund but after talking to them I decided to let them repair it.
A new head-gasket, water pump, thermostat and cam-belt were to be fitted which seamed like a very good deal to me.
My only problem was how to get the wounded car back to Kent. I filled her back up with water and went for a drive where I accidentally broke down.
The AA then took her back to Kent to be repaired. This did mean another trip to Kent and back for me but I felt it was worth it.
When I returned to collect the car I noticed a hissing noise when the car was turned off. I had asked Medway to change the header tank and cap (at my cost) as I felt they were in poor shape but they hadn't.
A different cap was fitted from their spares car and luckily this cured the hissing.
They also gave me the header tank, a sunroof (mine doesn't work) and a cd changer to say sorry and promised if it broke down again I could return it.
I must say I was very pleased I'd bought the car from them I don't believe they expected the failures and they were very helpfully throughout.
The car was driven home without a hitch this time.
Pretty much the next day I decided to change the header tank as it looked in really poor condition and do a coolant flush with some forte flush.
I used pink coolant (oat) as I know it has better corrosion inhibitors than the blue or green and I had some already.
Anyway I changed the tank put forte flush in and ran the car for the recommended time.
The coolant that came out was a disgusting orange rust colour.
This is the old tank.
I fitted my coolant filling funnel to the header tank filled it with clean water and opened all the bleed points until clean water came out.
I used the hosepipe to get some pressure in there which helped.
I then ran the engine up to temp with just water and repeated this.
I also blew some air down the bleed points to get some more muck out.
Eventuality once I had only clear water coming out I refilled it with a strong coolant mix on the advice of the fourm.
At this point I also did and oil and filter change including the gearbox oil. What came out was disgusting and it ran much nice afterwards.
The air filter I changed for a K&N panel mainly because I like the clean and reuse idea. Check out the state of the old one!
I then drove it as much as I could before our wedding at the beginning of Sept to make sure there weren't any other faults.
Luckly there weren't any major ones and other than a very quick wet vac and a few washes nothing much happened.
Until the day after the wedding we set off to Dover in it. I had a audi 100 turbo engine and box in the back that a very nice but crazy Italian chap had bought from me. Rather than pallet it I used the delivery money for fuel for the trip.
This is where we went, over 2000 miles without fault.
I didn't take many photos of the car whilst we were away but here she is resting in Switzerland.
I'll update with my current cleaning antics tomorrow. Sore fingers now
