Leaking Exhaust Manifold

[harryjoe]

Hi all , and a happy easter to you , one and all, !!

Having recently bought my 1st Xm, form one of your well known members, ( the one that Phil collected from Geneva), he had mentioned to me that the manifold my need thightening up !, there is only a small leak when 1st started up, and then after a couple of minutes it obviously warms up and the exhaust no longer sounds as if it is leaking.
Today i have had it looked at by my local garage ( yes they where open today ), and they seem reluctant to try to thighten it through fear of shearing off any bolts !, can anyone shed any light on doing this, they said to me that they are proned to this happening !! ,and can be a right pain, i would rather do this myself, cause it doesn't seem to be such a difficult job! Mot coming up soon , so need to get this one sorted.
Also guys, having just sold my Xantia, which had very soft susspension when pressed on the front and rear, the Xm does seem to be considerably stiffer, is that the case with the Xm, due to hydroactive 2 ????, or should it be quite soft when you pust it down, it all seems to work very well , rises as it should, very quickly infact, sorry if i sound a bit on the simple side, but this is the 1st Xm owned , and still getting to know the car,
It was mentioned to me that the accumaltor sphere my need changing, and i will change that soon, would that make any differance ?

Any advice would help no end,


Nigel

[Peter.N.]

Hi Nigel

Can't help you with the manifold as I don't know what car you have and I only know about 2.1s anyway, I suspect your suspension requires new spheres, they usually do, either that or the suspension ECU is nor working. In soft mode you should have about 6" of movement, ruducing to about 2 or 3" in hard mode. You can check this by opening a door, this should put it in soft mode, shut the door and wait about a minute or until you hear the electrovalves 'clonk' and it will then be in hard mode.

Peter

[Dieselman]

The accumulator won't make any difference to the suspension, it will just hold a reserve of pressure for longer. XM's aren't as supple as a non Hydractive BX or Xantia due to the smaller spheres.
Just ensure you can feel the difference when sport mode is engaged to check if the system is working, after that the only other solution is new spheres.

[robert_e_smart]

2.0 Turbo Petrols are prone to exhaust manifold problems, same goes for the N/A 8Vs as well.

The manifolds can crack on them, or the exhaust manifold gasket may need changing if the manifold isn't cracked. It might also be worth changing the doughnut gasket that goes in where the exhaust downpipe meets the manifold.

This isn't an easy job on these cars due to extremely limited access behind the engines.

[Dean]

Hi

After looking at many of these engines now my findings of the gasket/manifold problems are that the the exhaust ports for cylinders 2 and 3 are very close to each other and the gasket seems to 'cook' at this point and fail first, i will put a photo up in a bit, the manifolds on N/A's are the same as on almost all N/A petrol XM, Xantia and pugs and they all seem to crack on cylinder 1's branch, Turbo gaskets suffer the same failure but the manifolds are a little more hardy thanks to the compact design of the manifold although cracking, when it happens, seems to accur on the turbo flange.
N/A gaskets are ok to change really, turbo gaskets are a right pain in the backside, i would follow Roberts advise though and check the turbo to downpipe doughnut seal first as this is a reasonably easy fix. so far as tightening the manifold bolts go i would say its worth a shot, they are either loose in which case they will tighten easily or they arent in which case they wont! either way if the gasket is been getting blown by its more than likely toast by now.

D

[steelcityuk]

Here's what I found on a re-build of the 2.0 TCT that I owned. It seemed to be just down to the stud nuts not being tightened up correctly, they were little more than hand tight. I found a set of swivel ended ratchet spanners invaluable for this job.



Steve.

[harryjoe]

Thanks guy's,

Yesterday i tried to access the manifold, got as far as getting all the bolts out of the top of the manifold shield, but there's one bolt at the bottom of the shield, i cannot get to .

What is the aluminium thing'y thats over the top of the shield, bit of a pig to do without removing it !!!!

It's so anoying that after 2-3 mins of running it sounds fine, and not blowing.
New accumilator sphere ordered today, are these the same to fit as the Xantia one's ?, with the nut you have to undo before trying to get anything round it to remove it, it's a bit tight an't it

Then in for an MOT, i think if it's nice and hot when it gets there, it will not be blowing ! or does any of you think that it will effect the emissions ????

[Dieselman]

Any leak at the manifold will affect emissions. To remove the accumulator sphere ensure the system is fully de-pressurised using the 12mm bolt, then give the sphere a few taps with a lump hammer and it will probably unscrew by hand.

[DerekW]

..... and don't, whatever you do, undo the depressuring bolt by more than one turn!

Derek

[harryjoe]

Hi Derek.

It's fitted now,

I know about that , i nearly feel for that when changing my Xantia one, it was only a forum member then that mentioned it, otherwise i would have been in deep s***t.
Thanks for the reminder though


Nigel