Citroen XM Forum

Thought you might like to see a couple of pictures of a Xantia heater matrix replacement I assisted with today.

It was a big job made bigger as the carpets had to come up as the failing matrix had made a bit of a mess of the front passenger footwell...

The extent of the leak being tested by filling the matrix with a watering can...



The responsible hole in one of the U tubes...



It was big and comparison with the new one suggests the old one was a tad longer in the U tubes than the new one. We believe the U tube may have fretted against the bottom of the heater box and holed itself...

This was an el-cheapo matrix fitted less then 12 months ago. Going cheap does not pay...

I've done so many of these I can now dismantle a Xantia dash with my eyes closed and fast asleep

Seems like that anyway...

This is probably one of the few jobs on an Xm that's a doddle in comparison!
Even a Cx can be made to work in a similar fashion where the Xant needs the
whole car dismantling! With all this practice doing them on Xants now, are you
available for hire at keen rates?

andmcit wrote:With all this practice doing them on Xants now, are you
available for hire at keen rates?

No! Is the very short and to the point answer Andrew

I've done many now but that does not mean I like the job...

Besides, these days all I do (and can do) is dismantle the dash; the more difficult aspects are done by others..

Good to know the XM is easy. I guess it never or rarely fails then - that's usually the case, the easier the job the less it ever needs doing...

I am impressed! It is a terrible job but knowing every nut and bolt helps. I think it's 14 hours that they charge you officially for with Citroen if I remember correctly. I can't understand how that hole got there so soon. Using tab water (as they regularly do in Ireland ) is a cause of leaks as I do know. I've never had to do it on my own xantia and never will. I hate the job.
In the CX you have to make a hole in the plastic housing, not very difficult to do but very strangely designed as well. The XM, I don't have a clue, don't want to know

This wouldn't have been on a Dantes Activa was it?

That was a bit of a leak, no wonder the footwell was a little damp!

It does seem like an unusual place to go, whats the reason for the hole there? Thats not the common failing place, is it?

I Can though Andrew... Ive also done a fair few like Jim..

I saw one once jim ha had punctured ALL of its U Tubes...

citroenmad wrote:This wouldn't have been on a Dantes Activa was it?

Yes, that' it Chris but not mine I hasten to add...

Twin of mine almost though - bar the sunroof...

citroenxm wrote:I Can though Andrew... Ive also done a fair few like Jim..

I saw one once jim ha had punctured ALL of its U Tubes...

All of them Paul Did you work out why?

Jaap, it's not such a bad job really - just long and tedious...

Speaking of tap water, I had a 205GTi a while back and that got through three matrixes in my ownership. All went on the U tubes and the cause I eventually discovered was a lot of scale in the cooling system; it had been run without anti-freeze for years which eventually killed the engine. The scale was circulating the cooling system and it acted as a fine abrasive and literally ground the U tubes away... The scale originated from the header tank...

It was not a worry as like the XM the 205 was easy to change a matrix in...

Well I've done it once some years back and a few months later, this xantia went off the road in the snow..Reincarnated in some Kia now

External abrasion damage is often due to a failure to fit the foam vibration strip correctly or keep it in place while fitting the heater.
Not easy to check on movement while fitting.
External abrasion is likely to be a single point major failure as demonstrated by Jim.
Pauls "all fail at once" is most likely due to crap materials/manufacturing.
There has been quite a bit written about those bends wearing through from the inside due to flow cavitation and fine debris abrasion.
I seem to recall that Valeo researched this rapid failure problem quite a few years ago.
Poor quality metal material used for manufacture appeared to be as much a factor as using non spec coolant top ups.
My conclusion at the time was that Nissen item did better than the standard items sourced from Spain.

John