Hello - New Special XM Owner UK

[KentXM]

Hi everyone,
Me and my son have just purchased our first XM. Its a pretty rare car having been a diplomatic car for 7 years before being purchased by Youtube guy Geoff Buys Cars. It has loads of history though.
Its a bit tatty but we hope to get it up to spec.
Issues we have found are -
sunroof taped shut
headlights pathetic
heater blower not working
suspension slow
switch illumination mostly not working
clock lcd bleeding
paint faded

Anyway no pics yet but the reg is K475 PGN

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[Dieselman]

That one has certainly done the rounds, hopefully you have the intention to actually fix the issues and not just give up once the rose tinted specs lose their tint.
I never cease to be amazed/amused by the people that full of enthusiasm buy an old car and a shiny new socket set from Halfords, just spend time on wash, wax and tyre shine (while making a "Tube" video), then can't work out why the car hasn't morphed into being a brand new car, so give up.

That car has been through several changes of ownership and still has exactly the same issues it had three years ago.

The headlamps may respond well to dismantling and washing out to remove the dust. Also clean the plastic lenses with either peroxide, or polish, to remove some of the yellowing.
Not much you can do about the delaminated clock display, it's the damp from sunroofs causes it. Try to obtain one from an arid climate car in Europe, where most Xm don't have a sunroof.

Heater blower, check the power supply to it then see if the controller is gradually shunting the signal line to Gnd. The lower the resistance to Gnd, the faster the motor should spin. Full speed is directly through a relay.
The speed control module mounted to the fan has a pair of Darlington transistors which fail. Either replace the transistors, or the unit.
It could be the motor brushes are worn out, or stuck. Try giving the motor a good clout.

[citroenxm]

Check the 5 pin plug that's plugged into the bottom of the blower too. Mine stopped on our 2 1 and it turned out the earth connector had overheated and gone high resistance. I took it out cleaned it up.. put it back shook most of the harness under the dash and it came back to life working perfectly again..

As for clocks. I discovered if you get a euro clock and its in deg F outside temp reading you can split the units and put the good front lcd section onto the deg c section and it works perfectly.. in deg c ..

[KentXM]

That one has certainly done the rounds, hopefully you have the intention to actually fix the issues and not just give up once the rose tinted specs lose their tint.
I never cease to be amazed/amused by the people that full of enthusiasm buy an old car and a shiny new socket set from Halfords, just spend time on wash, wax and tyre shine (while making a "Tube" video), then can't work out why the car hasn't morphed into being a brand new car, so give up.

That car has been through several changes of ownership and still has exactly the same issues it had three years ago.

The headlamps may respond well to dismantling and washing out to remove the dust. Also clean the plastic lenses with either peroxide, or polish, to remove some of the yellowing.
Not much you can do about the delaminated clock display, it's the damp from sunroofs causes it. Try to obtain one from an arid climate car in Europe, where most Xm don't have a sunroof.

Heater blower, check the power supply to it then see if the controller is gradually shunting the signal line to Gnd. The lower the resistance to Gnd, the faster the motor should spin. Full speed is directly through a relay.
The speed control module mounted to the fan has a pair of Darlington transistors which fail. Either replace the transistors, or the unit.
It could be the motor brushes are worn out, or stuck. Try giving the motor a good clout.

Thanks for the advice. Me and my son are a bit past the enthusiasm and a shiny Halfords socket set as I am in my 50's and have owned plenty of unusual and fast cars and currently have a BMW E39 M5 that is modded to 450bhp and my son is time served and has a work cv that includes Ferrari, McLaren and Rolls Royce !
Its just he and me love old unusual cars.
He has been working on it all Sunday and has serviced it and gave it a full polish and boy has it come up well.

[Dieselman]

He has been working on it all Sunday and has serviced it and gave it a full polish and boy has it come up well.

You tube video incoming...
Original Xm paint is quite possibly the best you will see on any car, extremely even tone, flat dust free, and very shiny.

You will find the Xm to be rewarding to work on as they are actually pretty simple and very rewarding to drive once working properly, though I think you may struggle to attain high performance from the 2.0i engine.
It matters less for an estate, but it's a shame that car is a base version, they really miss out on extra goodies and toys.

[Dieselman]

As for clocks. I discovered if you get a euro clock and its in deg F outside temp reading you can split the units and put the good front lcd section onto the deg c section and it works perfectly.. in deg c ..

Good tip.

[KentXM]

He has been working on it all Sunday and has serviced it and gave it a full polish and boy has it come up well.

You tube video incoming...
Original Xm paint is quite possibly the best you will see on any car, extremely even tone, flat dust free, and very shiny.

You will find the Xm to be rewarding to work on as they are actually pretty simple and very rewarding to drive once working properly, though I think you may struggle to attain high performance from the 2.0i engine.
It matters less for an estate, but it's a shame that car is a base version, they really miss out on extra goodies and toys.

We aint interested in upping the engine performance really as that was never the goal.
As for work done, the fan is now working perfectly at all speeds and the instruments and dash has new led bulbs which really makes a difference.
Next its time to address the poor earthing to see what, if any, difference it makes to the headlight output.

[KentXM]

Just wondering if the LCD clock can be found on any other car ?

[Dieselman]

The headlamp wiring is normally adequate, without much voltage drop, but good to check.

What was the fan fix and how are you getting on with the dashboard lamps being converted to Led? How are you dimming them, either with the dimmer rheostat for the instruments lights, or just the dimming of the display backlights when the vehicle lights are turned on?

I didn't really think you would be increasing the performance of the engine, it's just that in the company of M5, McLaren and Ferrari, the Xm is a rather low performance car...though you might be surprised how quick it can be point to point.
A hydractive Xm isn't a quick car, but is a car that carries speed, a real Jekyll and Hyde car.

It's good to hear you are cracking on with the jobs.

[Dieselman]

Just wondering if the LCD clock be found on any other car ?

It's used on other Psa products, but Citroen ones are green tint, Peugeot are orange tint. Of course, it's the tint layer that has delaminated.