Citroen XM Forum

Hello everyone
Just a quick line to say hi from Central France,I moved out here permanently in April.A few XM's about and I live in the poorest part of Central france where people run their cars into the ground.

I used to be Little and Large on the old site.....I always hated them as a comedy act.

I still don't have an XM and the Mercedes E Class is going well.I have just done 20K in its 1st year and it is a quite beautiful car to drive despite its 221k now.

I had a fuel pump problem initially and then the alternator pulley wheel dropped off last month but that apart it has been fine.The engine is a straight 6 and as smooth as you like.With the aircon off it will do low 40's on the mpg,nowhere near as good as my 2.5 but not bad for a 3 litre auto!

Good to see many of the old faces still on the new site and I wish you all another year/or a year of troublefree motoring!

All the best

Rob Chamberlayne

Hi Rob, or should that be L&L or BtB?

Good to hear from you again. So you deserted this godawful country? If only I were younger and didn't have a wife who's a francophobe! Looks like I'm stuck with what I've got - at least we appreciare XMs!

Derek

Hi Derek
Yes I have left the sinking ship with no return planned!

I bought 2 houses in a small village in Central France and have 3 fields....imagine how many XM's you lot could fit on them!

I am lucky in that I can work here as I am in the Antiques Trade selling on Ebay.

The downside is the pound has parity with the Euro at the moment which with inflation means everything here is 50% more expensive than say a couple of years ago.Before you all feel too sorry for me I have to pay my Council tax on Monday.......£300 and diesel is still 85p a litre even with the crap exchange rate.

A bientot as they say over here.

Cordialment
Rob

BertietheBunnie wrote: I had a fuel pump problem initially and then the alternator pulley wheel dropped off last month but that apart it has been fine.The engine is a straight 6 and as smooth as you like.With the aircon off it will do low 40's on the mpg,nowhere near as good as my 2.5 but not bad for a 3 litre auto!

Hi.
Unusual for an in-line fuel pump to give trouble, was it an air leak?
Which model Mercedes is it, W124?

No a W210 and it was the primary fuel pump.It had been bodged in the past with a sealant etc and when I parked the car on a hill with a camber and not much fuel in the tank........it just wouldn't bleed the air out.So my garage replaced the fuel lines and O rings seals which are a known weakspot on them and then temporarily bi-passed the pump it of course then ran.The pump was £180 from Mercedes.......ouch!

Welcome Rob!

You're going to tell us next the French weather isn't a patch on the UK's!
Poor you worrying about plastic and material deterioration in the baking sunshine/heat.

Not a contributor on a Mercedes forum? Do folk even admit their existence after 3 years old?
Still thinking about Xm's then?

Andrew

Hi Andrew
As you asked it has been a lovely summer!!!Not too hot apart from a couple of weeks when it was unbearable but generally just nice and sunny with a cooling breeze.Most French houses are stone built and have shutters etc so you can normally retreat into a nice cool house.It normally around 16-18 degs inside mine but in the hot spell it went up to 27 degs in the house!

There are some very good Merc websites.Full of like minded enthusiasts similar to those on this site.I only go on if I have a problem and they helped by sending parts diagrams etc.It is the dealers who don't admit their existence after 3 years old.They haven't got a clue on anything older,unless it is a Company car or you are fabulously wealthy they don't want to know.Their idea of fixing it is too replace it at great expense.

On my 1st visit I was shown through to the parts department and asked if I wanted a coffee by the very attractive receptionist.I then proceeded to order 2 grommets at 80p each!Not everything is expensive though.I needed a new auxilliary belt(now where have I heard that before)which on mine goes around 7 pulleys-£28 including VAT certainly cheaper than for my XM.A lot of the dealers are clearing out their W210 NOS on Ebay and you can often buy some really good new bits(which of course you don't need).When my tyres needed replacing I bought a set of nice looking CLK alloys with good Pirelli P6000's for £150 off Ebay.

I may well have another XM although they are very expensive over here>My neighbour bought a really ratty 2.1 Estate for €1000,he couldn't believe I hadn't paid much more for my Merc.I will get another E300 when this one packs up,the quality is superb but a new one would cost more than both my houses here so it should be good.

Rob

The CLK wheels are not correct as they are 0.5" thinner than E class wheels. The lift pumps on E300's never give up, are you sure you needed it, they are a pushrod operated piston pump with a one way valve in one of the ports. It's very common to have air leaks as a result of the O-rings, just replace all the pipes and the pre-filter ring for surety, not forgetting the one behind the shut-off solenoid.

Couldn't agree more about E300TD being bomb proof.

Yes I know as my old nuts stuck out a little bit,but they look good and haven't dropped off yet!!The tyres are coming up for replacement so I'll just go and buy some more alloys too!My garage are quite methodical and started with all the O seals but there was still air getting in.When they took the pump off it had been bodged before with sealant and when they replaced it everything was fine,they showed me the old one.It may have been why the car was px'd as it had only been serviced a few 1000km before I bought it

Hi Rob, good to "see" another one of the old crew come to join us, still got the green stuff in your blood then as you're here but don't drive a Cit at the moment

Best wishes Colin.P