Citroen XM Forum

Greetings to all

I stand before you an Xm novice, but with the great good fortune to be the current custodian of possibly the last new Xm registered in Australia - the warranty start date was December 2000.

It is of course an ES9 V6 Exclusive auto, and has an unusual claim to fame. If you open the Wikipedia article on the Xm, and scroll down to the 'Style' section, you will find a photo of the rear of my car as the illustration of a facelift hatchback.

I am pretty sure it was Motorgnome (another Aussie) who recommended this forum as being practically a necessity for any XM owner to join. From what I've read so far, I'm going to find answers to questions that I didn't even know I needed to ask !

Anyway, now I'm registered and can see all the topics and threads, I can see myself spending a lot of time just reading and educating myself.

Stay well

Alec

Hi
A late V6 is a very nice car...ultra comfortable.

Being an auto, one of the first jobs to do is to change the ATF. There is a list of oils on the forum., but any equivalent to ZF Lifeguard5 is fine.

As a preventative measure, adding Hydractive electrovalve protection diodes would be worthwhile task. These are covered in the circuit diagram for your car.

The RP number on the left A pillar is the important number for parts.

We'll try to think of some of the answers to questions you didn't know you need to ask...

Well, you couldn't wish for a better portrait of the car than on Wikipedia, Alec!
It certainly is a late one (RP8603 = a build date of 29 May 2000).

Just out of interest, I wonder whether you might have the late-type Xantia suspension regulator (centre sphere) valves fitted from factory? Officially, these didn't get on to XM, but were standard fitting on Xantia from March 1999; we've often wondered about this.

Welcome to the forum - Look forward to some more photos and posts.

Hi Dieselman

He didn't mention it, but perhaps Mike (who I bought the car from) was a friend of yours - as he seems to have taken your advice .

He has already fitted an e-crofting kit (the front and rear diodes sing like canaries as soon as I open a door), and the car came to me with 3 (yes three) x 20 litre drums of Mobil LT 71141 (one partly used), which Mike had acquired through the local Mobil depot.

There is however some concern about the transmission - when hot it tends to thump on the down-change from 2nd to 1st (selecting Snow mode stops it) . It's also a bit 'thumpy' moving from Park to R or D. The car has done c. 170,000 km (so just over 100,000 miles), but rather alarmingly, the transmission failed and was rebuilt in 2010 at 100,000 km (say 60,000 miles). I suspect it had been treated as 'sealed for life'.

Even after the rebuild, there's no evidence that the auto fluid was changed until Mike changed it at 151,000 km, but he then changed it 3 times in fairly quick succession. However, he decided that following the correct procedure was too hard, so just measured what he took out each time, and replaced it with the same amount. Now this wouldn't be too bad, except that I have a couple of 4HP20 documents that are in agreement - the correct amount to be added should be about 3 litres, and Mike drained and refilled 4.75 litres each time!!!

So it appears that when the repaired transmission was reinstalled, they overfilled it. According to the documents I have, overfilling is better than underfilling, as underfilling can destroy the box. Overfilling will 'only' cause the fluid to overheat (and possibly leak out) - and guess what! Overheating produces thumps!

So far I've only changed the fluid once - and found that I couldn't undo the level plug - the centre had been reamed out. Ordered a few seals, plus the auto drain and level plugs - everything arrived except the level plug . So I too just estimated - added a little over 3 litres, as I didn't want to risk the level being low. Got an immediate improvement, but it's not completely fixed - I need to carry on and do 2 more changes.

Anyway, sorry for this extended sob story - the problem is far from a deal breaker, but it's a good example of how little errors can compound...

Hope you are all surviving the virus - we are very bored with our lockdown here, but we feel safe.

Cheers

Alec

White Exec wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 26, 2020 6:20 am

Well, you couldn't wish for a better portrait of the car than on Wikipedia, Alec!
It certainly is a late one (RP8603 = a build date of 29 May 2000).

Just out of interest, I wonder whether you might have the late-type Xantia suspension regulator (centre sphere) valves fitted from factory? Officially, these didn't get on to XM, but were standard fitting on Xantia from March 1999; we've often wondered about this.

Welcome to the forum - Look forward to some more photos and posts.

Thanks - it was quite a buzz when Mike pointed out the picture!

As to the late-model electrovalves - I have heard of these unicorns! As far as I recall when I looked into this, there were two replacements, with the first upgrade version not lasting long. Do you have any idea if there was a problem with that first replacement?

I don't think that the last few XMs got an undocumented upgrade, but how would I check? If I don't have them, I would be quite open to retrofitting a pair, but I might have to track down (& wreck) a late model Xantia VSX to get them .

Cheers

Alec

Are we talking about NZ xantia_v6 Mike, Alec?

This is a thread detailing the late-type Xantia valves, how to recognise them, and which RP range had them fitted.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8100=late+type+xantia#p96913
Had not heard of any replacement versions being a problem. Do you still have any info on this?

I have remembered where I read about the later hydractive regulator valves - in the Wikipedia XM article (not mentioned in the Xantia article however)!

I hadn't seen the thread you linked to - thanks very much for that.

Cheers

Alec

White Exec wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 26, 2020 8:45 am

Are we talking about NZ xantia_v6 Mike, Alec?

This is a thread detailing the late-type Xantia valves, how to recognise them, and which RP range had them fitted.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8100=late+type+xantia#p96913
Had not heard of any replacement versions being a problem. Do you still have any info on this?

No connection with me, if I had an XM in the southern hemisphere, I would not be selling it!

I don't think the later valves ever got to the XM, as it was on its last legs by the time they were introduced. I think the second type of valves mentioned may have been the interim replacements which were directly compatible with the earlier pipe fittings. These were never fitted in the factory and were only available as spare parts.

The car under discussion here would be one of the last RHD V6 made.

An occasional very harsh 2-1 downshift seems to be a characteristic of these transmissions, and does not necessarily indicate a pending failure. I would be more concerned about flaring on up-shifts and when accelerating from rest.

The Mike that my Xm came from lived west of Sydney - and no this car has never had NZ registration!

Here is a picture taken on the delivery run - found myself parked next to the black Bentley at a Pacific Highway service centre, so took some shots. The Bentley owner was not friendly when he appeared from a fast-food place, so I didn't ask him how such a young man could afford a new Bentley - although I did tell him that my car was rarer than his!
Cheers

Alec

DownUnderXM wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 26, 2020 9:23 am

I have remembered where I read about the later hydractive regulator valves - in the Wikipedia XM article (not mentioned in the Xantia article however)!

All a bit 'full circle' - the Wikipedia entry about the late-type valves was written by yours truly!

I had forgotten all about the 'intermediate' replacement valves (to cope with earlier pipe unions), but wouldn't expect that aspect of them to make a difference to the way the revised ones worked. After all, the pipe unions are just "swappable-out" with the other type of olive/seal. The important bit is to have the right dampers fitted (under those same unions), not least for Xantia, where they differ front/back.

So, another antipodean Mike . . .