I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

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Genosis
XM newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2025 9:19 am

I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

Post by Genosis » Sun Nov 30, 2025 6:25 pm

Oh yes, a grey 1997 Citroën tct vsx break 2.0 turbo, five speed manual.
160k km or just cracked 100k miles.
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I bought one because of well, all my friends drives Volvo's and I would like to stand out so I decided for something rare ish again. I have a Daihatsu Charade from '88 and a 1981 Buick Century. This is going to be a fun project!

So whats wrong with it?
It's in decent knick, I got a bargain for it. But a bargain comes with their prices too. Got some rusted out kickpanels leaking in water. Aswell as the inner map light leaks water too.
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All but one of the interior lights work, I mesured 8v in one of them.

The A.B.S is acting up leaving me with no brakes at low speeds but pulled the fuse out for now. And that seems to work temporarly.

She's been smoked in but I can clean that out. Wood trim and THE Original Radio headunit!

Runs great and feels good on the road. And surprisingly cheap too.

The old owner had the rear orbs renewed recently and has a clean M.O.T even if the abs are acting up. Looks well cared after although the front strut mounts rubber is tearing apart and that is giving me a bit of anxiety, from what I've heard can happen if you're unlucky.

Oh and I cant lock the car. The drivers side only locks itself and the passenger side locks and unlocks imidietly and no I dont have the key remote.
And the keypad seems to be disconnected, I can start it no problem and it doent light up so I'll leave that be.

The tailgate lights work if i lightly hit the tailgate.
Half of the dashboard lights work and the left monitor is not readable but is clearly showing something's up.
The right monitor works good enough and the climate control monitor is dead.

On my priority list is ofc, fixing the locks and most of the lighting faults. Then I could attack some of the leaks astleast and check the a.b.s

And of course, a good ol bath and clean!

Any help is meaningful to me ofc :)
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Dieselman
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Re: I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

Post by Dieselman » Mon Dec 01, 2025 6:39 am

Rusty sills are no surprise, time to get the welder out.
Water leaking into the overhead console...sunroof if it has one, aerial if not. The aerial mount is accessed via the centre sunvisor, which appears wet.

ABS is probably one of the wheel reluctor rings is cracked due to rust. This is probably the message in the left display. You can buy new Zebra strip to fix the missing display pixels.

Check the front strut tops from below, with the wheels hanging and you will soon see if they are delaminating, or tearing.
Good ones look like the ones in this post viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11170&start=10#p132695
You can buy rebuilt, or new strut tops.
I believe rubber tearing is due to driving with flat spheres: keep them well gassed and the rubber lasts a long time.

Door locks: Driver and passenger locks monitor door closed and door locked, if either report lack of locking the system will unlock all the doors again.
I suspect the drivers door isn't actually locking, or at least not reporting it.

Tailgate lights is most likely the loom at the hinge having fractured.

See Gabors post for the Series-2 wiring diagrams. viewtopic.php?f=13&t=7592&start=110#p132408 download/file.php?id=12315
91 3.0 sei M. 4852 EXY Black
92 2.1 sed M. 5740 ECZ Sable Phenicien
92 3.0 V6-24. 5713 EXY Black
92 2.1 sd M. 5685 ENT Blue Sideral
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Genosis
XM newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2025 9:19 am

Re: I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

Post by Genosis » Sat Dec 06, 2025 3:45 pm

Thanks for the reply. I've been too busy to work on it til today. I got the interior lights working. Damn they where crusty abd oxidised but the ceiling lights all work now. The lower door lights and boot lights still dont work.
And I also put some rtv under the areal for now and did a test and yes it seems like it's keeping dry for now.
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The abs reluctor ring is classic. Happened to my old volvo s70 I once had. I'll look into it later in the year.
Also gave a quick glance at the struts from below and they look okey according to me;
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I also checked wether if the drivers door locks when I turn the key on the passenger side. And it does so it must be a faulty signal to the monitor and I still scratch my head why the drives door doesnt actuate the rest of the central locking.
My guess is that the loom is oxidised but I dont know how to remove it. Any tips?
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Dieselman
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Re: I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

Post by Dieselman » Sat Dec 06, 2025 5:48 pm

Both those strut tops have the rubber delaminated from the metal. In theory you can clean up the rust on the rubber and metal sections and re-bond the rubber to the metal.

For the door locks, just follow the signal and see where it breaks down.
91 3.0 sei M. 4852 EXY Black
92 2.1 sed M. 5740 ECZ Sable Phenicien
92 3.0 V6-24. 5713 EXY Black
92 2.1 sd M. 5685 ENT Blue Sideral
Prev
90 2.1sd M. 5049 EJV Mandarin
92 2.1sd A. 5698 EJV Mandarin
94 2.1sd A. 6218 ERT Triton
91 2.0si M. 5187 EWT White

Genosis
XM newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2025 9:19 am

Re: I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

Post by Genosis » Sat Dec 06, 2025 6:59 pm

Think it would be easier to have them sent off for refurbishment. Thought I saw the youtube channel Seasidgarage doing just that actually

Yeah for the door locks I will do some investigations as soon as I figure out hot to get the door loom off. I'm used to older american and japanese cars. This is space age technology

Dieselman
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Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2009 6:44 pm

Re: I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

Post by Dieselman » Sat Dec 06, 2025 7:11 pm

No need to remove the loom, just undo the connector at the door lock unit and at the hinge area, to be able to check for signals.
91 3.0 sei M. 4852 EXY Black
92 2.1 sed M. 5740 ECZ Sable Phenicien
92 3.0 V6-24. 5713 EXY Black
92 2.1 sd M. 5685 ENT Blue Sideral
Prev
90 2.1sd M. 5049 EJV Mandarin
92 2.1sd A. 5698 EJV Mandarin
94 2.1sd A. 6218 ERT Triton
91 2.0si M. 5187 EWT White

Genosis
XM newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2025 9:19 am

Re: I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

Post by Genosis » Sat Dec 06, 2025 9:22 pm

At the hinge, You mean this one?
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I tried for a while to get it off. No idea how to actually do it.

(Fyi, english is not my first language. So some words will be mistranslated of course)
The manual I have is in russian, I dont speak russian :lol:
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Dieselman
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Posts: 14808
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Re: I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

Post by Dieselman » Sun Dec 07, 2025 8:56 am

To disconnect the door hinge connector rotate the ring, then the connector pulls apart.
First start at the central locking module under the dashboard. That way you will know what signals it is receiving and what isn't responding.

Did you download the electrical diagrams from the link I posted in an earlier post?

Surely, learning Russian isn't too hard...
91 3.0 sei M. 4852 EXY Black
92 2.1 sed M. 5740 ECZ Sable Phenicien
92 3.0 V6-24. 5713 EXY Black
92 2.1 sd M. 5685 ENT Blue Sideral
Prev
90 2.1sd M. 5049 EJV Mandarin
92 2.1sd A. 5698 EJV Mandarin
94 2.1sd A. 6218 ERT Triton
91 2.0si M. 5187 EWT White

Genosis
XM newbie
Posts: 5
Joined: Sun Nov 30, 2025 9:19 am

Re: I bought my first Citroën XM yestarday!

Post by Genosis » Sun Dec 07, 2025 9:09 am

I know the cryllic alphabet atleast. The manual is a tatty workshop manual that I got with the car. Alot of the pages are missing and are replaced with handwritten notes in russian, quite hilarious really. And yes I have the diagram downloaded.

So I'll just measure the signals from the doors. And then go from there

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