in here!The above person was the owner of the XM I have now acquired. His sister Ruth has asked me to let you know of his passing in case any of you knew him and were not aware. She says he was a member of various Citroen clubs including the CCC and was fond of his XMs. I'm unsure if he participated in any of the online forums.
We arrived at SE1 London around midday equipped to try to start the car. I turned the ignition to try and find a leak but could not find one, the rubber hoses looked to be in good condition. I drained the fuel from behind the rear seat and added a few litres of fresh petrol.
Using a spark plug tester we tested the spark plugs but no spark. Tried new plugs but still no spark. Something I should have mentioned, when I opened the bonnet there green stuff that looked like corroded piles of copper around the spark plugs, in little hillocks, could the HT leads have corroded from inside out - hence no spark, or what else could have caused this?
We weren't going to be able to get the car started so and the car needed to be gone that day as it was at risk of being damaged by the building work. The fact that the car was in an underground car park was an added obstacle, especially with the suspension being sunk. The recovery company came with a low loader and a 4X4 to pull it out of the car park. The 4X4 ended up burning its clutch out in a cloud of smoke pulling it up out of the car park! once out there was a horrible scraping sound which I think was the fuel tank scraping along the ground so had to stop and bring the low loader, putting planks of wood under the wheels to rise it off the ground a bit. Finally got it on and it arrived at my brother's in Wales this afternoon. I will be going up myself on Tuesday and will report back.
Before the recovery truck arrived we washed off the dust. Paintwork seems good but some bodywork damage, OS front wing has a dent. both lower OS doors have dents, tailgate has some scuffs, there also seems to be a lime build up on the roof from dripping water off the stone/cement ceiling while it's been in the garage and on the rear window. It will come off the window but it may be permanent on the roof unless someone knows how to get it off without damaging paintwork. OS rear door doesn't open. Ignition key doesn't seem to fit door so can't be locked. Spheres look new although they must be at least 6 years old. Mileage is 55,000 on the clock and appears to be genuine looking at all the old mots and going by the steering wheel, pedals and interior. Dot matrix display is 100% but dimmer on the left (bulb?)
The truck finally left at 8pm and we went off for a well earned dinner and a pint in Blackfriars with Ruth.
And thanks to Malcolm (citronut) for letting us know about the car and liaising with Ruth for me.
Pics below:
i mean Horwood 6-8th of September 2013 maybe:o 
