Anthracite XM 2.0 SEi Turbo Manual

[Aerodynamica]

Got a genuine Citroen cable from AEP in Rutherglen - I think the old cable has snapped at the equiliser end because I can see the cable as it vanishes through the bulkhead. The pedal end of the cable is still located in position but all loose.... I can't quite recall what the equiliser end is like - but have memories of it being really awkward. Refitting the LH brake cable after it popped out was fairly easy but have no memor of this upper cable's location.

O well, wish me luck!!! (I'm also fitting a crank sensor, final wiring of the replaced Hydractive ECU, O and removing the catalyst AGAIN to reprofile the downpipe - this is my last attempt on that...)

[White Exec]

Good luck!

[Aerodynamica]

Haha, good grief - upon inspection it turns out the cable wasn't snapped! BOTH the right and left brake cables had come out the balancer and the upper cable was merely moving the balancer lever against its soft spring.

I simply refitted the cables - very tight so don't understand how they fell out - URRR- but it's all working now. All cables appear in good condition but the ends of the RH and LH cables at the balancer have a slight bend away from one another so I fitted a tie wrap around them to prevent them from moving apart of they were ever in a loose state.

Anyway this was made possible by the new found access to the garage!!!


Haha, as can be seen, I can only get it half in due to the masses of potted plants taking up half the space. Out of sight is a mess of workmen's tools and such as yet not claimed (a few minor things still to refine with the landscaping project apparently) At least I can get in, up on ramps and stands and fix bits in shelter!

[Aerodynamica]

Looking into the running issues some more - Can anyone shed some light on the throttle body components. The grey sensor connection is the 'injection intake temperator sensor' but the yellow one is mysterious: seems to be named ' intake temperature resistance' so maybe not a sensor but a little 'heater'? maybe for the other sensor?



It still runs badly when cold so I wanted it investigate these plugs.

Also, I pulled off a little black cap to reveal that blue painted screw at the top - what is this for? reminds me of the 'boost' screw on top of XUD diesel pumps

[Aerodynamica]

Changed the crank sensor after removing this:

Huge pipe from the turbo to the intercooler - access is impossible with this in place. And the number of other items you can suddenly reach with it out is great!
Access:

Accumulator sphere ( I should've waited!), ignition parts, HP pump supply pipe etc. Basically all the recent stuff I've been working on.... anyway, one other item suddenly presented itself (it was on my 'to do' list but further along) and that is the hydraulic system flow divider valve (my favourite bit hahaha)


I had an FDV that I'd reconditioned ages ago from my previous Xantia. I used it on the blue XM TD and it made a difference to the performance on that car until i rebuilt the original FDV with shims in the first spring to stop the constant hissing feature. The constant hissing stops the pressure regulator cutting out. Anyway Vader the XM doesn't suffer from that as much , well until recently so I decided to swap in the Xantia unit.

So after it was done, all primed, engine bits refitted I ran it up to temperature and noticed the regulator cycle time has increased to well over 2m 30s.. In fact the second cycle was over 5 minutes and again 4 and a half minutes (!) new accumulator sphere mind.. but these times are a record for any car I've ran!

Chnged the TPS sensor back to the original one since the new one made no difference to the cold running. Hopefully find the cause soon.

[Aerodynamica]

Finally had a look at the engine ECU. There was evidence on the metal tabs that someone had been in at the ECU previously - maybe a sign the car ran badly once in the past?


The vacuum pipe to the MAP sensor looks as new.. the fixings on the ends are tight. So not losing vacuum there then.

I noticed a label on on of the little processor chips:


I think this ECU has been 'chipped' at some time (not certain I've noted the performace being especially fast to be honest..) anyway, I wonder if the chipped unit could cause running issues ?

It started instantly as usual, raised idle speed for the first few minutes - throttle response good. As son as a bit of heat gets into the system the throttle response becomes jerky and weak running (no actual mis fire or anything though) if I raise the revs and hold as would be done while driving, as soon as the throttle is released the revs drop to below idle speed to almost stall (sometimes it does stall) and this replicates what happens when it cuts out at lights etc for the first couple of miles in the morning.

As ever it improves as it heats up until it runs fine (can take a good hour or so to reach this )

Still trying to work this out.

I measured the resistance of the intake sensor - 2.4K ohm at about 4 degrees celcius. I think that's about right.

[Aerodynamica]

Jobs today! I swapped out the front height corrector for one I'd reconditioned. and had a look at the Hydractive body movement sensor as that's the one thing that's not been working. After getting the hydractive working it has been great but I'd noticed that the thing didn't react to sudden dips in the road. It tends to bottom out at the front and hit the bump stops. I knew the big plug on the sensor had been full of LHM from the previous leak on the steering pinion valve. But after a serious cleaning, the LHM in the plug kept coming back! This was most odd. It would honestly start out dry after cleaning and be full of LHM after short time . There are no LHM leaks on this car at all so what was going on?

I had a theory!

The sensor was full of LHM! and I was right!!

The sensor is really easy to remove but to open the sensor up isn't easy as it's glued so I gave up and decided to drill a little hole at the lowest point and leave it for a week (refitted of course) and the LHM has continued to drip out for hours...


So hope it all drains out! Otherwise it'll have to be yet another new part.

Next, rewired the connections to the speed interface. All wired directly to the pins now and hoped it would sort out the trip computer's readings (MPG/range etc). After rewiring, the hydractive still worked ok and the average speed displayed fine so both show the speed sensor signal is fine. But the range and MPG still fault out.

Just about everything works on this XM now!! just not the trip computer....

[White Exec]

If range and mpg data is missing (after a bit of driving around) then the trip computer isn't getting fuel consumption data, presumably from the engine ECU.

Good to hear everything else is now working.

How about replacing that Boosterchips item with a standard one, just for test purposes? The chip will be controlling fuelling amongst other things, and if it's got some defective programming, this could affect data supplied to the trip computer. I Googled 'Boosterchips' but couldn't find anything; maybe says something.

[Aerodynamica]

Yea I googled it too haha. But surely this was working before I bought the car off mtxm..... or he'd have mentioned it in the wordy advert.... Anyway, I'm making a bodge for the lhm tank pick up as its still drawing air in the cracks - photos to follow

[Aerodynamica]

LHM tank air leak proved a bit of a chore!

The return from all the LHM circuits seems to bring masses of air bubbles back to the tank - a common phenomenon? I saw it on some members of FCF with Xantias and I think one member modified the return pipe where it enters the LHM tank. If I recall it was a sort of flexi pipe extension to take the bubbles away from the pick up from the tank.

My question is why does bubbling come from the return circuits at all?

I think it's due to the bubbles being pumped in to the various parts in the first place from the cracks in the suction pipe elbow on the LHM tank. The grease I put on the cracks improved it but didn't cure it as it turned out I'd missed a crack down the side



I decided to eliminate the cracked bit by simply extending the pump suction pipe through the LHM filler to the base of the tank . It eliminated the air bubbles being sucked in and the LHM suction pipe primed very quickly but every time the steering was moved the suction pipe woild fill with billions of bubbles.

How come?

Here's the bodged set up


The reason bubbles were getting picked up by the suction pipe was that there were loads of bubbles in the PAS ram, in the suspension circuits etc. It had been accumulating over the last few weeks due to the crack in the LHM tank plastic elbow. The air bubbles compressed to a pin head would expand on exit at the LHM tank. They are immediately getting picked up by the suction pipe.

Kinda prompts the question why the suction pick up is right next to the return pipes in the tank. I removed the plastic LHM tyank core and fitted a few pipe extensions to the pipes so it would run without the core and filters. It primed perfectly and the return bubbles were seen picked up constantly by the clear suction pipe. Turning off the engine and waiting, saw the bubbles rise to the top and finally clear - restarting saw it run clear and the amount of bubbles forming reduce. Stopping each time and letting the bubbles clear let the amount of bubbles reduce each time. I fitted a pipe extension to the return pipe so that it could be fed to the back of the LHM tank well away from the suction pick up pipe and with the bleed screw of the regulator still open the bubbles finally cleared and the whole LHM circuit was running neat.

It seemed the bubbles in LHM were being constantly recirculated and were actually being made smaller each time until they were micro bubbles.

Anyway, it is now running bubble free. The Plastic core refitted after all the bubbles were cleared - it didn't recur so that supports the theory that they are only there by being recircled.