K21 CEO Another project....(PICTURES RE-INSERTED)

[White Exec]

An odd place to rust away, Paul. Was there a wheel arch liner in place?

[xmexclusive]

I do not think rust there is at all odd.
I have seen similar positioned but smaller holes on a number of the Mk2's that have passed my way.
On the chassis I have cut up the hidden rusting is always much worse than the visible surface.

John

[citroenxm]

An odd place to rust away, Paul. Was there a wheel arch liner in place?

Yes there is a liner in but on the under side the liner does not cover the opposite side.. so on all xm its exposed under neath.. I think the issue is a quaility control one. As its a rare part to go but not unknown I think it points more to a slight error or lack of sufficient protection coating at factory.. only needing a pin hole for water to get in is all it takes ..

the drivers side is the same..prehaps for the same reason...

[White Exec]

Yes, you're right. The arch liner is quite narrow at that point, giving little protection to the inner-upper wheel arch. Quite in contrast to the rears, which are pretty well covered.

[russ92xmsed]

It is a curious place for it to rust there. Initially I thought maybe it's the cavity around and behind the strut top. Those little caps can fail and it can fill up with water. But it's in the wrong place for that.
It must have been a consequence of failing underseal surely... What else can cause it...

[citroenxm]

Weather against me so no external progress. I then remembered interior lighting was on the list. I came across the spare blue box that useually causes the Lamp Fade then back on issue...



Says it all on the box.. lol.. anyway.. dropped the Parking brake release lever part under the dash down and behind there is a metal plaste held by two 10mm bolts.. and it lives in there at the back behind two Black Boxs, ones the Central locking control, but im not sure what the other is..

So put it in and hey presto...

[Vince]

It is a curious place for it to rust there. Initially I thought maybe it's the cavity around and behind the strut top. Those little caps can fail and it can fill up with water. But it's in the wrong place for that.
It must have been a consequence of failing underseal surely... What else can cause it...

CEO is in good hands Paul to continue its journey back to perfection

Russ, I have always had this issue on mine on the drivers side cavity behind the strut. Which cap fails that lets in water? Could you post up a picture? - Sorry Paul, I dont mean to hijack your thread, its just a quick question

[russ92xmsed]

Hi Vince, well this issue was on my grey XM. One day the drivers side cap popped off. I had noticed water under the car previously, being crystal clear, I knew it wasn't coolant, but confused as to where it was coming from.
Anyway, removing the cap entirely I found the cavity had filled with clear water. I decided to leave it off and see how it was getting in. Rain was filling, unsurprisingly... I put a sausage of bluetack round the opening to stop water getting in, but it still was. A little concerning as I didn't want it to rot out. Eventually I found a tiny pin hole of light inside the cavity. Turns out, there wasn't enough seam sealer on top of the wing. Water was running off the bonnet and through the panel gap and then getting into the cavity via that tiny hole. I filled it with sealant, left the cap off to let it dry out and checked it now and again. Problem had stopped. I treated and cavity waxed before fitting the cap back properly.
The mandarins is all nicely sealed up thank goodness!

[citroenxm]

Well with unpredictable weather and demanding job, the combination of dry weather and time away is rare, but it happened today, enableing a little bit of work to get done, as the weather just happend to be dry, but cloudy and windy..

So I thought id take the oportunity to make a start...

Decided to tackle the inner wing area... last time it was dry I applied anti rust, its had over a week to do its stuff



So, I ground back the thick seam sealant that citroen use and found metal to weld to..

I made a template with card first so I had an idea of the shape needed, forgot to take a pick of that..



A view up the inner wing profile towards the plate...



Work on the underside to sort when the curerust goes off...

While I was there, I got the passenger wing off...

There was a posihead screw holding the side of the bumper in place, turns out the bumper bracket mount is... urrrm, not there!

There was another posihead holding the wing to nose cone edge behind the side light... poor car, its had a damm hard life!

Anyway, the main reason for wing removal was to see how bad the front lower corner of the sill behind the lower wing was. The jacking plate is loose!! Anyway, to my suprise the acutal outer section id in good order...


VERY pleased with that section..

There was some crap between the wing and cill, but not a lot..


The wing securing tab is still intact, which is good!

As for the jacking plate, it has detached from the outer section, and there is nothing behind it..





And the outrigger..


So pretty straight forward, get it treated with cure rust, clean it up, attach the jacking plate back onto the back of the outer face and build the outrigger back up.

[citroenxm]

Just looking at the outrigger picture again, where the jacking plate is loose, it actually looks like the floor section behind the plate is also away from the jacking plate, this then means that the carpet inside the car will need pulling back and a plate putting in to seal out the carpet.