Citroen XM 2.1 TD Now for SALE! £900

[phil_lihp]

Winner!  It's nice to know you can still find places that will make you a part like that.

[beko1987]

Sweet! Please let us know how the ride is with the new spheres, and how good the pipe is!

 

That's one fucking meaty stick, did you not feel it go in?

[DSdriver]

I had an oil seal go on the main accumulator. Same part as on the DS 

Being accustomed to the softness of the DS I am not sure how stiff my XM should be. The previous owner had changed one sphere so he either thought a). All the other spheres are Ok. or b ). I'm not paying for that lot, I'll sell it quicko. 

Anyway it seems to have some suspension and I love the way it goes around corners. And it is a lot smoother them my mates missuses A class which feels like the DS does on the lowest setting.

I do seem to have an air leak form the turbo or something so acceleration is counted with a calendar rather than a stopwatch.

[vulgalour]

Just caught up with this thread.  I now have XM envy even with the trials and tribulations it's putting you through.  You'd think with the XM being about the same size as an aircraft carrier that Citroen could have had the good grace to spread things out a bit to make maintenance easier, perhaps fitting some of the vital LHM components in the glovebox, for example.

[cort1977]

These LHM woes should make any sensible* person run for the hills but seem to be having the opposite effect on me, massive XM want going on here.

[twosmoke300]

Good ol pirtek.

 

When I started at a Honda dealer there was a Honda Passport (trooper clone) parked up on the "row of death". After 4 weeks or so I asked what it was in for .

 

Burst PAS hose and was on back order from Honda for nearly 3 months and counting . I suggested pirtek and the service manager told me to mind my own business.

 

The next week the customer called and started kicking off so the service manager came groveling for the number.

 

Within an hour and a half of the call the man in the van had been and the car was back on the road . And it was still cheaper than the genuine unobtainium.

[dollywobbler]

These LHM woes should make any sensible* person run for the hills but seem to be having the opposite effect on me, massive XM want going on here.

 

I vote for the LHM system being worth it. Very comfortable (when the spheres are all ok) and yet they handle quite deliciously for a big old bus.

[mat_the_cat]

That's one fucking meaty stick, did you not feel it go in?

 

...as the bishop said to the actress.

[philibusmo]

It's fixed! I've just taken it down for its MOT, which is re-booked for Friday and am walking back home. A longer and more boring update will be along shortly.

[dollywobbler]

See? Not such a nightmare. (or should I keep that phrase for AFTER the MOT?)

[Lankytim]

I think the trick with these old Citroens is to just fix everything as it breaks and not think about it too much.

[philibusmo]

The proper update will have to wait as I am too knackered right now to be arsed to write more than a couple of sentences.

 

On a side note, changing the spheres has made not the slightest difference to the ride quality, so I suspect I have a bollocksed suspension ECU.

[Lankytim]

Want another? I've got one you can have.

[philibusmo]

Want another? I've got one you can have.

Probably, but lets see how the MOT goes first.

[philibusmo]

Right, I am now well rested and have yet to completely forget what happened yesterday so here is the proper update.

Here was the pipe from Pirtek. Check out that braiding, just like performance brake lines, or the hair of a 6 year old girl.

Luckily they put a union at one end of the flexi pipe or this would have been impossible to put back on. Somehow during the night racoons re-arranged all the pipework between the block and the radiator so that this would not go back in the way it came out. After about an hour of squeezing my hands into gaps they wouldn't quite fit into were it not for the copious amounts of old oil coating everything and swearing at inanimate objects, the hose was finally back in place. I tightened it up, made sure the cylinders were tight (and had been swapped round as I mixed them up when I put them on like a MASSIVE IDIOT) filled it up with LHM and then started it up. NO LEAKS!!!! WINNER!

 

Lunch was then served when my brother turned up:

Finally I re-attached the fucking under tray of misery and hate and dropped it off its axle stand where it sank down onto the jack and bent a part of it. Luckily not a vital part and it still works. To round off my success I considered fitting the rear mud flaps, but it started raining, so I didn't.

 

It drove fine and has been left down at the garage for its MOT which it should get tomorrow or Friday. Hopefully it won't fail, and if it does it won't be anything expensive. The side light lens arrived today and came with a free pen.

[dollywobbler]

Top tip. Always have the engine running when lowering on a jack, and take your time so the hydraulics can work out what on earth is going on. Jacks confuse the hydraulic 'brains.' As do hump back bridges. Allegedly...

[catsinthewelder]

and don't even think about reaching under a hydraulic Citroen that's been jacked up until you've driven it somewhere.  Mine dropped while I was pulling the jack out and scared the shit out of me last summer.

 

Stands are knocked out or over with a stick now and the car driven away from them.

[philibusmo]

I just got it back from the MOT, failed on 4 things; 3 rusty bits and emissions - that'll be the veg oil then.

 

I've just got it home to investigate the rust and one of the front suspension mounts is made out of parcel tape and under-seal. Let's hope its not too bad or there might well be an influx of Citroen XM parts on the market fairly shortly.

[Lankytim]

Just get it fixed, we'll peer pressure you into it.

[beko1987]

Do it do it do it do it

 

Can't you cut a good strut mount from another car and replace yours with it?

 

Or make the strengthening thing for it so if it does go pop it won't take the bonnet with it!

[TRW]

Its surprising how far they'll actually go without the pump running.

 

The serpentine belt snapped on my 98 Xantia TD in the dead of night - I had to drive it from Pembrey back to Mumbles (a good 15 miles) on just sidelights and the handbrake to slow it down, only using the brakes where absolutely necessary.

 

The suspension remained at ride height right until the last two or so miles where it started to go a bit baggy at the back end. The steering was like attempting to move Grimsby though.

 

Never again!

 

I've enjoyed reading this thread, especially as its someone else dealing with Citroen hydraulics

 

P.S I don't know if Lankytim, flat4alfa or Skattrd has mentioned it but when you get the leak sorted now would be an ideal time to Hydraflush it & clean the filters.

[dollywobbler]

The Shiters' way to do it is to use diesel to flush the hydraulics. Apparently, that's what they do in Finland! WCPGW etc.

[mouseflakes]

one of the front suspension mounts is made out of parcel tape and under-seal

Every time I feel like I want to get another XM, I just have to remind myself of their strut-top issues and the feeling soon goes away.

 

Hope it's nothing too serious.

[philibusmo]

As you probably gathered from my previous update; the XM did not pass its MOT. The failure points were three areas of corrosion and the soot emanating from the exhaust. The exhaust did not particularly surprise me and I will slosh some petrol in the tank to make it burn a bit cleaner for the re-test along with some fuel system cleaner and maybe change the fuel filter and see how it goes. Luckily the strut tops and their mounts are still in tip top nick so no worries there.

 

What did surprise me was the corrosion elsewhere. I had a good look under the car when I was titting about with the hydraulics and didn’t see a single hole or suspiciously crusty looking area. Sadly, once the MOT man had a prod with his screw driver of doom the story was rather different.

This was the first failure point, a rather large hole in a cross member just behind the passenger front wheel:

It turns out that this cross member was just made from under seal on this side, as the metal underneath had utterly oxidised. With very little persuasion I was able to pull chunks of it away by hand until it looked like this. After the grinder was deployed this hole got even larger, until this whole section was almost non existent.

The second area was a few small holes on the sill, a bit close to the seat belt mount but nothing too worrying.

It only looked a little worse after being attacked with the grinder which was pleasing.

The final section didn’t look to bad to begin with it seemed to be on a similar level to the sill with just some small holes and lighter corrosion.

Then I saw this:

I originally thought this was parcel tape covered in under-seal, but that would be far too tough for a structural cross member with a suspension wishbone connected to it. It is actually made out of a hessian sack covered in resin and under seal. Spiffing.

This was removed with ease to reveal quite a large hole.

I didn’t manage to get this last area welded up today before I ran out of daylight, but the first two areas were cleaned and welded up. The first section took quite some time to get right. The shape was difficult to fabricate and the end product isn’t quite right, but is close enough and certainly stronger than what was there. I added a small hole to be able to fill it up with rust inhibiting wax to hopefully make sure this doesn’t happen again.

Finally the patch on the sill. I will grinds this back at some point to make sure it fits with the profile of the rest of the sill but ran out of time today, I have since blobbed some seam sealer on it to keep it safer from the elements until I find the time to do so.

Tomorrow is meant to be pretty ropey weather wise, but with a bit of luck I might just get time in the morning to get the driver’s side cross member sorted.

[mouseflakes]

Spiffing work Philbob.

 

Is it just me, or do some bodge repairs (like the hesian sack/fibreglass disguised cross member) seem more elaborate and labour intensive that just welding a decent patch in there (or getting someone with the kit to do it)?

[beko1987]

Good man, make her right! Have you had a lexia over the ECUs yet? Mine was storing all sorts of shit when I had mine done

[richardmorris]

Regarding your hard suspension, there was a guy advertising in the citroen car club for years who had made up a diode fix kit for the hydractive II problem of going into hard mode. I've just checked and he's still selling here...

roy mackay

www.e-crofting.com

 Ã‚£35 now.

 

He also does xm window regulator repair kits.

[philibusmo]

Thanks, I'll have to check out those diode kits if fitting the rear sphere doesn't make any difference.

 

I haven't had mine connected up to a Lexia yet, I suspect it will be storing all sorts of old fault codes such as "code 435 levels of sunflower oil in fuel system outside of tolerance" and "code 501 this vehicle is French".

 

Sadly today is so grey and miserable that if I didn't know any better I would assume I was in Scotland, with that heavy drizzle that soaks everything. It looks like there won't be much welding done today then.

[Richard]

I think you can just replace the diodes in the original unit if you're handy with a meter and a soldering iron, which you must be if you managed to deal with everything else in this thread.

 

I thought veg smoke was cleaner, or at least more difficult for the MOT machine to detect.

[Rusty_Rocket]

I think you can just replace the diodes in the original unit if you're handy with a meter and a soldering iron, which you must be if you managed to deal with everything else in this thread.

 

I thought veg smoke was cleaner, or at least more difficult for the MOT machine to detect.

 

As above ↑ I always put my shonkers through the MoT on veg.. the machine can't usually detect anything at all..