Citroen XM - was JohnK's steed

[hairnet]

can get 20 miles on the three quarters of a litre in the bike when the dash flashes - have had 30

 

record was 41 miles on a honda on the same (45 mph on the motorway ftw)

[Lacquer Peel]

I don't think the tank capacity takes account of the space in the filler neck.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

I have never heard the words `British Leyland` and `happy days` in the same sentence

Oh I don't know, didn't The Fonze have a Triumph?

[dollywobbler]

Finally put some fuel in today, though not a full tank as I'm not rich and frankly its pointless carrying that much weight around!

[dollywobbler]

Over the past few days, I've been tarting the old girl up. Gave her a wash, slapped a bit of paint about and even got the polish out today. She's a decent 20 footer for sure.

 

I absolutely love the looks of this car, even though I don't like white. I find myself just staring at it on a worryingly frequent basis. I s'pose that's a good thing really, given that this is the main source of quirky motoring for me for a while. Another week and it'll be six months since I purchased it. And I still really like it.

 

The polishing was a little frustrating. I still have no idea how it happened, but at some point, it looks like this car was blasted with metal chippings or something. It's like I went for rat look unintentionally. Yes, it was in a bodyshop where grinding was happening (including on the underside of this very car) but I can't see how bits of metal got fired at the flanks. Any grinding done on this car was below it, while the other car being worked on was only on one side of it - and both sides copped a load. The polish got some of the bits out, but there are still rusty specks all over the place. Mind you, there are plenty of scrapes everywhere too, so its pointless getting anally concours about it.

[FakeConcern]

The XM looks really good in white IMO. Also I have to say that, sad as it is, I enjoy looking at my XM more than driving it.

[Lacquer Peel]

Does the blando-PSA interior detract from the XM experience?

[dollywobbler]

Oddly not. I was thinking about that on the way home earlier. It still somehow manages to feel better than a Xantia, despite having the same horrible airbag steering wheel. I find it nicely uncluttered.

[Lacquer Peel]

It does look better than the Xantia dashboard, less shiny plastic, ugly switches and afterthought digital clocks.

[richardmorris]

That happened to my white cx as well. I think the angle grinding in the same workshop fires fine metal flakes in the air. I clay barred it in the end to remove everything from the surface.

[vulgalour]

I think the XM dash looks just as nasty material wise a the one fitted to the Xantia, but the extra width makes the proportions so much more appealing and counters the nasty materials sufficiently well.  Sometimes I wish my Xantia was an XM, then I remember how many times having a narrow car has been bloomin' useful.

[FakeConcern]

The XM dash has a good look about it & the way the glovebox lid & ashtray cubby are damped is nice, but I'm not a fan of the faux leather covering most of it. My C4 has a much more quirky dashboard with the digital speedo pod, fixed wheel hub & LED tacho, but the best aspect is the covering makes no presence at leather or any natural mterial, but looks more like a fifties or sixties influenced fabric

[dollywobbler]

I think the XM dash looks just as nasty material wise a the one fitted to the Xantia, but the extra width makes the proportions so much more appealing and counters the nasty materials sufficiently well. 

 

That might well be true. Certainly, she sheer abundance of space makes it a fine place to sit, and the massive glazing area helps too. The rear visiblity wasn't brilliant when it was current, but it seems bloody marvellous compared to what has happened to cars since! Sorry to say that I include the C4 (especially the 3-door) in the derogatory side. Hopeless rear visibility. Something they've maintained with the hideous DS5.

[FakeConcern]

I agree the rear view in the C4 3 door is not great (my wife has refused to drive it because of this so that's a plus!) but you do get used to it & when parking it is easier than the XM as the vertical window is at the very back of the car, whereas on the XM the rear is too high to be able to judge how close it is. Also many newer designs are much worse.

[dollywobbler]

My wife refuses to drive the XM for many, many reasons. She remains utterly thrilled with the Perodua. She's a strange lass.

[FakeConcern]

Yes, well you can see the car of choice for my wife through the C4 windscreen in the pic above.

[dollywobbler]

Yup. I reckon Mrs DW would quite happily entertain a Clio. As long as it didn't have PAS.

 

As for the C4, the same ridiculous rear window foible also affects two cars I'd really otherwise like to own. The Audi A2 and the Honda Civic 8th Gen.

[FakeConcern]

Have you driven a C4 Coupe?

 

PS I also like the A2

[DSdriver]

Does the blando-PSA interior detract from the XM experience?

 

Very much so, looking at it from my point of view - which is having owned a couple of earlier DS and an early CX. I owned big Volvos for many years and the XM is just as boring as they were apart from two aspects - the cornering ability and the certainty that something else will go wrong soon.

[hairnet]

Yup. I reckon Mrs DW would quite happily entertain a Clio. As long as it didn't have PAS.

 

As for the C4, the same ridiculous rear window foible also affects two cars I'd really otherwise like to own. The Audi A2 and the Honda Civic 8th Gen.

this

 

would have an a2 now if you could lose the foil from the back window

 

cannot get window without - so bought civic

[dollywobbler]

Well, I've also owned a CX and driven DSs and yes, it's clearly blander than both. But I actually really like the column stalks, which feel far more special than the Pug-bin-specials in a mk2 BX or Xant, and the split-screen binnacle, where warning lights have their special own binnacle with which to terrify you.

 

The interior plastics are far better quality than the old Volvo 740 I used to own too, but then so are the Perodua's...

[FakeConcern]

this

 

would have an a2 now if you could lose the foil from the back window

 

cannot get window without - so bought civic

The reason i didn't get an A2 is they only have 2 seatbelts in the back. I could live with the window.

[dollywobbler]

Back to the XM. I'm still not sure if the cooling fans are working. There's no rad switch, just a sensor on the stat housing that talks to the ECU. My Autoshite solution is to be glad that the stat seems a little on the cool side, so it takes longer to overheat.

[beko1987]

Get a bottle of iron x, will sort those metal filings out a treat!

[Noel Tidybeard]

Yup. I reckon Mrs DW would quite happily entertain a Clio. As long as it didn't have PAS.

 

As for the C4, the same ridiculous rear window foible also affects two cars I'd really otherwise like to own. The Audi A2 and the Honda Civic 8th Gen.

that "foible" to which you refer is a piece of genius in the way it blocks the 147gw cock lights on aldis or badly adjusted ford headlights

[dollywobbler]

LET'S OFF ROAD!

 

Went to look for a new cat today. Ended up on a very remote farm - the track was so bad that I had to engage intermediate height on the suspension. Very enjoyable.

[dollywobbler]

This thing is still going marvellously, and I still like it a great deal, even after seven months. However, it didn't much like running on Will's veggie-mix, and cold starting became a real problem. I switched back to dino diesel, but then noticed it was REALLY stinking of diesel. The fuel heater has already been bypassed, so it isn't that. All pipework seems dry, but I could see diesel pooling near the injectors...

 

Off with the first half off the inlet manifold and I got a closer look at number four injector.

 

Yeah, that's pretty damp to be fair. So obviously, I just put the manifold back on while I work out what to do next.

[mat_the_cat]

It's not that the leak-off pipe has (invisibly) split under the braiding is it? A lot of the stuff around seems to have a short life, like a year or two

[dollywobbler]

Well, the pipework all seems very dry. The bung was missing on the end injector but that was replaced way back in November. Which instantly improved cold starting. Perhaps it is worth buying replacement leak-off pipework though.

[dollywobbler]

Wow! It's very nearly 12 months since this thread commenced. I was having a jolly read of it last night, getting pissed off about Facebook's dud photo links as I did so. 

 

Today, I decided to put the winter tyres back on. The braking performance has been somewhat lacking, so I thought I'd see what was going on while I was at it. Didn't take long to find the culprit.

 

Torn boot, sticky slider and very uneven pad and disc wear. There's a few mil left on one of the pads. Eep. I think I'll order some refurb kits up and will have a strip and clean up of the calipers. Can't really afford to just buy some recon ones, though I won't be able to avoid the bill for discs and pads. Perhaps that'll improve handbrake performance too...

 

I'm almost at 11,000 miles covered too, though it seems only 7000 since the MOT back in January. Proves how much time my cars spend sitting around not going anywhere...

 

I think I'm still very glad I went the XM route and not the Rover 600. For a start, it's been nice (he says, clutching at timber) to prove the nay-sayers wrong! Long may it continue...