My Fleet - end of year update

[They_all_do_that_sir]

lisburn or castlereagh

Lol international airport twice a week

 

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[They_all_do_that_sir]

I need to go and check that bolt is in place on mine now!

 

Question - what holds the cap with the overflow pipe on the LHM reservoir on yours? On mine it sits rather unconvincingly on top with no seal and seems to lead to a bit of a mess on top.

Nothing! Wondered that myself as the cap doesn't really fit tightly . Just kinda rests on top. Hasn't worked loose yet......

 

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[They_all_do_that_sir]

Went a run to the garage there and the whoosh has gone and been replaced by normal turbo whistle, and more shove on boost. Success! However I think there's another bolt on the pipe right at the turbo, as below (right hand end of pipe). Will have to check that too

 

Also, did I mention I love this car?

 

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[hairnet]

Lol international airport twice a week

 

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jaysis aldergrove isnt that far

[They_all_do_that_sir]

jaysis aldergrove isnt that far

Nah but it's a nice cruise. The XM loves the roads from ballyearl out to Templepatrick. Amazing how it seems to shrink on country roads.

 

Really needs the hydraulic pump sorting though as the intermittent PAS really ruins the experience. But that will have to wait till the 307 is back again

 

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[hairnet]

Nah but it's a nice cruise. The XM loves the roads from ballyearl out to Templepatrick. Amazing how it seems to shrink on country roads.

 

 

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yer maun in the bus seems to think that too when he takes all the roundabout flat

 

or kris meeke is on his hollies

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Any excuse for a pic......out for a walk with the Mrs

 

 

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[hairnet]

Turning into a perv like that six cylinder

[chodweaver]

That is a handsome looking beast, right enough. That colour...

 

Do you love that car?

[They_all_do_that_sir]

That is a handsome looking beast, right enough. That colour...

 

Do you love that car?

 

I'm pretty chuffed with it. Even the Mrs has come round to appreciate it - she was amazed how comfortable and quiet it is, and impressed with the OMGMPG. 

 

She wasn't keen on the looks to begin with but yesterday had a proper look and thinks it has something. We both agree sorting the lacquer peel will make it look a million times better.

 

So on to today, I used it for another relaxing commute, except the turbo boost pipe has popped off again. I'll have to investigate properly how its supposed to be mounted.

 

parked in a multi story today. Going onto one of the ramps I had full right lock, and half the car was on the flat half on the ramp at an angle as I turned on to it. There was a massive BONG noise, kinda like a coil spring coming loose. It didn't seem to affect the car in anyway though. I successfully completed some citrobatics before heading into work and didn't notice anything odd, no fluid leaking etc.

[chodweaver]

And you didn't notice the sunroof or the rear window popping suddenly out and flying across the car park....?  

 

Odd. It is asking a lot of any car to remain straight and square in such situations - with some, you can't open a door once you have them on a jack, so a fair bit of flexing could be expected when doing that.

[jonathan_dyane]

Loose rear anti-roll bar bolt? It used to do something similar until the last MOT when they tightened one of the bolts into the (n/s I think) suspension arm.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Loose rear anti-roll bar bolt? It used to do something similar until the last MOT when they tightened one of the bolts into the (n/s I think) suspension arm.

 

Cheers - I'll have a look. It only done it the once on one of the ramps on the way up.

 

in other news the hardwired radiator fans no longer seem to operate, however in this weather even in traffic the temperature never ventures past halfway so no biggie.

I've a brand new radiator from amazon in the shed, and the fan switch to go in it. Fingers crossed its the correct radiator for the car!!

 

Once the 307 comes back from being welded and gets a fresh ticket, I can take the XM back off the road and address some of the niggles.

 

Around Easter time I want to tow the caravan out of storage and round to the house to start prepping it for the camping season, so I guess that's my deadline for having it mechanically sound.

 

Snag list as it stands, in no particular order (and more for me to remember shit!)

 

• High pressure pump needs replaced with one of the spares
• Slight LHM leak needs attended to before it develops further
• Turbo to inlet pipework needs properly attached
• Radiator needs replaced with new one and the coolant system drained / flushed / renewed
• Drivers side front tyre is getting close to the markers so might treat it to a decent pair before next MOT
• It doesn't seem to lock anymore.....
• Some of the control back lights don't work. Silly things like that bug me so I might fix them.
• As much as I like the cassette player, its not original and I would quite like to fit a cheap unit with USB so I can listen to MP3s
• I MIGHT have a fiddle with the pump

As you can see there is very little on that list that is in anyway urgent. I'm not going to go to town correcting the bodywork as I don't have the skills or time and if I'm honest I kinda like the Patina - It feels well worn and it suits it. But the lacquer peel on the front end and spoiler could be sorted fairly easily and would make a difference. In the summer I'll remove the seats and give them and the carpets a good going over with the VAX

 

And that's it really.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Crunch time for the 307, I'm currently sat in the queue outside the big MOT shed

 

My mechanic welded a big patch on the drivers sill, done two tie rod ends and aligned the headlights. Wheels were aligned and balanced.

 

It no longer sounds like a skeleton wanking in a biscuit tin over rough ground.

 

But more noteworthy is its the first time I've driven it in two weeks where I've been mostly driving the XM. So in comparison:

 

The driving position feels weird. You feel low in the car. Visibility is far worse. In the XM you do physically sit lower but because the glassline is so low and wide you have far better visibility and can place the car better on the road.

 

Steering is super light. You forget how little feel modern cars have. But it's also far quicker so turns in a lot sharper. As a result it does feel more nimble. (as it should, being a smaller car)

 

Suspension is horrible. It crashes through bumps as if trying to smash them into submission, where the XM glides over the top. Speed bumps require pedestrian speeds to drive over with any comfort or grace.

It does corner very well though. Yes it rolls where the XM remains flat but you can fairly chuck it around.

I think it's no faster in the twisties, you are just more aware of the speed. The XM is so composed it doesn't feel fast until you glance at the speedo.....

 

As for speed, there is much more of it. It is a 110bhp model, weighs less and is quite punchy. But being an HDI it doesn't have that thump when the turbo kicks in that you get from the XUD. It's a lovely engine though.

 

 

 

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[They_all_do_that_sir]

Evening all.

 

I'm off being dad at the minute, and while the kids ran happily around the garden, I decided it would be a great time to fit the new rad.

 

So, consult Mr Haynes - more or less drain coolant, remove hoses, unclip rad and lift straight out. Hooray!

 

Lying bastard.

 

So, to begin. Hello old rad.

 

All hoses had jubilee clips and came off nice and easy, apart from the lower hose. Seemingly citroen decided to fit it with one of those clips you need massive pliers to remove, and make access non existent.

 

Doesn't look too bad in the pic but it's worth pointing out the tangs faced the front of the car so it was impossible to get a decent grip on them.

 

Ahahahahahaha! I thought. Remove the intercooler!

 

 

Better access now, coupled with swearing eventually led to this:

 

 

Look at my massive hole

 

 

Shiny!

 

 

Everything is where it should be

 

 

And more importantly, this one has somewhere to fit the coolant sensor, unlike the one that was in the car. I think it was all Jonathan could find at the time he repaired the accident damage so just hard wired the fans. Nothing wrong with that only I managed to find the new rad in an Amazon sale for £12 last year

 

 

 

Refitting was the reversal of removal, I made sure the tangs on the lower hose now point into the engine bay so there's a bit more access if I need it off again.

 

Happy bunny!

 

 

The old rad had cable ties holding the clips on as they didn't have the spring they should. I managed to fix them to a degree but used new cable ties just in case, even colour coding them black... No expense spared here

 

 

 

 

HOWEVER

 

The new rad seems a lot more fragile than the old one. The top return hose has already crushed some of the fins slightly

 

 

There is a real risk of crushing the top of it as every job on this car seems to necessitate a big lean across the long bay. I might fabricate an alloy plate to sit across the top. Or might not.

 

So at this point the kids started to make "I'm hungry" noises, and it dawned on me it's my responsibility to feed the buggers. So I lobbed the 2.5 litres of coolant I had left over from another job and I'll buy more hopefully this week...

 

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[beko1987]

Ace! Is that all the incontinence fixed then?

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Ace! Is that all the incontinence fixed then?

That was fixed when I first got it - managed to get a decent used metal water pipe off someone on the XM owners forum.

 

I think it's still losing a tiny bit of coolant somewhere but really not enough to worry about.

 

Need to sort the hydraulic pump, two tyres and MOT time

 

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[Lankytim]

On my 2.5 XM I unbolted the front panel at the top and levered it forward a few inches, made it much easier to swap the rad!

[jonathan_dyane]

Top work! IIRC originally there would have been a plastic cover that would clip on to the top of the radiator however finding one might prove difficult; I haven't seen a car so fitted for years.

[hairnet]

any shit you want that j_dyane has that will fit in 50 ltr topbax

 

ill be in felbast week on sat............

[They_all_do_that_sir]

any shit you want that j_dyane has that will fit in 50 ltr topbax

 

ill be in felbast week on sat............

Cheers dude, but I think Jonathan included all the bits and peices he had in the sale.

 

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[chodweaver]

Top work! IIRC originally there would have been a plastic cover that would clip on to the top of the radiator however finding one might prove difficult; I haven't seen a car so fitted for years.

Correct. Fortunately for me, the ocdness of the PO of my XM ran to him keeping/sourcing said plastic bit. How much protection it offers the rad, I'm not sure. Also, its clips are no more positive than those on the rad, but it does look the part

 

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[They_all_do_that_sir]

Correct. Fortunately for me, the ocdness of the PO of my XM ran to him keeping/sourcing said plastic bit. How much protection it offers the rad, I'm not sure. Also, its clips are no more positive than those on the rad, but it does look the part

 

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What's the extra red wiring you have over on the right?

 

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[Split_Pin]

Those coolant hose clips are horrible things. I always throw them away and fit jubilee clips.

[chodweaver]

What's the extra red wiring you have over on the right?

 

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iirc, PO did a mod for a problem with the starter solenoid feed - I think the ignition switch has a tendency to burn out because it takes too much of a current hit energising the starter solenoid. That's the aftermarket relay that takes the current in its stead.

 

Not invisible. Not pretty. Effective.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

So last night I decided to swap the dodgy high pressure pump out for the unknown spare I bought on eBay.

 

The existing pump is suspected to be ropey as the suspension can be slow to raise and the PAS is intermittent and pulses quite badly.

 

Depressurised the hydraulic system. Easy once you know how, but as a first timer this meant lots of fannying around looking for the right bolt to undo. Not helped by being the lowest point on the car - in the end I jacked the car up at the front. Pretty painless and so the pump came off

 

The replacement is on the left, it's almost the same pump although the pump body is plastic rather than metal?

 

 

So I put everything back together, closed the pressure release valve and started the car, waiting for it to rise.

 

And waited

 

And waited

 

Nothing. Bugger. Haynes say sometimes the pump needs primed. I had filled it as best I could before putting the top pipe on but clearly not enough.

 

So release the big pipe from the reservoir, fill with LHM, start car and as soon as level drops plug it back into reservoir.

 

As I was on my own that ended up being me stretched with one hand on the key, the other holding the pipe up with LHM running down my hand....as soon as the car started the level dropped far quicker than I could get to the reservoir again.....

 

In the end with the front end elevated turning the steering from lock to lock got the pump rattling away and she began rising.

 

It was late by that point and I'm not sure my neighbours share my love of the sound of XUD so I've left it there.

 

Today I'll start it again and run the suspension through a few cycles and do a couple more lock to lock on the steering.

 

If the steering is the same as before I guess the next culprits could be air in the system or something else?

 

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[They_all_do_that_sir]

Annnnnnnd

 

The steering is cured! When I first started the car the suspension sprung to normal height really quickly.

I dropped it to low, which it done nice and smoothly.

Then up to full, and it did take a fair while but no more than it did before. I noticed the rear rises pretty quickly but the front is slow to follow.

 

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[The Moog]

Result. Love it when things actually get fixed.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Result. Love it when things actually get fixed.

Quite chuffed as the pump is a spares or repair one from eBay I scooped for £30. Was originally going to strip it but thought I'd whack it in and see what happened.

 

Still to road test it so it might explode or something.....

 

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[They_all_do_that_sir]

So an MOT has been booked for next week......

 

I've stuck two part worns on the front wheels for starters. With the wheels off I had a good poke around the front and noticed both front brake hoses are perished / cracked at the union with the steel pipe. It took a bit of digging to get replacements as most of the usual suspects stock very little for the XM now, especially the pre facelift models.

 

The track rod end ball joint on the drivers side seems to be covered in grease. Boot seems intact though. Ordered one for each side anyway.

 

After fitting the new rad I noticed the cooling fans didn't kick in anymore. The obvious suspect was the temp switch on the radiator but Bridging the connection didn't do anything.

Fuses all fine so checked the relays, there are three behind the nearside headlight.

There is one green relay for each fan, the first fan kicks in at 95 degrees, with the black relay switching the second on at 105 degrees.

They all had very green connectors, these were cleaned up but no joy. I was getting power to the relays and could hear them clicking so assumed all good.

Time to get a bit more involved

Removed the fan units and checked the connectors to find I was getting power

At this point I thought both fans were broken but connecting them both directly to a 12v source proved they worked fine too.

After a bit more digging it turned out to be the relays after all - they were only working intermittently.

Giving them a good wiggle and a few hammer taps has restored normal service. I reassembled everything and let the car get up to temperature. The fans cut in and out as they should so I'm pretty pleased with that. I'll order new relays for peace of mind.

 

One observation - with fresh coolant and the new radiator the car takes ages to get up to temperature. That's probably no bad thing, I'll see how it copes with some long runs once it's MOT'D

 

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