Gas filled spheres - Adventures in Citroworld

[chodweaver]

This is why the Vel Satis is up for grabs

 

 

'Cos I've always wanted an XM, ever since I was choosing the colour of my first company citroen (a K reg BX19 TXD), it was the XM that I gravitated to in the showroom. Huge. Dark metallic paint. All the toys. Leather. The promise of a magic carpet ride. No handbrake to disrupt the 70s armchair excesses of the front seats (it was years before I asked myself where the parking brake had been put instead). Alas it was not on the company car list, even if I had been a director. And the future Mrs CW deemed the XM 'a wanker's car'. I was not put off either the XM or the future Mrs CW, but the keys of many other cars were set to pass through my clammy hands first.

 

Twenty five years later, I had pretty much given up on owning an XM, having looked at a few over the previous six or eight years, none of which inspired the 'this will get me home today' feeling. This had only been reinforced by Dollywobbler's trials and tribulations with his XM - and how hard it had been to find the good example that he had. And to start with I had been looking for an estate. And that (workhorses that these often are) means the examples that I had been looking at were not in a good state of mechanical health, or tidy inside - they've led hard lives and often kept going without tlc, then failed to start, or to rise, or just smell too bad inside and been replaced by C5 estates. But at Chez Chod, the long loads and distance dog walk duties are now shouldered by a Grand Voyager, so I no longer need an estate - just a saloon that could munch motorway miles without guzzling. One that could leave me with a spine that functioned roughly as well as it did at the start of a long journey. But most importantly, one with all the daft toys that keep me interested in a car. Like trick suspension. Aircon. AND a sunroof. Electric seats. An extra pane of glass in the boot.

 

So when fellow shiters (you know who you are) conspire to shove pics of pretty XMs with loquacious sellers and lengthy histories under my nose, struggling to make their hopeful owner's reserves, they can be fairly sure that I will be swayed. Even if the count of cars on the drive, road, back yard and front yard at Chez Chod is already at council-concerning levels, and Mrs CW announces that we spent 1800 quid last year on taxing and insuring these vehicles, I still find myself using Google maps to figure out if I can get out of London after work, hit the seller's house in Cambridge before 8pm, make a judgement on the car and return to London with enough time for lacklustre hotel food, overpriced cider and sleep before the whole mad cycle starts over. Yes, I could. So I did, twice.

 

First time round, I see it, I drive it, I listen to the catalogue of work that the seller has thrown his money at it with, drink his tea, and have my eye caught again by the last big Citroen (his new C6), but completely forget to: look in the XM boot; get underneath it (or even try to peer underneath it); dip the oil; check the tyres, the coolant, the LHM... such is the excitement that can carry me away when the car is high on my want list. I leave and brief Mrs CW - she knows how much I want an XM, and how long I've been looking. She's not frightened by the price, we don't have to sell a child. So I return the next night - time's a wasting, its auction ends in the morning.

 

Second time round, I see it, I give up on trying to talk myself out by picking holes in it, or look for bargaining chips - the seller knows what he's selling. It's not A grade, but it's honest, it's a good foundation, it's mechanically well sorted, it will start and continue to start, it will get me home, it's got a bootfull of spares and a tankful of diesel*, the leather is not ripped, it doesn't smell bad. We quickly agree a price and a deposit changes hands. He is an absolute gent and is prepared to store the car securely until I can make arrangements to collect. I go away to tremble with anticipation and anxiousness in equal measure.

 

To be continued...

 

(and there will be pics. Good ones and OMG ones)

[forddeliveryboy]

2.1 safety or 2.5 madness?

[chodweaver]

I do have much want for the 2.5, and for the 3 litres, but the 2.1 is the one I think I can deal with the maintenance of, and give feasible levels of reliability. And economy.

 

It's a 2.1, manual. The previous owner seems to have done all the things that are weak points - ignition relay, boost compensator, complex cooling pipe. But only because they make the car more liveable-with. Otherwise, he went for stock. Which I like

[Rocket88]

lucky bastard.that appears to be lush................

[dollywobbler]

Series 1 AND a non-boring colour. MEGAWIN! I did see this for sale, and did feel tempted. Well done!

 

I have to say though, I didn't feel like I had trials and tribulations with mine. It went really well! Not such happy times for the current owner though, as the clutch cable failed - not a joyous job to replace.

[chodweaver]

That's encouraging! I only half followed your Dreams thread during the XM tenure, mostly because I didn't want to fuel my er, want, for an XM any further!

[chodweaver]

And that pic is a little deceptive - I've only seen it looking close to that colour once. But it's one of those colours that changes SOOO much according to the colour temp of the light it's under. The other day, it was brown. Today it was maroon. Tomorrow it might be Victoria plum

[Bren]

Fab. And I like the fact it is H reg which shows TLC has not been short supply.

[forddeliveryboy]

I like the lack of weedkiller on quality gravel. 

 

Car looks spot on, too! Perfect combo if you want to use the car much, the 2.1 and 5 speed. But check out the quality of corrosion protection of that welding which has been done, in the internal sections where the eye can't see. Or just blast a load more oily stuff in there, to make sure.

 

That Volvo appears to have been a nearly zero miles purchase a few years ago, unusual!

[dollywobbler]

Key rot spots are the strengthening channels in the front floors, and boot floor and rear subframe mounts, as well as sills. Mine needed the first and last of those. Club-XM was a VERY useful resource.

 

I do sometimes miss mine but actually, I'd had enough of the engine and box. V6 auto the way I'd go if I had another...

[forddeliveryboy]

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C805571 for a stablemate. 

[DSdriver]

We recently did a trip from Kent to just north of Pau in SW France in our 2.1 estate and it averaged over 31mpg despite being FULL of wine on the way back. 

[chodweaver]

http://www.carandclassic.co.uk/car/C805571 for a stablemate. 

 

Don't tempt me, I know. Even £350 for a spares car still seems sensible, but that one needs fixing, not parting out. I can't believe it's not been snapped up.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, further down that page, Malcolm at Savoy Garage is selling a 3 litre auto estate. I couldn't help myself. I had a look. It's fekked, after a load of work Malcolm did to it, and it looks well grubby. And he wants 4k for it....

 

EFA My mistake, he's now asking £650...

[beko1987]

Well that's my morning wood back!

[They_all_do_that_sir]

Whoooooop another XM licker. Fantastic colour. Mines a 2.1 manual S1 also in an actual colour.

 

And yes, something needs badly done with the driveway, but there's too much ahead of it on the list inside the house as always......

 

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

[Lankytim]

I;ve still got a stack of parts from mine that I need to clear. Free if your'e interested.

[They_all_do_that_sir]

I;ve still got a stack of parts from mine that I need to clear. Free if your'e interested.

I'm putting money on you not having the height control lever, mine has snapped off at the top. Or an OE gearknob?

 

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

[chodweaver]

I;ve still got a stack of parts from mine that I need to clear. Free if your'e interested.

An offer I will not refuse! Thanks Tim, pm on its way

 

Sent from my GT-S5830i using Tapatalk 2

[DSdriver]

another pm incoming Tim

[chodweaver]

Whoooooop another XM licker. Fantastic colour. Mines a 2.1 manual S1 also in an actual colour.

 

And yes, something needs badly done with the driveway, but there's too much ahead of it on the list inside the house as always......

 

Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk

 

I was an avid follower of your collection thread, and having seen your car in the metal when Jonathan_Dyane still had it and was selling his Saab some while back, very glad to see that it has gone to a good home.

 

In that pic, it looks to be exactly the same colour as mine, but is that Delage Red? I've come to the conclusion that such colours fade funny - like pictures in shop windows, all the reds, yellows and oranges get bleached out leaving the blue and green pigments - so where the top coat has not been completely T-cutted away, it's taken on a more purpley hue. I might google to see if I can come up with a pantone for Delage Red, so I can get an idea of what it's supposed to look like...

[chodweaver]

Anyway, an update is due:

 

When poking about under the bonnet and checking the air filter, I happened to remove the large bore pipe that supplies the turbo with filtered air. The jubilee clip connecting rubber pipe to plastic pipe has been overtightened, causing the plastic pipe inside to fold and collapse, opening up a gap that lets a good amount of unfiltered air into the turbo and generating a rather distinctive whistle. After some umming and ahhing, I ended up opening a large spare jubilee clip and putting it back together inside out, then fitting it in the bore of the plastic pipe to hold it circular, then refitting the pipework. (I need to open it up again and take a pic, so you can see what the hell I'm wittering on about). While I am obviously nervous about putting anything in a pipe that leads to a turbo, this clip is quite large and robust so I don't think it can make its way to the whirry bits.

 

Or you can all have a massive laugh when I lunch this car's second turbo for the sake of an annoying noise!

 

Other bits to receive my bothering now include the driver's seat. It's supposed to have three electrical adjustments, but the one for height seemed to have given up the ghost. PO James had told me about this, but when Keymaster and I were having a button-pushing session, the seat started moving - not quickly, but it definitely lifted up to more like the height I was hoping for. Then I found that the seat behaved like it wasn't bolted too convincingly to the floor, there was so much wobble in it when moving about in the seat. Hideous images of finding a large section of floor attached to the seat, but not attached to the rest of the car flickered across my brain, but I want to know about these things and try to sort them before getting into any crash situations, so a (-nother) bravery pill was taken and the seat taken out.....

 

No flakey-floor pan issues - but part of the seat subframe was cracked clean through, leaving it flapping about and not really anchoring the seat to the floor so well.

 

 

I really couldn't-BA to stay outside in the sodding cold easterly wind any longer than necessary today, so the appalling bird shit welding I visited on the seat base will have to do for the moment...

 

 

 

Put it back together and tested it, after a quick hoover around in those hard-to-get-to places, but I note that Junkman's Cholera edition 206 thread is a timely reminder of how clean a car James has sold me. Thanks James.

 

Next was one of the rear doors that doesn't lock and unlock properly. Door card came off ok, but I was somewhat thwarted by the moisture guard - it's a foam sheet rather than DPM and it really doesn't want to give up its grip on the door - previous botherers have just cut flaps in this sheet to gain access to the inners, so I followed suit and liberally dosed everything I could identify inside as a linkage with spray grease. Note to self - an odd patch of rust on the door capping needs dealing with here...

 

I've also been attending to the front brakes - the pads had very little left to give, so new Delfi ones have gone on, but I was remiss and didn't order fitting kits at first. I found the outer pads had taken all the wear and the inners had taken very little, so this forced the issue - the calipers have not been able to slide properly with the crap old guide pins at the bottom being pretty much seized in place - though this is probably a good thing bearing in mind neither of them had the spring clips that stop the pins working their way out of the calipers. Much happier that job's done, though the calipers could do with an overhaul as well - the boots on the sliders are torn and there's a bit of play in the sliders too. Also, it looks like there's a bit too much play in the n/s/f wheel bearing. Hey ho, plenty still to do...

[chodweaver]

Just spent a most satisfying hour sat on the kitchen floor, rubbing some carnuba wax-based polish into the nosecone (fnarr, fnarr) and discovering that 1. Claret seems to be the best description of Delage red 2 even without application of T-cut, there's some shine to be brought out on the matt bits of paintwork. The nosecone is however made of GRP, so I should expect the paint to be thick on it. When I feel like it, I might attack the bits of the car that can't be unbolted and brought to the kitchen.

 

But according to the paint chart below, Delage Red looks too bright for claret...

 

Damn, they did the XM in some great colours....

 

[beko1987]

Mine was midnight blue, was lovely

[lexi]

You must find the ride of the XM night and day to the Vel comfort wise?

[chodweaver]

They certainly are different, though the tired engine mounts (at least, this is what previous owner blamed for the insane levels of vibration at a cold idle) rob the XM of a fair amount of refinement, while the Renner still delivers this in spades. When released, the Vel Satis was criticised for its 'tottering' stance and slightly nervous ride, but while you do feel its height (it's some bits from the Gooner 2 on an Espace floorpan, allegedly, and you  step up noticeably to the front seats if you have them set high) I've found it nothing but relaxing for serious distance journeys and it handles poor road surfaces really quite well. The want for an XM and the respect I have for the Voyager comes from the fact that the roads round Congleton and much of east Cheshire are total shit - the worst roads in the whole of the UK according to my extensive* research. The council has even laid itself open by spraying white paint on the outline of some chronic potholes in my road, then leaving them unfilled for 6 months or more. Many local roads are so bad you can't dodge all the potholes if you want to get through - you just have to pick the ones that will do least damage. After many miles in MR2s (which I miss driving so much) I'm damn glad I can afford some wafty barges to handle the shitty roads for which I pay so heftily in council tax, I would be a nervous wreck with spinal injuries if I tried to drive around in something small with limited suspension travel

 

Sorry, all you get from me is rants at the moment. I'll try to be more positive next year...