1998 Citroen XM - Steamy Windows!

[Blown_Imp]

WE GOT ONE!!!!!

We have been looking for an XM for some time, as my wife is not 7 months pregnant and we need a family car. Believe it or not, this car was not my idea! After going through the options she came to the conclusion that an XM would tick the most boxes (we have had two before).

This one turned up on ebay and we jumped at the chance to have a look and possibly buy it, and as you can probably tell we walked away with it! It has been sitting in a garage for two years with the last tax disc running out in 2010, there is a partial service history, but it seems to have been well looked after.

So this is one of the for sale photos -



A rather tidy manual 2.1 derv XM, with velour interior too

Plans to start -

Cambelt and water pump, two years sitting still won't have done it any favours!
Aux belt, this is looking VERY tired!
Window regulators / cables, drivers front and passenger rear are both dropping into the doors.
Full service, oil, coolant etc
Paraffin in the LHM tank, around 10% to start cleaning out the settled crud.
Dismantle the front struts and inspect the top mounts, not feeling too hopeful about this one?
Waxoyl the currently spotless sills!
Damn good wash, clay, polish and wax, stop the dreaded lacquer lift

It has been dark every time I have got home so no time to have a proper play yet, but I did get a couple of photos of the strut tops tonight, what do we think?
Some slightly better pictures below, although my flash and my lens are interfering with each other!





The passenger one appears to be quite rusty under the rubber skirt, the drivers side seems quite solid, with the skirt intact and still bonded to the steel.

I have measured them both at 27mm +-1mm both sides, so no difference there? The passenger side does appear to have contacted the valence at some point with a little witness mark to prove the point

They will be coming off at the weekend so I can attack them with a wire wheel

More tomorrow

J

[mdh]

Love XMs, they're so funky!

How's it go with the oil burner? Was it expensive?

[macp]

What a brilliant car why cant I find stuff like that congrats all the same.

[Blown_Imp]

I have got to be honest, I have no idea what it goes like as I have not actually driven it! Being sat for two years I did not want to risk it, especially with the flaky strut tops, don't want it getting punchy

As for finding it, I was looking about every two hours on all the normal sites to catch one, decent ones go quite quick, diesels are gone in a flash, and manual diesels usually don't come up for sale, they just get passed around the club members
Once you have decided on what you want, just keep looking!

J

[jrevillug]

Feb 14, 2013 21:27:40 GMT Blown_Imp said:

flaky strut tops, don't want it getting punchy

BANG! Suddenly, a wild bonnet bulge appears.

I like mad Citroens - and the XUD. I approve. ;D

[Blown_Imp]

Asymmetric bonnet bulges are all the rage don't ya know!

I am glad you approve, the rear suspension is INCREDIBLY soft, if I sit on the boot lip it will sink around 150mm, then rise back up as the adjuster settles. Never had one like this before!

J

[qwerty]

A car I have always admired getting the blown_imp treatment. I will watch this thread for sure!

[Deleted]

Just spent last night looking at these online too... Loving the idea of a big bouncy citroen..

[Siert]

Nice purchase. I hope you enjoy it more than I enjoyed my Xantia VSX 2.0 petrol automatic. The dreaded thing didn't have any feature that even remotely justified its ridiculous fuel consumption. Diesel ftw and the XM is a much nicer car to start with. Hopefully its also technically in a better shape.

[Blown_Imp]

Well I have been tinkering all day, I will do a proper update tomorrow but for now, I have it up on stands.

I have stripped the old timing belt and water pump off, although I am struggling with the tensioner. The assembly is quite frankly, absured! There is a stud that also bolts the bracket down, making the stud almost impossble to remove! I am going to wrestle with it some more tomorrow

Deeper investigation shows that the brakes are free and working well with almost new pads and discs.

The suspension moves perfectly, with the front and rear reacting to the height adjuster at the same time with no juddering or sticking.

Love it!

More tomorrow guys

[modxl]

loving the xm glad to see the old citroens are starting to get a showing,got a couple myself xantias one hatch s1,and estate s2,lowered about inch 16inch alloys tweeked td engine looking for some deep dish alloys next

[gt]

i think i would be replacing those strut tops, they look like they are starting to degrade, hard to tell for sure but it looks like the rubber is starting to crack.
it makes an awful mess of the bonnet if they go.
the mark on the valence looks like it is from some having a go with a sphere removal tool and catching it.
i love xm's probably the best car citroen ever made, they are amazing to drive if the suspension is up to scratch.

[Blown_Imp]

Gut instinct is telling me to replace them, but they are NLA from citroen, and good SH items are non existant understandably!

The only real option is to refurbish them myself or send them to Lithuania to be rebuilt, a rather costly and time consuming option?

[gt]

that's a shame that they are no longer available, i can see this ending the life of a few cars, last time i owned a xm i purchased some new ones from citroen but that was a good few years ago.

[modxl]

ill try and find out if any difference between xantia and xm ones,got a tidy set of xantia ones here
or you can clean em up and coat with por15 or any other epoxy chassis paint
regards steve

[Robinxr4i]

Excellent wafty transport, love the wedge styling on 5 door cars. Hopefully you won't experience too many suspension woes.

[Blown_Imp]

I beat it! Finally got that stud out, the process is shown below but it was NOT easy :roll:

So this was the cambelt change, not very interesting but all part of the recomissioning so worth documenting I feel.

I started with the essential citroen first step to working on the car -



Yep, axle stands, as well all know the suspension takes no prisoners if it decides to drop unexpectedly.

Once it was up in the air I started to follow the haynes book of lies to change the cambelt, don't you just hate it when it says 'just' or 'simply', lies I tell thee, LIES!

Wheel off and access panel removed to the lower portion of the engine -



Belt covers and engine mount off -



The starter motor was unbolted and an M8 bolt inserted into the flywheel to lock the crank, then two more into the fuel pump and the cam pulley. The belt was then marked in two places at each pulley, important for me to ensure that the belt goes back in the correct place regardless of tensioning.

To get the crank pulley off I used a breaker bar, and a looooooong extension, this was then supported using another axle stand so that all the force would be transferred into the bolt, important as it was done up F.T.!



Again the crank pulley and belt was marked up to ensure correct positioning.

The idler pulley was replaced and then I came to the tensioner pulley, the design of this component is odd to say the least, almost impossible to remove with the engine in the car. After fighting with it for some time I decided to walk away for the day and see what I could come up with.



The next day I decided to take off the engine mount errrr mount? This was a struggle to get off the engine in situ, but possible. This gained access to the tensioner pulley mounting, and the stud that was such a pain to remove could at least be seen. I put two nuts on to lock against each other, even though this did not work on the previous day, I had an idea that could help. I pushed the steel pressing as far down as possible, then turned the locked nuts at he same time as rotating the pressing, this allowed just enough force to overcome the locking compound on the stud.



It worked! So the last old component could be removed and replaced with new

I marked up the new belt and matched the tooth count, then fitted it in place -







Once this was sorted I started re-assembly, stopped at the earliest point and cranked the engine over by hand to ensure that there was no interference and the timing was at least close.

Then finished off, and gave it a crank, started on the button winner!

So the car now has a new water pump, idler puller, tensioner pulley, and belt

I celebrated by taking off one of the mud flaps :lol: as I know these are actually a mud trap, to see what was was hiding, lots of mud :lol:



I have given it a wash in the last of the sunshine too, making the most of this glorious weather. It has been a while since spending the say outside has been pleasant!

So tomorrow as I have done some very important work, I can do some fun things, like claybar and polish the paint, wax the car and do some detailing

Big hugs,

J

[Clement]

These cars are really cool but they have almost no following here, what a shame.

I found this, if it's any use. €40 for one strut top, apparently new. I'm afraid they are really scarce!

[Blown_Imp]

that would be amazing, although I have no idea how I would get it as my french is non existant!

[Blown_Imp]

Well that was a tiring day, I started well with poached eggs and bacon on home made wholemeal Then got my things together and started on the non working windows.

The passenger side rear was easy enough to solve, there is no mechanism, nothing, no wires / motor the lot, gone! So I need to get a replacement for that, do I need a year / mark specific one?

Driver side front was easy to diagnose, wire dangling down in the door, motor whirring away. Standard XM broken control cable then

I wrestled with the whole assembly, and eventually got it out but crikey, it was tough! I did not get many pictures as my hands were filthy, but it was quite odd as the door was totally dry apart from the gearbox which was soaking! Very strange?

When I disassembled the gearbox, it actually made me laugh, it looked like a ball of wool after our two whippets have been at it





Clearly the rusted / frayed / broken cable has been wound round and round doing some proper damage. The gearbox seal has suffered with the cable tearing the face off it and the compression spring.



I cleaned this up, trimmed the rubber back so it was neat and removed the spring, it is not perfect but it will do.

Next up was the cable drum, ooooooh what a mess!





The cable has abraded the nylon quite badly, distorting it and losing the definition on the tracks. I got out the needle files and tidied this up, did the best I could and it works, I am just not sure if the cable will jump tracks?





I built up the assembly using an ecrofting kit, I know they cost a fair amount considering the contents, but it is all there and a proven solution. Re-assembled and fitted the lot

This is where the car really stumped me, when fitting I tested the window at the earliest opportunity, fine and working well. So I continued to fit the door card and associated items, then a very odd buzzing noise emanated from the engine bay, and everything stopped working. I panicked assuming that something had gone properly wrong as my battery charger popped it's fuse too, maybe the motor had got stuck going up and had started to draw a big current?

I thought for a bit after I disconnected the battery, put the terminals back on and voltage checked the system, 7 volts across the terminals! I had flattened the battery and when it got very low obviously demanded too much off the charger, hence the fuse going pop. I put the battery off the BMW on it and all back to life. Still not sure on the buzzing from the engine bay though?

I celebrated by trying a bit of compounding on the front wing -



Coming up quite well I think, the paint is in good condition, just typical haloing and surface scratching. It won't take too long to sort out!

Thats it for today, we will be a bit quiet in the week due to dark, will be back on it again next weekend

Thanks guys.

J