Citroen XM Forum

Yesterday lunch time a 2.1 Sd auto rescue project arrived, apparently being last taxed in 2005.

After checking the timing belt was there and in seemingly Ok condition I cranked the engine, to no avail. The fuel filter manual primer felt very easy to press, not building any resistance so I suspected the diaphragm was split.
A replacement unit was installed and tested from a can of diesel, the diesel pump linkages were lubricated and checked for movement, then the engine fired up.
As soon as hydraulic pressure was created all four brakes locked solidly indicating the doseur valve bell-crank was seized...which it was, very much so.

I removed the scuttle trim and unbolted the bell crank, stripped, cleaned, greased, rebuilt and reinstalled the unit, so the car now has driver controlled brakes, both on and off.
I had already tried the wipers, which fail to proceed early in the sweep, so while in the scuttle I removed the wiper linkage, and motor, lubricated the linkage, which appears free, but due to the vinyl cover being torn, the motor has suffered a fair bit of water ingress.
I stripped the motor and cleaned it out and lubricated it, including the self aligning bushing at the bottom of the casing.
I've not tested this yet, but suspect the motor might be U/s.
All this took quite a while as predictably, all items that should move, or undo, are seized.

As this is one of five UK Series-1 (Y3) estates I know of; Newman Xm (Sd manual), AmbassadorJDstone (2.0i auto), Themasteryeti (Sd manual), GWolfski (Sd manual, possibly now scrapped), it seemed worth saving.

Not a particularly successful day.
Refitted the wiper motor and linkage and the wipers still stopped partially up the windscreen.

I had noticed the steering had a strange clunk and judder when turning the wheel, expecting this to be a seized UJ at the base of the column decided to check and lubricate it.
The UJ appeared fine so I looked a bit further, finding a very poorly fitting gaiter had been fitted on the drivers side and the one for the passenger side was missing.
I then noted there was only one bolt holding the steering rack on, the passenger side one and the power ram nut are missing.
As the passenger side inner ball joint cover was inverted and there is a box of gaiters in the car, I think someone was attempting to change the gaiters and couldn't undo the ball joint, as it was very tight.
Looking closely at the ball joint you can see witness of them trying to loosen it using a chisel, which will never work due to the rack not being rigid enough.

The way to undo the inner ball joint is to remove the power ram, use a stillsons pipe wrench on the circular ball joint, while counter-holding the power ram spigot with a ring spanner.
The passenger side gaiter is now on, just needs ty-wraps to lock it in place.

Missing bolt and nut.

You have another project! The other one is finished and the XM on the road again? I hope so.

Degens wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 22, 2025 5:06 pm

You have another project! The other one is finished and the XM on the road again? I hope so.

The cobalt car was only undergoing a running repair and is indeed back together and munching miles.

I don't look for project Xm's they present themselves to me...usually with a note attached saying "please look after this car, thank you." That would be a nice idea, but the reality is the scrap man has already set a minimum price. Scrap Xm now appear to be worth a lot more than they used to.

There was a box of First Line steering rack gaiters in the car so I decided to use those. Due to the thickness of the rubber collar, I cannot get ty-wraps to hold the passenger side gaiter onto the steering rack once extended. I have wasted a number of ty-wraps and hours of time due to access being very poor.
I'll give it a go with some locking wire, otherwise will remove the gaiter and use a clip on Sasic one, or remove the rack, fit the gaiters and re-install it. I used to remove the rack for gaiters, so hadn't previously had issues fitting elastomer-rubber ones, but now don't due to the need to reset the steering centre once refitted.
The steering rack is now bolted back on properly, the power ram has a nut holding it on and the track rod end is tightened, but the tracking will need setting anyway as the track rod end and rack have been loose.

First line wouldn't be my first choice of parts. The front suspension leak off pipes were perished and cracked; a new pair has stopped the constant leak of LHM onto the leg, driveshaft and wheel.

After wasting a lot more time on the First Line passenger side rack gaiter I stripped it off and fitted a Sasic 664304 clip on one...which took about 20 minutes.

I compared the two gaiters and found the First Line one to be about 8mm shorter than the Sasic one and not having clips meant it had no positive locking mechanism, so kept being pulled off the rack.

Image of testing it on full extension before trimming the ty-wraps.
Unfortunately Sasic have now made the drivers side one a universal, elastomer, part, not the original thermoplastic, clip on, type. It appears identical to the first Line one, so in the name of science, I'm giving that one a go.
It is in position, but so far I've not been able to make it slide onto the rack housing.

I fitted the First Line drivers side gaiter, other than the normal issue of getting it to ramp up onto the steering rack housing all went well and once ty-wrapped it stayed on at full extension.
The reason the drivers side stay on is due to it having 15 concertina pleats, whereas the passenger side only has 13 pleats.
Maybe heating and stretching the passenger side one, to make it permanently longer, would effect a fix.
I gave the underside a wire brushing to find rust and there are some areas to deal with, but the strut tops appear in good order.
After a 20 year lay-up, I thought fitting a new timing belt would be a good idea, especially since the first time the car is going to be driven it will have a rev to the limiter smoke test.
The engine runs quietly and I noticed paint pen marks on the timing pulleys so elected to fit only a new belt.

To get the covers off you have to remove the top engine mount bracket, which means removing the upper stabiliser. To remove that you will need to slack the centre bolt and pivot the two halves.
To remove the inner engine mount bracket be prepared for a fair amount of engine jacking, for which you will need the lower stabiliser disconnected.
I do have a flywheel locking peg, but it means unbolting the starter motor. I usually do peg the flywheel, especially first time I fit a belt to one of these engines, but time constraints and this being an automatic with A/c, there is a fair bit of work to perform to reach the starter bolts, so I set the crank to TDC for #1 cylinder, ensured the cam and fuel pump sprockets can accept 8mm bolts through the holes, to lock them, then jammed a flat blade screwdriver into the flywheel ring gear.
I have also re-marked the paint marks for clarity. I have also marked the pulleys and the old belt.
I undid the tensioner roller nut and attempted to undo the tensioner cam locking bolt using a 5mm Allen key.
The bolt is tight and even with care the Allen socket stripped.
I removed the inner engine mount bracket and can't undo the tensioner cam bolt using mole grips. I suspect it was tightened too much and years of sitting have caused it to seize in.
This bolt is only a locking bolt for the snail cam and to provide support for the complete tensioner unit, so doesn't need to be overly tight. It should be 10Nm. TBC.

The timing belt tensioner cam bolt took a surprising amount of getting out for a small bolt, but eventually it was out, the tension could be released, belt off, new belt on.
I used a fair bit of heat, but managed to avoid having to weld a nut onto the bolt head. As I hadn't pegged the flywheel as well as paint marking the crankshaft pulley I also marked the flywheel ring gear, as being larger diameter it is easy to see any variation...which can only be a complete pulley tooth anyway, from memory there are 20 crank pulley teeth, so a variation of 18 degrees per tooth.
I jammed the flywheel using a screwdriver pushed firmly into the starter ring and blocking against the engine casing.
Fit the belt starting at the crank pulley then pull it tight to mount it onto the fuel pump pulley. You will need to use a spanner on the pump pulley nut to rotate it clockwise slightly to engage the belt, otherwise it will pickup the next tooth and be one tooth retarded.
Run the belt over the cam pulley whilst pulling tight, then the tensioner, which should be locked in in un-tensioned position. Once on all pulleys release the automatic tensioner, tighten the lock nut, remove the locking pegs and screwdriver, rotate the engine two full revolutions clockwise back to the marks, undo the tensioner lock-nut, allow it to take up any slack, then re-tighten the lock-nut. Ensure the tensioner release snail cam is fully released and tighten the bolt.
Build up the covers and engine mounts and again jam the flywheel ring gear.
Mount the crank outer pulley and tighten the bolt having added threadloc. Haynes manual specifies 40Nm then 60 degrees, Citroen workshop manual says 70Nm and 60 degrees.
I used 70Nm and 60 degrees, readily tightened using a 600mm breaker bar.
60 degrees is easy to achieve by marking a point of the bolt head and a corresponding mark on the pulley one point ahead.

I found a wiper motor so installed that and now have properly operational wipers.
It's worth ensuring the motor drive gears, linkage ball joints and spindles are well lubricated to reduce motor load.
Both this cars motor and a spare had failed due to water ingress. The motor sits in the scuttle and is completely exposed to the water running off the windscreen, apart from an elasticated vinyl cover...which always eventually splits allowing water straight into the motor.
For now I have used polythene sheet and tape under the elasticated cover, but intend to make a plastic cover at some stage. Next was to fix the random starting/failing to start issue.
The two faults were the glow-plugs would fail to come on and possibly the fuel was being shut-off.

I thought the faulty alarm was shutting off power to the glow-plug relay and fuel shutoff. The battery on this car is duff, so it is being assisted by a charger. I noticed that when on low charge the glow-plug relay functioned properly, when on high charge it didn't.
The charger was pushing the voltage higher than the electronics would allow function, so it shut down. The Ecu's on these cars will shut down at under-voltage and over-voltage conditions.

The alarm was the cause of the random fuel shut-off, so it has now been removed and I am restoring the wiring back to standard.

This car had a habit of the starter motor not working properly when turning the key to start. Approximately 4 out of 5 attempts would result in a click from the solenoid, but no motor action. The solenoid was partially engaging, but not sufficiently to allow the main contacts to close and power to be sent to the motor.

This being a Valeo D9R indicated it would not be worn out and a clean up should work. These starters are very robustly made.
Stripping the motor off was a bit challenging, as this car is automatic and has A/c, so a lot of extra pipework in the way. Fortunately, though, the FDV is mounted out of the way on an automatic, whereas on a manual, it has to be moved out of the way to give access.
Judging by there being missing bolts, someone has already had a go at this job.

Disconnect the battery as you will be disconnecting the un-fused main feed at the starter. Make as much space round the starter as you can, unbolt the fuel filter from the battery box, remove the rigid plastic air pipe to the intercooler from the turbo (missing bolt), unbolt the starter (the rear bolt is not visible and all are Allen heads on auto's).
I needed to unbolt the A/c compressor and move it out of the way, which is awkward to reach the upper inner nuts. Unbolt the lower bolts, jam a prybar into the space and loosen the upper bolts, then you can lever the compressor upwards and create space for a spanner. I removed the starter out of the bottom of the engine bay and stripped the solenoid down and saw the core was covered with a sticky coating, which was indeed causing it to jam. Experience has told me that the body of the starter may also have some corrosion reducing the allowable Gnd current, so I stripped the motor unit as well.
For ease of assembly I marked the individual sections so I knew they were clocked correctly. There is a loose square key, so mark up the recess it fits into for rapid re-build.
The brighter white marker to the left in this image is the keyway, the other two are indicators for section matching.

This starter has been used for 102,000 miles and has only very minor wear.
Stripping, cleaning the solenoid and motor, wire brushing and lapping together the sections, coating with copper grease to stop corrosion and rebuilding has effected a 100% working starter motor.
I wire brushed and greased both the bell housing mating face the bolts as well. I also applied a smear of copper grease to the ring gear and pinion to aid starter operation.
I also found a correct bolt to fit the air intake pipe.
While the starter was off I checked the flywheel markings for accuracy by pinning the flywheel at TDC, which will be useful later...
I noticed an Lhm leak from the regulator which turned out to be the rubber reducer coupling, p# 96027351 is split. I found one so fitted it. If anyone has a source for these please speak up.
When I fitted the timing belt I didn't have a water pump to hand and there was no evidence of leakage. As I was fitting the belt based on age, not mileage I elected to install it without a water pump...which let go the following day...

I ordered a water pump, drained the water via the radiator drain and the block drain on the back of the engine...
removed the flywheel and timing belt covers, engine mounts, timed and locked the engine, slacked the tensioner and am awaiting a pump.