XM 2.0 Turbo SEi Manual, My First Citroen.

[markgenesis]

Ha, Mini's, had one in the late 80's (loads since though, still love them), the battery tray was so rotten the battery fell through the floor and was dragging on the ground by the leads

Also MK1 Mini's had door catches the same as you find on house doors (just a brass wedge) so the doors would fly open in even a minor crash.

Shocking when you think back on the "design features" on old cars, the Lotus has Trunions on the front suspension, basically a screw device on the bottom arm instead of a ball joint, same as on Triumph Spitfire's and GT6's, if they are not kept in good condition and greased they could snap putting the car on the deck, seen this happen to a Herald once and it wasn't a pretty sight (fortunately failure usually happens at low speeds), so a component which if it failed could be catastrophic if it's not regularly maintained, manufacturers just wouldn't get away with that nowadays.

Makes old cars fun though, every journey an adventure

[markgenesis]

Just phoned Glasgow Citroen

ME: "I'm looking for a green temperature sensor for a 92 XM".

PARTS GUY: "What's that ??? "

ME: "A Citroen".



Managed to get one ordered anyhow, i think ?, guy (a second guy who seemed a bit more knowledgeable) said there's three on the engine, blue, black and the third colour not stated, ordered it anyway, will get it next Friday, fingers crossed it's green and not brown

Hopefull it'll work, talking to an old neighbour who said he had an XM (same model too) years ago with almost the same problem, cutting out at junctions untill fully warm, only difference is his would not restart so easily, tried everything until he changed the temp sensor which cured it.

[ekjdm14]

Haha forgot about the Mk1 mini door catches... Remember the "anti-theft" mod of swapping the sliding window catches between driver & passenger doors so they couldn't be opened from outside?
I know there's not much we can do maintenance wise for our strut tops, apart from inspecting every so often and keeping rust at bay, but Citroen certainly seem to have got away with that particular "feature" so far... I believe some Xantia owners were speaking to Citroen about the problem and trying to get some kind of either help with replacement cost/repair for cars with speared bonnets but I doubt it'll get far since it would effectively amount to a major player in the automotive world holding their hands up and admitting they caused danger to millions of people the world over. Shame really as it would be nice to have some sort of subsidised exchange scheme where we could replace them with new/remanufactured items at set intervals or similar...

Best of luck getting the stalling fixed.

[Aerodynamica]

Just phoned Glasgow Citroen

ME: "I'm looking for a green temperature sensor for a 92 XM".

PARTS GUY: "What's that ??? "

ME: "A Citroen".



Managed to get one ordered anyhow, i think ?, guy (a second guy who seemed a bit more knowledgeable) said there's three on the engine, blue, black and the third colour not stated, ordered it anyway, will get it next Friday, fingers crossed it's green and not brown

Haha, you think that's coz the XM is off their radar now - the same would have happened 15 years ago This is the one area where owning an old German barge would work out - the dealers still support them. Citroen couldn't give a rat's ass. Even back in 1995, the XM was said on the JDPower survey "..your dealers don't know how to fix them.." I'll never forget that

Best to try AEP in rutherglen forst for bits. Then try John Greaves (not got the number) for anything else. Then it's Ebay.

Couldn't get a hold of you today (Sunday) but I'm free anyway.

[markgenesis]

Cheer's for poping over with the bits Graeme , loved seeing the CX, also learned a bit more about the XM which is cool

[Aerodynamica]

No bother Mark! Sorry for chatting so long in the unbelievable cold! I could hardly string a sentence to gether due to the temperature but the car chat continued.. I loved the Lotus btw, I think the Elite is one of the best car shapes! from many many angles

[markgenesis]

Got the yellow film for my lights during the week, managed to fit it to the bumper lights last night, recon it looks pretty good



Got this yellow paint for the main beam bulbs, main beams now have a subtle yellow tint in the reflectors, cant pick this up on the camera though.



Going to strip the headlight units down next to tint the internal lenses in front of the dipped beam bulbs, will need to wait till i can get the car in the garage though.

Also collected the new temp sensor from the Citroen dealer thismorning, thankfully it's the right green sensor so will get that fitted over the weekend, hopefully cure the running issue.

[Aerodynamica]

That looks quite good - I think my old Xantia wouldve looked quite good like that.

I was similarly playing around with headlights: got a set of LED H4 bulbs an H3s for the CX to see what I could muster. Initial results are pretty poor! the H4s don't light unless the connector is held touching the bulb pins which is odd since the connector is a new replacement. Might be an issue with the resistance. The H3s however do work except there's some problem with the compatibility of the LED length and the shape of the CX's reflector.

This is the LED H4

It's pretty bright but has some connection/ resistance issue.

These are the LED H3s with a standard H3 for reference


Here the H3 lit compared to the stndard H3 (driver side) - obvs dipped/main H4 disconnected on Nearside. This is deceptive - it actually looks fairly bright but that's due to cameraphone. The reflector only catches one row of LEDs


Still, might get the H4s working - will see!

[White Exec]

Just remember that headlights designed to operate with halogen filament lamps are likely to produce indifferent results with the LED bulbs in your photo. Halogen bulbs have essentially "point source" (compact) filaments, around which the reflector optics are designed. The LED lamps, on the other hand, have their light source spread over a large area (diffuse source), and will perform quite differently.

The upshot may be increased total lumens output, but far worse focussed and controlled - i.e. more dazzle, and less good beam focus.

LED ok, but needs to be "point source". Expensive.

[Aerodynamica]

I'm with you Chris. And I think I did spot a pair that were point source but were more expensive ( still from China mind):-D