Citroen XM Forum

Hello,

I am commonly known as Falling-out-with-my-car, on the FCF and Xan2cv on the citroen CC, I had until a week ago a S2 xantia estate I owned it for 9 years in all making sure it was serviced regularly and got into the habbit of oil and filter changes every 3K and Yes i know some would say this is excessive oil changing but I believed the engine would last a very long time this way.
how was I to know the cambelt would come off 24K before it was due to be changed smashing the Camshaft in half, no-one wants to repair my loyal Xantia Xud engine and the cost is comparable to buying a rather nice XM 2.1 diesel i have spotted.

I posted on the FCF this mornning trying to find anyone that might be an enthusiast of the XM but it all seems to be about C5's and picassos over there, you know those things with computers.

Ive spotted a rather nice 2001 XM SED 2.1 Hatch in silver with 1 owner and comprehensive service history the price
is not out of reach she has 9 months MOT to, I have definately learnt my lesson with cambelts and will be checkig future citroens very regularly once a week.
If you have the patience to share your excperiences with this model or XM's in general I would be very happy to follow what you write about them.
I am a little nervous about viewing the car by appointment only on Monday as I have never owned an XM before meerly dreamed about ownning one, I used to sit in them in the Citroen Garage on the way home from college years ago and hope one day i could afford to buy one maybe now is the right time to own one as a classic.
I am suprised that the insurance quotes are more reasonable than my old diesel Xantia estate and parts seem to be be cheaper to buy as well I have just found a supply of spheres for £23 each forthe Xm the indepenmdant ones I bought for the xantia came to aropund £28 each before fitting.

So any info you could share with me please mechanical or othersise about a 1991 2.1 SED would be gratefully apreciated
so that I should be fairly nicely primed to check this car out properly when I go to view it on Monday.

Thanks for reading and I look forward very much to any replies.

regards.

Nigel.

Hi Nigel

Welcome to our little group.
Firstly 2.1's are not for me but there are plenty on here that believe they are the best XM's to have.
Engine checks you know about from your Xantia.
You have also found out the hard way that service history is not everything.
My policy is new belts are cheap and easy to fit so why put trust in paper that says work has been done.
Most likely it has but you can never be sure.
Bodywork, most is visible to check.
Carefully go over the strut heads for rust as they can pop the bonnet.
Check the underside of the cills for rust and holes.
Pay particular attention to the 4 jacking points as these can be folded in rust traps.
Nothing here that cannot be resolved but it will cost.
Feel all 4 carpet footwells for wet and presss and listen for squelching.
The foam under the carpet is 25mm thick and can hold an amazing amount of water in contact with the body steel.
Check the boot carpet for the same wetness.
Check the front edge of the roof headlining for wetness.
Much of the rest is general car checking stuff.
The above list does not say do not buy, just be aware of what you are buying and pay the right price.
Look around in the sales section here for pricing.
Lots of recent history for most XM sales.

Best of luck finding a good XM.

John

I'm guessing its the one on autotrader.
Looks very nice especially with those wheels on.
I think you should get the xantia repaired aswell, a replacement xud shouldn't be too difficult to find and they won't be too expensive either.

Hello Nigel

Welcome to the XM World..

I'm the same CitroJim as you'll find on the FCF

I tried to get Nigel to repair his Xantia on FCF but I dont think he had time or felt he couldn't.

John has pretty much summed ot up!

Another place at the front check the outriggers that are DIRECTLY behind the cill lip adjacent to the bottom of the wings!

Ive had a few go here, also they go in the area directly behind the wing as the wing outer covers over the body behind and over the years mud and crap kicked up gets trapped and holds wet to the body.. Not really easy to see that section unless you unbolt the bottom of the wing away, one x10mm nut behind the arch liner and sometimes a tiny clip holding the bottom on.

Rear subframe mount areas also rust away too, I know this all to well with my V6 24v and my 2.1 SED H reg cars...

Hi Nigel

Welcome to the forum. I am one of those John was referring to, I have run XMs for over 15 years, not just because I like them but the estates are a very effective, roomy and comfortable work vehicle, I was doing about 30k miles a year in the years before I retired and for this reason alone I rate the 2.1 manual above all others, with gentle driving they can return over 50 mpg and the engines are almost bombproof, I have had two that have covered nearly 300k miles. If you should be unfortunate enough to have a cam belt break, which I never have its not the disaster that it is on the XUD because it normally only breaks the rockers so you can repair it without removing the head.

I still have one but my son drives it mostly, I run a C5 because its cheaper with the 2.0. Hdi returning 60 mpg + again with careful driving and the tax is cheap, and its easier to work on than the XM but I still consider the XM to be the better car, it rides better, is much smoother at low revs and has a nice solid feel about it.

Head gaskets tend to fail at about 150k but once done they will cover at least that again, so check that there is no water being expelled from the filler cap or overflow pipe, you should see sign of dry antifreeze around the header tank if it has been blowing coolant out, check that there is plenty of antifreeze, you can do this by just dipping the tip of your finger in and tasting it, it should be sweet. Apart from that there are few serious problems, the rear radius arm bearings can fail at a high mileage but I don't think any of mine have, unlike the C5 which I have recently done.

Happy hunting - there are not many left!

Peter

Head gaskets will changing anything after 100k as I just found a poor one on a 106k car which I have now swapped.

The head doesnt warp because theres no over heating they litterally just disintigrate. So the cure is to fit a Multi Layer Steel gasket, they will last forever then!

On the 1.9XUD i your Xantia, the camshaft is designed to snap to save any other damage. New cam and belt and it's a go-er.

How can a 2001 XM be an SED?

Its a typo Will, its a 1991 ... I think the 00 was pressed instead of the 99..

On the 1,9 the cam wasnt designed to Break, it just does because its a Direct Over Top setup, meaning all the piston energy passes to the shaft through the valves upon contact. HOWEVER upon a fast enough breakage, valves Can ALSO bend too.. Generally though they dont as they are DIRECTLY over the pistons flat to flat, and the stems are rather thick too! Rather heafty valves.

And not only does the cam break Will but the cam bearing caps too in the vast majority of cases and that really writes off the head as the cam bearings are line-bored and the caps can't be replaced. They are not available as a spare part and trying cam caps from another head might give a fair fit but it's all very touch and go and down to luck rather than anything else. I've never had any success with it and saw one where some other caps were substituted only for it to last six months before the cam seized in the affected bearing and broke again. Others have reported good success. It's all down to luck.

I've dealt with a few now and never yet seen bent valves.