Citroen XM Forum

What they mean by Mark2 is after the Hydractive became Hydractive 2, which was 1992 along with the twin spoke steering wheel.

I'm adamant your car is a series 1 as Series 2 weren't introduced anywhere until mid 1994 production.

The first letters of the VIN will confirm all.
If it starts:
VF7Y3, then it's a Y3
VF7Y4, then it's a Y4.

Thanks for that as this car is becoming a bit of a mystery, I would like to find out why there are so many differences as I also have DIRAVI which seems to be a follow on from my old CX. Any information on how I can track this would be very much appreciated.

Tony

Either subscribe to the service-citroen portal or stick the VIN up here or send it PM to me.

DIRAVI is very unusual on a 2.1TD, but there's no reason why It couldn't be specified. It wasn't available on any RHD cars but all LHD 3.0 petrol had it as standard.
How many turns lock to lock is the steering? My understanding is that it is lower geared than the standard 3 turns, which makes the whole thing a bit pointless as the direct steering was what DIRAVI was all about.

Have you driven a Diravi car Will?

Its one of the things I wish the XM had taken over from the CX.

No I haven't and I like the idea, but the system in the XM isn't the same as a CX and even further away from an SM due to being lower geared tan the standard system.

Perhaps Citroen figured we didn't need to park in Paris very often.

I haven't driven a Diravi Xm, but in the CX its excellent, speed sensitive as well, gets heavier the faster you go. Citroen's wish to be conventional banished the poor Diravi to the history books.

How long will it be until Audi or such like introduce it in their tat, and people fall over themselves about how great this "new" invention is.

Hi all

As far as I know the CX and XM DIRAVI are the same other than the XM being 3.5 turns lock to lock instead of 3 (?).

I find that the best features it offers compared to a standard DIRASS, from driving my V6 for a few years now, are:

1. self-centering in parking - one needs to do half the effort thanks to the self-return-to-centre. Big deal u might say, but whenever u switch to a standard-assisted car, it feels very ackward for a while that you have to bring the steering back to centre with your own...arms! After a while, you can park pretty fast and slick with the DIRAVI too.

2. progressive tightening of the self-centering at speed -at 70mph the centrering force is such that (I) need one or two hands on the wheel for steering the car on the motorway bends (all fingers together can steer it but not for long); the result of that is that the car feels like it's on rails; the straight-pointing quality is remarkable; I was very dissapointed by standard DIRASS in comparison -the XM looses quite alot in directional quality-.

3. zero steering kickback from bumps etc - because at any moment the DIRAVI forces the wheels to lock at the position they happen to be (as given from the steering wheel), no external stimulus can change their position. E.g. when cornering from a level street into an uphill street, you don't feel anything at the steering wheel when the wheels crash onto the joining point of the two tarmacs. The wheels receive the shock but they are locked in place so there is nothing to get past to you at the steering wheel. Same goes for bumps and whatever else on the road. This effectivelly negates 100% the fact that the XM doesn't score too well in zero-centre steering (like the DS, Axel, and GS, helped by in-board disk brakes.).

cheers
George

Hi All - It appears that I cant get any sense out of trying to find out detail using the VIN No., I am told it isn't valid all the time. If anyone out there wants to give it a go it is:- VF7Y3AF0007AF6732

VIN........................... VF7Y3AF0007AF**** (edited)
RP number.................. 5972
Build date.................... 15 March 1993

VEHICLE FAMILY............... XM
SILHOUETTE ..................5 DOOR SALOON
ENGINE........................ XUD11ATE
TRANSMISSION............... BVM5
UPHOLSTERY COLOUR......."FY"

STEERING......................POWER STEERING

ENGINE.........................XUD11ATE
FUEL SUPPLY...................TURBO-INJECTION EXCHANGER
EMISSIONS STANDARD (ENGINE)... EEC 19-5 DEPOLL (ENGINE)
INJECTION ASSOCIATED VARIANT......MOUNTING BOSCH

ABS................................WITH ABS BRAKES
STEERING........................POWER STEERING
ACTIVE SUSPENSION............HYDRACTIVE SUSPENSION

DRIVING POSITION..............LEFT HAND DRIVE

There is more available, such as engine and gearbox numbers and body fittings. No mention of DIRAVI though.

It's definitely a regular late version Y3 though.

Cut over date to Hydractive 2 suspension was ORGA 5929.
This car is one of the few Hydractive 2 Mk1 XM's.
Dravi is theoretically possible as the car is LHD but not aware that any other than V6's were fitted with Dravi.

John