My Citroen XM 3.0 PR-Vestige

[xmexclusive]

Hi All

I think it is a matter of luck on how the car has lived. I do not subscribe to the dipping the rear in the sea theory as a main cause mind.
The subframes are made from plain steel and not galvanised so are much more at risk to road salt corrosion than the XM car body.
The top of the front subframe under the radiators can be well gone with nobody noticing. The rear end is usually intact with paint finish as it left the factory due to regular supply of oil from most engines. Only a few Mk2 models got the fibre undertray but on those that did most have problems. Citroen used open cell foam sealing strips to air seal to the subframe and these just suck up and retain water making sure rusting can start and is then kept going as fast as possible. At the rear a quick look at a few spare wheel carriers (also not galvanised) shows what a nasty environment that area is for exposed steel. The thinner the steel section the faster it rusts away. Citroen used thinner steel plate on the Mk2 carriers which is why most are far worse. The rear subframe and the carrier sit in a large recess under the car. One of the few parts of an XM body that are not fully air smoothed. This will generate low pressure and eddy currents trapping a proporting of the air stream with all its muck, salt and water encouraging condensation on all the exposed steel. The XM Estate sufferes even worse just because the recess is quite a bit larger. The thinner steel components are most at risk in this environment so it is the thin pipe work on top of the main tube and the thinner plates at the lower back end of the rear subframe that really can get hit by rust.
If the car was always put into a dry warm ventilated garage any water dried off quickly preventing the rust process getting underway. If it reqularly sat outside it was probably damp underneath and gently running the rust process for at least half the year. These are extreams but I estimate that my outside car will have suffered about 20 times the rust damage that the garaged on will.

John

[mouseflakes]

Apologies Dean and other posters.

My mention of the subframe seems to have diverted this thread from your splendid Prestige. Would it be best if posters move their rust-related posts to here?...

http://www.club-xm.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=65

Sorry

[Dean]

Dont worry about it Tim, if it turns out to be usefull we can move the necassary posts later and if not they are fine here with the general chatting, speaking of which how is your MK1 coming along?

D

[mouseflakes]

First slot I could book a test for was 2nd June (we're off on holiday at the end of this week) - I'll find out then!

[Dean]

Hi Gents

Well this was the focus of todays fun

I found out a couple of days ago that the long running clunking i have been having was my O/S driveshaft so taday i picked up a pair of cv boots and a new support bearing to refurb the replacement shaft and set to work.
The long reach bearing puller i have was not long reach enough so the grinder had to come out to carefully remove the old bearing and its collar , i have replaced my shaft with one from the turbo estate, the main differences between them are that the turbo shaft is thicker, has more splines on the outer cv end and has a much smaller tri knuckle joint as you can see in the picture but it fits no trouble at all when swapped as a complete unit.
The way in which my inner/tri knuckle joint failed was something i havent seen in shaft joint failure before but seems very common in the earlyer (L/h shaft in picture) joints because all 4 i have seem to do the same thing and are very limp, the spring in the tri knuckle that should keep the shaft pushed out appears to have failed meaning that as the road wheel jumps over a bump at low speeds the driveshaft is effectivly fired back inboard into the tri knuckle joint with a clunk, there was no vibration or play apparent in the joint either.
Also fitting the turbo shaft and thus the smaller tri knuckle there is far more room to work around the water pump area now
With the work all done i can now enjoy almost total silence once more, it's lovely

[andmcit]

From changing the shaft over to one with a smaller knuckle I guess you don't have ABS to worry about!?
I missed the subtle difference between two same age Xantiae where the air gap on the teeth was changed
due to a difference in the end hub CV knuckle which instantly triggered the ABS AWOL light!

When you say the end has more splines does that mean into the outer CV joint or into the hub as you'd
need to renew the hub too otherwise? May end up doing similar mix'n match things with my 2.0i's sometime!

Andrew

[Dean]

Sorry andrew my write up was a bit of a jumble, there is no mismatching and i would regard using the later turbo shaft as an improvement.
The outer cv joint had the same toothed ring for the abs, and was the same dia, but the female/joint side of the cv had more, smaller splines so you can not fit just the turbo outer cv to an earlyer shaft but it does swap as a whole unit, the hub side of the turbo's outer cv is the same as the n/a's.
Im sure that all HP18 autoboxes use the same drive shafts, and i would think that all cars have the same hubs, but im not sure, does anyone know how many hub types there are?
Oh and it was the inner tri knuckle joint that was smaller.

D

[xmaddict]

my 2.1 td has not got a center "sideways box" previous owner removed it and replaced the system from the cat straight to the rear silencer with a stainless steel fully welded pipe. passed its mot twice since i had it and saves a load of money. dunno if any one else has this "mod" buts its usefull to know if in the uk that is. don't know about laws in other countries.

[xmaddict]

swift change of conversation there...sorry folks......i noticed the exhaust in the first pic and it struck a minor memory . i,ll go back to sleep now.

[Dean]

Hi gents

Look what arrived in the post today..........


Now i know what your thinking, looks a little home made doesnt it, well it was by a very helpfull czech gentleman called Josef.
His add.......

The chip was professionaly made on dyno.

This chip has very aggressive ignition timing so higher octane is recommended but not necessary.

The power gains are very appreciable, no any other modifications are required with this chip.

If you remove cataytic converter from you engine (decat) you will have rocket from your XM.

Estimated power gain is up to 15-25BHP and +35Nm depends on state of your turbocharger. Engine goes much better in low rews... .

Fuel economy is also better in normal driving conditions.

Seems like sensible claims to me and the thing that really drew me in was the £0.99 price
Its a shame i cant plug it in and test it, my plan is to get another ecu that i can use as a hot setup and keep my original just incase its pap or its too agressive but we shall see, another part for the carefully packed turbo transplant box

Wonder if Paul has a spare ecu going for reasonable money (hint hint nudge nudge )

D