Captain Slow's Series One XM

[Captain Slow]

Been out in the XM today and the ride at the front is still hard, the rear is intermittently hard. I drove over to meet John and we fitted a known working suspension ECU (a test unit)...What a difference! This seems has narrowed it down to my suspension ECU being on the brink causing a good proportion, if not all, of my hard ride issues. He is very kindly going to strip down and repair a spare ECU he has and take mine in exchange. Hopefully this will be done this week before the big XM/Xantia rally next weekend

Whilst there we tried and failed to get the Lexia to talk to the car. Any ideas?

[CitroJim]

Whilst there we tried and failed to get the Lexia to talk to the car. Any ideas?

What Lexia were you using? My Lexia3 clone with the two-pin adaptor plugged in the 16-pin socket and powered from the battery works fine but I do find it necessary to reverse the two-pin adaptor if initially the Lexia reports no communication with the ECU in question.

You're using the right plugs?

The blue one is the Hydractive ECU, the green is the engine and the grey one the ABS. Not worked out just yet what the others do...

I'll have my Lexia at CXM so we can always try mine on your car...

[normantilbury]

I also will have my lexia lll with me so we can narrow the problem down.

Norman

[xmexclusive]

It was a Lexia 3.
We tried all the plugs with no comms on any of them either way round.
We checked the Lexia on a Mk2 using the 30 pin plug and that talked ok.
In theory that means either the final 2 pin lead is suspect or none of 2 pin sockets talk to their respective ECU's.
I would blame operator error but Captain Slow had a try as well.
Decided not to move the ECU to a Mk2 as I did not want to pull everything out of the ECU box.
That can wait until the repaired ECU goes in.
Could not fit the test ECU for regular use as it had no lid on it.

John

[Captain Slow]

Thanks chaps

[CitroJim]

It was a Lexia 3.
We tried all the plugs with no comms on any of them either way round.
We checked the Lexia on a Mk2 using the 30 pin plug and that talked ok.
In theory that means either the final 2 pin lead is suspect or none of 2 pin sockets talk to their respective ECU's.
I would blame operator error but Captain Slow had a try as well.
Decided not to move the ECU to a Mk2 as I did not want to pull everything out of the ECU box.
That can wait until the repaired ECU goes in.
Could not fit the test ECU for regular use as it had no lid on it.

John

Can't see an operator there at all

As another prong in this attack, I'm going to try and get my ELIT talking to my XM. At the moment I don't have a two pin lead for the ELIT as I always use it with its 'piggyback' for the 16 and 30 pin plugs. I have the hardware and I think I have the pinouts for the two-pin so I'll try to get a lead made up and tested ready for CXM.

[CitroJim]

Got my ELIT working on my XM after making up a lead for it...

Works a treat so I'll bring it to CXM.

Here it is in action...



I like my ELIT. So much easier to use than a Lexia and more in keeping with an XM I think...

[Captain Slow]

Great work Jim. I'll be there on Sunday

[CitroJim]

Tested working on ABS, Engine and Hydractive so far...

I'll be in my XM on Sunday so should be no problem recognising me. It'll be the black one...

[Captain Slow]

Chaps. I have owned this car for about 4 weeks now and covered about 1300, but the problem is that I'm just not gelling with it.

I intend on taking it to the XM rally on Sunday to give myself one last chance to gel but I don't hold out much hope. I am going to be offering it up for sale to one of you.

I will be asking £1200, which is the same as I paid for this Phase one. Before then it will have a replacement suspension ECU fitted thanks to John, as well as the 3 new front spheres that have been fitted in the last few weeks.

The car is in excellent condition, and I really want to like it, but coming from a 250bhp Alfa 156 GTA this car is a bit tame and it's just not floating my boat. Such a shame as I have always wanted one