Anthracite XM 2.0 SEi Turbo Manual

[russ92xmsed]

Sorry to be pedantic Graeme, it was my LED window switch conversion which was in the Citroenian. If you need any advice let me know. Happy to help. it does work a treat, the seat switches can be done too. I also have a way of doing the one touch switch without soldering.


The loud buzz you here under the car, are you sure it isn't the Electrovlave? It usually comes from the drivers side footwell area. You can hear mine buzz a little and then it clonks quite noticeably when it pops into sport mode after the 30 sec wait.

[White Exec]

Agreed - modulated buzzing is the electrovalves - quite normal.

The fix you've done for the rear light clusters is spot on, and is a common fault on PSA cars of this era. The BX suffered from it too, bigtime. Symptoms of a poor earth are dimmed lamps, odd drops in brightness when the brake pedal is pressed, and pulsing of tail lights when the indicators are used. Lots of other marques suffered this too. Immediate fix is to run one/two additional earth connections to chassis.

Poor or erratic earthing is one of the biggest issues for electrics/electronics on late 80s and 90s PSA cars, and was worse on S1 XMs with their push-on grounding connectors. The later (S2) bolt-down ground connections are better, but can still develop resistance over time. As has been posted before, PSA actually managed to cover the wing-bonded grounded nut with body paint, relying solely on the threads of the terminal bolt to produce electrical contact. Crazy.

Many of the car's electrical systems have multiple earth points, and all of these need to be very "close to ground" for the electronics to work reliably. If one ground point goes "high" (due to poor contact), this can cause problems.

Also check out the battery main connections (originals are crimped-on lead (Pb) lumps). These can internally corrode with age, and go loose on the cable. If in doubt, simply replace with decent heavy-duty brass ones.

On your trip computer problem, check out the speed (distance sensor) on the gearbox first. These are known to cause problems, and are fairly straightforward to replace.

[Aerodynamica]

Arg sorry Russ! I don't even know who I was thinking when I typed Will! I meant Russ! I have the Citroenian right here! Well, it's a brilliant (haha) solution.

Thanks for the pointers - I did notice that one of the battery terminals is damaged with a split to the leaded part - maybe was over tightened once but it isn't held on well. I replaced the terminals and the leads on my Xantia to good effect. I opted for the 'marine' type that use a wing nut. Think the XM should get the same type as they can give a really tight contact.

As for this buzzing, I wonder why it is so loud though and why it doesn't do it every time.

The distance sensor of the gearbox: is this an obvious thing with an electrical connector - is it near the speedometer drive? I'll have to wait a week to check this out as I'll be out the country but it's just a minor niggle at present.

I'm most interested in finding out about the accelerator causing the revs to drop before picking up as I feel it's the first step towards a breakdown!

Also the LHM leak at the steering pinion valve is worse than I thought - one full litre in a week to top up. It looks a nightmare to work on.

[djg]

Sorry to be pedantic Graeme, it was my LED window switch conversion which was in the Citroenian.

Is there any chance of an online copy?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[russ92xmsed]

It's on my blog.. Page 80.

At this rate I will have to index my blog!

[djg]

Ok, found it, thanks.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Aerodynamica]

Minor update - battery terminals.

I didn't expect to have to replace this sort of elementary stuff but it became essential after I spotted one of the battery clamps was broken and loose.



I opted to replace both the terminal clamps with the 'nautical' type with wing nut fixings and as such, replaced the battery leads too.

I did this on my Xantia after all the talk of Xantia battery leads getting hot and starters churning over slowly. No symptoms of this on the XM as yet but I feel XMs need no excuse to have electrical fits so all connections were replaced or cleaned.

Prepping the leads and connectors


Cleaned up and replaced the lead to the starter


And finally the terminals


But I felt the wing nut connection on top of the positive was too high and might actually be contacting the underside of the bonnet (though I coulnd't actually confirm this) so I topped this off by replacing the wing nut on this terminal with a normal hex nut


No change in performance of anything so far as I can tell but it eliminates the potential for problems. No improvement in the suspension either - still sticks in sport mode.

I confirmed it by tuning the radio to MW and LW - both picked up the hydractive solenoid, confirmed by moving the accelerator quickly where the tone cuts off to return after a few seconds. I suppose this means the hydractive is actually working and now after changing the rear corner spheres and all three fronts, the suspension is mega soft until switch off after the door is closed it goes hard when the audible clonk is heard after a delay - familiar stuff.

But now with the radio it confirms that the automatic suspension works for less than a mile after sturt up after which the suspension is firm and the tone on the radio is gone. Stopping, parking up and returning to the car after say 5-10 minutes shows that on restart the hydractive is 'reset' and it works in soft mode again for nearly a mile.

I feel this is a common problem on Hydractive 1 cars. I cleaned all of the ECU connectors including the engine ECU with contact cleaner in case it also heled with the throttle response problem I occasionally get but no change to the suspension and the car actually ran worse after the clean up - I'm now getting terrible idle on start up on occasion (say, avery other time) where is starts instantly, idles high for a few seconds then drops down to a barely running state where the whole thing struggles to keep going like a nearby sneeze would stall it - it did even cut out once though restarted fine. It seems to always get through this and then run ok. What could be causing this? Lambda sensor? ECU vacuum hose? The petrol pump can be heard priming ok on ignition switch on.

Such fun

I'll post over on the 'petrol engine' section.

[Aerodynamica]

I did some research into hydractive 1 faults and think that the ' getting stuck in hard mode' while it does reset after a restart or disconnecting the edu and reconnecting, then I think the cause is a faulty sensor making the ecu go into fault mode.

I read that disconnecting the s Speedo sensor (as a first prod at the problem) doesn't work because the ecu ' knows' it's open circuit however this seems to only be on hyperactive 2 as far as I can find ( solid info seems hard to come by)

Anyway I disconnected the connector for the speed sensor and switched on the ignition to find the hydractive light comes up as normal for a few seconds- no flashing or staying lit. Ran the engine and it is in soft mode so looking like this can run with it of for now

Ill find out later if this makes a difference...

[Aerodynamica]

Well, it didn't work! the hydractive changed to and got stuck in hard mode after the usual half mile of nice soft ride. So I reconnected the speed sensor and then disconnected the body movement sensor - same effect - ran fine in soft mode for the first half mile then hard mode. So it's not that either.. Next suspect will be either the steering sensor or the throttle movement sensor. I think these are both harder to reach so a project ensues. The body movement sensor was soaked due to the LHM leak from the steering pinion valve leaking on to it and I wondered if this was affecting it but not (oil isn't a conductor anyway so unlikely to short it out). How do you reach the steering sensor? Is this located in the steering column housing or further down the column in the dashboard? Also, is the accelerator pedal sensor ok for access? I have not yet had a look at these and it would be nice to go in pre armed!

New problems!!!!

First of all I fitted new brake pads to the front today - nice and cheap from AEP in Rutherglen. Positively the brake caliper pistons both retracted easily so that's a success (the first with this car) and the new pads fitted. I found that the bad parking brake was not caused by the wafer-thin brake pads but by the detached brake cable

this is the same as on my previous blue XM. Seems that if the cables are lacking in their full tension when released, the end can pop out at the balancer end.

Well, the end that would be the 'balancer end' if XMs had a brake balancer! I mean the lever mechanism. Anyway it was a case of re-locating it under the car while I was replacing the brake pads.

I had a look at the leaking steering pinion valve finally.

Wish I hadn't! It does appear to be leaking from the highest point on the thing: you know, the shaft seal..... I'd been kind of hoping it was one of the pipe connections needing nipped up which was exactly all the Blue XM needed when it leaked here.

Not sure if it's clear in the picture but this revealed the LHM is oozing out above the pipe unions and the only exit for LHM above this level is from the actual rotary seal of the valve's shaft. This, of course means replacement...... there's just no other option. And I'll say, this pinion valv looks a thorough **** to remove. I'm half wondering if this -due to the totally inaccessible look of it- is beyond my garage skills and facilities. Anyone done a pinion valve change on a 2L turbo??

Positives again! I have a new throttle position sensor on order so here's hoping that helps with the terrible response to the accelerator.

And have a new exhaust back box on order too to replace the box of rot the car presently has. The pipe between the middle box and the back box has broken off the back box and that's gone and caused the middle pipe to hang down, the catalysor is hitting the side and the back box has swung round to chat to the rar suspension sphere. Lots of rattling and blown exhaust excitement. Except it's not exciting..

I notice the engine management chack light doesn't light up with the ignionion. I think this is meant to light up upon ignition before the engine is started. It's odd this isn't lit at all as the recent history of this car shows the 'EML light on' in a garage report. And lookiung at the edge of the lower dashboard console, someone has been in at the bulbs here (little signs of an implement used to prise off the snap-on edge) - strange they missed the EML light bulb to replace. Of course these could have been worked on years before the EML light came on in the last few years....

Anyway. nice new brakes and parking brake.

O no! another problem?

Yes, it seems like the hydraulic pump is on the way out... it is making a terrible noise when it comes under load just before the pressure regulator cuts out. I tightened the tension to no avail - noisy and the steering is half assisted and 'notchy' at idle. I know this as a symptom of HP pump using less than 5 of its pistons from my BX days. I noticed the HP pum suction hose from the LHM tank was a rubbish fit at the pump end down to the original Citroen pipe clips getting tired. I snipped them off and replaced with a jubilee clip that now holds the pipe tight to the HP pump inlet. Previously it could be twisted loosely by hand - not ideal. The LHM tank end was the same - loose to it got the same treatment. Then 10 minutes of running the engine with the pressure regulator 12mm release bolt slackend and tightened on and off to try and purge any air sucked un by the crappy pipe connections. Trouble is that even after that the HP pump still sounds terrible and the steering is still notchy varying with revs so I think the pump itself is dying.

Then !! I found two spare BX HP pumps and noted they appear to be the same structure as the XM pump, same fixings, pulley looks the same size and offset - only the LHM pipe connection is about 90 degrees out but it still looks like the pipe will connect to it ok. Oh, and the BX pump is green like all LHM parts used to be. So in the next installment I'll be fitting the BX pump in place at least to test if it helps.

As an aside, my 1983 CX 20 Pallas passed its MOT first time! One advisory on a CV gaitor but that was all - this XM would FAIL a test in an instant

[xmexclusive]

The parking brake cables jumping out at the caliper end can be caused by a weak internal spring on the pull arm.
Had the problem a number of times on one of the estates.
I bought a box of assorted springs from Screwfix.
Found a springs size that threaded over the cable.
PIA to fit but gives a superb snap open to the parking brake.

John