Citroen XM Forum

No i dont live too close to Newcastle, i actually live in Hartlepool which is a bit below Durham in fact, but i drive up to Newcastle most week days. The joys of commuting!

I didnt know you were originally from up here Andrew, what made the change to Wales happen?

Hey, there are hills around here Not very many big ones though!

I have thought of a rubber stop, in fact on the first Xm i thought it must have been missing Doesnt bother me too much, its how it was designed to be used i guess.

Chris.

My parents both worked and met in the (in)famous Government National Insurance/Revenue ministry
buildings at Benton many moons ago and moved down to this godforsaken corner of the world to work
at the then newly built DVLC as it was (another notorious government building) now DVLA.
Funnily enough, I work a few 1000 yards away from the original towerblock DVLA today even though
I have nothing to do with the agency.

The only flat surface around these parts more than a few 100 square yards is the beach when the tide
goes out!!

Andrew

Hey Chris & Andrew, what a coincidence, I'm also from those parts, born in Sunderland and brought up in Gosforth, North of Ncle. You don't think there's some connection between northern ways and the liking of French styling do you?
Cheers
Andrew

It's probably down to the fabulous Northumberland countryside with roads that really suit
sprited yet comfortable Xm'ing. And of course the need to blat about large swathes of the
motorway network to get anywhere else means their effortless cruising ability suits the
geography well?

Or is it, Northern lads have a keen eye for a bargain?

Andrew

Hi All

Am I right that LHD manual XM's do not suffer the footbrake abortion imposed on us RHD manual freaks.
Where is the foot brake pedal positioned on a LHD car, to the right of the accelerator?

John

Its operated by the left foot as well as far as I know.

Yep, footbrake and handlever are situated on your left on a LHD, left from the clutch.

From the begining I found the XM setup much more practical than a traditional handbrake; I use it all the time on steep hills; I usually have already disengaged gear before totally stopping, and smoothly bring the car to a halt with the footbrake. It's just too easy to set off when light turns green, just pull the lever with your left hand while your right hand deals with putting 1st -and vice versa on a RHD. I'm so surprised people are annoyed at the bang, would've never had thought it's an issue -I wonder what Citroen had in mind. It's a bit comic in a standard car when, on setting off, you quickly have to put 1st and then asap release the handbrake, all with the same hand; also, it's just *so* easier for a human to use the footbrake as legs are much stronger than arms; especially if the hill is very steep u might almost need 2 arms to release the handbrake, especially ladies!

Whenever I ocassionaly have to drive a standard car, I initially spend some time looking for the footbrake! (same happens with not having DIRAVI: You get so used for the steering to returning to centre on its own, and feels weird when manoeuvering to park another car -I have to do twice number of movements!)

The DIRAVI'd XMs also have an extra accumulator sphere especially reserved for the brakes.

cheers
George

robert_e_smart wrote:Its operated by the left foot as well as far as I know.

Correct
This can just be seen under the lower dash panel showing how to get to the heater flap/motor servo's as fitted to a LHD manual XM in this LINK to the 'citroen-ds-id.com' site, when opened you have to go into the L/H column then select :- Citroen XM,Technical Data,Heating System to open the page up (as I could not put a direct link to the page for some reason)

jorgy wrote:Yep, footbrake and handlever are situated on your left on a LHD, left from the clutch.
I'm so surprised people are annoyed at the bang, would've never had thought it's an issue -I wonder what Citroen had in mind.
cheers
George

I hate that being done to my XM especially when its in for an MOT
There's NO need for it ! I always apply my left foot to the foot-lever/brake to take the 'Strain' before I release the hand-lever thus eliminating 'The Bang' and I've evened mastered this on an uphill starts say at Traffic lights with no roll back problem even with another vehicle behind (So long as its not ridiculously too close behind) all you have to do is a bit of 'Toe and heel' between the foot-brake and accelerator with your right foot whilst releasing the foot-lever/brake before moving to the clutch pedal with the left foot prior to engagingly first gear
If you keep releasing the foot-lever/brake mechanism with 'A bang' you will run the risk of wearing and shearing the pivot/clevis pin which the lever pivots on, which is of a relative small cross-section in diameter and it will thus shear eventually with this type of abuse, as it did on one of my brothers XM S1's a while ago and to replace the pin is not a easy/straight foreword job

I'm struggling to understand or accept that releasing an Xm foot lever that's spring loaded is any different to a
conventional sprung handbrake. The bang that seems to irritate/upset some people is the foot lever bracket
landing against it's stop in a manner deemed acceptable by Citroen's design engineers and in the load of s1's
I've got of varying mileages, not one has had a handbrake pedal failure other than a snapped primary release
cable with my driving this method.

I realise this could be argued as a rare problem as only a minority of cars were manual with the lock up
of park on an auto making the handbrake largely redundant. That said, all manner of fancy footwork seems
unnecessary and even potentially dangerous; I've shocked myself in the past with smooth soled shoes on wet
pedals slipping with abrupt releasing of a brake/clutch pedal.

Andrew

I've never really thought about it, I suppose I just take my foot off the brake and on to the accelerator - very quickly - not really had a problem with it. There does seem to be a slight lag before the brakes come off, that must help.

Peter