Citroen XM Forum

... here you can see how clogged the cooler is, air always passes through it for both ventilation and heating, so it is the first to be hit for any dirt sucked in by the fan.

....it couldn't have been washed better, the lamellae are quite sensitive, nothing sharp or harsh can be used for cleaning.


When I took this all apart, I saw that the XM does not have a valve for hot water, heating, as the BX has, but hot water always circulates through the radiator in the cabin, and the heating is turned on or off by moving the flaps and directing the air, that's why it is very hot over fly into the car.

You can remove the heater box without cutting the dashboard support frame, just unbolt the pedal box and steering column and lift that out as one.
The only difficulty is you have to go under the car to unbolt the pedal box from the bulkhead.

The A/c evaporator certainly was making a good filter, you should now have much improved air flow and performance.

I suspect the corrosion on the fan motor has been caused by the coolant leaking from the heater matrix.

The heater is indeed a full circulation unit, regulated by air flaps. I can't say I've noticed it making the car hotter, when left parked after running.
You can split the heater box at the centre, which may allow access to the A/c evaporator, without removing he fan unit and duct. I realise you wanted to clean and service the fan as well.

All in, a job worth doing and done thoroughly.

I first became aware of the importance of cabin air flow when i took the ventilation tubes out of my first car - a Maxi - and found they had foam cylinders stuffed inside. Being already ten years old and having moved through some 71,000 miles of air, these were a bit clogged. They got washed with soapy water, dried and reinserted and the car was magically fresher smelling for it!

Thanks Gasa for some great pics and an insight into what the evaporator may look like in many of our XMs and what's involved in unblocking them

..it was easier for me to cut the bracket and weld it, I'll see if I can find a bracket for the air conditioner filter, until then I put the filter that is used for the kitchen hood of the stove.

Yes, now the air flow is better, now the speed is quite sufficient to be on the set 2, you can feel the blowing, before it was necessary to be on 4.

There is a cabin filter unit available for the Peugeot 605, but it doesn't fit the Xm as it has additional stiffening in the scuttle.
You may be able to make it fit by cutting the box.

...if I know that the P 605 has a filter, I'll see if I can find the original filter from XM, for now the filter for the kitchen extractor will be good.

...this is the original filter for XM

That is a 605 filter, which doesn't fit the Xm due to the additional scuttle reinforcement the Xm has.
With no cover, you can see it becomes filthy and wet, very rapidly.

..it has a cover, that filter is never changed, that's why it's so dirty, the previous owner didn't even know there was an air conditioning filter, this is an XM from a member of CitroenForumSrbije.

I can't find a picture of the filter holder from P 605 to compare if it is the same as this KM, if they are the same dimensions without modifications, then I will look through the scraps to buy it.