Citroen XM Forum

The front bumper outriggers needed some repairs, mainly due to the wheel-arch liner rubber bung being missing. Cut-out plated and sealed I also wire wheeled the wheel-houses and applied seam sealer to areas where it had come away. I also welded the lead edge of the A pillar where the metal layers are only sealed with seam sealer...which breaks down and allows water into the A pillar and front jacking point areas.

The steering gear heat shield clip was missing so I made one from a bit of stainless spring wire. The wire gauge is slightly thinner, so hopefully it will stay in place, if not I'll make one from some thicker metal.

Also finally managed to look at the paint code and Rp number

The front wheel-house was treated to primer. It was time to deal with the vampire bite in the right headlamp glass On stripping the unit I noted the reflectors were quite dusty, so washed them out with soapy water, rinsed and dried using warm air. Avoid touching the silvering, it will come off, as the aluminium has oxidised somewhat.
I washed both units out. Only pics of R/h one here. Note: The internal polycarbonate headlamp lens goes smooth side out for Lhd, patterned side out for Rhd.

I also found the previously missing power steering ram nut under the R/h headlamp.

A bit more done.
Painted the primed sections in two coats of top coat, made complete headlamps up and refitted them and the bumper support bar.

More done, starting with panting the lower part of the sills in black, which took 4 coats to cover the primer and white paint. Next I fixed the locating spigot back onto the ECU box after it broke off when removing it, drilled and screwed in a self tapping screw, then glued with epoxy adhesive.
I also trimmed the spigot barbs so that it no longer jams really hard in the grommet, which is what leads to them breaking off. With the engine and cooling reservoir installed you can't access the grommet to lubricate the spigot when removing. I tested the pressure in all the spheres and found most to be approx. 40% down, though on re-gassing one front corner sphere ruptured, so I fitted a pair of new ones.
Reassuringly, it had the correct spheres installed in each location. Bear in mind, for the rears estates have different specification spheres than saloons, due to the rear ram piston sizes being larger: 400cc @ 40Bar corners, 500cc @ 40 Bar centre. Due to being an automatic, with A/c the pressure regulator is more challenging to reach. The best way is to remove the plastic air pipe that runs from the turbo to the inter-cooler. After fitting the spheres I removed and cleaned the Lhm reservoir and filters, using petrol.
Dirt from the tank. Filter unit removed from the tank, then filters removed and cleaned.
After re-installing the tank I filled it with 4.5 litres of Lhm and bled the system and brakes.

I spent some time pushing out the dent in the rear left door. I'm not really happy with the result, but it's a lot better than it was.
I should have made up a tensioning bar to stretch the door skin prior to pushing the dent out. I might revisit this sometime. I painted all the rear box section joints and any areas where coatings were coming off, sprayed rust-proofing into the sills, A pillar, B pillar and main underbody box sections, then installed the body plugs with underseal to create a full seal.
At some stage I'll drop the rear subframe and paint it. Rustproofing required access via the inner sill body plugs, so now that is complete I have started installing the interior, the carpet and front seats are in.

The list doesn't feel like it's getting any shorter, but it must be...

The left hand matrix display wasn't functioning and I noticed the hydraulic low level and pressure warnings weren't operational after engine start. Also the clock was U/s due to delamination of the Lcd green filter. Stripping and re-connecting the warnings section of the dashboard fixed the messages, a new clock unit sorted that.
I also used lock wire to repair the broken dash fixings. I found the speedometer cable top had broken off and the gear selector display had missing segments.
The speedo cable head was repaired using lock wire and epoxy glue. The gear selection display required cleaning the circuit board with mild acid, washing and drying, then strip the Lcd unit and clean the contacts, the contact side of the Lcd screen and in particular the zebra strip. After re-assembly it was fully functional.

The interior lights were not functioning due to the plastic having broken around the bulb holders due to heat: sorted by gluing the original holders to the unit, ensuring the contacts were making well. I'll install Led bulbs in due course.

I also scrubbed the remote locking receiver with mild acid, washed, rinsed and dried and now have a functioning central locking system, with original flip key. The front towing eye cover was broken off and the tethers snapped, so more lock wire action. I don't want to lose the cover... The broken front indicator/foglamp was replaced with another, which also had a broken locking spring tab, so after a wash-out it was re-sealed and repaired with more lock wire and plastic welding.
The spring latch has a lot of force against it when the unit is clipped in, so the tab needs to be firmly affixed, yet flexible. The gearbox overheat sensor connector wire was broken. I don't have a replacement so repaired the original wiring. The rear of the plug is sealed with mastic, so I dug that out, cleaned the corrosion off the wires with mild acid and wire brush, then soldered new wires on and remade the loom, adding a little extra length for flexibility.
I did think about de-pinning the connector, but removing the contacts wasn't gong to be possible due to the original sealant.
I re-sealed the back of the plug using polymer sealant.

Such a nice job! I envy your and so many others on the forums technical prowess!

Thanks Hans, but the reality is anyone could do it with some application.

Do you have any wheel-house splash panels left from your mass destruction?
See viewtopic.php?f=11&t=11259

The rebuild as all going nicely, until the washer tank started dripping from the level sensor grommet.

I stripped the wheel-house liner out and tried to install a new grommet with the tank in situ, but to no avail, there's not sufficient space. Off came the L/h wing and the tank was removed. In the process a the front bolt snapped off, but it is a bolt and nut so a new one was fitted. The plastic radiator support panel had a fracture at the left rear mounting, so I drilled the broken piece and the main unit, then used lock wire and epoxy adhesive to re-install the insert. once the epoxy was set I fitted the bolt. I set the ride height and tracking, but the ride height wasn't consistent, so adjusted the spring rod so it poked through the pivot bush better, lubricated the anti-roll bar clamps more, greased the linkages and reset it being careful to allow plenty of time for the suspension to stabilise.
It was difficult to get a picture of the correct ride height, which is 144mm at the front, 341mm at the rear, for a series 1, on 195/65-15 tyres. I might reset the tracking again, as I was having difficulty with gauge calibration and ride height. The setting is 0-3mm toe out, which equates to 0-27' total toe out for 15" wheels.
I like to set each wheel to 7 minutes toe out, if possible, to be in the centre of the tolerance. These images are at ~14 minutes toe out each wheel.
My old mechanical gauges have good and bad points: they can measure every angle and measurement needed for a full 4 wheel geometry check, individual toe, toe out on turns, kingpin inclination, caster, camber, set-back, steering wheel position, front and rear thrust axis deviation, but are a pain to keep calibrated and slow to use.
The top radiator cooling hose started leaking, so I fitted a replacement. I found draining the water via the 18,mm block drain to be the most convenient as a hard A/c pipe runs across the radiator drain cock.
Refilling the system was much quicker having drained via the block drain, as the thermostat is on the return from the radiator, so creates a large air pocket until it opens.
The headlamps both have good beam pattern, but appeared to be set low...possibly due to having been last set with the ride height being incorrect and nose up.
Note the kick up is to the left..it is a Rhd car.
Right lamp after vertical adjustment. Left lamp. Both sets of adjusters were stiff, but the left height adjustment was seized solidly, to the point it was unwinding the drive cable when being turned. and the cable bracket was splitting...reinforced with lock wire. I removed the left lamp unit for access and lubricated the adjusters. I was able to access the right unit ones with it still mounted.

The adjustment knobs are mounted in the radiator support unit. The one inboard is for horizontal adjustment, the one central in the headlamp unit is for vertical. Back to the card for adjustment.


I then removed the rear lights to gain access to the bumper screws and removed the rear bumper to repair the hole made by a towball punching through it.
This is really just to stop any further damage until I have time to fill and paint it.
Again I reinforced it with lock wire and plastic welded it. The bumper brackets and under the boot seal have some rust so it was wire brushed, treated and painted with anti-rust primer.

Re-calibrated my tracking gauges and set the tracking again, paying particular attention to wheel/wheel clamps, runout.

Cleaned out, treated and painted the rust in the rear panel, under the boot seal and on the bumper hangers. Replaced the broken left door mirror... to then find the temperature sensor was duff. Stripped the mirror units down and swapped the loom over, only for the faulty sensor to start to show a sensible reading of just under 5k Ohms at approx. 7c The gear selector display kept dropping one bar, so I decided to strip it and pack it so the LCD was pressing onto the zebra strip a little harder. All was going well until I dropped the display onto a concrete floor, so now it works but has more delamination than it did... I took it outside and threw several buckets of water over it, firstly containing hard surface cleaner, then regular car wash soap.

I installed Led bulbs into the interior console lamp, off white for main lamps, white for map readers. My preference for Xm is for a manual gearbox and to me the accelerator pedal always feels heavy and unresponsive in the auto, which certainly wasn't being helped by the gearbox pressure cable needing lubrication and the idle roller on the diesel pump being seized.

Unclip the accelerator and pressure cables and lubricate the cable in the sheath and any connector links and pivots, not forgetting the idle roller.

There has been a fairly loud chirp/squeaking noise, which I initially thought was from the overhead console fan, but after lubricating that it still persisted. It turned out to be the ventilation fan bearings were dry.
Remove the passenger side under-dash, unscrew the fan unit by removing the three vertical screws, disconnect the multi-pin connector and remove the unit.
You can reach the upper bearing, under the fan blade unit, readily, the lower one is inside the plastic housing: remove the rubber cable cover and pry the fan out of the casing a little to gain good access to the lower bearing. I had already fitted new tyres, hand rubbed a bit of polish over the paint and it's now munching miles. A new battery should finish the immediate mechanical requirements.