Citroen XM Forum

rustytractor wrote:So that means mk2's are more defined but mk1's are more for the purist ?

xmexclusive wrote:Mk 1's these days are usually well polished driveway ornaments awaiting classic acclaim.

Can't argue on either account.

xmexclusive wrote:The clicking relay in the passenger dash will be due to the indicator stalk contacts.
Wear and conductive debris in the grease around the contacts are the standard causes.
If let go on for years the switch most likely start to smoke and then burn out.

Mk 2's if you want to actually use one.
Mk 1's these days are usually well polished driveway ornaments awaiting classic acclaim.

John

Thanks John,

Is this 100% the problem or just a maybe? Is it possible to disassemble/clean/re grease/reassemble the indicator stalk ?

Rusty, if you want to get a good technical understanding of the suspension then the Citroen Technical Guide is very good.

It's a big PDF and covers all Citroen suspension systems in good detail along with some other useful stuff. Yours is Hydractive II with anti-sink. Read about hydractive I on early S1 XMs (another significant difference) and see how it's evolved...

You can also read of the Activa system that sadly was never offered on the XM.

Nearly always the stalk contacts.
Posts on one of the XM sites showing how to repair (Double Chevron from Aus if I remember right).
Get a secondhand one and swap then you can clean up yours.
Ask in the wanted here or try Edwards (French car scrappy who are local to you).

In an earlier post in this thread Jan-H questioned my assessment that LH display repair was difficult and risky.
That was not his experience which I fully accept.
I still stand by what I said for the following reasons:
In replying particularly to new XM owners we have little idea of experience or capabilities.
I try to keep it simple and avoid things that will risk leaving the component or car dead.
I usually wait for people to declare electronics experience before sending them into such components.
The advice above to get a spare stalk not work on the only one you have follows the same principle.
Repairing the display carries one particular risk when stripping the pcb foil.
If any of the pcb and display glass contacts lift and tear repairing them is very difficult.
The suggested advice of retracing with the carbon from a soft lead pencil is IMHO pure crap in electronic repair terms.

John

To grease, Rusty, is only a temporary repair although it's easy to do. There's a little ball, that suffers from lack of grease and looses it's round shape. I tried to get that thing back into shape and then greased it and it's still working fine now. I agree with John though. But if you are confident enough, it's not difficult to disassemble the stalk and put it back together, I think.

Thanks all for the advice.

Re the display - I spend my working life with and repairing small electronic assemblies so I'm not particularly phased by this kind of job (he says cockily....) and am happy to give it a go.

Re the stalk - see above.

Is there a link to another thread that shows how to remove/repair either/both the stalk and the display ? Doing the job will be interesting, getting the part off can be a challenge so advice here would be invaluable.

Russ

Russ, I've never done an XM stalk but I've done few Xantia stalks and I reckon internally they're not a lot different.

Gently ease back the clips retaining the cover and ease it off. Under will be a spring and a ball. Go easy, vigilant to bits that may fly and you'll be fine.

I clean them up with a bit of gentle electronic solvent, blow them out with an airline (carefully) and then apply a smear of electronics grade silicone grease to it.

In an earlier post in this thread Jan-H questioned my assessment that LH display repair was difficult and risky.
That was not his experience which I fully accept.
I still stand by what I said for the following reasons:
In replying particularly to new XM owners we have little idea of experience or capabilities.
I try to keep it simple and avoid things that will risk leaving the component or car dead.
I usually wait for people to declare electronics experience before sending them into such components.
The advice above to get a spare stalk not work on the only one you have follows the same principle.
Repairing the display carries one particular risk when stripping the pcb foil.
If any of the pcb and display glass contacts lift and tear repairing them is very difficult.
The suggested advice of retracing with the carbon from a soft lead pencil is IMHO pure crap in electronic repair terms

John, I hope you are not offended by my response to your assessment regarding the dot matrix (LH) display repair. It may have sounded like I was dismissing your opinion, which was not my intention. The repair procedure using the rubberized conductor I did and described on this forum seems straightforward and not too difficult for someone with basic mechanical skills and some knowledge of electronic components. There are of course those who possess neither [skill] and I'd imagine they are wise enough not to attempt repairs themselves. Maybe I was wrong to make it sound so easy.
The novice then has some options: 1) Obtain a new part (costly). 2) Find a used part or reconditioned one (cheaper and I've seen them for sale on the web). 3) Unplug or mask the display (talking about the dot matrix). 4) In spite of the risks attempt repair oneself thinking, nothing ventured nothing gained.

I agree the carbon tracing is not something I would recommend either, and neither is reusing the original conductor.

There is a lot of documentation on the forums and the net about the display repair. People who are contemplating a DIY repair could, rather should, read up on this and then ask themselves if they are up to it.

For reference for those interested see here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=700&hilit=dot+matrix

Hi, i sent you a pm re my mechanic if you look at the top left of the page you will see there is a message waiting for you.

Norman

normantilbury wrote:Hi, i sent you a pm re my mechanic if you look at the top left of the page you will see there is a message waiting for you.

Norman

Thanks Norman but there's no PM yet (shows "0 Messages")

Could never quite get my head around all the secrecy that goes on with forums, maybe you could just email me at rustytractor (at) hotmail.co.uk

Thanks