Citroen XM Forum

Front half easy.. But needs the nose cone grill off to do it.. Rear half.. Ideally seat out i think ..

Theres three allen bolts holding the lever in place. Remove the plastic sill trim and the trim under the dash..the cable goes through a grommet in the bulk head.. What id now do when taking the old one out is attach a wire or thin rope to the end and pull it through and will help to pull the new one through..

Seems pretty straight forward, I need to take the passenger seat out anyway to clean the carpet underneath.

raynoon wrote:the XM then thanked me by snapping it's bonnet cable.

It's nice to know that you two are getting on so well,

Well today... Didn't get a chance to look at bonnet cable, after changing the two front suspension spheres and the accumulator the suspension is rock hard, mainly on the front passenger side. The lads in work have urged me to buy a DVD called Christine, it's about a cursed car?

You've raised a lot of valid points, and I thank you for your concern David. I'm partly to blame as I took the guys word that "it has had the rotten sills and as such jacking points chopped out and replaced and treated to protect them in the future(as long as no stupid tyre idiot jacks them up on the sills again! As well as a small section of the rear subframe."

It's obvious this wasn't the case, but I didn't check when viewing the car.


"The cars hydraulic circuit and suspension has been given a good once over by a local specialist."

This is also not true as every sphere needs changing.

There's not a lot I can do about it now as I don't want to lose the car, I'll get the work done PROPERLY and this XM will live to see another day. A lesson has been learned, well and truly.

Kingp I would like to take you up on your offer of a full refund, without quibble. Please let me know a suitable time and day to return the vehicle to you. Many thanks.

Gosh what a sorry tale and how sad for you Ray and for the car. Hopefully someone might be interested in the spares if not restore the car! Regards, Matthew T.

So, this morning (Sunday) I changed the 2 front suspension spheres back to their originals, upon releasing the 2 newly fitted spheres the front passenger side (the one that was bouncing solidly) emitted a fizzy mixture of LHM, was this nitrogen from a ruptured membrane?
I took the car for a drive, it's complying over speed humps, but only similar to that of my 307, but if I approach the hump from an angle everything at the front is quite hard, but the back copes faultlessly, is this caused by a flat centre sphere at the front?

I bought these from eBay, They are Shaftec SS21 which seem to be the correct type, am I eligible for a refund even though I've fitted them?

Never heard of Shaftec ones... If lhm was squirting out like a water pistol from the sphere then yes its defo DEAD!

Best spheres to get are from Citroen Services / AEP and are IFHS type spheres. They give little issues are are far better then GSF ones too..

The other issue for hard front is also is the front electro valve working correctly. Useually it can be heard by a Buzzing noise when you get out and shut the door for about a minute and then there should be a click or clunk as it switch's off.

This electro valve switchs the front centre sphere - under the car at the rear next to the back of the subframe in or out.. when in the font should be soft. When not working it defaults to hard

Thanks Paul, I've never heard a buzzing noise after switching off the engine, but then I've not been listening out for one.