Citroen XM Forum

xmexclusive wrote: Check out the tailgate rams and fixings carefully when you get it released before you open it fully.
The tailgate is incredibly heavy and can do you serious damage it falls back shut and catches you on the way.

Ouch! Thanks for the warning John They might be bad as the bonnet struts are not that good. So used tio good ones I opened the bonnet and it proceeded to give me a gentle tap on the head...

xmexclusive wrote: The V6 just hung back to avoid all the black smoke you were chucking out.

xmexclusive wrote: I will happily let you pay me to take it away when you realise obtaining a 2.5 was a mistake.

I notice the rad looks very sad...

It is the parking brake latch cable that's broken. Broken right by the knob. Chris has made the brake functional again by using a small pair of mole grips in place of the knob

Biggest problems I see is the slowness to get pressure and the very hard suspension. It's either stuck in hard mode or there's a lot of flat spheres...

It'll keep us occupied for a bit

If the big rad you can see looks bad unclip it and tip it back to see the hidden small one.
Those are usually worse but they typically only leak when the second stat opens.

John

Today we had a chance to have a good look at the 2.5 and do some urgent work on it. Cosmetically it's a bit scruffy in places but it's as solid as a rock underneath and straight. The engine purrs and the smoking habit seems to have been fixed by reattaching a vacuum pipe to the EGR valve...

All the important bits seem good. Even the rads don't seem too bad upon inspection.

The suspension turned out to have nil movement. A bit of work revealed all three rear spheres were ruptured and the two front corners were likewise. All duff ones were replaced and the suspension was then lovely and soft.

A look at the Hydractive ECU showed that the bodgers had been at work and the electrovalve supply wires had been neatly snipped and wired to a switched live supply; the effect of this 'mod' was to hold the car in permanent soft mode. Here is the evidence m'lud...



We drove it briefly with the bodge in place and it confirmed that it makes the car awful. Far too soft and wollowy in the corners. It makes it roll like a barge all at sea.

A bit of work with a soldering iron and a couple of diodes saw the bodge corrected and after clearing the faults we once again had a working Hydractive system and decent ride and handling...

The tailgate problem was a duff central locking motor holding it closed. The tailgate was opened from within by removing the latch...

The 2.5 is very impressive to drive. It goes very well indeed and is a torque monster. Very impressed...

A good buy for the silly money paid for it... A bit more work and it'll be excellent

I like it a LOT...

Interesting...

Great work team WFA! So another has been snipped.

Anyway, this sounds like it's going to end up as great work horse.

Hi Jim and Russ

I have done some editing for legal reasons.
Put a link if you wish to the FCF evidence of routine XM suspension modification where presumably the firm is named.

John

Nope, the firm is not named there either John and it won't be...

I'm well aware of the legal implications so no names mentioned anywhere...

Hi Jim

That casts doubt on any trader which is a bit unfair.
To someone looking for their first XM your photo could look just like a diode fix kit.
A large number of XM's have those fitted.
Bit unfair for good traders to lose XM sales over this issue.

John

Quite right John. Thanks for doing that.

[quote="xmexclusive"]
That casts doubt on any trader which is a bit unfair. /quote]


Absolutely John and thanks for pointing that out. I really didn't see that side of it at all... Sorry.

I shall edit the post I have on the FCF in a bit to reflect that.