Citroen XM Forum

I had a 2.5 estate for a few weeks a while back and while it was cosmetically challenged, it was a very impressive performer, one of the best compromises between power and performance I have come across. 2.5 FTW as they say.

And the old red estate is still rolling on, wrong side of 190,000 miles.

A good weekend so far. The first one I've spent doing very little.. No runs to Somerset, no work and no XM Estate to fettle. A most unusual situation

I washed my V6 Xantia and XM yesterday as they were both covered in grime and salt. Of course that made it rain today but not before I'd tested an engine ECU in the XM - one sent for me to test.

I'm happy to report it tests absolutely perfectly...

I'm active again on FaceBook. Anyone who wants to be my friend don't look for CitroJim but look for my real name. My domain name gives a clue as to what that is...

CitroJim wrote:A good weekend so far. The first one I've spent doing very little..

Jim, you make me feel guilty for contributing to you not having a *full blown* "doing nothing" weekend!

I'm still waiting for the "doing very little" weekend... Always something seems to pop up... A highlight this time was plumbing between 22:00-23:00 on Saturday night. Earlier, I'd found a bottle of caustic soda in the garage, and thought "hmm, why don't I service a little this bassin that's been half-blocked since we moved in this house". Started with a mix of caustic soda, ended with me undoing all the piping into the furniture underneath: the soda just melted everything that was in the pipes, and blocked it solid... Put all freed up pipes back together, tightened all very well , to find that nothing was flowing again There was such dirt, that it had gone and blocked piping further ahead! All off again, and thank God, the pump-thingy, applied directly to the last bit of visible piping, pushed everything ahead, flow was reinstated, and I didn't have to start breaking furniture...

And to think that the only reason I'd walked into that bathroom that evening was to have a quick shower before bed

[Note to all ladies: please, do not allow your hair to drop in the basin. If you still do so, throw a litre of soda mix each year. Thank you. ]

George, honestly doing what I did with the XM ECU was an absolute pleasure and relaxing for me so that only contributed to my very relaxing and pleasant weekend

I've had exactly the same happen with caustic soda and drains.. A friend once remarked that my kitchen sink smelt a bit whiffy and she knew the cure. She rushed off and returned some time later with some caustic soda and tipped a load of it down the sink...

She then made herself scarce... I know why I had the same 'fun' as you did having all the waste pipes apart is not my idea of as nice relaxing job - especially when you have no protective gloves of any substance..

The XM failed to proceed today, or rather failed to start. She had been standing a few days over Christmas, last outing being last Saturday when she ran perfectly.

This morning, to go to work, she didn't ant to know and rewarded me with an odd immobiliser problem. No initial red light, then a red and a green after a fair delay after keying in the (correct) code. Lack of comms with the keypad...

It was resolved by disconnecting the battery leaving it off for a few minutes and reconnecting it. After that everything was perfect and it's been not a problem since.

I presently have Jorgy's ECU fitted on test. I have never known my own ECU do this so we may now be finding there might be an issue with Jorgy's.. More testing is needed.

I also miskeyed the radio code first time and was annoyed at how long it made me wait to re-enter the code

You should be able to press a key which allows you to enter the next code. Only 3 times though. After that the waiting period becomes increasingly longer. Can't remember which key though

Can you strip out / disconnect the immobiliser? I hate the things - some numpty put one on my SM which guaranteed no-one could nick it as it drained the battery.

furriegurrie wrote:You should be able to press a key which allows you to enter the next code. Only 3 times though. After that the waiting period becomes increasingly longer. Can't remember which key though

BND for 10 seconds.

Hi Jim

For one of my long term projects I am looking to source a spare ES9J ECU (autobox version).
Does not need to be working or known code.
I want to strip it and compare the programme contents with a ES9J (manual version).
Already got an ex factory one of those.
I assume that like the 2.5 the immobiliser code is stored in the ECU.
If so the code moves with the ECU when you swap between cars.

If I can get one of these ECU's I should be able to work out how to test and reset to factory.
Having already done that for the 2.5 ECU should make it much easier.
Would be a pity to let ECU's go to scrap with cars.
Would prefer an XM one but an Xantia one might be interesting as well.

John