Citroen XM Forum

Ahh swiss alpine passes and a v6 xm....a dream combination

After a couple of fairly uneventful couple of months, the XM got a bit of attention today. I fitted 4 new spheres to the rear. The 3 suspension spheres were tested last year and were about 40% down in pressure. Passengers were still complementing the comfortable ride in the back seat, but I thought it would be best to change them.

The suspension spheres had 2006 and 2007 date stamps, the (so-called) anti-sink sphere appeared to be the factory original. To access the A/S sphere, I removed the LH subframe mount bolts and dropped the subframe until it hit the exhaust, the sphere could then be squeezed out to the rear.

I fitted Lizarte spheres, I have used them before and the quality seems good, but I don't like the guy who sells them on ebay UK (these ones were sourced in France).

While I had the spare wheel carrier off I decided it needs painting, it is just starting to get a bit of surface rust (don't get too jealous). The inside of the carrier is painted with a semi-gloss black paint, which although not much good for rust protection, does clean up OK with a wire brush for for repainting. The outside however also has a rubbery textured coating which is also not a very good rust protection, but does not come off cleanly with wire brushing. Any ideas how to remove this for repainting?

On my trip to the UK in a couple of weeks, the car is having a professional Dinitrol treatment, so I hope will be preserved in its current condition.

I am back and recovered from my trip to the UK. Sunday at the XM25 meet was rather good, thanks to those who made it happen, and to Matthew for the cake.

In case anyone is interested, the fuel consumption was 9.6 l / 100 km (29.4 MPG) on the Autoroute, at a steady 133 km/h, and in the UK the overall consumption over about 500 miles was 8.8 l/100 km (32.1 MPG), so the lower speed limit in the UK does save fuel.

On Monday I dropped the car off at Rustbuster in South Lincolnshire for a full Dinitrol rust protection treatment. They remove the plastic undertrays, steam-clean the under-side of the car and then dry the car for 12 hours with infra-red heat. Then they spray the cavities and underside with Dinitrol wax, and reassemble. Because of the condition of my car, they agreed to treat it as a new car, and use entirely clear under-seal (normally they uase black underneath as it hides existing rust better).

They have diagrams showing where to inject sealant in most models of car, including the XM, and a quick look at the document seemed to show more than 50 injection points. About a dozen injection points required holes drilling, mostly in the door ends and door-shuts. I am rather impressed with the job they did and am confident that it is for the long term good of the car. The cost was around £500.

Today I had a go at the fuel gauge sender in the fuel tank, which has always indicated about 1/8th of a tank remaining, when the tank is completely empty. This can be very frustrating, as the fuel warning light only comes on about 500 metres before the car conks out, and the trip computer is still optimisticall promising another 90-odd km range.

I pulled out the pump/sender and carefully checked it on the bench to ensure that the fuel pick-up is sufficiently near the bottom of the tank, it is, I think that it will drink down to about the last 15-20mm. I also checked for mechanical obstructions of the float arm, there were none, I then connected the sender up ot of the tank and checked that the gauge showed empty with the arm fully down, and that the warning light extinguishes somewhat above that.

On trial reassembly, the gauge was still not reading empty (the tank was almost empty, only 30mm of fuel from the bottom), so I bent the sender arm, a little at a time until the gauge did read empty. Then I put in a measured 5 litres of fuel, the gauge came nearly up the the first mar, and the trip computer promises 65 km of range, which seems much more reasonable.

Now to drive 65 km and see what happens... better refill the 5 litre can first I think.

It was good to meet you at Cosford Mike and many thanks for your kind remarks about the cake! The details of your rust treatment and adjustment of the fuel tank float arm were all most interesting. With regards, Matthew T.

It was nice to meet you Mike and your car is very nice...with no sunroof...

I would be tempted to bend the float arm a little more as 5 litres to 65km sounds a bit optimistic.

The fuel gauge was still not reading empty when it should, but was better, so I had another go at it today.

This time I pumped all of the fuel out of the tank, bent the float arm until the gauge red empty, then put in 5 litres, checked that the gauge went up by a reasonable amount, pumped out the fuel again, checked that the gauge read empty again, then put the fuel back in.

I don't know about the remaining range reading yet, as it does not seem to work sensibly until it has seen more fuel in the tank.

I also treated the leather to a cleaning and conditioning.

I also treated the leather to a cleaning and conditioning.

I am curious to know what kind of treatment you gave the leather. Could you tell something about how you went about this and what products you used?

I used Gliptone. Wipe the upholstery with a damp cloth to remove dust, then apply the cleaner, leave for a few minutes then remove with a damp cloth. When dry, apply te conditioner and rub well in.

Gliptone seem to have a fairly good reputation, but to be honest I used it because I was given it in a 'grab bag' on a Jaguar club rally a few years ago.

I would also recommend gliptone. It smells rather nice as a bonus.

For cleaning leather just use regular houshold cleaner...or even engine cleaner, but diluted, scrubbed in with a soft scrubbing brush.

All car leather is alanine and painted with polyurethane paint, so the surface is actually plastic. The main fabric won't absorb anything, so no point wasting money on potions.

I did mine with cheap industrial cleaner, then conditioned them with hair conditioner.

I have subsequently been advised to the above effect by a leather specialist, who is the one who used engine cleaner.