Citroen XM Forum

Good tips Jorgy. Thanks. I will take care with the clips then. Interesting that yours has behaved okay too. Very reassuring.

I have now bought 3metres of 10mm clear braided PVC fuel pipe from a diesel parts supplier. Probably too much, but best to have more than not enough. That was well under a tender including delivery.

I have new leak off pipes too, which I will fit aswell...maybe tomorrow if the weather holds out. Then that can be illuminated.

Thanks for your help guys.

Has anyone ever heard of this.... Metal injector leak off pipes?

I thought a nice easy job, try an eliminate any air ingress and change the leak off pipes. Nope! what I found were metal pipes. And yes I don't mean the main injector pipes, these are the looped small pipes that run from injector to injector. They appear to be rubber, as they are rubber coated, but they are totally solid. I tapped them all with a screwdriver and they sound like metal. They dont flex at all. All of them including the end cap are all metal.
Interestingly they appear to be genuine Citroen parts as there are chevrons on them. I was totally flummoxed. You can't pull them off either. I don't want to force them incase the little bobble heads shear off.
I even checked my other spare engine to make sure I am not going mad....and they ARE rubber. You can see the flex and move about when touched.

So that job has happened!
I wonder if it was some sort of upgrade when the car had it's tweak in 2001. Or the rubber is so hard and baked it has turned into metal!

Wow what a find Russ! Mine look like rubber too (1993 car)...but now I wouldn't swear to that!

Standard pipes are rubber, to the best of my knowledge. New piping from PSA simply comes in a 1m length, to be cut to fit.
Possible that yours could have solidified with age, although never seen that. It usually perishes and splits at the ends.

Exactly Chris, I would imagine aged rubber to be a bit crispy and then either split or looking quite perished, maybe with a little flex in them still...But they are completely solid and don't budge a mm. As I said tapping them with a screw driver they sound metallic. They look in good condition too actually...
Really strange, it was the last thing I was expecting. I was always under the impression these pipes should be little flexible rubber tube essentially.

I have checked the service history and I can't find any time they were replaced. Apart from quite a blank invoice from the Dutch company that tweaked the pump in 2001. Wether they upgraded the leak offs to metal pipes, who knows. My only conclusion.

Oh well... live with them I suppose! I'm not going to break things by trying to remove them.

Any chance of a photo?
If a solid pipe, how on earth are they fixed to the injector nipples?
C.

Will do. I have another pipe apart from the fuel pipes to replace, so I will get a pic then.
I'll try and show you how solid they are.

All I can say is they are pushed on like a usual rubber one. no idea otherwise.

Here we go. Two pics of these mysterious leak off pipes. As you can see my grubby little finger is pressing on the top of one with quite a bit of force and it's not moved a mm. With a rubber one it would have been pressed down.







Managed to swap over the filter to pump hose with new clear hose this afternoon. Investigated the other one and it's held on with one of those annoying crimped looking hose clips. So could all still be original. Which means the pipes are most likely in desperate need of changing, therefore they really could be at fault. I will get the other one done very soon. Ran out of time today.

I would put money on that being standard 'rubber' injector spill-back pipe. It even has the printed marking running along it.
If it's gone rigid, it's either with age, or it wasn't great quality to start with. The markings on it look familiar - I'm sure I've seen it before on XUD engines.
Get a new length from Citroen (1m pack, IIRC) and replace.
Use a scalpel (remember those?) to slit the pipe ends off the nipples.

The last injector in the chain usually has a plastic (terminating) cap on its outboard nipple. These go hard/loose/leaky. Replace with a tiny length of the new pipe, with a suitable plug.

I'm sure you're possibly right Chris, but I have never come across rubber pipes like this having gone sooooo hard. They are like the suspension pipes.... just covered in rubber. They don't budge a mm, either flexing about or side to side or anything. Completely fixed solid.

If it's still a bugger to start after doing the fuel pipes, these will be next on the hit list. I have a set of leak off pipes ready to go.
Good idea about the scalpel... Yes I do know what they are!!!!