Citroen XM Forum

OK guys, I went to see this car this afternoon. It's hidden under a thick coat of dust but it's silver and bodywork seems to be in pretty good condition.

It IS an auto....but it's not a diesel! It's a 2.0i petrol. And it won't start. I hooked up two batteries I had with jump leads and it turns over strongly but doesn't fire up. There was a strong smell of petrol and when we moved it to another space at the lady's request it leaked petrol along the way.
I will be going back this week to get the car recovered. I had hoped to be able to get it running and drive it to the MOT testing station near me but unless I can get it started it doesn't look possible.

My knowledge of petrol engines is limited, if it was a diesel I could troubleshoot why it wasn't starting but I don't know a great deal about petrol cars. Obviously the starter is ok as it's turning over, plenty of battery power. Petrol leak could be an issue? If it was diesel I'd put it down to air getting into the fuel system but does this affect petrol cars as well. Spark plugs? Any ideas?

Ahh, so it's a petrol..

Fuel leak is worrying and has to be the first thing to fix as the risk of fire is considerable..

Old petrol gums up and goes 'off' quite quickly. If you were trying to start it on what was in there since 2007 then I'd say you won't as the petrol will be too stale.

I guess it'll have Bosch LU2 Jetronic Injection and that's a pretty simple system really. It has a conventional distributor and generally as long as the fuel pump is running and sparks are being produced than it should fire up. How well it might run initially is very debatable but all that can be sorted. LU2 suffers from air leaks that upset idle and running but those don't stop it..

I'd drain off the old and get some fresh petrol in the tank as a start and then have another go but do get that fuel leak sorted first...

What's the general condition of the car?

The last petrol engine I worked on had a carburettor and a distributer

Condition looks good, but to be honest very difficult to tell under the layer of dust plus it was very dark in the car park. Interior looks good but rear seats are folded down and it has bits and pieces of debris in in, couldn't see any sign of the boot separation glass.

How would I go about draining the petrol from the tank (half a tankful there) With my diesel cars I use a 12v pump but that's a no no with petrol, I do have a plastic hand pump though but it would be awkward to drain it via the filler cap. Does the S1 have a tank strainer/access in the same place as the S2 diesel?

All XM tanks have the pickup in from the top. If you disconnect the fuel feed pipe at the engine and turn the ignition on, the pump should empty the tank for you.

To get it going pour a small amount of petrol down the intake while cranking. Be careful not to set the place on fire, though.

i would just fix the fuel leak then try to start it even with the old fuel in the tank,

i have got a 1971 DS 21 injection Pallas up and running on its old petrol, and she aint bin started since 1987,

and we have driven her around the owners ground several times with no running issues,
apart from after the first run round the grounds and parking her back in the workshop she wet her self with the excitement ( green blood ) leaking from the back of the O/S/F wheel arch,

if and when you drain the tank im sure the sender unit is in the same sort of place as the MK2, and a 12V pump is fine as long as you keep all power/battery connecting and disconnecting outside of the car and well away from the petrol fumes in a confined space,

all though it would clear all the dust from the body work

picy's please

regards malcolm

Dieselman wrote:
To get it going pour a small amount of petrol down the intake while cranking. Be careful not to set the place on fire, though.

this is very very risky even more so as there is a reported fuel leak.

regards malcolm

Dieselman wrote: If you disconnect the fuel feed pipe at the engine and turn the ignition on, the pump should empty the tank for you.

The best and easiest way but the pump won't run for long after ignition on as there’s a tachymetric relay in the way to prevent the pump running unless the engine is running. This is for safety.

Disconnect the fuel feed lines to the fuel rail, direct them into a large enough vessel to hold what's in the tank and then hot-wire the pump to make it run continuously until the tank is empty...

Malcolm, I can believe the 1987 petrol was still fairly OK. That would have been leaded and petrol in those days was a very, very different substance to 2007 petrol and kept generally longer before it went too stale to start an engine.

citronut wrote: picy's please

Yeah let's see some if poss....what a discovery. Hope you get it sorted Steve.

Only managed to get one pic on my phone but it's playing up, will try and get it uploaded to photobucket and link on here. I'll take more when I go back this week.

Malcolm tells me when he told the lady he was going to take it away she seemed sure that there was a problem with it preventing it starting. I'm hoping it's nothing too serious, what could be preventing it from starting?

Do these early XMs have a security system, I had a look for a keypad and there wasn't one, too early I assume, couldn't see anywhere for an immobiliser key either.