Citroen XM Forum

Great progress Miq. Well done.

The ticking under te glovebox could be the indicator relay which sometimes tick as a result of te indicator stalk making spurious contact even with the stalk in the no contact position.

The trims look good. What did you do, strip the backing and paint it, or coat it with single pieces of vinyl?

If a relay repeat-clicking (buzzing), then it will be due to a fault on the indicator (lights) stalk. Due to contact wear, the grease inside becomes conductive, and causes a relay on the main under-glove fuseboard to chatter. If you gently lift-lower the stalk, you should be able to 'manipulate' the chatter.

The switch is still available from Citroen (last time I looked) and on Ebay. You can also strip it (remove complete switch first - easy) to explore.

Search 'relay chatter' on the forum for plenty of info.

PS Did the Ebaman (manuals) link prove any good?

Thanks guys. Yes Chris I downloaded it all, very useful stuff!

I'll have a look at this switch tonight, generally these things get sorted with taking to bits, cleaning and regreasing but we'll see this time!!

DieselMan I took only some of them fully apart as the aluminium foil inside was rotten and pushing the plastic out, then glued them all back together, sanded the outer plastic to make them even, two layers of chrome effect paint and one buff over with a gun metal grey that I had lying around. A couple of layers of clear coat and done! If I have time today I will start a DIY post.

Hi all,

Spending weekends at home instead of racing is proving great to play a bit more with the car

I finally had some time to sort the "relay chatter" thing. Relatively easy, just remove the steering wheel, the 3 Philips screws that retain the black plastic bit in the middle of the steering wheel (pull it a few inches), then the bottom plastic cover of the control bezel, the 2 Philips that retain the actual indicator lever, disconnect the 2 connectors behind it, bring the steering column to the lowest position and simply pull the lever out. Once out, taking it to bits, cleaning and reassembling can be a bit more challenging so be careful not to break anything and make sure all the controls work as they should before putting it all back together. As you guys suggested the grease had become conductive as it was full of metallic dust from the copper guides and the silver pin inside (I suppose it's steel). In any case, good clean and re-grease and it works as good as new, very happy with it



And the pin (I filed the silver bit back to a nice round shape to make sure it made good contact with the copper strips and didn't catch on anything...it started scoring the plastic you see).



While I was sorting a few things I also found some rust on one of the corners in the boot, not major so for now it didn't need chopping and welding. I cleaned it, treated it and glass-fibre it for now.



Now for the controversial bit
This may not be everyone’s cup of tea and by no means I've done this for any increased beam power...it's purely for the aesthetics of it as I love yellow fogs and beams...I like to think that the way I do it is the "proper" way, as I airbrush glass stain paint onto either the lenses or the chrome inside the headlights. The advantage of doing it this way is that it looks way cleaner than the usual yellow film and the process is reversible, as you can always just re-chrome the whole thing, change colour or whatever floats your boat. For now this is how it looks...I also painted the chrome lips inside the headlights and restored to side lights, as they were perished and full of mould...I went for mainly black with chrome on the reflector side, so that the whole assembly of side lights and headlights is a bit more matching, as I didn't like the plastic looks of the sides with the clean chrome looks of the headlights. I may change it again and re-chrome the main beam as there is a bit too much yellow now, but will keep it like this for a few weeks

By the way this is legal (I've also gone for yellow bulbs). What you cannot do is go for different colours ie green or clear sides with orange main beams and so on.



Opening the sides:




After a few layers of chrome paint and clear lacquer (this is before painting the base black to match the headlights):


Headlights (if you are not confident be careful when pulling the whole thing out of the lamps):


After a few coats using the airbrush (paint is glass stain from hobbycraft, solvent based diluted 5:1 with solvent for better spread):


After clear coating:


On the car (note I yellowed the fogs although they are just empty, as the car didn’t have any):



Yesterday I went to Leeds to pick an e28 up with a friend of mine…15 quid return, must be running lean




I also finally sorted a couple of earths to the rear lights as every now and then the indicators kept triggering the blown bulb signal...all perfect now!

I've added a further 400 miles to it this week and I must say the car drives perfect. Even my 8 month pregnant wife who now struggles with back pain loves it for long trips

On the mechanical side nothing new...I've been cleaning and restoring all the metal under the bumpers/subframe, etc so all is nice and black now (ie the big metal plate under the grille). Next one on the list is one of the rear windows which doesn't go down, I think the cable may be seized up.

I've also noticed that since I went for 10w40 oil it smokes a bit more when I cold start it (especially if I’ve been impatient and the engine has cranked a few times). Would you guys recommend using something thicker like a 15w40 or 20w50 for classics?? I’d love to to be honest, but not sure if these are any good for this engine.

I think that that's it for now...there may be a few other things but I can't remember!! Oh yes, although the lighter is sorted it still blowing up any usb charger I put in, I am thinking that someone may have put the wrong fuse...we shall see!

Cheers!

Miq

Nice work on the lights. The yellow looks a bit more subtle than just painting the lenses, which gives a too strong a look in my opinion. Interesting products you have used.
Trouble with Xm lights is they aren't the best, hence many don't yellow them. But the look does suit the car.

Thanks Russ, at the end of the day a french retro car is where they really belong...having said that I've done similar things to pretty much all my cars lol

How are you finding the light output of the painted headlamps? I would think that paint wouldn't give a smooth enough finish to output the light correctly and also, French cars appeared to have yellow headlamps as a result of the bulb being painted, not the reflector.

The oil won't make any difference to the cold start smoke, that is incompletely combusted diesel.

Hi, the output is the same,I find that if you airbrush it and clear lacquer on top of the existing mirror the reflection is the exact same. The issue comes when people paint the lenses or use a normal brush or even worse that yellow film which acts as a filter.

In the past I've had classics were the lights were yellow from factory, and it was either the reflector that was a yellow mirror or the glass itself was yellow. Some more modern (mid 80s) french cars did indeed have yellow bulbs, but generally H4 with an extra yellow glass balloon on top of the bulb (you can still find these on ebay).

The airbrush dye on the reflector is also a filter, and subtracts from the available light output and spectrum. It will have the same action as dye on the bulb or the front glass, given a similar applied thickness. Essential that you use Nightbreaker or Xtreme bulbs if tinting up, to maximise light output.