Citroen XM Forum

I still can't remove the stereo though. What's the knack? I've been told to remove the stereo surround, but there isn't one. The entire front panel comes off on one side, but not the other. It also seems to be held by something at the rear of the unit. I've never had this trouble with a stereo before!

Ignore me while I talk to myself. Stereo now out. Has the code on it, but because a wrong code was attempted, I'm currently locked out. Just a case of turning it on and waiting a while?

I think you have to leave it powered on for several minutes, could be 10 or could be as much as 60.
It says in the manual for the stereo if you have it.

If not I'll look it up for you later when I goto the car

Just checked with my radio manual. If an incorrect code is entered it says to leave it for one minute with the set switched on.

Turns out the sticker on the side is not the code. Locked out again! It has one last chance or it's getting replaced.

Are there any handbooks with the car Ian?

Unlikely that the Radio Code would be on the radio in the form of a printed sticker. If an owner had placed it there, then most likely would be handwritten.

In 1996, the Radio Code was provided on a criedit card sized piece of plastic, grey on one side with Citroen printed in black (same grey as cover of owner's handbook), with red-on-cream info on the other side - including Radio Code and Ign Key No.

Fairly sure that was the only official owner copy of the code.

Take it you are using this sequence to input the ? code you have:
- switch on radio, word CODE appears
- press 1, display changes to four dashes
- enter first digit, by pressing arrow up or arrow down, followed by 1 (to confirm) when correct digit shows
- press Up or Down to obtain second digit, and confirm with 1 again
- repeat for digits 3 and 4
- when fourth digit is entered correctly, radio will beep and function.

Every time you get the code wrong, the waiting time before allowing another attempt lengthens, to deter hackers.

Only the XM handbook. Nowt else. However, this has happened.


Pulling the stereo out revealed a longer code that a chap on the Tech Watch forum could use to look up the code. Sound really good! I get to listen to all of my old cassettes again.

So, all sorted, radio-wise, then?

There are interconnections between the lock and the lighting but not the same control unit.

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