Citroen XM Forum

When I thoroughly rewaxed (4CR cavity wax) our hatchback last year, I removed the wheel arch liners. Was surprised to find a huge slab of soft plastic foam stuffed into the rear wing, behind the rear wheel, and almost filling the space. Presume this was anti-resonance soundproofing. The foam was, thankfully, bone dry, but starting to degrade and disintegrate.

Waxed the complete inner wing space, but decided not to replace/renew the foam, after a bit of thought.

My last experience with factory foam-filled body cavities was on Austin-Morris 1100/1300s, where the sill sections and rear wheel arches were renown for rusting out. I was horrified then to find the rearmost length of the sill, and its hollow continuation into the up-and-over rear wheel arch, were simply stuffed with a length of cheap foam plastic (bathroom sponge quality), so once the water got in there - which it did virtually from Day One - it was guaranteed to stay there!

No doubt a bit of sound deadening of very thin metal on-the-cheap - or else a deliberate attempt to limit the bodywork life.

For the XM, judging the thickness and "quality" of the body panels with the old trick of rapping them with a finger knuckle, does show up the rear wings without the foam to sound a bit less dead as a sheet of metal. This is somewhat mitigated by the new layer of good wax, but I accept something might have been lost in the way of sound insulation/reverberation control. On the road, this isn't noticeable.

The S2 is noted for being better sound insulated than the S1. Wonder whether the rear wing foam is present on S1 as well?

I've not noticed any on mine, but that does not mean S1 didn't get the foam. Another job I must do sometime, wax the rear wheel arches.

The estate rusting out quicker must be due to the fact they are cut up saloons. Possibly the new metal is not galvanised, or when attaching the new back, it effects the original treated metal. Who knows...Only Hueliez does I suppose!

Hi Russ

In no way were XM estates cut up saloons.
Just some different pressed panels for the rear.
According to Automobillia all 3 versions of the XM completed the detailed design stage.
The estate getting a delayed start on its own production line.
The convertible was aborted before birth.

John

AHHH... misinformed by someone then! How did I get to that conclusion?! I suppose cut up saloons with an estate back tacked on would be considered a cut and shut. So obviously they wouldn't have been.

So just to clarify, estates were made by Hueliez like the BX and Xantia estates in their factory. So were semi complete body's sent to Hueliez to finish off, or did Hueliez build from them from scratch?
Because things like doors were from the saloon with caps glued on to hide the difference in roof height.

XM estates were made with front to middle panels supplied by Citroen, rear end panels and underfloor made by Huliez.

This is the only foam I found - when I took the wheel arch liners off



Fits at the top of the arch on the offside as a cushion between arch and fuel inlet pipe.

How big is that piece, Eddie?
The slab I found was several cm thick, and occupied most of the space in the aft end of the wing.

That is not foam Neil but a felt liner/duct that channels air between the boot vents and outside! Regards, Matthew T.

Oh, that's what it is.

Begs the question why there is only one piece of felt and why it was stuck to the top of the offside arch.