Citroen XM Forum

Is what I was going to suggest but do use that little used handle! I mean raise the suspension to start with. It's how I did it last with one of my 2 xm's being off and one passed the test. Went well. But don't underestimate how easy it is, given the amount of failure's on head light alignment. I'd like to know if you are going to see more with them too.

Me too Jaap. I will be taking comparison photos of my old lights on the car now, with the cleaned up ones. Looking forward to the results...

I have a horrible suspicion that my heater matrix is up to no good. I did some usual checks water, oil ect and topped up both. Oil not much, but the coolant was quite low. It always seems to settle very low, but anyway a good slug more antifreeze won't hurt....mixed of course! No other visible signs of a coolant leak.

I checked under the drivers rubber mat and once again it seemed damp. Just in front of the seat. Nowhere else really. But rub your hands over it quite hard and you don't get wet hands. It is really odd. No smells of curry or coolant. As I say I have a suspicion, but not convinced it is the matrix yet.
What is strange is you would think the carpet around the central stack, would be wet or damp too. But all seems dry.

If it isn't the matrix, then it can only be one thing.....it has to be the drivers door seal....it has been raining quite heavily recently.

Then there is my ABS. That has come back, or off as likes to tell me, oddly with the disappearance of the glow plug light lighting up too. Hmmmm a possible link maybe. Don't know how!

Grrrrrrrrr, car mysteries...hate em!

Well today I changed my headlights. I really enjoyed it, mainly as it was so straight forward and really easy.
The only tricky bit being the horn bracket and lower screw, probably easy if you take the bumper off.
I did attempt to take the bumper off, but the weather was looking a little dodgy at times and did rain a few times too, so I'll leave that for another day.instead I treated the bumper metal bar and painted it up just to keep it going. I did however investigate a little further, why my bumper is not lined up and stressing the wing out. It seems the bumper wing mount has been modified and not that well. You can see the original bracket and it is on it's way to being rebuilt I think. Anyway it is covered in loads of underseal. At least that is helping.

So the headlights...well, yet to align them, need it to be darker! But already the light output is much much better. I will follow up with some night time pics of the light output. Handily I only had to buy two new bulbs....Some Osram Nightbreakers. The old units had two new bulbs from the MOT. And they look identical, so they might well be Nightbreakers too.

So here are some pics of the lights. I didn't show the dismantling, pointless as everyone can do it!





The drivers side light all finished and sealed up. Close up on the lens.






The passenger side light.

The lenses are quite strange. In situ, they look yellow again. Not as bad as they were, however, if you look straight through them they are clearer. So just off centre they appear yellow. I think for my next experiment I will use a stronger hydrogen peroxide and see if that works. What will be interesting is to see if, when and how long it takes them to go yellow again.



Cleaned up lights fitted.

And for comparison, my old dirty, Cobb webbed, mossy old units. I will restore these up eventually and then replace the others and keep those for spare. I know it sounds odd, but I have used a few bodged bits on the others which I would rather in the end get rid off.




So that's it for now. Thank you Matthew for headlights. I think they'll do the trick.
Fingers crossed the light out is better. It already looks that way!

Those lights will benefit immensely from a wash out.

They certainly will Will, but what you can't see is the silvering is shot in both of them. One of them has been turned into a spiders commune too! It is full of webs. Actually can't wait to crack them open and see how they will clean up.

They aren't that great inside to be honest, so i'm glad they are off the car, but I do want to put them back for originality sake, once I have completely refurbished them. I have stumbled across an interesting paint, which might be the answer.

I tried paint on the front reflector bits. It wasn't any good.

This isn't an aerosol or enamel so say chrome paint. It is quite expensive and has a mirror finish. It is quite amazing how it works. But I need to know how durable it is with regards to heat.

Those new lights look a lot better Russ

What news on your matrix? At least they’re easy to change in an XM... Unlike a Xantia where the whole dash has to come out..

Antifreeze on carpets can be detected in two ways: it'll be sticky to the touch and if that's not conclusive then rub your fingertip on it and taste it. Antifreeze is either very sweet (its natural taste - which is why it's so dangerous to animals) or very bitter where it's has been denatured with a bittering agent to make it unpalatable to animals. Most antifreeze nowadays is bitter.

Don't taste too much as ethylene glycol is rather toxic as a few wine aficionados found out the hard way a few years ago. Ethylene glycol was allegedly added to some Austrian (I think) wine to improve its taste...

Thanks Jim, they are soooo much better. cheers for your suggestions on the matrix issues....I cannot figure out what is going on. I will go and lick my carpets and see!
What I can tell you is it isn't sopping wet. And the only damp I can seem to find is right in front of the drivers seat. But again it isn't a swimming pool. I have felt the pipes to the matrix and they seem dry. All the carpets, especially round the central stack are dry.
I still don't trust it....


The other thing it could be, is the door seal or window. It has been raining quite a bit here, so I need to go and check it again.
Also, the glow plug light is back and the ABS did go away, but last time I drove it, just as I parked, ping!

So I must get you to elit it the hell out of it at CXM!!