Citroen XM Forum

Jaap, excellent news Very happy days!!!

It would be hard for a hydraulic Citroen to fail a shock absorber test.

I don't know that. I would imagine that if you have 1 new sphere and one old or empty one, it is a failure. Even on Turby there is some imbalance. Not that I can notice it while driving. I suppose they were put in at the same time, and re-gassed similarly. But true I never failed a test on shocks.

The damper is the oil passages in the neck of the sphere. They can't alter so can't fail, as such.

that's good news!

Dieselman wrote:The damper is the oil passages in the neck of the sphere. They can't alter so can't fail, as such.

They can. I had a set of rear corners that behaved more like accumulators. Made the rear end of the Activa as bouncy and as wallowy as a bouncy castle.. Confused the hell out of me for ages. I checked the sphere pressures and they were excellent. Checked everything else before finally replacing the corners in absolute desperation and normality was restored.

The discs on the ends of the damper elements were loose on the duff spheres and this effectively ruined the operation of the dampers. I had Pleiades turn them into a pair of accumulators for me...

I am going slightly mad...it finally happened

meaning: I am taking this odd old Turby Diesel tomorrow night into the UK tomorrow with the stereo (proper one:) on max! (thank you Max for the Kenwood.._
From Holyhead to Portsmouth, from Portsmouth to France and after that somewhere to the Southern parts of France.
To seek the sun shine and the good life of France...and finally try out the sun roof cause I've got no AC...
After that, we will have to go North to pay my respect to my old folks who will celebrate some 50 years of marriage, followed by an 80 th birthday of my mother in law. Parties I know yeah...

I ask you to keep all your sensors on line so that you can give me either moral support after suffering sun burn or worse, but more importantly give me technical advise in case of minor technical questions, let me put it that way

No AA memberships, just a spare wheel and some spanners..I'm missing that final screw:)

Now I've done worse in the past, driving a 2cv from Africa to Asia via Europe but that thing never wanted to finally break down.
Simplicity rules but that's another topic not belonging here...
Still, I expect nothing but smoothness and comfort from Turby Diesel, I'll try and bore you now and then with some upkeeps.
I've checked all levels and 5 tyres and managed to get the brake pad warning light working again. Only because I had one almost totally worn brake pad recently and I don't want to be able to trust the brakes in the Pyrennees or where ever we'll end up.

In the mean time, enjoy your own XM and the sun where ever and when ever!

Have an excellent holiday / adventure Jaap. You'll be fine.
I admire your courage for not having breakdown cover.

I unfortunately have had an experience where I did break down in a 2CV. It was my friends. And he had no cover. But it was faulty electronic ignition that caused the trouble. If it hasn't had that, it would have been fine!

Very jealous anyway. I'm sure you'll have great time! Sun roof put up, is the best way...too windy completely open.
I MUST visit France again. Not been for soooooo long.


Remember...Radio Gaga is great autoroute music!!!

Oh yeah, GaGa like me!!

Break down cover is virtually impossible as far as I know, for cars older than 1o years. For Irish cars that is.
I did look into that for travels with the 1998 Xantia some years back, could have bought a few xantia's for 2 weeks cover, no thanks!
Electronic 2cv ignition is great but it does fail, especially the older ones. Always carry the original system as a spare system (tip for your friend)

Don't know much about diesel ignitions etc. so keep you Haynes at hand