Full XM factory manual on CD

Hi All,

A while ago I pursued the prospect of an XM manual on CD. At the time I was led to believe Citroen produced such a beast and I was looking for partners to share the cost. However it turned out to be rubbish, no such thing exists.

I therefore turned to the prospect of creating one. I have scanned in all 1746 pages fof the factory manual and have burned the whole 645MB on to CD. It has taken me hours and hours of work to achieve this.

I am now in a position to assist my fellow XM owners by offering the toils of my hard labour for a small contribution.

I am offering copies of the CD for £30 or the equivalent in Euros. Postage, depending on country would be extra but probably only £2 or thereabouts. Initially the cost is to cover some of the many hours spent putting this together, the CD burner which I had to buy and the software I had to buy to compile the manual.

I'm not being greedy. Depending on the response and after my CD burner and software have been paid for, I will consider reducing the price. My only aim is to spread the amount of technical information about the XM so that owners stand a chance of repairing the car by themselves rather than being ripped off by uneducated scheisters masquerading as Citroen experts.

You have to understand that I'm not a dealer or any such thing. I'm not even in the car trade. I am a Citroen owner of some 21 years and an avid fan of the marque. I do all my own repairs and would encourage and help others to do the same.

Payment methods may be difficult since I've never done this before. Any suggestions very welcome.

The electrical section which runs to some 800 pages will probably cover 90% of all problems highlighted in this forum. The Hydraulics, suspension, brakes and steering run to over 200 pages. ABS is fully covered as is Hydractive I and II.

All models are covered in the manual including left and right hand drive. Even the Diravi is covered even though it was never fitted to RHD cars in this country (biggest disappointment, I miss it dearly). It also covers both the Series 1 and Series 2 models.

The manual covers all of the updates for the various trim and accessory options to date.

I realise copyright is an issue. If someone has an overriding desire to dob me in to the appropriate authorities, just let me know and I'll keep the manual to myself and you can pay the highway robbers for the priviledge of 'repairing' your beloved XM.

My motive in all of this is to help fellow XM owners keep their hearts desires on the road at a reasonable cost and to reduce the amount of rubbish spread about how things work. The electrical wiring diagrams alone should dispel most of the myths circulating on how certain parts of the XM should work.

Serious enquiries are invited to norrie at hirford dot freeserve dot co dot uk. I haven't worked out the payment side yet so bear with me.

If someone would like to act as an independent adjudicator on the quality of the manual I would be quite happy to send a copy of the manual to someone of high standing on this forum (eg Anders). They can verify the content and the quality of the manual to give others the confidence that I'm not a con artist.

The manual is in pdf format and fully indexed. Adobe Acrobat reader is included on the CD for those who don't have it.

Now that I've done this for the XM I would be willing to repeat the exercise for other models by popular demand. A poll may be required to judge interest in each model. Maybe a moderator could advise of the best way to go about this? I don't know the features available on this forum's software.

The ultimate benefit would be obtained from having the entire manual available on the web. However the hosting space required is huge (645MB) any advice how this could be achieved at no cost would be welcomed.

Regards and best of luck

noz 8)

This post has been edited by noz on January 15, 2006 09:18 pm

Hi,
since ive seen a lot of such gooodwilling projects (actually i own two of them) could you give us a sample of the quality of your work?
The copies i have were supposed to be professional work but there are pages missing, bad resolution, shifted scans, etc. 30 Sterling is actually a lot, for that money you get at eBay the whole Paperfolder (4times).
Please post a sample
Thnx

XMore,

Sample pages for download here:

http://www.hirford.freeserve.co.uk/citroen...nxm/5700001.pdf

Having added more pages recently the manual is 1860 pages and growing. It does however only cover the series 2 cars from RP6383 onwards (May 1994).

See XM_L on Yahoo and Andyspares for testimonials from satisfied recipients.

I have never seen the true fatory manual for sale on ebay !

Cheers

noz

Hi Noz

Just would like to know what your cd contains ???

Will it cover petrol & deisel engine in full ???

Has it got all wireing diagrams for everything all cars ???

How to pay if I wanted one ??

BGB,

Yes it contains all engines for the series 2 models only. Do you know your engine code? What model and engine size do you have and I'll tell you if it's covered.

It has about 800 pages of wiring diagrams. Again, if you tell me your model and engine I'll tell you if its covered.

If you're interested, send me a PM. Cheque Paypal or cash acceptable.

Cheers

Norrie

Hi,

I have this CD too and I can tell you I'm happy to have it. It is worth the money. It's not one of the disappointing stuffs you can get through ebay.

It was a great task to scan this quantity (I also have made some scanning and even digital photoshooting, so I know it's a hard and time consuming process).

Regards,
Mr. QB
Xm 2.1 TD VSX '96

Only to remember you that the service manuals are copyright covered and are avalaible at any Citroën dealer...

"and are avalaible at any Citroën dealer"

Not in the UK where they even try and deny the XM was anything to do with them.

Ask about XMs in a main dealers here,

First is a blank look, then,

Was that one of ours?, then

Do you want to buy a C5?

This is how I view it:-

Norrie's disks are only ahem "samples" of the standard of files that he is able to produce. As they are only samples you should really return them to him, or destroy them. Of course you can always keep a copy at your own risk

Mark

No argument about copyright but have you ever tried to purchase a copy of this manual? I did. I tried for 3 months and failed to find even a part number.

As for 'asking your local Citroen Agent', first of all you need to find one with the manual. I know a couple of agents who have already put them in the bin. Citroen agents do not want to work on XM's. They regard the time allowed for each job to be very low so they lose money every time they work on an XM. Next, if you find an agent with a manual, you have to persuade them to let you see it, never mind borrow it.

I know all this from personal experience. When I first got my XM I had quite a few problems with it and tried to buy a manual from all sorts of places without success.

Citroen are not going to be concerned about the copying of information which allows other people to repair XM's. The more people repair them the less likely you are to go to a Citroen agent who don't want to know about your XM anyway.

As I said in my very first post, if you feel very strongly about the copyright issue then feel free to pay your Citroen agent the value of a small mortgage to maintain your XM. It's no skin off my nose.

Cheers

noz

This post has been edited by noz on December 10, 2004 08:55 am

noz,

could you (or somebody else) point me to an address to order the manual CD? I may be a bit thick, but I could not find any link.

I've got a '96 V6 with a leaking DIRAVI which needs replacement. I am quite experienced, but this procedure is a bit beyond me and I should very much appreciate Citroën tutelage.

best wishes

g

hmmm....
I would say that it is not a crime if someone collects / downloads material that is found on the web.
but to sell such databases, carries of course some risk to the seller, which is not to disregard the obvious value of such materials for the Citroen enthusiast, especially in a country like the UK, when the Dealer's support for this model seems to be verging on the ridicolous.
(incidentally it has translated into the resale prices of XMs beng ALSO ridicolous over there...)

For Citroen themselves, actually PSA, it might be rather doubtful as to whether they indeed appreciate the enthusiasts' effort to keep a particular model alive - on first sight, it seems that PSA should have image/brand value benefits from such enthusiast activity - but on closer thought, maybe they just DON'T want an image to be developed that the Citroens are very "enthusiast cars", or "very DIY cars", or cars that require frequent reading of manuals and DIY mechanics skills in order to run them... they might just as well WANT to run away from such mixed marketing blessings - it is not so simple as "we" tend to think...

so there might be some very good reasons that Citroen would maybe (this is just an assumption) appreciate more if the XM was NOT SO BELOVED by people like us - because the obvious image benefits of it are a double-edged sword when you look at it from a distance.

So I would not rush to accuse anyone who is helping others to get such databases,
but, then again, I would not find it acceptable as well that someone offers commercially such materials on a public forum like this one.
It is a tricky topic, not unlike discussing about the thin line between erotica and pornography...

cheers

Alexandar

I've just got a copy of the manual on cd from noz. If you are thinkimg about ordering one - it is exactly as described and well worth having if you do any work to your XM. Even if you don't, few mechanics are completely familiar with them.
Many thanks
Bigmixer

I can definitely recommend Noz's cd. It is invaluable even if you only change the oil and filter on your car, or check the tyres. A total bargain at the price - and I believe Noz will even scan extra pages for you if they aren't already included. contact the guy now.
Wendham

Don't worry, here in Italy it's the same story.

"what kind of car? An Xm? Which problem? Oh, we can do nothing: we have'nt time/parts/intrest to rapair your car."

What to do? Call Citroën customer service

"Sorry. Please, come back, we can solve your troubles"

Happened two day ago for my car: a motor-oil leak from a head cover.

Bye
Ila

p.s.: when you can, the D.I.Y. is the better way.