Heater Blower

[DrTim]

OK, I now have fans and hot air back in the S2 VSX. Replacement fusebox £32.20 VAT from Citroen, and a couple of hours on a warm and sunny afternoon (for November, that is).

As I was testing and checking out the old box it occurred to me that maybe I could just have unplugged F2 and plugged it into F3 in the old box,. F3 had a 30 amp fuse fitted but was not connected, and whist identifying the part over the phone with Citroen it did appear that both are meant for 30 amp. xmexec suggested earlier that the plug polarization might be different, and I'm not disassembling it again to find out, but maybe this info will save someone else with this problem £32.20 + VAT or a trip to the scrapyard.

Thanks for all the help and advice.

[xmexclusive]

Glad your fuse box swap worked Dr Tim. In the early days of my F2 problems I did look at using one of the spare fuse ways in the box. I agree that many if not all of the fuseways will take up to 40amp fuses (the highest rating available for that physical size of fuse) though it is debatable whether the crap contacts are really fit for 20amps. Plugged into the bottom of the unit there are six or so individually polarised multi contact connectors but there are a large number of contactless blank holes in the conectors as only the ones used for that cars wiring loom are populated with contacts and wires. So swapping to another unused fuse way is not easy. I have tried releasing wires and contacts from a good number of XM connectors without any real success except where I cut the plastic of the connector up. I have even tried to order contacts and plugs from Citroen but that took about 8 visits to the parts dept, did not win me any friends and was not the raging success I had hoped for. I ended up ordering a copy of the contacts/plugs catalogue in the hope that I could sort out what I wanted at home but after a couple of visits to chase progress I was told the order had been cancelled as it was not policy to make that type of information available to individual customers.
I guess that a complete new fuse box for less than £40 that will last for another 10 or so years is not too expensive.

Regards

XMexc

[DrTim]

xmexec, I had another look, and have revised my opinion about plugging into F3, rotating the connector will mean that the bit that fixes to the yellow strip clip will be pointing the wrong way, so its not going to work. As you say I am glad to get it fixed so cheap, and hope there aren't too many more such glitches awaiting me!

[Ciaran]

Tim, with your S2, was the fan completely dead or did it work sometimes?

Not to feel left out, the fan in my S2 has now gone completely as well. When you start the engine, the blower runs for a split second and then stops. I haven't had the chance to test anything yet but I'm suspecting the transistors (have ordered them just in case), or the now infamous F2 at this point. Would be interested to know what your initial symptoms were.

Cheers

Ciarán

[Peter.N.]

There is another issue with the fan function which has only recently come to light. It depends on having 14 volts across the battery terminals. I have often wondered how they get the fan only to run when the engine is running, and that's the answer. So if you have a faulty alternator/regulator and the battery voltage is less that 14v - that will do it!

Peter.N.

[Ciaran]

Hi Peter,

Same thing as you suspected with my S1 then, will check that tomorrow night.

Just on an interesting side point, with all the fettling with the S1 system recently, I've discovered it actually runs without the engine! Is it only S2 that checks for 14v, or do they all do it?

Cheers


Ciarán

[Peter.N.]

Hi Ciaran

I knew I had been discussing this with someone - its the age This 14v switching arrangement seems a fairly modern inovation, I first came across it on a friends Berlingo, he said some of the instruments didn't work until he reached about 3000 rpm, that prompted me to check the battery voltage and eureka, the voltage stayed a 12 until 3000 rpm. The point of all this is that its quite possible that they didn't introduce this arrangement until the Mk2. I only discovered it as a result of repairing a motor which worked perfectly on the bench but not in the car. I left it lying on the carpet and started the engine and it promptly chased me round the passenger compartment.

Peter.N.

[Ciaran]

Hi Peter,

I've had the blower motor chase me around the car too, was quite funny

Checked the S2 battery voltage tonight, a nice healthy 14.3v with the engine running. While I was at it I thought I'd take a quick look at the now infamous Fuse 2.

That turned out to be quite funny:

First indication that somethings wrong with this picture, the fuse is looking a little dark


Nicely melted contacts and fuse leg still lodged in there:





So, I guess I'm off fusebox hunting tomorrow!
Does anyone know if the 406 / Xantia ones are a straight swap, or will I have to mess around with them?

Any thoughts appreciated

Ciarán

[kenhall1202]

Hi

I have had multiple fuse plastic melting occurrences and I did wonder if it would be possible to swop the wires over to one of the spare 'ways' in the fuse box, always assuming that the blade terminals are fitted behind. Another round 'tuit' job I'm afraid!

Ken

[xmexclusive]

Hi Ciarin and Ken

These engine compartment fuse boxes are standard across a whole range of PSA cars. On some models they are not obvious as they are inside a large box or have a plastic shroud around the base to keep them better weather proofed than in the XM. All I have come across are a direct replacement with nothing to modify to fit in an XM. Some have had 40amp fuses in them and these are ideal to use as the F2 fuse rather than the standard 30amp one. Wire swapping is not worth the effort as all the bottom connector plugs are uniquely polarised with no spare wires. The alternative is to fit a link wire with a standard inline fuse to replace F2.

Regards

XMexc

[Peter.N.]

Hi Ciaran

Yes, that's the typical scenario, have had it happen to my series two's but strangly not to a series one!. My present one has the fuse blades bent into a 'C' shape, endwise, if you follow, to increase the effective thickness, and has been working OK for sometime now, but will have to get round to replacing it. I havn't actually tried a Xantia box but I am sure someone on here said that they were interchangable.

Peter.N.

[Peter.N.]

Sorry about that John, you obviously type quicker thn me!

[Jan-hendrik]

A 40A fuse became standard on the last series XM.
Someone did a mod of the fusebox and wired 2 fuses, one of 30A and another of 20A, into the circuit by doing some soldering work. This way the original fusebox can stay in service. There are some unused slots in the box.

[jorgy9]

I'm sorry if I speak nonsense but, aren't the fuses matched to the cables' and other elements' capabilities? If they have put a 30amp fuse does this not mean that something somewhere in the rest of the system can't cope with more than 30amp? So we risk damaging something else by fitting a 40amp to a non-40amp car? Perhaps in late XMs that have a 40amp for F2, they have also accordingly reinforced some other part? Unless of course Cit has done a silly mistake just with the F2's amperage.

cheers
George

[xmexclusive]

Hi George

I suspect that it is the small profile 40 amp fuse that was the manufacturing afterthough as it is the only one in the range with bi-colour marking. I am satisfied that the cables are adequate for the larger fuse. The whole problem with this circuit is the crap pressed tin contacts in the fuse box and that all the positive contacts are pressed out of a single piece of tin.
Other than not liking 2 feeds to one circuit the solution that jan-H mentions is fine but unless you are willing to solder wires across plug connections the wires the fuse feeds have to be moved to new plugs and an extra piece of cable and connector contact found. Releasing Citroen plug contacts to insert into a new plug is tedious in the extream and in my experience usually ends up damaging the contact. The alternative of buying new contacts from a Citroen dealer I tried but ended up defeated by the system.

Regards

XMexc