Blimmin' Citroens

[SamWise1972]

As most of you know, I've got two of the blighters, an AX diesel and an XM 2.1 TD. Both great cars, with a bit of style, standing out from the crowd, cheap to buy, and super cheap to run. There has to be a catch, right?

Currently, the AX has a wheel bearing going, the rear windows won't open, but other than that, everything works. It benefits from not having too much that's electrical, I think.

The XM has another failed ignition, meaning we're still hotwiring it, and needs a relay put in. The stereo has stopped picking up anything but local radio and Radio 4, it won'#t even find my Itrip anymore. The boot intermittently fails to open. The fuel gauge works only 10% of the time. The sunroof has never worked. Some of these things are irritations more than anything, but as much as I've always known it, it still amazes me that such an innovative company could make such a poor job of quality on their cars!

I'm suffering extreme Citroen frustration, loving driving them, loving the fuel consumption, but lacking the time or expertise to deal with the continual electrical problems properly. Argh!

[minijet]

If it's any consolation Sam, you're not alone. I'm in a constant state of 'Citroen (should that be Shitroen) frustration'.
Just keep telling (kidding) yourself that you wouldn't be any better off with a Ford, Vauxhall, Nissan, Toyota, BMW, Volkswagon, Skoda, Trabant, etc..........
XM's do have their good point though............they're cheap (or they were not long ago......before scrap metal prices went up)..........

[Andmcit]

Frustrations and niggles are better than serious calamities and the answer with them is to
bite the bullet and get their vices sorted - ask Shane if he's interested in doing online evening
classes with a webcam...

Ignition - yep that's a pain - they do pop up now and then on ebay so just keep a look out;
same for radio's and instrument clusters or fuel senders (some new!!). I've found the boot
catch has this annoying habit that requires removal of the boot lining and working in some
grease into the rods and catch mechanism. If you press down on the tailgate it helps when
you try the external catch - crazy but effective...

You'll have to live with the sunroof situation - in my experience, only 1 in 4 works TOTALLY
and correctly, and it's actually the key criteria in buyer check list when looking at a prospective
purchase - yes really!!

Andrew

[Ciaran]

I know what you mean guys. I go through periods of frustration with mine (I'm sure we all do from time to time), and sometimes it just seems like its one fault after another. In fact I just recently had a run of this over the past 8 weeks... if it wasn't one car acting up, it was the other. I got so pissed off, especially when my back injury flared up again and I found it very difficult to work on them, but that's life. Its happened before, and I'm sure it'll happen again.

HOWEVER... nothings more gratifying than when you finally get the niggly things sorted, and the beast is behaving as it should. Would you really feel anywhere near as good after having fixed your Mondeo / Vectra / 3 Series? Really?

I personally find it very satisfying when I'm blasting down the road in *that* seat, throwing around *that* steering wheel, even if I'm tired, covered in oil etc after having tackled a particularly annoying fault.

In all honesty, any car of this age and specification is going to have problems from time to time. Ok, so the XM's electrical system does let it down in places, however once you've tamed it and know it's little foibles, its not half as bad as you might imagine. Despite this, these cars are still incredibly well constructed and give great longevity of cared for well.

Don't give up, there's light at the end of the tunnel, and every little fault rectified is one less

Chin up lads, the cars are worth it!

Ciarán

This post has been edited by Ciaran on June 21, 2008 12:55 am

[Ciaran]

As a PS, Sam, just put the ignition relay in. It'll take half an hour maximum* (I can't remember if I did you a diagram last time), and afterwards you'll be so glad you did it, as there'll be no more faffing about with jump leads

*Arguably less time than changing the ignition switch.

Ciarán

[John Malkovich]

Re: stereo not picking up anymore
Check if the antenna jack has fallen off. It is on a rather stiff and short cable and pulling the radio out just a couple of inches will likely cause the cable to disconnect.