Were Back (again)

Hi folks

Just back form another XM spotting expedition, this time to the north of Scotland. Didn't see any though - well I think I nearly saw one, once. What we did se though was lots of rain gales and snow, drove back down the A9 from Wick on Monday in a blizzard.

The XM was again trouble free, with the best ride quality I think I have had from it. I fancied it was getting a bit rough before we went to France so I fitted new centre spheres, that increased the suspension movement by about 500% but when in 'hard' mode I bounced the front, it did literaly 'bounce' instead of having a nice damped movement which lead me to believe that the wheel spheres were less than satisfactory. This surprised me as I had already replaced these with 'comfort' spheres a little while ago. I always write the mileage on the spheres with felt pen and was surprised to find that they had actually covered about 60k miles! Anyway, I fitted a new set all round and the suspension ECU from the black one as mine had gone intermittent, and the results have been excellent.


The fuel consumption on the trip up was just under 56 mpg and that was with my wife and I, an elderly German Shepherd and all our luggage plus my amateur radio gear, I wonder what it would do empty? The cold weather has also stopped my tappets rattling

Peter.N.

Peter, I'm not familiar with your cars - how many miles in total have they covered now?

The green estate, the one we just came home in has covered 188k, the black hatch about 178k although it had a new engine at 100k. The red estate that my son drives has done about 230k but had a new engine just before I bought it at something around 220k, I am not absolubtly sure of its mileage as the speedo didnt work when I got it.

Peter.N.

Im impressed with your MPG, thats great from such a big car. The mileage is impressive too. Ive been wondering about the 2.5 estate on ebay, with 170K miles. It sounds a good car, but how many more miles has it lfet to give

I would think you could top 60MPG quite easily with an empty car. Peter, do you ever notch the suspension down a bit on motorway runs? I find if you put the lever so the top of it is level with the 'normal' line it lowers it not too much but im sure it will improve the dynamics a fair bit. (lots of modren cars lower at speed, the C5 for example) The ride isnt compromised much, as you dont use much travel on motorways anyway, but economy will be improved. (Obviously dont lower it by much as you dont want the system losing pressure - and therefore brakes.)

Its good to hear of people still spending money on these great cars, they are far too good for the scrap man! - (sorry, unrelated thread!)

I don't drive very fast and with as little throttle and few revs as possible, makes it quiet as well as economical

The last 2.1 estate I sold had covered 292k and was still going well. The clutch was beginning to slip but only if you pushed it hard, the engine and gearbox were still fine. That was just over four years ago when there were so many about that if anything serious went wrong you could just throw it away and get another one - how things have changed!

I personally wouldn't buy a 2.5, not because I dont think they are a very good car, they are, but they are difficult to work on (for me anyway) and the parts are expensive and not easy to find. The head gasket on the 2.1 usually needs replacing at about 150k but that's about all that goes wrong with them. after six cars, the only other engine component that has failed was the dual mass crankshaft pulley, and that was at about 250k!

Peter.N.

Ah i see, i tend to pop along a nice motorway speeds, so im sure it will make more of a difference at higher speeds.

Do you know if that was the original clutch that was slipping? it did well if so!

Its shows they do the miles quite happily, which is good, as most have now done well into the hundreds of thousands. I wonder how many low mileage diesel estates there are out there now. I can't imagine many, as thats what they are bought and used for - miles!

I have every reason to believe that the clutch was original as all my cars have done a fairly high mileage and I have never had another one with clutch trouble except the black hatch which I bought with a non working clutch, but that was only the thrust bearing, I was going to change the whole clutch but there was hardly any discernable wear on it at 78K!

I tend to drive at 60 - 70 mph on the motorway, according to traffic conditions. If it is really busy, I sit in the nearside lane with the lorries, unless they are going very slowly. I don't see the point of weaving in and out just to gain 5 mph - but then I'm old

Peter.N.

Hi all.

Ditto Peter's post. Of the 2.1s I've had, only had to do the clutch on one and that was at about 295,000. Also had a clutch cable cable break on one and that was a sod to do until I figured out how to work the self adjustment bit of it. As I'm now in the 2.5 camp it's a bit disconcerting to keep reading about the average clutch life being at the 150 - 200k mark, especially since mine is just heading into the 150 area.
Anyway, heater matrix give out yesterday (see other post) -- so generally p****d off with it at the moment !

Mike.

I didn't say a word.

I think the clutch life has a lot to do with the driver and driving style, rather than the car.

The 2.5 has a bit extra torque than the 2.1, which may explain the heavier clutch wear.

However, i believe its mainly how you use it and not the car.

That silver xm advertised on here, with only 31K miles, has already had a new clutch!

This post has been edited by Citroenmad on November 03, 2008 12:39 am