Gear Change Down Sluggish, Gearbox or clutch?

[Pavesa]

Hi,

I just got back from hols - drove all the way to Toulouse (Pyrenees) and then on down to Barcelona and back. Thank goodness for XM's, French motorways and air conditioning! Also saw stacks of XM's down near Toulouse - who says they're no longer popular!

Apart from the strange problem with the Water Overheat problem just seemed to go away of its own accord

http://club-xm.com/forum/index.php?showto...st=0&#entry5097

I don't know why!

I did find another problem though.

When braking firmly from high speed I found that the engine still seemed to be pulling the car, until finally it would stop with a rather horrible grinding judder. It felt as if the engine was pulling the car forward and struggling against the brakes, probably because it wasn't changing down through the gears correctly - maybe still in second or third gear when doing 5 mph. I found it was worked around by pushing the gear lever into neutral - for better or worse - or avoiding the problem by trying to brake smoothly. Still, you can't always do that and it would be pretty horrendous in an emergency stop situation.

Has anyone ever encountered this before or does anyone have any idea what the cause might be?

Regards and thanks

Andrew

[techmanagain]

Quite normal behaviour, I would have thought. Why are you still in gear at 5 mph? A 2.1 diesel has a lot of torque even at that speed, unlike a petrol model.

[Peter.N.]

Because of all that torque its very high geared, at tickover in 5th it will be doing about 25 mph, if you try and slow the engine below this, the throttle will start to open, producing even more power.

Peter.N.

[DerekW]

Am I correct in thinking your car has an auto box? Your comment that "it" was not changing down correctly suggests this and I think both Techmanagain and Peter N think its manual. If it is manual then the answer is of course to declutch as you are coming to rest. If, however it's auto, than it sounds as if the lock up (which locks the torque converter to give direct drive with no slippage) is not disengaging.

Derek W

This post has been edited by DerekW on August 09, 2006 10:48 pm

[Pavesa]

Hi,

thanks very much for the responses on this issue..

It is a petrol automatic. I never experienced this phenomenon on my other identical XM. I think it points to Derek W's suggestion? Has anyone else ever experienced this or know whether it is a big deal (ie/ expensive!) to fix?

Regards

Andrew

[Peter.N.]

Ah! sorry, it was the use of the word 'clutch' that fooled me

Peter.N.

[Robin]

For a start I would get the box serviced by having the oil changed, flushed and filters done.
If you check the filter debris it will give you an indication of whether the problem is more serious. It should only contain sludge but if you find metallic bits then the box is in need of something more drastic.
Also check all the control mechanisms, electrical connections and cable controls from the throttle/ECU.
Generally modern autos are so reliable that the biggest crime is dirty oil and poor cable settings or dirty connections to solenoid valves.
Robin

[Pavesa]

Hi Robin,

thanks for the suggestions. I bought the car about six weeks ago from the Citroen Centre in Oxford so I think I'll speak to them about it and put your suggestions to them.. It has only 83k miles on the clock so it is a relative youngster so I wouldn't expect a dying gearbox at this stage.

Andew

[DerekW]

That's the way to go, Andrew; pass it back to Wossiname at Oxford and let him sort it under guarantee. (He usually gives three month guarantees on his cars.)

Good luck!

Derek