Living with the XM

[djm666]

I am 22 years old. and have had a lot of cars since i learnt to drive in Britain in 2005. when in the uk i had 5 XM's and countless other citroens.
I got given a 2.0sei series 1 XM at christmas. and spent a bit of time getting it upto spec and on the road and have covered hundreds of km's in it. and have found myself really enjoying it.

it is not pretty and has had a hard life, but for its wrongs there are so many rights. it is just as an article i read, written by jeremy clarkson, he said the more issues and things wrong you could find in a car the more human it became. and in the end it is not just a car, it becomes something special and you end up rather attached to it, and i have found he is right. i find myself smiling when driving the XM and hoping the fun wont end for a long time.

So now i am on the hunt for a parts car to make mine a shinning example as there is a load of little things i want to make it better. plus you have to have spares.
and if i get really keen i think it may have a respray of the faded parts, i will take pics along the way.

here it is currently:






I will have to take more photos as i get more involved. it seems i find myself doing something every week to get ontop of everythhing i want to do. it is just like owning a classic car you have to be in the shed every weekend doing something on it.

[citroenxm]

ah ha! "The green".. Ive got a 3.0 V6 SEi in that green and the front end is exactly the same if not worse... Both wings, the nose cone and bonnet have all peeled the laquer!!

It does make them look a right mess...

Where are you, I see shes RHD?? Malasiya??

Paul

[DoubleChevron]

the clear sands off pretty easily.... I just scuffed the whole car here and blew some new paint over the top. I give the finish 10/10 given I did barely any prep on the car. It's holding up very well in the Aussie sun too (without lifting or pealing).

Just as well I guess 'cos now I have to paint up another bonnet for the heap of junk I might put a Series I spoiler on the back too if they fit.

seeya,
Shane L.

This post has been edited by DoubleChevron on June 14, 2011 01:49 pm

[djm666]

I am in new zealand, it is a uk import, got given it after it got to much for a friend who likes trouble free cars, shame as it is really nice.
yeah i was going to wait untill it has peeled fully off the wings as every week there is more coming off, and then i will hit it with some fresh paint.
yes the sun just seems to bugger the paint, it must have been just shit lacquer.
i will wait till i move to resrpay it as i will get in trouble if i spray another car in my garage at home.
I just did the leg returns today as they were looking a bit worse for wear. and the new brake hoses are on back order. if they go NLA i will get racing ones made.

[djm666]

so how did you pump the strut through the bonnet?

[DoubleChevron]

It's the sh!t design of the XM. The only thing holding the entire suspension unit in the car is a frail piece of bonded rubber. If the rubber or the bond fails (which they ALL will in time) you end up with the entire strut punching a hole through the bonnet. Talk about a potentially fatal design flaw.

The good news is these strut mounts are over $1000aud each ..... *if* you can get them.

the way to check if yours are about to punch a hole through the bonnet is to put the car on high and pull the boots down. If the rubber looked ovalised put the car up on axle stands to take the weight of the suspension and find new strut mounts before car is used again. there's a lot more details here:

http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=89347

seeya,
Shane L.

[citroenxm]

However, we can get refurbished ones now which have a welded "Safety" ring welded into the top, so when the rubber de-laminates again the two halfs CANNOT pass each other and damage your bonnet again...

The refurb tops work out around 150 each done... and carrage..

I have two fitted on my 2.1 sed XM which im slowly getting round the jobs..

Paul

[djm666]

I have heard of the problem, only if you put excess strain on the suspension. we had a customer go over a hump back bridge at 110mph in a xantia and that did the same with both of the struts.
we put it down to rust on the metal under the rubber then the rubber seperating.
it is just the one shit design that lets it down, all the rest is bullet proof really.
so someone needs to design a strut top that wont fail.
when i find a parts car for the pattern i will set out to find someone to make them.