A New Zealand XM (2.0Ltr, 16valve)

[glegge]

I have been lurking, with the odd post now and then for some time since having an XM, and thought it time to introduce myself.
I trained as a software engineer, but also worked as a mechanic. handy skills for any car these days.

the XM purchased is a 1996 model (MK2 of course). 2litre petrol 16valve. Leather, electric seats, sunroof, extra glass over the boot, rear window shade, ABS, red with poor condition paint.

After reading around, downloading documents and getting familiar with the car, I've managed to get things back to good again with a few systems.

1) sun roof would not open, but would only pop up at the rear. this turned out to be the relay pack (the MK2 has only one) tucked in the head lining to the right of the motor. open the pack and found dry joints, the roof now opens, closes and pop's up.

2) RH rear window winder wire snapped, so i replaced this with new cable inner from my local motorcycle shop, flaring and soldering the ends onto brass nipples.
<edit> Since i see there are repair kits on ebay for these. although my fix seems ok but you MUST flare the cable before soldering it on to the brass nipple otherwise the nipple will pop off and you'll be soldering it back on out in the bush over the camp fire while camping


3) Suspension. after many false starts, i have got the suspension working great now. when you turn the car on, the suspension lamp on the dash board turns on, then off as it should to indicate the system is working fine.
Previously this lamp would only come on if you put the car in sport mode(which made no difference, as I'm sure you all know that if the lamp does not light for 3 seconds or so, when you turn the car on, the system is broken and stuck in firm mode.

Thanks to the wealth of knowledge, i quickly located the problem, the driver 'IC's' inside the suspension computer. i replaced them (very cheep sourcing them from RS-components in NZ), and also replaced the front hydroelectric valve as it was faulty.
I also put a diodes across the second hand frond hydroelectric valve as tests indicated it was not working.

Ever since doing this, the suspension is working great, with a large difference easily noticed between 'normal' and 'sport' settings now.

4) Power Steering.
the steering on this car has been heavy since I've had it. this weekend i finally got around to changing the LHM. reading about the pump and PS systems, i see there is a large volume high pressure circuit for the PS, and a lower volume high pressure circuit for the rest of the cars systems.
Reading this i had a hunch that perhaps the fluid was old or the filters clogged and not allowing the pump to supply the volume required to operate the PS with sufficient force.
As it turns out, the intake and exhaust LHM filters in the LHM tank where clogged and filthy. removing the tank allowed me to clean it with petrol, as well and clean the filters and 'hose body' which fits inside the tank.

refitting and adding new LHM left the power steering feeling stronger and lighter now, so that's another easy fix on these wonderful cars.
The steering still 'groans' a little when turning left, but i suspect the hydraulic ram seals may be dry, i'm hoping some lubrication will stop this noise.

5) a knock knock knock in the RH front, going by what i read, indicates a faulty ARB link, so i purchased one of these and fitted it, but the knock is still there (well i had to have at least one fail).. so i'm still looking for the reason for this knock in the rh front suspension. its quiet on smooth roads, but knocks on rough surfaces.
<edit> this turned out to be the lower A arm inner bushings. they where replaced and the knock is now gone.


6) got the steering wheel radio controls working with a pionear head unit. the previous owner had a go at this, so i had a resistor network to work with already, so i just re-jigged it for the new head unit, cleaned the switch contacts (it seems they get dirty and this is a resistor network so any bad contacting switches will cause the wrong function) and now it works great guns. i also wired the lights to a 12v supply so the steering wheel radio controls also light up at night.

things to do
respray - the paint is sad, and this car would be great with a new paint job.

service engine/gear box (cam belt, fluids)

gear box has a slight wine noise in 1st, I'm not sure what that is yet.

get the lamps in the window winder switches working in the doors.
<edit> done - buy little 12v lamps from jcar or auto electrician and they just clip into the winder switch. easy to remove and disasemble the switch and replace the lamp.


fix a leak from the roof. it makes the sunroof controls damp as well as wetting the head lining in front of where the lamps/sunroof switches mount. i have put the hose on it, and looked up under the head lining and seen the seal is wet where the sunroof assembly mounts to the steel roof of the car. I'm not sure if it's just overflowing and the seal is poor, or not draining fast enough.
<edit> most likely blocked drains (of course) never got around to sorting this.

leak in the boot, ever elusive...

fix all the door locks, they just spin. i've downloaded the doc for servicing them, i must get around to doing it.

Fix the matrix display, it has lines down it.

fix passenger front door lock - it does not lock or unlock electrically with the rest of the system.
<edit> removing the door lock and filling it with CRC and working it over and over lock/unlock/open/close etc seems to have made it better (for now??)


very slight radiator leak from where the top hose mounts to the radiator. it seems the plastic has a very slight crack and drips very slightly directly onto the abs computer (causing it to fault now and then). i cleaned up the computer pins and have made a plastic diverter to keep the drip from the computer. the drip is so slight, the water level does not change over many thousands of k's so far.

fix rattle which seems to come from down by the height control lever. since this is mechanical i wonder if a coin has fallen down next to it, when you go around a right hand corner with the engine loaded, it rattles loud. or it could be an insulator has worn out around the height control rods perhaps and it's rattling on its guides or mount.

but all in all, i love this car. its an amazing experience to own.
the engine, while not a race car, goes very very well for its size and age. I'm very impressed, when it kicks down it really goes. it cruises at speed effortlessly and once up to speed accelerates very easily. It also returns great gas figures. covering just over 850km's on a tank of gas. boot full of diving gear, on tour around the country.

its a pleasure to travel in. quiet, comfortable, and when you get to some twisty roads, sport mode works a treat.

so yeah, that's me really!
thanks for all of the articles of help.

cheers
Gavin
(I no longer own this car, once i can afford it i would not mind trying to find another XM)
(Ok, i got this car back again, i'm a sucker for it)

This post has been edited by glegge on November 03, 2014 03:56 am

[Peter.N.]

Hi Gavin

Welcome to the forum. You are the sort of person modern cars need, I was a TV engineer for over 50 years but my type of electronics is pretty useless now, no valves .

You seem to have got your car pretty well sorted, most sunroofs don't work here because the cables go rusty. You seem to have the knowledge to keep you car going almost indefinitly so keep up the good work.

I have sadly recently scrapped two estates largely due to rust but the other one has just passed its MOT so should be OK for at least another year. I have been running them almost exclusively for over 15 years but have now had to compromise and buy a C5

Peter