Unfortunately there is no Diesel Xm with Diravi.

But yours is the petrol V6 anyway, Ila, arguably the best XM! (with apologies to all diesel owners out there).

Hi

Been away from the forum for a while, but now happy to lend my support to the petrol XM discussion.

I've had my 93 2.O turbo since February this year (lowest spec model, which I'm a bit unhappy about). I've added only about 5,000 miles to it - it's now done 150,000.

It appears to have been serviced regularly and runs very very well - although the consumption around town seems crap (full tank lasts approx 420 miles).

I had new front spheres, and complete oil and coolant change in first week.

The body work is great.

I also had a section of exhaust pipe replaced (under warranty), but the whole lot might need to be done soon - sounds a bit rough.

Getting a bit bumpy, so probably need regassing.

The manual shift is also a bit clunky - indy City guy reckons it needs an unjustment.

Goes like a robber's dog on the open road. Turbo takes a few seconds to do its thing. Took it to a ton on my first drive - but eased off due to possible serious fine (actually, at that speed in New Zealand is automatic loss of licence).

I also don't clean it as often as I should, but very happy it's heavily galvanised because I live next to the beach.

So there.

I currently run a 1999 V6 24v Auto Exclusive (I believe the penultimate one to be imported). Current mileage is 61000 of which the last 12000 faultless miles have been in my hands. My last XM was a 1990 2.0SEi (sold at 133000 miles). That one went through a phase where it would suddenly lose power and start missfiring. Twice it came to a dead stop and could be restarted and run normally half an hour later. The faulty component was an ignition module, small oblong gubbins bolted onto the back of the cylinder head which was obviously affected by heat. Interestingly my I bought my wife a Pug 309 with 1.6 petrol engine; after about six months it developed the same fault and yes, it had the same type of ignition module.

I used to run a 3.0 V6 24v. The original 200bhp version, still have it sitting, the only trouble i ever had from the engine was when it wouldn't start, and that was caused by a dodgy connector on the battery. A bit of copper slick on the terminals and she was away again!! From what i can remember, there hasn't been any trouble with the engine, apart from with the first owner, the car was in France, and still under warranty, it had a new engine. I believe it dropped the valves. I have been informed that there were some changes made to the engines, they put ceramic liners on the valves or something like that. Seems to have worked, not had any other trouble. I'm toying with the idea of putting it back on the road again!
Thanks.
David Hallworth.

Just been up and started my 24v XM. All was great, started at the flick of a key after sitting for about six months, turning over lovely, nice and smooth, then when it had warmed through, started to give it some revs turning the "wee thing that makes it rev on the engine" (not sure what its called, excuse the terminology), and noticed that when it got to about 4000rpm, and upwards, there was some water that came out of the top of the reservoir. Checked that the lid was on ok, and it was, took it off, replaced it, and revved it again, and it did the same thing. Sounds a bit to me like its pressurising the water system, which suggests cylinder head gasket, just wondered if any of you guys out there had any different thoughts. Let me know. Thanks.
David Hallworth

So far so good. Reccomemded to this site from David, I've just accuired a V6 XM.

Its the 12 valve model, 1991, white (sigh), every mot to warrant 108,000 miles, immaculate interior, everything works, except the air con, the pump doesn't activate but the fans doo, and so far so good, its performance its exhilerating!!

I'm a Diesel fan myself, but had this as its been converted to LPG!! What a bonus. I wouldn't have kept it other wise. So far in Three months I've done 2,500 miles and its been perfect. ..... ..... ...... when on petrol, its going for a Gas tune up soon I shall then inform of any glitches if any when I get it back.

At the moment though when it runs on Gas its giving me um, equvilent 42mpg!!! Thats good enough for me, as I beleve the Diesels top this figure too.

Else where on here I was looking at import figures, as someone said Citroen Centre has figures but annoyingly they only state Series 2 models... What about these Series one cars... much more individual..

Anyway.. thats me briefly..

Paul

Further to my 20 Feb post about my 1990 2.0 SEi. Bought at 103,000 miles, shortly after purchase it dumped the contents of its cooling system all over the M4. A press fit ally coolant tube had blown out of the cylinder head. With sublime faith in my own abilities I pressed it back in with a liberal coating of locktite; the following day and 20 miles later it gave the M4 another shower. This time I turned up a new tube out of ally bar, cut a half inch BSW thread on the end and tapped the hole in the cylinder head with the same thread, applied locktite and screwed it home firmly using molegrips - job done.

Other than the previously reported problem with the ignition module it then gave me two years of trouble free motoring, until one day I came out of my classroom to find it sitting in a puddle of coolant. Lying alongside it with my arm up behind the offside front wheel, I could feel what seemed to be a loose drain plug at the back of the engine with coolant still dribbling out of it. Try as I might, I couldn't get the threads on the "drain plug" to engage and finally I had to call for a breakdown truck to take the old girl in to Citromech at Wokingham. THis is difficult to believe, but the "drain plug" was actually a bolt which had fallen out of the exhaust manifold. It had landed in a cut out in the inboard end of the RH driveshaft and been thrown forwards and upwards to bury itself in a casting at the back of the engine which carried coolant - I havn't a clue what the precise purpose of the casting was.

As I said previously, I eventually sold her at 133,000 miles and at my wife's instigation bought a Pug 406 V6, but there's something about the XM and I eventually persuaded her to let me get shot of that and buy my V6 Exclusive. I was courting disaster when I wrote about my 12000 trouble free miles, shortly afterwards I had the problem with the rear suspension (see my post in "hydraulics") and then had the exhaust centre section fail, cracked at the entry to the transverse silencer, too close to the silencer to be repairable. Annoying as the rest of the section looked as good as new. I phoned the local tyre and exhaust man at about 4.30pm and told him it was a late model V6 24 valver, after checking around he came back with a price - £470! Having Hobson's choice I told him to go ahead and order it. At 5am the following morning I woke up with a horrible premonition and at 8.30 I phoned the exhaust man and said "You do realise that there are two models of 24 valve V6, a 90 degree one with single chain driven camshafts and a 60 degree one with double belt driven camshafts? Mines the 60 degree, have you ordered the right part?". To cut a very long story a little bit shorter, it was the wrong part and the right part was unobtainable. Panic Stations! Then I did what I should have done in the first place and went the the Citroen main dealer. They produced the right lump the following day for £440 pounds, cheaper than the original quote but still bl***y expensive.
So this one has cost me a Grand so far this year; still. she's worth it.

Be lucky,
Derek.

Hi All

I've had 3 XM V6. The first a MK1 12v v6 was definitely the most unreliable car I have every owned. (the most reliable being a ZX TD that I had for 6 years and never had to do anything to except regular servcing over 80000miles). The electrics were a nightmare and I think that it had a dodgy auto box swap that caused loads of problems.

The second 12v V6 I had for 2 years and never had a single problem with. Nice motor very reliable and bought for a song with a full citroen history. Just changed some spheres and that was all.

My 24v V6 (2000) seems OK. It has some niggles. The left hand side LED doesn't work too well (how come the later the XM's are the worse these seem to be- haven't manufacturers heard of sorting out problems!). The climate occasionally throws a wobbly, one of the rear elecy window winders stopped recently and the exhuast went (exactly the same place as Dereks).

So the XM V6's seem fairly reliable, but they need plenty of TLC. On the upside they drive fantastically. If you want a really reliable car buy a ZX TD!

Tony

I have a 1993 XM2.0 petrol turbo hatchback 'ONYX' model and a 1993 XM 2.1td hatchback,i've got to say the petrol version is a helluva lot smoother to drive and nothing ever seems to go wrong with it!I just don't enjoy driving the diesel that much.It's like night and day between the two cars,its weird?The diesel creeks,moans,makes hundreds of different noises and the funny thing is the diesel has had an absolute fortune spent on it by previous owners(huge pile of receipts and service history)yet the petrol was just bought from a dealer with no history.

The engine in my '99 V6 is smo-o-o- th, quiet, powerful and trouble-free. What's to report?

Hi Guest

I have petrol 1995 Series 2 Estate. I bought it 1 Sep this year sight unseen except for the Autotrader seller's photographs. A friend drove it down here to Southern France and even with binding brakes and low tyre pressures it averaged 35 mpg.

I have changed all brake pads (35 euros on French Ebay) and fitted LHD headlights (a lucky find on French Ebay for 80 euros incl del). The car sailed through it's French MOT with no observations and French MOTs last 2 years.

Car cost £1095 and has done 133k miles. Why buy in UK when I live in Citroen land? French cars secondhand are fiendishly expensive as are parts. Secondhand items are hard to come by as older cars tend to be kept until they drop and then advertised complete for spares and who wants a drive full of old wrecks.

Regards

Sean

I must say from the correspondence on here the most popular car seems to be the V6, If you are just an enthusiast thats fine but I do a lot of miles and couldn't afford to run one. I have had four 2.1 tds and although I have had my fair share of problems, the Mk2s particularly, seem to be quite reliable. I fitted a head gasket to mine earlier in the year, not a pleasant job, but I must say that for the last 10k miles or so it has performed faultlessly.

I can immagine that the V6 is nice to drive, but the small petrol engines just dont have the low down grunt that the diesel has which makes them revvy and noisey. The thing I like best about the XM is the ride and quietness. You can keep the diesel below 2,000 rpm most of the time which makes for relaxing driving.

As late manual 2.1 td estates are virtually unobtainable now I fear I shall shortly and sadly, be handing in my resignation!

Peter.N.

I have a petrol 2.0 SEi, which I got off E-Bay for buttons.
Can't say much about it as it's only running on 2 cylinders, atfer a comresion test it has been found tath 2 and 3 have nearly no compresion at all, so I shall be changing the head gasket this weekend as its almost certain the fire rings betwen 2and 3 are shot. It's only done 186K.

The compresions were
1: 172 Psi
2: 30 Psi
3: 30 Psi
4: 175 Psi
and wet they were much the same

Can't say I would touch a deisel, not after 6 years of LPG on XJ's and 827 rovers the deisle would jsut be too expensive of fuel, and not refiened enough. My XM is just becuse I like the look of them and thought for what I paid it was bound to be worth it (£75, with 8 months MOT) If all goes well I will be looking for a real one with 6 cyls!

Stewart