Hi all!

First of all, thanks to noz for approving my account

I'm a Citroen fan from Hungary, we had a Visa and two BX in the family, I presently run a 91' gold BX Millesime, with a 97' 1.9D engine from a Berlingo.
But I am thinking of passing on the BX to my parents, and buy an Xm instead, preferably of the S1 variety (The S2 strikes me as a more conventional car). It always had been my dream car

And while not having it yet, I enjoy looking at photos and reading all about Xms.
So nice to meet you all!

Krisztian

Hi Krisztian

Welcome to the club, you have certainly come to the right place if you want to know about XMs. I have been running them for about 15 years but they are becoming more difficult to find now, or at least manual 2.1 diesels are.

There are still a few out there and there is bound to be something that needs to be done to whatever you buy, so we will watch this space.

Peter

Yeah they are getting scarce over here, too. Wanted to show one to my significant other, but you can hardly spot one parking or driving around. But all the more fun owning one I have done various mechanical and electronic repairs on my BX, so I'm not afraid of doing work on the car.
By the way, what do you think about automatic transmissions in conjunction with a 2.1TD engine, how it fares against the manual in frequency of faults (Manual gearboxes never failed me so far)?

One of the reasons I run the manuals is because the gearboxes are almost indestructable, one of mine has nearly 300,000 miles on it, the autoboxes on the other hand don't seem to last much over 100,000. The other reasons are economy and quietness - the auto seems to insist on getting to 3000 rpm before it chnages up, you can do it well below 2000 on the manual, and of course the performance is better on the manual.

The 2.1 engine is very flexible and will pull from tickover if you are not in a hurry, once in 5th you rarely have to change down unless in town and this flexibility makes it very economical. My average consumption is 40-50 mpg with well over 50 on a long journey, to be fair I don't drive fast or hard and live in a rural area but others also get this sort of consumption. This is better than the 1.9 XUD engine in the Xantia and others, I think the 2.1 is the best IDI engine ever made, its 3 valves per cylinder makes it very efficient at low revs.

Peter

Hi Krisztian,as you will see there are several established camps on the forum with regard to engine g/box configuration.I am from the auto/2.1td camp.I run 2,a Bosch powered 230K kilometer and a Lucas EPIC with 280K kilometers,both S2's.I ran an S1 with manual g/box and Lucas DPC pump for several years prior.The EPIC powered car had a complete auto box and torque converter rebuild 4 years ago,in all fairness when i purchased the car i knew about the g/box and planned the rebuild.It was carried out by a ZF approved specialist.
Without doubt this car is the best of the three.Autoboxes tend to be neglected on servicing and incorrect fluid,the real killer, as does coolant and hydraulics,so check all of these for colour, clarity and smell when looking over an XM.Lack of coolant changes will lead to head gasket failures due corrosion,lack of hydraulic services to poor hydractive operation due clogged valves.There are other need to know facts which i'm sure you'll find in the forum dependant on which engine/gearbox configuration you find yourself with.Good luck with your search
robertm

Finally got my XM, after searching for a time like eternity for me It's a 1991 2.1TD manual with digital a/c. It's in reasonable condition, there will be some work on it that must be done.
I had to do a 150 mile round trip to get it, but it was only £520 equivalent of money, so I considered it a must get based on it's condition looking at the ad photos. The trip home was eventless apart from the fact that it has almost slick summer tires, which was worring in zero temperature conditions on the motorway. But took it carefully and got it home safely.

The engine is pretty good, it has been serviced recently for glow plugs, filters, and drivebelt. Suprise came next morning, when I started it, it ran, and then died. Thinking it's cold, I carried on, it took 30 or so startings to keep it ticking at idle, but then it still stopped when driving and changing gears.
Reading on about the problem here, I bypassed the fuel heater with a piece of alloy tubing I had at hand, and that cured it. It required reasonable amount of cranking to start the previous day, now starts promptly on key. So it already needed servicing on the second day of my ownership, but I didn't expect less

Things that needs to be done:
- tacho not working, comes alive now/then, but stays low otherwise
- gear knob disintegrating, even more so while driving home
- rear left electric window not moving an inch
- boot light is not working
- rear window sprinkler not working
- radio is not controllable from the wheel (in fact it's fitted with a non-remote controllable model)
- door lock sliding buttons and a plastic element covering the rear glass fixing, are missing
- glovebox strut is flat, lock is broken and the light is missing

Apart from these, I very much liking the car My first priority is fitting winter tires now, if all is well, MIchelin Alpins are on their way for me

Will try to attach some photos now.








And a pic of the missing trim element, not so nice looking