Can I just say before the pages of problems start to appear, that its a mighty fine car! lol

Mark

I have to wholeheartedly agree there, touch wood. I've had mine for just over twelve months now, done 15,000 miles. Apart from a few niggles suffered by all owners and well documented elsewhere, it has been absolutley reliable. I know a few people hold dim views of XM specialist dealers 'elevated' prices, but my car is the silver one that has been shown as sold on Wolsey House Motors site for the past year.

I've just done the 50,000 mile service with an eye out for MOT'able faults as that is due next month and came across a couple of snags. The front disks are 1mm under the minimum thickness and a leak has appeared in the radiator, so I will be having to make those repairs in the next couple of weeks. The disk wear, the fact that the rear pads were down to the limit and there was only a couple of 1000 miles wear left in the front tyres were bargaining points on the price at the time of sale, although they claimed it had been fully serviced. I doubt they had done anything, maybe an oil change. It came with a fully reciepted service history and in the last twelve months had only covered 350 miles. It had previously been serviced every year, regardless of milage.

Brakes will be one of the topics for discussion here as, along with the 98> 2.5 Turbo, they are different from the rest of the range. The fronts are hard to get wrong as the calliper is a complete redesign but rears are very dodgy in my opinion. More on that elesewhere.

Ian

Hi Mark

Our very own corner! Great.

I've had my late V6 24v for about 18months. I've had a few of the big jobs done on it.

New stainless steel exhaust.
New cambelt
Fixed aircon

It just had all the spheres replaced on it before I got it.

plus I've had a few of the typical XM issues. Broken window winder etc.. There are a couple of other things that require my attention - left hand display is the poorest of the 3 XM v6's I've had, the illumination on the radio has gone (sound familar!) and one of the heated windscreen nozzles has packed up. It could also do with some new mudflaps.

Hence if anyone out there has a source of the heated windscreen nozzles, knows the trick to fixing left hand displays or knows a source of citroen contoured mudflaps then I be very pleased to hear from them.

The late 24v do have corner spheres all of their, plus getting new radiators is a lucky dip of suppliers catalogues to say the least (mines looking a bit rusty so I might replace it soon - let me know how you get on!). Quite a few parts are shared with the Xantia V6 and C5 V6.

It's a great car. Easily the best XM I've had and so far (touches wood quickly) very reliable. Only the "mind of it's own" gearbox makes me slightly nervous (has your's got a gearbox dipstick? the very, very, late 24v don't), plus mine makes the odd accasional clunk when slowing after driving alot in the top gears. However it's way better than the standard XM slush box.

Happy driving

Tony

Hi tony.
I've managed to fix my display 99%, where are you?

Also whats the likely cost of a cam belt change?

Mark

Hi Mark

I'm in south London (sutton) how about you? It would be great to fix the left hand display and at the same time I should replace the dash bulbs - the gear indicator one has gone.

The cambelt cost about £800 mostly labour but I had a couple of other extra things done at the same time- alot easier when the cambelt is being done - spark plugs (rear bank), water pump.

Having it done does make you feel better when you give it some occasional hefty loud pedal and fly.

Cheers

Tony

blimey better start saving then. Im in Dunstable - Bedforsdhire.

"The fronts are hard to get wrong as the calliper is a complete redesign but rears are very dodgy in my opinion."

The rear calipers are pure CX, so there should not be any problems on this tried and tested component.

Tony. the clunk you mention. Mine does this when you release the excelerator and is quite a weighty clunk.

Hi

I think it may be the lock up converter unlocking but I'm not sure. Although I have seen a couple of 150-200K Xantia V6 / C5 with these boxes.

Cheers

Tony

Don't know what happened to my last post but here goes again.

I've now done 20,000 miles in mine since purchased at 48,000. The engine and gearbox have been faultless (no clunk) but I had to replace both the centre exhaust (£440) and rear silencer (£260); both failed at the intake to the respective silencers, both too close to the silencer to contemplate a repair. I tried for an SS rear silencer but the price was even more horrendous, then I decided that as the originals lasted six years and I'm 73 what am I worried about?

The other failures I've suffered have been pure XM - a broken driver's window cable (repaired with parts supplied by XMexclusive), and a leaking near side rear suspension unit which caused the suspension to quickly sink at the back despite the anti sink valve.

I suppose I can look forward to a cambelt and plug change some time in the next eighteen months. Some confusion over the cambelt change interval, my handbook says 75000 miles whereas elsewhere I've seen 100,000 miles quoted. It's rather like the oil change intervals, Citroen says 12,000 miles whereas the same engine in the Peugeot 406 is quoted as 20,000 miles! Anyway, having seen many instances on aircraft where problems have been created by over servicing, I tend towards the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach. I have bought myself a set of camshaft setting tools and now have to decide whether to tackle it myself; it looks pretty inaccessible but I try to convince myself that as someone who used to pull a Double Mamba out of a Gannet and replace it overnight, it should be within my capabilities.

Derek

Hi Derek W

I got the cambelt changed just because I am planning to keep the my car for a few years and it had just come up to 75K, so I thought that prevention would be best. The thought of the cambelt snapping with 24V is something you just don't want to think about!

On the gearbox clunk, I get this on mine. It feels as if its a possible software bug. The engine ECU and Auto-box ECU talk to each other via a communications bus. Whenever the gear box goes to make a change it signals to the engine ECU to modify the engines power output by changing the ignition advance. You can actualy feel the engine lull back just before a part throttle up change.

What appears to cause the snatch, on mine anyway, is the box changing down to first gear during a turn. I think the normal routine is, if the car rolls down to a stop it stays in second gear until the car becomes stationary. If the car keeps rolling at about 5-10 mph it suddenly decides to change down to first. This inevitably seems to happen just as you start to accelerate away from the turn, it drops in to first as you apply the power and causes quite a clunk. I have quite a bit of info on the boxes I'll post another night. The box and engine are firmware upgradeable, but what versions are out there and whats installed is closely guarded by the main dealers.

The cam belt looks quite a simple job. Its dynamicly tensioned by a spring loaded and damped tensioner roller. It doesn't require the use of a special tension meter. The tool kit comprises a spring clip to hold the belt on the crank pulley whilst threading up and a set of locking pins for the crank and sprockets. It just requires a bit of care and atention to detail whilst setting up. access should be much easier if the front o/s wheel is removed along with the plastic cover in the wheel arch. I was going to make up my own set of tools on the lathe.


As for the belts breaking and damaging the heads, be a nice excuse to put a pair of heads off the slightly later ES9JS engine from the C5 and C6, variable inlet valve timing boosts the output up to 210BHP and improves the fuel consumption even more!!


Ian

Hi V6'ers...

Excuse my ignorence, I still drive an OLDER auto box V6, its ok, but would love a later one. Next year maybee..

I've driven a V6 Xantia with autoadaptive, I noticed a small clunk too. Are we sure its not the release mechanisem that holds the lever in P . The brake pedal releases that so you can "Drive"...

Maybee its a different sort of clunk then what I heard on this one..

Anyway.. to XM V6 sadist.. (Or anyone else that can help)

I have a 12valve V6 1993 XM, were did you get your exhaust done?? Mines getting quite urgent for replacement.. I do really only need the sideways box . I have the front cat and rear most box.. Any ideas, or cheap prices? Or is cheap out of the question.. If it is, I'll try our local exhaust people. They are good at repairs/straight throughs de-cat etc etc....

Regards
citroenxm

CitroenXM, I approached Busch exhausts when my centre section went and they incorrectly quoted me for the earlier 90 degree engine. Suffice to say that their price was higher than I paid at the Cit main dealer. Have you tried GSF? Their catalogue shows a centre box for your car at £52. Unfortunately no one seems to supply exhaust parts off the shelf for the late V6.

Masterclock, I would have turned up my own pins had I known the sizes (Boxford Model A used to build working model steam locos). Having bought a set, I'll mike them up and post the sizes on the forum if you wish. Incidentally, your Ivatt class 2 web page doesn't seem to work.

Derek

Hi Mark

So what was the secret of the success with your left hand display? Which method do you use to repair it?

Oh and CitroenXM I got a Longlife SS exhaust to replace mine. It's a bit simpler than the citroen pattern - with only one rear box rather than two and a single end tail pipe. It was quite a bit louder when first fitted by it is a lot quieter now. This is weird thing about ss exhausts but I've had this before. It does seem to have given the car a bit free-er revving nature - but that's propably highly subjective.

Cheers

Tony