Series One and 1.5.
Theres a few differences between the Series One and 1.5, externally, there are no changes and all cars look identical. Its underneath and inside where the changes took place, but can be spotted easily once you know what to look for. This is of course assuming a car is original and not had any changes made.
The first change was a swap from a single spoke steering wheel to a twin spoke wheel. On top specification cars, cruise was added to the SEi trim. The second easy to spot change was the earthing points under the bonnet, on the inner wings, to the left of the ECU black house on the drivers side (UK Cars) or the the right of the battery. On Series one cars earthing points were simple Plug in earth points, which corroded badly, and caused bad connections, mainly sending duff signals to the ECU for the suspension.. From about 1992 Citroen changed the connection to conventional bolt on Earth Ring points. This modification can be done on earlyer cars quite easyily.
The third point which can be a bit harder to see is also a suspension ECU modifcation, and a change to the "Electro Valves" resulting in a more reliable ride and switching control from Soft to Hard modes.
Eagle eyed Citroen XM owners should have noted that the main picture above of my Green XM has been fitted with a Series 2 grill. This shows they are interchangeable.
My First Series 1 V6. 1991 H reg
The interior of this First XM of mine still looked very sumptious!
Here is a rare sighting - more then one XM in the same place. This is a shot of all three os my current possesion of cars. The Grey one on the left is my 1991 H reg Series One 24v XM. The black one, is a 2.oi Turbo Auto, on LPG . Its a 1994 Series 1.5 car. This car will be for sale once Ive done her up. The green one, is another shot of my 1993 Series 1.5 V6 12v Auto.
Common Weaknesses
I think the XM is a VERY underated car - an aquired taste maybe, but also a LOT of car for VERY little money. However, like most cars, there are common weakness in the cars.
Around the Bodywork
The first area is rust in the cills, usually to the rear around the rear jacking point. The rust is caused by abuse of the jacking point.. if the car has fallen off a jack, or had the lip of the cill bent inwards, this pulls the inner cill away from the outer, opening up a drain hole, this then lets more then enough water into the cill and therefore encourages rust from the INSIDE outward, resulting in rotton cills once its found.
The second area caused by rust again is in the Suspension Strut tops under the bonnet which house the front suspension spheres. Rust attacks the UNDERSIDE of the strut top inside the wheel arch.. the final result? The sturt top popping up into the underside of the bonnet causing a bit of damage.
The Third area of rust can be found forward of the front arches, behind the bumpers. Ive found the bumper side fixing points, that bolt the bumper the lower leading edge ofthe wing to the body rusts away, this then leads to drooping front bumper sides.
Mechanically
There are two types of Four Cylinder Petrol engines, one type of diesel engine and two tyres of V6 Petrol engines in the Series one and 1.5 Cars. All have Alloy Heads.
The two Petrol four cylinder engines are of 1998cc size with 8 valves. One Injection and one Turbo charged. There was also a Carb version, but vurtually extinct in the UK now. Both engines are good for high miles, but can suffer from hardened valve seals - blue smoke on startup. Anti freeze is important to prevent rusting up and prolong the head gasket life. Turbo engines are also strong too. Brown coolant can lead to bad news. This unit is NOT a wet liner block unlike its smaller 1905cc and 1580cc smaller sisters.
The 4 cylinder Diesel engine is an outstanding unit for its time, incorporating a 12 valve head. Similar setup to the petrol engine, useing an alloy head so anti freeze is important to prolong life. Brown coolant can lead to bad news in the near future. Many diesel units have surpassed 200k without any huge problems. Early units in series one cars from 1991 had plastic inlet manifolds with Lucas Mechnical injection system and manual gearbox only. From about 1992 the manifold was changed to alloy, and Bosch mechanical was then used. The offer of an auto box was added too.
The V6 cylinder petrol engines are the last incarnation of the old PRV 90 degree engine which was fitted to most 70's Volvos, Renaults and Peugeots. This unit is prehaps the least reliable of the engines used..fitted in a transverse installation for the first time this meant an unthought of exhaust manifold, during original design, for the front bank of cylinders. Needing to pass round the starter and under the engine even a heat shield was not enough to prevent too much heat from the exhaust passing to the starter. Weither this is the REAL reason for a common starter motor fault on this engine im uncertain, but I beleve it contributes to early retirement of starter motors on these V6 units. The PRV is an all alloy unit, and as usual anti freeze is important to prolong head gasket life. Lack of it can lead to gasket disolving and giving lots of problems. In 12v form the performance is adequate however, from 1991 a 24v version was launched and has remained the Fastest and quickest XM ever. Faults on the 24vunit are similar to the 12v unit as its the same engine family.
Automatic Boxes.
All engines were offered with automatic boxes. Its a ZF box and unfortunally suffered a lot in the XM. Weither its down to incorrect recomendations for maintenace or just weak is unknown, however, they must be cared for as much as the engine. Owners reporting if they have the Gearbox fluid changed at 5k intervals the life of the box is extended greatly. Majority of XM's had auto boxes fitted, and unfortunally with so many auto box failures has resulted in a loss of many cars due to cost of repair. Find a car with a good box and look after it and it should return a good life.
Interior Trim and fittings
Moving to the inside of the cars. Early Series one cars suffered various squeaks and rattles in the trim. Fine if that doesn't bother you. A common breakage is the Glovebox Catch. Other things that fail are the window winder units. The cables that drive the window rot through and snap leading to the window falling into the door. Other area of weak trim can be the Door pocket lids which the hinges can snap off.
The electronic information display units are reliable on the Series one and 1.5 cars, and never normally fail at all.
Trim levels on the XM are high on Si and SEi / Sd and SEd cars. All windows electric, mirros electric, seats electric, sunroof electric. In SE/SEd spec you also got Leather Trim, Air Conditioning and Alloys standard. Finding an electrical item that moves in one direction BUT not the other is useually a switch fault and fitting a replacment switch sorts this problem out.
False Warning messages.
Series one and 1.5 cars had a bulb failure warning system fitted to them. A common fault is the message of failed stop bulbs, however, this is caused by bad earths and can be solved by improving the earthing from the rear lamp cluster to the body, and cleaning up any corrosion that may be evedant on the cluster circuitry
ABS Systems.
An ongiong investigation by me and many other XM owners. It is common to see the ABS warning lamp on. I have found on my V6 that even with the light on the ABS DOES STILL OPERATE correctly, so Im still to find why the lamp comes on. There are 2 typres of sensors used on the XM's. Both systems are a Bendix system and the difference are in the sensors. Sensors on these two systems are interchangeable.