2.5 TD XM aux belt. THE NOISE, MAKE IT STOP!!

[lankytim]

Hi All,

First of all, my XM is now MOT'd! Passed with advisories on tyres and a bit of subframe rust. Great eh?

The only problem it has now is the aux belt is making a real racket at idle, seems to fade away at higher revs. I hear that parts are now unavailable, but I do have a spares car with a quiet aux belt area. I could swap all the bits over but my roadgoing XM has aircon (non-working) and the spares car doesn't.

Any advice on what to do to silence the damn thing?

Tim

[citroenxm]

Hi Tim,

With NO disrespect TO FCF what so ever, this topic is discussed a bit on Club-xm.co.uk MORE then on here..

Theres a couple of 2.5 experts on club-xm too..

SORRY FCF.. if this offends..

[citroenxm]

But basically, its a combination of Belt, Spring on the tensioner and tensioned..

I solved the problem on a S reg TD Xantia by removing the spring and replacing it it a Fix'd bar that was slightly longer then the spring I took off. Effrectily making it a Manual Adjustment.

The tension on the belt was then wound up by the eccentric tensioner further down. Worked perfectly for a long time too!

The noise you hear is the spring idler "Bouncing". What causes it is anyones guess, but you can firstly try by fitting a belt the next size down! I couldn;t give you exact belt lengths but try asking your indy what size their book reccomends, and then insist they get you the next size down..

Then when you have the belt inplace turn the eccentrix round to its maximum setting and try that!

[lankytim]

Cheers guys, the XM is still with my tame mechanic who took it for test, should be coming back this week some time. I'll take a look at it then.

[falling-out-with-my-car]

I note you mention a TD Xantia as I had similar problems with my auxiliary belt tensioner making a heck of a rattling noise at idle, it was a fairly new tensioner as well fitted by an independent.
Barry at Bourne Citroen fitted a new one but the only different thing was that he took the new tensioner apart and added more grease to the moving components obviously needing more time to do the whole job.
I have had three tensioners fitted all brand new ones some supplied by GSF and one from eBay they all rattled badly and the GSF one actually got stuck if I revved the engine you could hear a clonk when it became unstuck again.one was even fitted by a Citroen Main stealers and still it rattled after about 12K
the grinding rattle was similar with all of them at idle or low engine speed until the engine got hot then the noise would go away, it would seem that taking the tensioner apart and greasing the moving parts has prevented any of the noise on the one Barry at Bourne Citroen fitted.it would seem that the original manufacturers do not add enough lubricant grease to the tensioners. incidentally the latest tensioner came from eBay.
I have had many discussions on here about this tensioner and some say it is the metal bush wearing at the bottom of the actual spring of the tensioner but I have found that all of the new tensioners have had a little play around the metal bush anyway, it was a refreshing change to find someone who had a completely different opinion and perspective in Barry about lack of lubricant grease in the tensioner pivot point and it works to.
regards Nigel.

[lankytim]

I had a look at my non aircon XM today and it doesn't seem to have that big spring loaded tensioner seen on aircon XMs. I has hoping to take it to bits and see if I could engineer/bodge something better than the original Citroen setup.

[citroenxm]

No Tim they don't. They use a manual tensioner but the thing is the bracket arrangements are different between the air con and non air con so I doubt you will. Another 2.5 td member has looked into this in a big way and hasn't suggested this as a repair. However good luck. Keep us informed.

[citronut]

i just looked up diesel XM non air con on service citroen, and it adjusts by moving the alternator,

although i have seen Xantias making one hell of a clatter at idle, which was caused by the belt being tensioned too tight, causing the tensioner pulley the clatter against the cam belt cover

[citroenxm]

Depends on the ENGINE Malc.

The 2.1 was altinator adjustment, UNTILL 1997 when Anti Sink was Fitted and the Xantia 6+2 pump was fitted.

The 2.5 TD XM was fitted with the Xantia 6+2 and anti sink from the start and introduced in 1995, and uses the Xantia type tensioner.

Theres been a few different setups on the XM, not as simple as Xantias...