Xantia electrical hassles, hints would be nice

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AndyP
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Xantia electrical hassles, hints would be nice

Post by AndyP »

Just bought a tired looking Xantia, 1996, N, 1.8i 8 valve estate and so far don't know much about them.
Have a few suspension/brake issues to sort out, but with help from here that now looks fairly straightforward. However, the electrical issues are odd. Firstly, the rear wiper is intermittent to say the least, sometimes it works, mostly it doesn't. The heater blower did work (for a day) after I put the fuse in, but it now doesn't. Could this be a relay issue, and if so where is it located ? The alarm light flickers when the fuse is in (and the headlights flash), can't make it stop so I removed the fuse again. Some of the stereo steering wheel controls work (eg. mute, volume down, but not up) others don't (eg. station change). The boot light does not come on, ever. I've checked all the fuses. Should I be looking for a common connection point somewhere and if so where might that be ?
Thanks in advance for any help
Andy
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Post by RichardW »

The blower issue is probably the ignition switch burnt out - can you bring it to life by wiggling the key? You might be able to put a relay in and get enough power to switch the relay, but if not you'll need to change the ignition switch.
Rear wash wipe could be motor or cable related - you'll need to get to it and put a meter across it to see if it's getting voltage.
Xantia alarms are notoriously fickle - best to just leave the fuse out (no c/l then though I guess!)
Boot light uses a tilt switch which is probably at fault (assuming you've checked the bulb is OK!).
Hope this car was VERY cheap....!
Gaskin
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Post by Gaskin »

For what it is worth, I had intermitent problems with the rear wiper on my Xantia estate. Turned out to be dry solder joints in the relay attached to the wiper motor in the tailgate. This seems to control the intermitent wipe etc. Just remove the trim from the tailgate (just ha ha!), then undo the three bolts that hold the wiper motor to the large metal bracket, then the three bolts that hold the bracket onto the tailgate, and the relay is attached to the back of this bracket. The ralay contains a small circuit board with a few components on. The dry joints were those associated with the relay connections.
As for the alarm, when I got mine the fuse for the alarm had been pulled due to problems, so I've left it out. Central locking is still fine.
I find the only steering wheel control I use is the vol +/- one. Pressing this twice quickly changes the FM channel. The others do something, but it seems to be either muting (great if I had a phone) or scanning the presets.
The heater blower on mine has a mind of its own if set to Auto, but does obey the more usual settings.
Cheers
Duncan
AndyP
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Post by AndyP »

Thanks for the very quick responses ! Obviously I have checked all the easy things like bulbs and fuses and they're all good. However, now you've given me a few pointers to get me on my way. The only things I'm bothered about are the blower and the rear wiper, so I'm sure they'll be resurected by hook or by crook.
Thanks again.
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