New Xantia Owner

[Diana]

After years of faithfull and largely trouble free driving I decided it was time to replace my aged BX (1991) with something a little newer and also left had drive as I live in France.

I found myself a December 1998 Xantia on sale at 800€ below book price as its previous owner was an oldish gentleman with a very small garage and a poor sense of direction. As a result he has managed to seriously scrape both sides of the front bumpers and the rear offside (in the UK) wheel arch.

I am delighted with the car, though I have to say that the BX was also wonderful to drive except for the time when the back half of the exhaust fell off while driving around the outskirts of Bordeauw.

Being completely inexperienced as a Xantia owner I was delighted to find this forum and wondered if any of you have time to pass on some basic advice on the following and any general tips you might have to help me keep the car in good condition. Please excuse my non-technical terminology

Firstly, on starting the engine the trip meter displays a spanner next to a value that is approximately 12 000km at the moment. I know from the book that came with the car that this value is supposed to be a count down to the next service, but which kind of service - a simple change of filters and liquids, or a more important service including perhaps change of cam belt? How is this value reset? If I use a garage that is not a part of the Citroen network will they be able to reset this value or should I just ignore it now and note my own service intervals as I did for the BX?

Secondly, I would like to change the damaged front bumpers but probably with used parts due to cost. Is it straihtforward to fit new body parts? I remember when the front bumper on the BX was changed the mechanic never did get it to sit properly, I would like to do the Xantia myself if this is practical. There are loads of Xantias in France so I guess I could probably find the bits at a scrap yard if it is viable to use second hand.

Thirdly - the only problem I have come across as far as driving the car goes concerned stalling when I was trying to turn it on full lock. It did this twice but it has never stalled other than when on full lock. Has anyone else experienced this and should it worry me?

Any general advice would be extremely welcome,

With best regards,

Diana

PS The BX is off the road as the MOT is expired. It is in France, just south of Le Mans and is a right hand drive model with the 1.9 diesel engine. While the engine has some 230 000 miles recorded it has been regularly maintained. There are certainly things wrong with this car, but it might be useful to someone for its parts, or as a run around on private land. If it will serve anyone a purpose then I will be happy to negotiate a price at around £100 in order to prevent it going to the scrap yard. It only let me down once when the back bits of the exhaust fell off on the Bordeaux ring-road!

[JohnD]

I too ran a BX for eight years before moving on to a Xantia which I've also had for eight years. First the spanner and the service indicator. To reset it, press the button near to the trip milometer, then turn on the ignition. Hold the button and the numbers will count down and reset. On an English car, it would end with 6000. When it reaches the service interval, the car is ready for an oil and filter change. Also at this time any water which has collected in the fuel filter should be drained off. Around every third service, it needs a new air filter and a new fuel filter. Also a new pollen filter. Cambelts need changing somewhere between 40K and 70K miles, depending upon how much of a gambler you are. I tend to stick to 40K. Cooling systems will last longer if the coolant is drained and refilled every couple of years. Likewise the hydraulic system will last for years providing the filters are cleaned and new LHM is put in.

[mezuk04]

I would have to diagree with the '3rd service interval' for the fuel filter for my own personal experience, if i left for over 5000 then the difference in acceleration and responsiveness is quite surprising when you stick a new one in, so its every 10,000 for me for a fuel filter, sometimes every 5,000 if im bored. I always do a oil filter and change every 5000 and since ive only just had my Xantia for about 3 months I thought it would be interesting to check the state of the pollen filter as ive never had one before, well after 5000 miles it was practically black, so off for a new one.
Air filter when necessary, but for a few quid i tend do just do it every 5,000 for the sake of arguements.

Firstly give it a full DIY service - oil filter and change, air filter, fuel filter, pollen filter

Secondly at the radiator - any leaks? has it started losing water? whats the colour of the water inside and whats the temperature of the radiator, me and my mate noticed a smallish leak somewhere near the radiator and got £100 less for a new one when i bought it, at the time the reading was about 85 at nice cruising, however with a new radiator in (all for about £130 inc coolant) it just stays under 70 when nicely cruising. And god it was in a horrid state, but i have piece of mind now for a couple of years (well worth it)

Thirdly - the LHM fluid, make sure that it is that green type colour and not whatever was in mine, for the sake of about £15 i would replace the LHM fluid which is actually more easy than me and my mate realized, again its done and dusted for a year or two, cleaning the filters and tank with brake cleaner, well thats what i used.

Fourthly, lube everything up from underneath the car that makes the car go up and down (im no expert, but will be doing this next week), and perform citrobics (spelling?), basically full height and wait a few minutes then down to lowest height setting and then wait a few minutes for it to level and to this several times. (SAFETY - lowest setting, put it on some steel ramps and chock the wheels)

Thats about as far as my knowledge goes and thats only cos of the great help off here!

[JohnD]

I would have to diagree with the '3rd service interval' for the fuel filter

!

I thought the forum member was enquiring at what mileages certain maintenance should be carried out - not what we enthusiasts like to do. Look at the maintenance schedule. Every 18K - Fuel filter. Every 36K - Air filter, LHM and Aux belt. Every 72K - Timing belt.

[mezuk04]

18k for a fuel filter, oh my god! I think i left the zx's in at about 8,000 and i started wondering why it became even slower, changed the fuel filter and it sprang back into life again.......18k thats a joke!

[JohnD]

Maybe you should change your filling station! Or clean out your tank!

[mezuk04]

Hmm! Interesting suggestion, however I think thats beyond my capabilities

[Diana]

Thanks for all the advice guys. The reason that I chose my particular Xantia was because while the bodywork has several scrapes and dents, especially the front bumpers which I shall try to replace, under the bonnet looks extremely well cared for and I was assured that it had been regularly maintained.

The radiator looks to be in good condition. I've driven around 3000km since I got the car at the start of October and the water running temperature seems to settle out at just below the half way pointer on the meter (I can't remember what the measurement units are) once the car is properly warmed up. My first long motorway drive didn't seem to alter this at all.

As I am in England for a few days I have booked the car into the local citroen garage (back street, not franchised or sales - if anyone every needs a good mechanic for French cars in the North East of England I cannot recommend this guy highly enough - he has looked after our citroens and peugeots for the past 20 odd years. I won't put the name as I'm not sure if we are allowed to advertise, but if anyone wants the info mail me privately). I have asked him to check the car over generally and to change the filters and fluids. I will also get him to at least check the condition of the cam belt. I had him change one for me on a BX after about 45 000 miles and when he showed me the old one it was literallly just hanging together. After that lucky escape I have been paranoid ablout these things. I didn't even know that pollen filters existed until I read this forum so I will have to check to see if I have that.

As I am in England only rarely now I would like to be able to do the basic servicing myself from hereon so your discussion on what to change and when was interesting. There are many many xantias on the road in France so I don't foresee any problems in getting hold of the bits. We also have a good breakers yard near to where I live so I am going to put my name down for any bumper bits that come in that are the same colour as my car. Hopefully if I change the most scratched bits that might stop the 'knowing' looks from blokes and comments about how I should have a smaller car as it would be 'easier' for me to park

I am extremely pleased with the deisel consumption of this car as I was so used to getting good mileage out of the BX. I've not done the exact sums yet but from rough calculations it seems as to do at least the same number of miles per litre if not a little better.

The only disappointment is trivial - the radio! I see from the forum that there have been various discussions on this which are useful. The person who bought my car from new seems to have chosen all of the airbag options (and air con, thank goodness after a sweltering summer), economising by selecting the base level radio that doesn't play CDs. Sadly it is also not as good a radio receiver as I had in the BX (and that wasn't an expensive receiver). I used to be able to pick up Radio 4 on long wave together with the world service and, when conditions were right, Radio 5 live. It was great therefore to be able to keep up with what was going on in England while driving around. The Xantia radio has long wave but the reception is very very poor and often impossible.

I realise it is hardly a matter of life and death but if anyone has advice on how I can improve reception (I think the model is the 30?? ) that would be great. I know nothing about this. Would it help to buy a more expensive aerial? Are there any bits you can add to boost the reception? I looked on Ebay and saw that I can get a replacement facia with a covering flap that will allow me to put a standard sized radio in, with a flap like the BX so that the radio can be hidden when not in use so perhaps that is the best route?

Not a question of interest to many of you I imagine, but you might find the responses useful if you are on holiday in France and fancy some English news!

Best wishes,

Diana

PS - Can you get replacement key unit things - the lump of plastic that has the remote controls for the doors? Mine is badly warn and I would like to replace it if I can do that without having to change the locks/buy a whole new locking system.

[mezuk04]

I only realized that my Xantia had a pollen filter after reading the little hand book, well i was bored at work you know. It is located underneath the front passenger footwell carpet, on the left is the round heater blower motor and right next to it on the 'right' is a sort of rectangle shaped case with a plastic cover attached to the bottom held on with 3 screws, undo these pull the filter out 'down' and replace with a new one, was slightly nervous about putting a new one in as it seemed to be quite a tight fit but just take care when pushing it back in.

Regards
Chris

[dnsey]

I'd certainly change the radio if I were you.
That way, you can have the specification you want (and check LW reception before buying), and a CD player (headunit or changer) as well, if you like. The Blaupunkt units in particular that Citroen fit as standard do seem to be a bit weak on LW - perhaps because it's almost defunct in the UK for domestic reception.
The only drawback is that the steering wheel controls won't work with most aftermarket models, but looms are available to adapt some - if that's important to you, check before buying!

[mezuk04]

Diana if your thinking about purchasing a new stereo, i will soon be having a JVC head unit and 12 disc cd changer thats just over a year old going for sale once ive gotten a xantia unit and cd changer sorted, if your interested let me know!

Regards
Chris

[micitroen]

Hi Diana,
strange about the radio. I have a 'house' (more like a pile of rocks with character) in Brittany and when I'm there (not enough at the moment) I find my '98 Xsara Lx 1.9d picks up AM english stns with very little problems with all the usual 'fading' as I drive around the countryside. However I do find it makes a difference as to the position of the aerial (roof) if I leave it in the position its supposed to be in (ie making a line as per the windscreen rake....if that makes sense) then its really not too good. If I push it up so its almost vertical........looks a bit strange but the reception is great! Contrast that to my wife's Hyundai Santa Fe with an all singing all dancing Sony multi whatsit oojamaflip with an aerial built in to the windscreen which is absolutely c**p. So its worth looking at the aerial first I would say. I'm sure that someone else on here will know how to make sure that your aerial is grounded properly etc etc. Probably 'just' a question of removing the roof console and making sure that the bolts are right and secure etc etc.
I don't know if you have steering wheel conts. on the Xantia but I do and find them so useful that I decided to leave the original unit in place (yes you can buy an adaptor from Halfrauds) if you want to change it. I use my MP3 player att. to one of those cassette adaptors from the original CD players that we all got in the 80s/90s and it works great with the added advantage of the fact that you never leave any CDs in the car and (not that it seems to be a problem in France) you don't have to worry about the car being broken into for its radio etc. Hope this helps.

[Clogzz]

Isn't there an 'aerial trimmer' adjustment at the back of the radio ?
Probably near the aerial input socket.
AM reception is very sensitive to this adjustment.

[JohnD]

I right next to it on the 'right' is a sort of rectangle shaped case with a plastic cover attached to the bottom held on with 3 screws,

Chris

But not always - sometimes the cover is held by plastic lugs, and to remove it, the cover should be pushed to the right. Very easy to snap the lugs!! If we are talking left-hand drive, I don't know whether this has any bearing on the position of the pollen filter.

[Peter Mannn]

Unlike the BX, the Xantia requires a glycol coolant in the radiator. I used water until the seals on the Xantia heater matrix started to leak. The glycol keeps the pressure in the cooling system lower, and so puts less strain on the fragile heater matrix. Repair can be a dashboard-out job ... tedious & complex.