GEEEE'z what an adventure!

[CitroJim]

Nice one Kev

That's very true what you say about skills. We all have our own and nobody can be good at all of them.

Like you, I'm a wielder of spanners and can't make a car look good however hard I try. I can't do bodywork and painting either - absolute black arts to me, all of it...

Spanners and sparks, now that's a different matter altogether...

Great to hear the XM is going well

[Citroenmad]

Never a dull moment with a big Citroen Kev

XM as a daily driver for a full year, what a treat

[red_dwarfers]

I quiet agree Chris

I bought 6 dash bulbs thinking I would have a few spare after doing the two I though were blown but it turns out there are 10 bulbs that have blown. I've done all the ones in the instrument cluster and will need to do the ones for the display left and right displays at a later date.

Sorting those bulbs gave me an excuse to sort out the dot matrix display as a few lines were missing. Ispent ages trying to find this thread on ClubXM that everyone was referring to but most were talking about some aftermarket ribbon that was available on ebay.fr many moons ago. After carefully removing the dot matrix ribbon from the PCB I cleaned up the residue with nail varnish remover (my sister's I must add ) and filled a few gaps in the ribbon with a 2B pencil (I never knew pencil grafite conducted electricity). I then slammed in yellow cable tie with the end bit cut off beneath the rubber ring to apply the pressure to the board and we now have a fully working display!

Though there is now one extra job on the list. One of the blown bulbs was the airbag light. A very unususal one to go as a bulb only really blows when its been on too long doesn't it so I kind of expected it to start flashing away at me. Still, I'd rather know now so that I can repair it than find out the only other way if I ever found myself in that situation.

[CitroJim]

Well done on the display Kev Very good work indeed!

I discovered pencils conduct electricity very well indeed when I was around 13. I discovered it in the worst possible way. I was fixing an old telly and happened to poke the top cap of the line output valve with a pencil and literally got the shock of my life The top cap of the line output valve had about 1.5Kv on it...

I never did that again. I always used a well insulated screwdriver after that to conduct the 'arc test'...

It's one of those sod's law things that whenever you disturb an instrument panel bulbs that were working will always be dead when the panel is reassembled.

I normally replace them all whenever I disturb one...

[Citroenmad]

Very good work with the display, they can be a bit of a fiddle but they look so much better fully working. The ony on our XM is still perfect a year after I fixed it.

Your certainly flying through the things you had planned for this XM Kev

[myglaren]

The pencil thing can be interesting.

We used to draw a pencil line down the spark plug insulator , out of sight, and watch folks try and start there cars.

They used to use the same trick to see if car mechanics were any good at fault finding. Used to catch a fair few out.

[red_dwarfers]

I see a lot of fun can be had with pencils

Chris, it certainly does and now the bulbs behind the displays are all working it looks all the better

I suppose I am rattling through the list, I do wonder whether I'm working too quickly for my own good as although I like to keep on top of jobs its nice to be able to know that if I really fancy sorting out a problem, I can. Still, most of the jobs were high priority ones.

Yesterday I made a start on the airbag fault. I started off on the usual Xantia weak spot and replaced the pretensioner connectors. This proved fruitless. I then went around to both sides of the steering wheel rotary connector and the passenger airbag to retension the little contact pins. Again, this didn't help.

I was just about to check the ECUs connector when I thought to test the rotary connector for continutiy, both were shorting out which I thought was suspicious.

Today I took out the known working Xantia rotary connector and tested the continuity, that also shorted out. It must be by design unless I'm testing it incorrectly.

Anyway, as the late S1 Xantia one is the same as my XM I stuck the Xant one in the XM and lo and behold, the airbag light goes out as it should

What the difference is between the two rotary connectors has me stumped though.

[red_dwarfers]

Well, not a huge amount to add to the blog, the XM is performing almost faultlessly.

Put on some new Toyo Proxes CF1's on the front to replace the ageing Michelin Energys. A first for this one as its been on a solid diet of those all its life.

Actually, something I need to tend to is the whole fuel running back to the tank thing. I had convinced myself that it was something in the fuel filter housing causing an air leak but after a bit of mulling over, it can't be as when I prime it using the bulb there isn't really much in the way of air bubbles so it has to be the valve in the primer bulb. I shall swap the one from RUNN over in the next few days to see what happens.

Off to Snowdonia National Park on Monday for a walking holiday with a few mates. A proper road trip car the XM, apart from the lack of a ski flap for retrieving items tucked away in the boot. I'm hoping to take it around the Evo triangle, a amazing road with fantastic views and lots of wide clear bends. I took the Xantia around back in February with Citroenmad, no match for his C5

[Toby_HDi]

Well, not a huge amount to add to the blog, the XM is performing almost faultlessly.

Put on some new Toyo Proxes CF1's on the front to replace the ageing Michelin Energys. A first for this one as its been on a solid diet of those all its life.

Actually, something I need to tend to is the whole fuel running back to the tank thing. I had convinced myself that it was something in the fuel filter housing causing an air leak but after a bit of mulling over, it can't be as when I prime it using the bulb there isn't really much in the way of air bubbles so it has to be the valve in the primer bulb. I shall swap the one from RUNN over in the next few days to see what happens.

Off to Snowdonia National Park on Monday for a walking holiday with a few mates. A proper road trip car the XM, apart from the lack of a ski flap for retrieving items tucked away in the boot. I'm hoping to take it around the Evo triangle, a amazing road with fantastic views and lots of wide clear bends. I took the Xantia around back in February with Citroenmad, no match for his C5

Sounds like an Activa road that Evo Triangle. We must plan something again Kev, Porlock Hill at some point. I also must sample the Hindhead Tunnel now they are open and the Coupé is on the road.

[red_dwarfers]

Most certainly is an Activa road Toby!

We'll have to set a date for that trip, sometime in the second or third week of August would be good for me as I'm not working then. Looking on the map, its going to be a fair old trip for you!

[Citroenmad]

The Evo Triangle is pretty good, we certainly seemed to do it the best way around, the straighter and wider road going up and the narrower and twisty roads coming back down. My C5 did get a little bit of a workout

Toyos are a good choice Kev, you can't go far wrong with those. Wear seems pretty fierce, my last C5 chewed through a pair of fronts in 11K miles, though I did pretty much drive its tyres off for 11K miles.

Im very much looking forward to our next trip Kev, hope you have a good venture into Wales

[red_dwarfers]

Just got back from the XM's MoT. It got an A* in Roadworthyness.

The tester said that it was a very good example

[Citroenmad]

Excellent news Kev

[davetherave]

Nice!

[red_dwarfers]

Got the (Dys)lexia today!

Should be a laugh...