Speedo problems

[Gibbo2286]

The speedo on my C5 wasn't working and the advice seemed to be buy new for a heap of dosh or go down the breakers and pay a smaller heap of dosh for a gamble on a used one.

I took it to pieces and swapped the stepper motor from the rev counter and it's fixed, trying to find stepper motors to fix them seemed impossible but after a hunt I found these on Ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Peugeot-Citroen-J ... 45fb51368b

G.

[CitroJim]

That's a good find....

[addo]

Tempting at the price, to play against Murphy and have a spare.

Perhaps a similarly enterprising company will start selling the Xantia matrix bulkhead connectors bare, for £20 or so? You could almost retire on that one.

[BX]

The stepper motor can usually be repaired. The spindle on one of the gears usually breaks. Drill a hole through it with a modelling drill and fit a little piece of wire. I used a piece of copper wire from either a 1.5 sq mm or 2.5 sq mm cable. I cannot remember which. I got a description of the repair somewhere on the internet. I carried out the repair and then used the repaired unit in the tachometer. You have nothing to loose.

[Old-Guy]

Drill a hole through it with a modelling drill and fit a little piece of wire.

I bought myself a 'Dremel' clone some months back but I can't find a source of miniature twist drills with shanks to fit any of the three collets.

[Citroenmad]

That is an excellent find

I have a spare failed speedo from one of our C5s, I might just get that and repair it.

[c.morewood]

Does anyone know if a C5 stepper motor will fit a Mk2 Xantia please?
With the advent of the cold weather my speedo has been driving me nuts.. can't afford to dismantle the dash in case the repair above doesn't work.
Cheers,
Chris

[CitroJim]

No, but chances are it's just dirt on the spring 'fingers' that connect the stepper motor to the printed circuit board at the back of the instrument pod.

It's getting common on S2 Xantias now. Does a good thump on the dash help?

[c.morewood]

Yes it does Jim.. but only to move it the current speed where it sticks again... mind you it lights up the fuel guage when I thump the dash.. must be some dirt there as well?

[Robert12]

AKspeedo.com thats where i got my stepper moter from

[c.morewood]

Unfortunately Robert they only do C5 etc not Xantia. Hence my question.
Chris

[c.morewood]

Jim, I take it you've taken a few Xantia speedos apart?
I was looking at this blog http://www.schaalbouw.nl/citroen/blog051007.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; which suggests that you have to take quite a bit of the surrounding bits apart before accessing the speedo.
But I seem to remember that you've said in the past that this is not neccessary and that you only have to take the 3 screws out?
Is that correct or am I thinking about something else..
That would save a heap of time and mean that an exploration/repair might be completed in half a day.
Can you remember what bulbs and how many are used in the dash assembly? I've not had any go yet but I might as well replace them all when I have it apart.
Thanks,
Chris

[c.morewood]

Just done the speedo etc on the Xantia mk2. Easier than I thought taking it apart.. 3 hrs for the disassembly and reassembly. 30 mins to check and replace all the bulbs, 33 in all.
Thanks for the advice Jim...I even got the heater control bulbs replaced. However I came up against a couple of unexpected problems with the speedo.
I was trying to solve the dreaded sticky speedo. After reading all the posts here I thought it would have been a simple solder job. But no, My speedo had to be different.
The stepper motor connects to the pcb assembly through 4 sprung contacts and these are held in tension, on to the board contacts, with 2 pairs of plastic clips.
Ok I thought, so no soldering, thats a plus,
I'll remove the speedo needle and bend the spring contacts to aid the connection and hopefully stop the sticky needle.
Success?? ..well not quite. removing the needle of course has meant that the indicated speed is out by about 15mph
I managed to set the rev counter needle, the fuel guage needle to their correct positions but the no matter what I do to the temp guage, when the ignition's on, it just hangs vertically down.
Any ideas how I can solve the vertical Temp needle and adjust the speedo needle so its reading correctly? or at least as incorrectly as it used to read!!

[CitroJim]

Where does the temperature needle rest with the ignition off Chris?

[c.morewood]

Thats it Jim.. in the photo.. it'll rise with the ignition on to show temperature.. whether its true or not only a thermometer will prove.. just wish it wouldn't drop like that with ignition off.
I've got a spare 3 hrs tomorrow morning before, the afternoon shift, so i'll give it one more try in the morning.
Thanks for the help,
Chris