C5 HDI - couple of things..

[Northern_Mike]

Well, I'm back in a C5. 2002, HDI, 168k miles.

2 things - where's the best place to get a new dash pod from with all the gauges - this has both water and oil temp, as well as amps. None of those 3 work. I believe that swapping the lot for a working unit solves this. So, is anyone breaking one, or can point me in the direction of someone who is?

Secondly, it used enough water in the 100 miles home to bring on the low-coolant STOP light. I'm not overjoyed about this, for a start. It doesn't appear to be pressurising or overheating, it returned 47.1mpg on the run home at between 80 and 90. It appears that the "seam" round the centre of the header tank is leaking - is this possible? The header tank wasn't empty when I topped it up, low, yes, but not empty. I see that the V6 has a habit of leaking here.. possible too, on a C5 HDI..? First things first, a new tank and cap then?

[Peter.N.]

If you look on ebay you will find lots of C5s being broken if you don't have a local scrap yard, you should get a panel for not much money.

I take it from your fuel consumption figures that yours is a 2.0. Hdi, head gasket failure is not nearly as common on these as on the XUD engine but they can go, check that the coolant is not being blown out of the filler cap, you should see sign of dry antifreeze if it is, you can check by putting the end of the overflow pipe into a container and see if its collecting coolant. If you stop the car on a journey when its hot you should also see if its being blown out.

A leaky head gasket will not in itself cause the engine to overheat, this only happens because the pressure is blowing the coolant out.

I replaced the header tank on my XM because I thought it was leaking but sadly it turned out to be the gasket. If the leakage is not to bad, leaving the filler cap loose will sometimes allow it to vent and not expel the coolant, but it also reduces the boiling point so don't thrash it.

Peter

[Gibbo2286]

I haven't had to top that up since the belts and water pump were fitted MIke, but I haven't driven it on the motorway at speed, I wonder if it may be just an airlock clearing in the system, I'm told they can be a bit of a pig to get bled out properly after being drained.

[Northern_Mike]

You're telling me you didn't bleed it properly?

It blew out more coolant today, and gave me another warning.

[citroenxm]

Mike WARNING: if you swap your instrument pod for another complete unit your milage will count up and display the milage of both clocks added together... swap the speedo at your peril.. the guages are all soldered to the pcb on the back.

It may be your only choice but be prepared for the milage to count up if you do a swap...

[Northern_Mike]

Mike WARNING: if you swap your instrument pod for another complete unit your milage will count up and display the milage of both clocks added together... swap the speedo at your peril.. the guages are all soldered to the pcb on the back.

It may be your only choice but be prepared for the milage to count up if you do a swap...

Cheers.. with 168k on it anyway, I'm not really bothered as long as the gauges themselves work.

[Gibbo2286]

You're telling me you didn't bleed it properly?

It blew out more coolant today, and gave me another warning.

I'm not saying that, I thought it was bled out properly Mike, as I said I haven't had to top it up myself nor had any warnings since it was done, if I'd suspected that there was any major problems pending the car simply would not have been offered for sale, I don't do that.

[RichardW]

Mike WARNING: if you swap your instrument pod for another complete unit your milage will count up and display the milage of both clocks added together... swap the speedo at your peril.. the guages are all soldered to the pcb on the back.

I don't think it's as bad as that Paul... AFAIK it will display the higher of the BSI recorded mileage or the pod mileage - and if the pod mileage is higher than the BSI, then it will write this back to BSI, and if you were to change back to the original pod, then the BSI would write the higher mileage back to the original pod as well. In theory it can't be corrected, in practice I'm sure one of the 'mileage correction' services would be able to oblige!!

[citroenxm]

Ok richard...

All it is i remember swapping a pod on a customers c5.. it then went from 155k to 212k after starting it up.

It was this experiance i was thinking about. Ive no idea what the mileage was on the replacment clocks.

[Northern_Mike]

How easy is it to swap the pod? Seems to be getting worse. Rev counter now reading what I imagine is half engine speed, and 0 at idle. Indicators no longer make clicking noise either. It's turning into a bit of a disaster really.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

[citroenxm]

Soooooo hard mike.

You simple lever them outwards from the top. Thats all.. no screws nothing.. just lever..

[Northern_Mike]

Cheers .

I'm going to be levering them out of this car with a 14lb sledgehammer at this rate.

Now, where can I get a set cheap? No local breakers here. Does any C5 pod with the relevant dials fit, or do I have to use a Lexia, offer up a virgin goat sacrifice and stand on one leg for 3 days while humming to make it work?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

[citroenxm]

Hi mike.

Plug in and go..

http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewit ... 0562287793" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Northern_Mike]

Aargh. I bought it without looking properly. It's not the same as mine. Mine has oil temp at the far right and water temp at the far left, with volts/amps where the water temp is on the one I just bought.

I'm going to lose my mind.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

[Northern_Mike]

Yes, I'm really calm having just shelled out money I *really* can't afford to lose on a car with a failed head gasket. ..

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4