Xantia 1.9TD dead ignition circuits SORTED

[SAC]

Hello All,

New to this forum, but a long time Citroen owner.
I have tried searching for help on my issue without success hence this post. Sorry if I missed any previous answers.

On Sunday morning I went to start my car. Citroen Xantia 1.9TD estate of 1998.
Key in, turn key and wait for pre-heat lamp to go out, turn key to start, then nothing, no starting and no instrument panel lights.
turn key off, back on, still nothing, all systems that run with the ignition on dead including the panel lamps, wipers, indicators etc.
Headlights work, horn works, interior lights work and central locking work.
I had a play with the wiring to the ignition switch and found that only one wire from the Brown connector had any volts on it. Turning the key switches voltage to the other wire in the Brown connector, but no volts appear on any other ignition switch wires.

I don't know where to look further so any help and pointers will be appreciated.

Many thanks and best wishes
Steve

[KennyW]

Welcome to the forum,

It sounds like you're ignition barrel has died. Simply change the ignition switch and it will be sorted.

Did you have an intermittent fault prior to this ie driving along and suddenly the car would stop. turn the key and it would run for days ,weeks, hours, minutes etc.

A quick test, put your key in the ignition give it a waggle and see if the instrument panel lights come on.

I have a spare ignition barrel in the garage, all you need to do is remove ignition switch from steering column, unscrew rear portion from key barrel and swap over. be careful not to loose any bits.

Kenny

[SAC]

Many thanks for that Kenny,

No fault prior to this at all. Waggling the key has no effect.

This coming weekend I will rob the ignition switch off my 2.0HDI and try that.
If it does prove to be the switch I will contact you about he spare you have.

By the way, from your signature you have/had the same Xantias as me, except my 2.0HDI is from 2000.
My 1.9 TD estate has done 231,000 and the 2.0HDI has done 208,000

Best wishes and thanks again.

Steve

[KennyW]

When I unscrew my knackered ignition switch I found broken bits of copper inside which is the contacts when the keys is turned to pass the current through.
I discovered you could change the rear portion of the switch after I bought a new swicth from Citroen. Ouch.

[SAC]

There was a supply to the ignition switch missing.
Bodged it by running a jumper from the RHS terminal of the Brown connector to the RHS terminal of the Black connector on the ignition switch.

Presumably there is a broken wire somewhere (it is the brown connector that has lost power) but I have no idea where. May try and trace it sometime, may leave the bodge in place as it now works fine.

Thanks for the pointers Kenny.

Best wishes
Steve