MK1 Xantia - no start

[Absynthe]

May someone give me info about the lil red light on the steering wheel as it has now lit up after a week of owning the SX and the rest of the car now won't go.
No dash lights except battery light shows. Motor winds over but will not fire.

[RichardW]

Welcome!

The red light is the air bag warning light only on these early cars. That it won't start, and you have no dash lights is something else. Possible the ignition switch is knackered, and no longer powering things up.

[xantia_v6]

This will be a bit of a guessing game without some more details.

Firsstly, when the engine is cranking over, does it sound normal? cranking at its usual speed?

Can you tell us what the icon on the red warning lamp is? is it the battery symbol? I suspect that a 1994 car may not have an air bag, and if it does, the warning light is on the steering wheel. There should also be a yellow oil warning light.

[Absynthe]

Yes it has an airbag within the steering wheel.
The only light showing in the warning lights area is the battery light much like if I had only turned the ignition half way on.
Yes when the engine is winding it sounds just as it did before this problem arose.
When I rung Citroen in Tauranga they told me it had to be an immobilizer issue and I should get it towed to them, but as yet I have not found an immobilizer in the car.

[white exec]

Does sound like IGN switch failure. First position usually brings on just the Batt red light, second position should illuminate all the others, final position operates the starter.

[ekjdm14]

Doubt there's going to be an immobiliser, does sound like possible ignition switch issue... I wonder if the blower fan/ heated rear window ever worked for you? That's normally the part that fails, but not beyond the realms of possibility the whole thing has died...

[xantia_v6]

I don't think that NZ market mk1 Xantias had an immobiliser, not sure about Japanese imports.

I would not jump to any conclusions about the ignition switch, there are other things that can cause the symptoms that we know about.

The next thing that I would do is get a copy of the wiring diagram and check that the correct supply voltages are present at the engine ECU.

Note that your symptoms are not quite the same as the fuse box failure that I described here: viewtopic.php?t=45415 . Ignore the fact that my car did not crank, as it was an automatic and had a starter inhibit relay that a manual car does not have, but it could be a similar issue or a broken wire somewhere in the harness.

[RichardW]

It's obvious if it's got an immobiliser as they are key pad operated!

You need to get the steering cowls off (*) and check for volts both sides of all the stages of the ignition switch, and then see where that takes you. I can't remember if a MK1 Xantia has some big fuses under the bonnet - it may well do, and I would check these first.

* not all that easy on a MK1 as you have to remove the air bag and then steering wheel...

[xantia_v6]

You can test the ignition switch without removing the cowl (etc) by checking if anything associated with a set of ignition switch contacts works. There are 4 sets of contacts:

• Accessories: powers the radio etc
• Ignition: powers the fuel gauge, indicators, engine ECU etc
• Ignition except start: powers the A/C blower and heated rear window
• Start: spins the starter

There is a mk1 petrol wiring diagram in this topic: viewtopic.php?t=26492 which although for a later car should be fairly similar to yours.