Xantia electrical issue (ignition barrel?)

[Mark Graham]

Hi all.

My 1.9 td Xantia sx s2 has a couple of electrical gremlins.

The heater sometimes stops works for a while. Turns itself on and off during a journey.

The rear electric windows have stopped working. (Checked the fuse (f10) and it’s fine)

I’ve been told that both could be caused by the ignition barrel…

Is this true, if so then why and can the barrel be repaired?

[xantia_v6]

The S1 Xantia had a defect where some electrical items (including blower fan and rear window heater) were fed from a separate set of contacts on the ignition switch, but the contacts were not strong enough and would eventually become intermittent. The fix for this is to fit a relay to take the load off of those contacts.

Most (perhaps all) S2 cars have this extra relay fitted from the factory. What is the build date (orga or RP number) of your car? maybe I can find when the factory modification was initiated. Does your car have A/C?

[Mark Graham]

Thank you for that!

The orga number is 7701 which I think makes it a very early s2. It does have AC. It is an auto with the al4 gearbox if that makes any difference.

[xantia_v6]

The wiring manuals indicate that at S2 introduction (RP7483 1998 model year) there was no relay fitted. At RP7668 there was a significant rework of the wiring and a relay (ref 8048) was fitted but it only controls the blower van. At RP8001 (1999 model year) there was another update and the heated rear window (and perhaps other things) were also fed from relay 8048.

if your car has relay 8048, it should be number 14 below the dashboard fuse board:

If your car does not have the factory-fitted relay, then this topic https://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/ ... 19&t=24786 (or the topics linked from it), may help you.

[Mark Graham]

That is fantastic, thank you very much!