Citroen XM: The Main Breakdowns

Hydraulic air suspension of the automobiles produced during the first model years behaves perfectly on the road therefore making the owners happy but demands regular attention.

"Spider-distributor" the pre-restyling automobiles are provided with is quite troublesome. Its life is limited and that means it has to fail if the car is an old one (it is pretty costly by the way). Repair kits as well as used parts are not the way out. Frequent main brake cylinder failure is the cause of the service centers' specialists' complaints. It can be identified by the particular sounds at braking and what is more, the rear end starts to kind of jump up and down when you push the brake. Height corrector wear is a wide-spread case. You know this has happened when the third suspension mode is not available. If the car is a used one you can also experience fluid leak. It is better visiting service center if there is a sign of LHM. Gaskets and pipes are relatively easy and cheap to replace while disabled vehicle operation can become too expensive. Hydraulic spheres don't differ too much from their classical "siblings" shock dampers if comparing in terms of durability. The suspension reliability considerably improved after being updated in the mid 90ies. The hydraulic suspension the automobiles produced after 1994 are provided with is as a rule problem-free and more reliable and durable if compared with its predecessor.

Mechanical part of the suspension is reliable, even silent blocks are to be replaced in only 80 000 km. Antiroll bar pillars are less durable however they are capable of some 50 000 km. Rear suspension levers' tapered bearings are to be replaced in 100 - 150 thousand km (just as with other models) as demand the manufacturers.

The engines Citroen XM is provided with are very reliable although they have their disadvantages. 2.0-liter power plants suffer from exhaust manifold leakage. It isn't rare for the valve cover gasket and for the crankshaft's rear seal to leak after the kilometrage makes up some 200 000 km. Idling valve often needs to be washed or replaced.

Power plants Citroen XM is provided with are given to overheating. Even a short-time temperature excess of the engine can lead to awful consequences.

Manual transmission is reliable and problem-free through all operation life if there are no oil leaks. Automatic gearbox wears out quite seriously by 200 thousand km. It is pretty expensive to renew it therefore it's better to reject buying a used XM provided with automatic transmission.

Citroen XM's weak point is the electrics, however that is the problem of most "French". This first of all concerns "old" XMs produced before 1992 as the number of failures can cut down after the restyling. One of the most frequent concerns is electric window lifts' buttons. Some instrumentation panel lamps are expensive to replace and they burn out regularly. Sometimes fan shutters' servodrives fail.