1995 Citroen Xantia SX from UK and Ireland - Comments

Where do I start?

Leaking windscreen, causing water damage to the wiring under passenger front carpet.

Faulty alarm, now immobilised. Over £300 to repair, not fixed, not worth the money.

Heater resister blown 3 times in 3 months.

Remote central locking stopped working. Still not functioning.

Suspension spheres re-gassed twice in 3 years.

Alternator replaced after 1st month of owning.

Timing belt replaced twice in 3 years, the second time because of a bolt shearing on the engine mounting bracket.

Boot solenoid erratic.

Rapid clicking coming from fuse box under steering wheel, since I first bought the car.

And finally, indicator arm stuck in right turn, happened tonight, (Good Friday!) looks like another expensive job, it won't click either up or down.

There have been other faults, but can't think of them right now.

My previous xantia, 1.9 TD SX, same age and same spec as this one, was an absolute dream, not a fault to be found. It was written off when I was hit in the offside rear (by a car doing 30 MPH!) causing the boot to fold into the fuel filler tube, split the fuel tank and rippling the roof.

And so I had no hesitation to buy another xantia, but I have had nothing but expensive problems since day one.

The average spend each visit to the mechanic is about £250, and its second hand value is about £2000, that's if I could get someone gullable enough to buy it, what with all the outstanding faults!!

This is a truly bad example of a car, but I will think twice before choosing Citroen again.

I have had a problem with water entering the passenger footwell on my xantia. after extensive testing with a hosepipe I found that water was entering through the air intake for the heater, the reason for this is that the plastic scuttle has become detached from the bottom of the screen (its supposed to be attached with a double sided tape). this allows water to run straight down the screen behind the scuttle instead of over the scuttle and diverted to the side.

'Rapid clicking coming from fuse box under steering wheel, since I first bought the car.'...'Heater resister blown 3 times in 3 months.' A link maybe?

'Suspension spheres re-gassed twice in 3 years.' Re-gassing is a cheap alternative to buying new spheres and so will need replacing/re-gassing sooner than if you had replaced the whole sphere.

'Timing belt replaced twice in 3 years, the second time because of a bolt shearing on the engine mounting bracket.' Was the mechanic who fitted the first timing belt too heavy handed? I assume it was a tensioner mounting bracket you were talking about.

'indicator arm stuck in right turn' Common fault that comes with age, or so I was told when it happened to mine. Easy to do DIY and wasn`t expensive.

'Remote central locking stopped working.' There is a fault with the older models where the wiring is to short, so the connector pulls out of the door lock. Check this first.

'Leaking windscreen, causing water damage to the wiring under passenger front carpet.' Caused my sunroof not to work, but there is a manual close system with key under a hatch in the roof buy the sunroof (Great idea), with which I was able to close the sunroof, before I got home and found out what the problem was. The leak is also a common problem, but can be sealed before it causes problems if you know about it, which now you do ;). And to those who say that the rising suspension is a gimmick, try driving round Eastern Europe, on farm tracks or through deep flooded roads without it. Also in the max height position you can get to park where others can`t, which can save a lot of driving round looking for a parking place.

PS Take the alarms fuse out and throw it away, unless you like being woken up in the middle of the night for no reason.