nick74

Hi, Being an S reg I would have thought will be a 1.9D rather than 2.0? If so it will probably be like the R reg Xantia 1.9 TD I had, there should be a filler/level plug in the end cover of the box somewhere. You unscrew it & fill the oil so its just level with the bottom of the hole.

You really need to get the fault codes read, there can be any number of things that will cause an HDi not to start & it can be a "needle in a haystack" job to fix by trial and error. Do you know its history, has anyone tried to fix it before?

I'm not familiar with the underbonnet layout of the 1.6 petrol, but from what you say its either the pump itself or the pipe leading from it that's leaking. It won't be brake fluid on a Xsara, the PAS on these is not connected with the brakes in any way. I suppose if you went to a Citroen main dealer the pump could cost around £300, but theres no reason to really. They are available new from GSF for example for £125, or they go on ebay for about £15-20 and are not particularly difficult to change.

I think the 1.4 petrol versions had drums on the back, but if your handbrake is that bad there must be something wrong with one or both of the calipers. I have rear discs on my Xsara and the handbrake works very well. It would almost certainly be easier to fix the fault with the existing setup than replace it with drums.

I recently saw a Peugeot 206 that was doing this. After having numerous trips to a main dealer and having various bits replaced over the course of 18 months, the owner discovered by chance that it would always start fine with the spare key. It was the chip in the key that was at fault all along.

Try here; http://service.citroen.com/ the downside is it costs 3 Euros per hour to access.

Someone on carsurvey.org claims to have fixed this on a Xsara by driving at 115 MPH ! ; http://www.carsurvey.org/viewcomments_review_31900.html I don't know if there's a legal way....

Does this apply to the 2.0 HDi version too? Mine seems to run at around 75C, which sounds a bit too cold to me. I'm wondering if this could account for the not great fuel consumption I get?

If the Xsara fuses are anything like the last Xantia I owned there are two different positions for the lighter socket fuse depending on whether you want power to the socket to be switched via the ignition switch or not. It uses a standard two prong fuse, but you choose which 2 of the 3 slots you plug the fuse into. (Obviously the middle slot is common to both positions.)

Yep, been considering that too. Not so easy for insurance companies to detect either!

It's certainly possible to fit an intercooler to the HDi 90, but arguably more trouble than its worth. The easiest way to tune an HDi is to get one of these; Diesel tuning been very tempted to get one for my Xsara :angry: One other thing worth looking at is to make sure the throttle cable isn't too slack, the one on my car was & was preventing it going above about 3000 rpm.