The Citroën Technical Guide

Željko Nastasić and I are proud to present the Citroën Technical Guide. This book, available in PDF format (a free reader can be downloaded from Foxit Software), describes the functioning of all systems of interest in our Citroëns, from the early days of the DS until the most recent incarnation, the C5.

It is not a service manual, thus you won't find detailed circuit diagrams or repair procedures inside. Instead, it contains schematic illustrations and detailed descriptions of the various systems. It is not a mere compilation of excerpts from various books and brochures: it is a standalone guide written from ground up.

To help the reader understand every small detail, we decided to provide our own illustrations across the whole book. The figures appearing in service manuals, mostly copies of original Citroën technical illustrations of actual components or systems, often bury the main principles of operation under small and irrelevant details. In contrast to these, our illustrations are simplified, colored schematic diagrams focusing on the important concepts, not on the exact location of every single bolt or pipe.

You can, of course, download the book (approx. 600k in size; already downloaded 64,992 times) freely but we ask you not to store it on your website for other people to download it, just provide a link pointing here instead. As you can see browsing the book yourself, it is not yet complete in every detail and we would like to improve it the best we can. It is, therefore, very important to avoid having several, possibly conflicting copies floating around the Web.

We have been notified of our book appearing on e-Bay auctions. Please, note that this is a direct violation of our copyright and as a buyer, be careful to avoid paying for something that can be obtained for free.

At present, the guide comprises the following chapters:

Fuel Injection

• Electronic Fuel Injection — Gasoline EFI and EMS systems
• The HPi Engine — Newest gasoline EMS systems
• Diesel engines — Mechanical diesel pumps
• Electronic Diesel Control — Electronically controlled EDC systems
• Diesel Direct Injection — HDI diesel technology

Suspension

• A Suspension Primer — Hydropneumatics and its advantages
• Hydropneumatic Suspension — The basic HP suspension of the DS, ID, GS, GSA, SM, CX and BX
• Hydractive I — The first Hydractive suspension of the XM
• Hydractive II — The second Hydractive suspension of the XM and Xantia
• Anti-sink system — The anti-sink system fitted to some XMs and Xantiae
• Activa Suspension — The Xantia Activa suspension
• Hydractive III and III+ — The new Hydractive systems of the C5
• Hydractive Summary — Functional description of the suspension behavior

Steering

• Power Assisted Steering — The standard DIRASS steering
• DIRAVI Steering — The steering of the SM, CX and some XMs

Brakes

• Standard braking system — High pressure brakes integrated with the suspension on all models before the C5
• Anti-lock Braking System — The additional elements of the ABS

Electrical systems

• Multiplex wiring — of some XMs and contemporary Xantia, C5 and Xsara

Air Conditioning

• Air Conditioning — every form of aircon and climate control

Appendix

• ORGA number — Calculating the ORGA (Replacement Part) number

Index

• Index — Full hypertext index of all important components mentioned in the book

As already mentioned, not all chapters are complete and finished. We used a very large selection of materials and information sources to compile the Guide but we remain very interested in your opinion and some additional material you might have to help us further. Please, contact us but don't send large files at once, let's talk it over first, we might already have them...