Citroen C5 woes

GolfBravo

CKhalvashi wrote: »

This is why I'd never drive anything French.

albionrovers wrote: »

My old Megane kept going into limp mode...

GAZ237 wrote: »

The fault is, You bought a French car which was more than 1 year old.

Right, I see. So to solve all motoring problems, the OP shouldn't really own a French car then.

A Mondeo diesel would be much better. Oh, hang on, you pop the bonnet up and there is a Peugeot/Citroen engine! American brand, car designed in Germany and built in Belgium from predominantly French-made components. Hmm.

How about a proper British trendy Mini? What? A Peugeot 208 engine under the bonnet?

Better still, wait for the next C-class Mercedes. What? A Renault engine under the bonnet?

OK then, how about a good durable German heavy duty commercial van? How about a Mercedes Citan? Oh no, it's a Renault Kangoo with a Dacia lump under the bonnet!

How about a VW Passat? Hungarian engine, Czech-assembled gearbox from Changchun (China) sourced parts, and running DSG software written by a team of 5 from Bendigo (Australia).

Honestly, these days there is no such thing as a German/French/Italian/British car, but the stereotypes are still there. You pick any manufacturer and up to 80% of the car is designed and made by external suppliers.

And yet nobody says "don't buy a car with a Garrett turbocharger, they are rubbish, get a proper car with a Hitachi or Mitsubishi turbo". Or "don't get a car with Valeo or Bosch components, get one with Denso parts instead".



To the OP:
- if the engine sounds OK, then it is most likely oil pressure sensor fault (yes, a Bosch part, it's German), try to locate it under the bonnet and check the terminals are clean, if dirty/greasy they may resist electricity flow in hot weather. Oil pump problems don't just fix themselves, and a sudden drop in oil pressure would most likely damage the engine (it would sound different). The other possibility is a crappy oil filter (yes, OEM is Bosch again).
- the aircon issue is most likely caused by a leaking rubber A/C hose, very common these days on PSA, Ford, Volvo and Mercedes cars. The part is supplied by Valeo (French), and the production was outsourced to China for a while.
- window regulator: will need new parts, made by Faurecia (same as VW, Ford, VX, BMW, Mini, Fiat and Hyundai-Kia).

GolfBravo

BTW

Cars are getting stupidly complicated these days, an OBD reader (or Citroen's Lexia computer interface in your case) is a good money-saving investment. In 10 years time you won't be able to change engine oil yourself without having to plug the car into a computer.

jase1

Good post that GolfBravo.

Which is why the next car will be a previous-model Mitsubishi Lancer 1.6. Built in Japan, very few parts not made by a Mitsubishi subsidiary (engine an old-school Mitsubishi Orion rather than one of the newer GEMA lumps), rather boring but no nasty surprises either.

I bought a Mondeo petrol specifically because it has a Mazda engine and ZF box. Unfortunately the rest of the car (steering, brakes, suspension) appears to be made of chocolate. Not great.

Really the only problem with French cars is general build quality. It's nearly always "5-hours-to-diagnose-10p-clip" type issues with them!

Jamie_Carter

geordiepaul2001 wrote: »

Hi all,

I bought a 09 plate Citroen C5 2.0 litre diesel in September last year.
All was fine until around two month ago when both of the front window regulators started grinding, the drivers side has now given up all together.
In this excessively hot weather I tried the aircon and thought it should be alot cooler, one trip to the garage later and I have been told I have a leak in the system and it can't be topped up.

These aren't my main concerns.
I have previously had the anti-pollution fault where the car goes into limp mode and I have managed to clear this by going on the motorway for several miles at 70mph in a low gear.
The worst came yesterday when at a roundabout a warning came on the screen regarding the oil pressure and the car died.
I restarted it and all was fine, however another 30 mile on it did the same again - both times when pulling away at a roundabout.

What could this fault be? and is it easily rectified?

I hope this all makes sense and isn't too long winded.

Paul

I think your main problem is that you bought a Citroen. If I were you I would trade it in before it soaks up all your money.

geordiepaul2001

I have made contact with a member on here with a Lexia

I have a friend who is a mechanic and he has a generic machine that reads realtime data and fault codes.
According to this the Diesel particulate filter was at 148%.
The car cut out a couple of times whilst idling and the fault shown was an injection relay fault.

I am still none the wiser.

GolfBravo

Both, blocked DPF and faulty injection relay are usually caused by frequent short trips.

The DPF doesn't have a chance to properly regenerate, and the constant heat/cool cycle inside the injection relay flexes the solder and eventually it cracks (+ warm weather).

The relay is very easy to replace.

The DPF will need lots of TLC. You need to take the car and go for a long drive. Don't need to thrash it and redline it, just give it enough time to fully warm up and give it some time to regenerate properly. A 20 minute (minimum) drive at 40mph+, no stop and go traffic, and get the turbo to spool up from low revs a few times (5th gear, 1500rpm, and then give it some berries up to around 3500rpm, repeat). If that fails, the car needs a forced regeneration then (with a Lexia).

And keep an eye on the oil level, if the engine is burning oil (oil ash quickly kills DPFs) make sure you get a low sulphur oil at the next service (e.g. Total Ineo)

EdGasket

geordiepaul2001 wrote: »

I have made contact with a member on here with a Lexia

I have a friend who is a mechanic and he has a generic machine that reads realtime data and fault codes.
According to this the Diesel particulate filter was at 148%.
The car cut out a couple of times whilst idling and the fault shown was an injection relay fault.

I am still none the wiser.

Well isn't that telling you that your DPF is clogged and needs to be cleaned/regenerated. Plus you have an injection relay fault; either fix it (probably a dry solder joint) or replace it. Explain why you are 'none the wiser'?

waynedance

You may veg more help on the french car forum where you have also posted.

Be patient someone will be along there to help.

albionrovers

OddballJamie wrote: »

Nice. I would've taken you to small claims if I had been the buyer.

Why? What happened to sold as seen as per my receipt? Or have I been dreaming this on this forum for the past x years?

OddballJamie

albionrovers wrote: »

Why? What happened to sold as seen as per my receipt? Or have I been dreaming this on this forum for the past x years?

You sold it knowingly faulty, this could have been proved by asking the dealer to provide details of previous work undertaken.
From AA website
http://www.theaa.com/motoring_advice/car-buyers-guide/cbg_legalrights.html

The only legal terms that cover a private sale contract are:

• the seller must have the right to sell the car
• the vehicle should match the description given by the seller
• the car must be roadworthy - it is a criminal offence to sell an unroadworthy car and an MOT certificate from a test several months ago is no guarantee that the car is roadworthy today.

I haven't seen your advert and wasn't witness to your sales patter, but if you told them it was a good runner or the like then they could have a claim against you.

Personally I wouldn't sell a car that I know to be faulty from my house privately, there's just too many nutters out there.