Car advice please.

Jami74

I have a 2005 citroen C3 with 110,000 miles on the clock.
Over the last couple of years it has had fuel injectors, spark plugs and coil pack, something to do with the ABS light, anti-roll bar joints, as well as the usual tyres, bulbs and wipers. 
It hates the wet. Usually after rain the engine light comes and stays on for the next 3 journeys before going off again. This winter it has also been misfiring in the wet too. Once it's been going a while it sorts itself out and runs fine. Two different garages (one last winter, one this winter) could not find any faults with it. I've read online that it is a known quirk of this particular model that moisture gets in through the washers and triggers the engine light. A couple of weeks ago on a particularly cold and wet morning I got into it to go to work and it went into limp mode before I got out of our close, I reparked and made alternative arrangements. After work it started and ran fine. One morning I got two miles down the road and the temperature gauge hit the top and started flashing, I parked and walked the rest of the way, it hasn't done it since. Last week it was driving fine and then suddenly started squealing, a noisy (cam/fan?) belt type of noise. Other than all of that, the first brake of the day sounds a bit grindy and the gears are a bit clunky. It is MOT'd until next December.
I am quite happy to put it into the garage to get fixed and serviced if it is worth it. But I'm wondering, is 110,000 miles quite high? Or, because of its age if this gets fixed would I expect big other things to need replacing soon? I'm not expecting to do more than about 6,000 miles a year at the moment. It's been costing me an average of £550/year on maintenance. 
At what point do I cut my losses? I am saving for a newer car so the longer I keep this one, the more I'll have, but if I have to replace it now I could. 

Grumpy_chap

All the while the annual maintenance costs are £500-£600, keep it.

AdrianC

10p/mile in maintenance? On top of zero depreciation?

Bargainacious!

Jami74

Right, I'll send it to the garage then and hope it costs less than £600 to keep on the road. 
Thank-you.

Jeepers_Creepers

Hi Jami.

As said above, the car is worth very little, so provided the repair costs don't suddenly escalate, then it's as well to hold on to it.

That's obvious a gamble, of course, but car ownership is.

My previous car was a diesel C3 Picasso, so none of these weird ignition issues (mind you, the 'brains' went awol at one point, and everything went completely bizarre. £800 to reprogram the 'tard (tho' there are cheaper ways...))

Anyhoo, the washer malarkey. That was indeed a quirk of the C3 Picasso, so quite possibly of the hatchback too. What would apparently happen is, the washer bottle (down near ground level in front of the offside front wheel) would freeze in Winter, and the attached pump would split. This allowed the washer water to get to the wires, and by some bizarre force (some say it's 'electro-osmosis') would travel up the wire cores until it arrived in the fusebox over the battery - that's some route. There, it comes in through the 'MARRON' plug - a multiway connector - and proceeds to rot the pins and the surrounding PCB. The result would be all sorts - lights going off and on, display acting bizarre, loss of power steering, you name it. Even tho' we live in an area where it rarely plummets very low, I still removed these plugs and sprayed inside them with spray-grease before refitting. Ditto the connector down at the washer - filled that with silicone grease. Not suggesting folk should do this, but definitely add plenty of anti-freeze to the washer water over winter.

Are you up for some DIY checking? If you gain access to the fusebox (if it's like the Picasso, over or near the battery), have a look to see these plugs. Disconnect the battery before going any further - it's usually quick-release - and you'll find these plugs have a neat lever folded down over their tops. I recall you had to press something down - a little plastic clip - and then you can lift the lever up from one end. As you pull it all the way up to vertical, it lifts the plug off the fuseboard PCB too - all very neat. Check the pins for any signs of damp or corrosion. If there's one marked 'MARRON', that's the one that goes to the washer on the Picasso, so definitely check that one, but no harm in having a gander at the others too. If it's all in good order, just replace them - I wouldn't suggest anyone else add anything to the pins...

Jami74

Thank-you @Jeepers_Creepers
I do love a good rummage around under the bonnet . However, I'm certainly no mechanic.
I will wait for a dry day and have a look.