paul.h

It is always the same with cars - when you decide to get rid of them they perform at their best. Good luck with the new car, what car are you getting ?

Welcome to the forum. On the home page there is a link to the Picasso forum which may also be worthwhile joining.

Thankyou for the info.

This is from the Citroen service box procedure. Possibly when the strut is lowered the drive shaft may be in the way. coastline taxis may have done one and if so should be able to give the easy way to do it.

The Caravan Club are going to do a comparison of the new C5 against the Peugeot 508 in the September 2014 magazine and have requested owners reports by 7th May.

You may need to read my post again since I have edited it to include labour.

The strut part no. may be 5271 L5 From the citroencarparts.net site the price is £191.52 plus £6.02 for the seal (527215) to the sphere. This is a lot less than one for a mark 2 C5, about £330 a couple of years ago when I needed one from the dealer. Replacement is a bit more complicated than the mark 2 since the drive shaft has to be disconnected from the hub - about 2 hours whereas the mark 2 was less than 1 hour.

Using an EOBD reader to erase fault codes you need the ignition switch on but not the engine running - I do not know if you have tried this.

I hope it is something very simple such as an exhaust heat shield that the Citroen garage had not tightened up and not a new problem. If you do decide to replace the car, it may be better to go to a main dealer, it may cost a bit more but often main dealers get the better cars and provide a better warranty, not one that may be an add on with an insurance company. Over the last 9 years, my family has had 7 Citroens, 6 from the main dealer and one from an independant garage. The 6 have given no problems or were fixed without cost to us, but the 1 gave problems after the short warranty I would not have expected but cost me quite a bit to fix. All have been low mileage/age which does help. Before we started with Citroens, we used to buy older higher mileage cars but then I used to spend most of my spare time fixing them. However, taking all the costs into account, the newer cars did not cost any more over several years since the higher depreciation cost was not much different to the cost of repairs.

If it is like the C5, you can access them from under the back of the bumper without needing to remove the bumper. Have a look with a torch.

It is a shame you are having these problems, motoring should not be like this - wasting all your time and money just to sort problems that should not happen, especially on a newish low mileage car. It makes you wonder what the previous owner did to it when they had the car.

If you are using the air conditioning there will be a clunk every now and again as the air con refrigerant compressor clutch pulls in/out. As you look at the engine, the compressor is at the left end and low down on the front of the engine. You can test this to see if it is this by starting the engine, do not move the car, turn on the cabin blower, then switch on the air con. You should then hear a clunk as the compressor starts to work. The compressor cuts in/out to control the pressure of the refrigerant and this is normal. Usually I turn off the air con about a mile from the end of a journey, but keep the blower on, so the air con evaporator matrix (cooler) under the dash does not stay damp from condensation and thus help prevent the build up of smelly mould. If it is not this then maybe there is something loose and you are right to take the car back.

In case somebody else is thinking of this car for towing, the weights from the 1/6/2013 handbook for the C4 grand Picasso 7 seat (model 3A in the tables) 150 bhp 2.0 hdi 6 speed electronic gears (auto) are: - unladen weight 1476 kg - kerb weight inc 75 kg for driver 1551 kg (this is the mass in service as seen on the V5C) - gross vehicle weight 2280 kg - gross train weight 3580 kg - braked trailer on a 10 to 12% gradient within GTW 1300 kg - braked trailer with load transfer from the vehicle within GTW 1600 kg (ie car load is reduced by 300 kg) but it does say this may have an adverse effect on roadholding. - recommended nose weight 70 kg. On the Caravan Talk forum, Ancell has given his caravan MTPLM as 1500 kg, hence you can see why it has not been recommended that the C4 Picasso is suitable for him.

On the C5 Problems and Fixes section there are pinned posts on the C5 (to 2008 model) brakes which should help.

It will have a turbo but no particle filter.

The original micro phone is in the light fitting above the windscreen, in the linked post it was so the OP could fit one there.

Which country is the contact centre located - India ? - and do they have Citroens there so the contact may understand the problem ? There is a Coventry address on their website but that does not necessarily mean the centre is located there.

Ancell has not been back to finish off this topic but he posted something similar on the caravan talk forum. Despite advice here and on the caravan forum against the C4 as being too light, he decided to go for a 2.0 hdi auto 150 bhp grand C4 Picasso. From the other forum, delivery will be around now so hopefully we may get some feedback and what the actual mass in service weight is on the V5C, since he was hoping it would be quite high - not believing the figures in the brochure and handbook. Caravan Talk link http://www.caravantalk.co.uk/community/topic/92542-can-i-tow-1500-kilos-with-1430-kilo-kerb-weight-mpv/page-5

If it is a chuffing sound then it could be a fuel injector seal leak. To check, I have read you can squirt some soapy water (washing up liquid) down the side of the injectors and see if it blows bubbles. If it is low down on the engine then it could be the crankshaft pulley and the exhaust fumes may be an exhaust leak. This is from the C5 Common Problems post 21. Crankshaft pulley failure. This has been reported on a 2.2 hdi 136 bhp engine but can happen on other engines. Symptoms are a tapping noise from low down on the engine but may initially be thought to be a worn/sticking tappet. The noise increases with engine revs. The pulley is an anti vibration type which can separate and need replacing - it is possible to fit a solid type - approx cost at a garage is £200 including a new auxiliary drive belt.

There was a recent post on fitting a microphone to a mark 3 C5 and it was in the light fitting above the windscreen. http://www.citroen-owners-club.co.uk/citroen/topic/20982-c5-fitting-a-bluetooth-mic/

Thankyou for getting back to us with the fix which was not an easy or usual one to solve. I have slightly altered the title to help when searching.

John, good luck with the new car and I can't wait for your towing report.

What are the suspension faults ?

Welcome to the forum.

Thankyou for the info. To avoid confusion, you would think the manual edition or issue date would be noted as being the last date something was changed. The cat/dpf bits are there in the manual issue date April 2013 and there is a vertical black line at the side of the wording to presumably show it is a change.