paul.h

I never thought of looking in the car's handbook -------------------------------- I usually assume people do not have the handbook since sometimes when you buy a used car the handbooks are missing. So having them for recent cars on the service.citroen site is useful, plus it helps when trying to help people on the forum, or when considering buying a car. As an ex B747 and A340 driver, I can imagine the handbooks for these being rather long and there being a temptation not to use them all the time.

I have kept our phone with BT since we have never had any bother with it and other providers do not do it any cheaper when including most land line calls at any time. With BT, if you do not keep the router plugged in to the mains all the time do they slow your internet down or is this just an orange thing ? If you need to speak to BT in which country are their technical people located ? Is it easy to change provider and how much bother is it from getting a new e-mail address ?

Our Broadband internet is with Orange (now called EE). Usually it is ok but if you do not leave the router plugged in all the time they keep reducing the download speed from about 2 mb/s to about 0.2 mb/s. We do not have fibre broadband in our area yet so it is adsl. I have discussed this with their technical people in India and if the router is not on 24/7 they assume you do not use the internet so reduce your service, even though it may be on half a day most days - maybe they do the checks when they get up so there is a time difference. To get the speed back the router has to be on for a week or so. I prefer to switch off and unplug electrical equipment when it is not needed so I am looking at other providers. Who do other people use and what is your experience ?

Welcome to the forum. If it is the standard radio supplied with the car and not an aftermarket one, they do not require a security code if the battery is disconnected. If the battery is quickly disconnected/reconnected odd electrical things can happen since it can affect the bsi fusebox. There is a procedure under the Technical Section Common Problems post that has worked to prevent problems and if you did not do something similar it is worthwhile trying this first. If you have an aftermarket radio then that may need a security code. If other electrical items are not working it may be possible a fuse has failed and these are listed in your handbook.

Just had a look at a handbook for a C4 Picasso and on the egs gearbox and stopping the vehicle, it says to put the gearbox selector to A or R or M before stopping the engine and it will leave a gear engaged and the vehicle then can not be moved - so this must be the same as a manual gearbox and leaving it in gear but the clutch must also be engaged. The handbooks can be seen on the service.citroen site under documentation de bord and then select your language and car.

Welcome to the forum. If I have got this right, at the end of the cylinder head is what Citroen call the outlet tank which includes the thermostat and hoses. The coolant temp sensor should be in the side of this tank. From the parts diagram it looks as if it is held in place by a clip. As a test, you could connect up the new sensor to the wiring connector without removing the old one and see if the fan now works correctly on starting the engine - if so you know this is the faulty part. The fans also have their own thermal switch and relays so it could be these that are at fault. They are part of the fan wiring harness so they should be easy to find near the fans but you may have to remove an engine undershield to replace the parts and possibly disconnect/connect the abs valve block. (Later I will move this post in to a subforum since ones outside do not show after a few days and are difficult to find)

Welcome to the forum. Any problems, etc feel free to post on here and we will try to help.

What year C5 is it ? On the parts diagrams for the 2001 to 2008 models a plastic part is not shown separate to the T bar and the T bar only comes complete with the handbrake.

I am not sure about this, but looking at our C3 and the Haynes manual, the blower switch is manual and has an off position 0 at which the blower does not run, and 4 speeds 1, 2, 3, 4. The wiring diagram shows the resistor pack to have 4 resistors, presumably these give the 4 speeds. So a guess is the switch may provide the off position and not the resistor pack.

If you register on the service.citroen site, as well as seeing the parts diagrams for free, you can pay for timed access to their procedures, so if there was a particular thing you needed it is something to consider. I have accessed the parts diagrams but have not used the paid for services so can not comment on how good they are. You can register on the site as another professional and member of the Citroen Owners Club since membership of a car club is allowed in the terms and conditions. I think the dvds I got were a year out of date and may have been from a dealer and a later set I got I am not sure of the source (but they do work), this is one of the problems with ebay and I am always reluctant to pay much for something from an unknown supplier in case it is no good.

The lower picture looks like an exclusive with leather electric seats (no handbrake on the exclusive). In the brochures the seats for the VTR look different to the VTR+ and exclusive so maybe you are comparing the cheaper seats of the VTR with sports seats. Something to watch not yet mentioned but has been discussed on here - rear parking sensors are only standard on the exclusive models but could be ordered as an option on the VTR+ if the car is purchased new. If not done already, you can download a sales brochure from the Citroen website. This is worth doing occasionally for future use since the Citroen site only has current ones.

When I have just done a battery disconnect/battery charge/reconnection I have opened the door after connecting the battery, got in, closed it and then started using the ignition key in the various positions/time delays and not had any bother. I have to do it this way since the car is on the drive and to leave a window or door open for a few hours has risks, although the doors are not locked. The parts diagrams do not show any obvious proximity switches so maybe they are built in to the door locks - you could try closing one with a screwdriver in the latch and see if this lets the car think the door is closed. However, somebody on the site will probably know.

Welcome to the forum. This happens on the 2001 to 2008 C5 when the suspension pump is running and is normal (maybe Citroen should have used thicker wiring so less voltage drop). If it happens at other times then maybe there is a wiring/fuse/connector/faulty bulb problem.

When the battery in our C5 has been flat, on trying to start the engine odd things would happen such as the wipers moving and the lights coming on but there would not be enough to spin the engine fast enough for it to start. Once the battery had been charged up off the car these things did not happen once connected back up. In the future, if you are only going to disconnect the battery and do not need to do a bsi reset procedure, in the Technical section under the Common Problems post there is a procedure that has worked for me without causing other electrical problems. If doing a jump start there is also a procedure for that to help prevent bsi/ecu problems (care of coastline taxis).

Page 118 of the handbook says it regulates the amount of wheel slip, so it must be switching off the ASR (anti slip regulation) and ESP (electronic stability programme) to let the wheels spin a bit so you can set off on snow/ice otherwise the ESP/ASR would apply the brakes on the spinning wheels and prevent setting off. On a car without this but with ESP it may help to manually switch it off and one without ESP may be ok anyway. As an example, a few years ago our C4 got stuck in a car park in snow/ice so I went in the C3 (without ESP) to help. The C4 had low profile and wide tyres compared to the C3 but the C3 had no bother. However, when I got there even switching off the C4 ESP was not enough and I had to use a shovel to clear around the wheels.

For the 2.0 hdi 90 hp engine, it looks as if all you do is turn the tensioner anti clockwise with a spanner/socket on the tensioner pulley bolt to release the belt tension, peg the tensioner, remove/refit the belt, again do the tensioner anti clockwise and remove the peg. With the old belt off did you check if all the pulleys spun quietly and had no signs of wear - sometimes they need replacing at the same time as the belt.

In the title it has 2.0 hdi

Disconnect battery, remove front bumper (wheel arch shields, undo undershield but leave fastened to bumper, undo the top side bolts, unclip the top locks, detach the top with a thin screwdriver, detach the front wing trims, pull off the bumper), detach light top rear fixing, undo lower light bolt, detach light, remove connector rubber seal and connector and light can be removed. Before starting I would see if it would affect the warranty and the insurance company would need to be notified.

Welcome to the forum. It may be a coincidence the failure timing but the air con will not work if the cabin blower does not run. The cabin blower if it runs on just one speed could be the speed control resistor pack needs replacing. When the blower was working and the air con stopped working, could you hear the compressor clutch pulling in and before this did the air con cool down to a low temperature - if not it may just need regassing. The washer pump may need replacing but to check it you would need to access it and try a separate 12 volt supply to see it it runs and to confirm the fault was not elsewhere.

Looks ok but it appears to need the subscription renewing every year so the initial £395 + vat (£474) only covers one year.

In that case, for a new car the mould possibility and pollen filter probably do not apply.

Welcome to the forum. By new, do you mean newly made or new to you car or both ? If you have the air conditioning on all the time it may be the air is being dehumidified and drying your eyes. If so, try using the heating without the air con on. Also check when the pollen filter was last replaced in case it needs doing - it could be full of something to which you are allergic. When the air con is switched off but then keeping the heating still on so it dries the evaporator matrix, if it smells of a wet dog then it has mould built up from running the air con all the time and this may be affecting you. The mould can be cleaned off and I have found the lowest cost way is to use Dettol surface cleanser, non bleach type http://www.dettol.co.uk/surface-cleanser-trigger which can be bought from supermarkets for about £3 in one of those see through spray bottles. Remove the pollen filter, run the air con so the evaporator matrix cools, then with the cabin fan still on but at a mid speed, spray the cleaner into the air inlet where the pollen filter is located so it is sucked in to the matrix. If any cleaner runs out of the bottom of the heating system just wipe it up. Then switch off the air con/blower and leave to dry for a few hours. It may need doing more than once. You can also have this done at a Citroen dealer, I did this once as part of an air con regas and pollen filter replacement and the cleaner they used had the same smell as the Dettol stuff so may have been the same. To prevent the future build up of mould, switching off the air con but keeping on the blower about 1 mile from your destination will dry the matrix, but a clean once a year or so may still be needed. Another possibility could be the polishes used when the car was valeted - if it has a smell you could try wiping down the plastic bits and the seats with a damp cloth. Some Citroens also have a scent dispenser as part of the heating system - if you have one of these remove the scent cartridge. Also, if the car is new it will have the new car smell of all the plastics which over time will go - but this could affect you and having a good fresh air flow through the car may help.

It may be worth measuring the voltage all the time when running to see what it is when the fault occurs - you could plug something into the cigarette lighter socket and connect a meter to it. Possibly the battery is faulty and being only 8 months old would still be under guarantee. You could check the wiring/connections between the alternator and battery for damage/poor connections - it may get hot at a damaged section, particularly when there are a lot of things switched on such as all the lights, rear screen heater - also with these on check the voltage to see if the alternator keeps up. For the rear screen wiper you could check the wiring where it goes between the body and hatch door in case it is damaged or remove the door card to check for 12 volts at the motor. The heater blower could be the resistor pack that controls the different speeds needs replacing.

I think trying to control the compressor on cabin temperature as well as refrigerant pressure would require a complicated control system of the compressor and temperature flaps rather than just an inhibit system. Also to dry the air (such as windows steamed up) can be required when inside the cabin is warmer than the outside so the inhibit would require an override. For now, why not just have the compressor switched off and save on fuel, some estimates are about 5% so maybe an extra 2 mpg approx £100 a year at about 10000 miles a year and 40 mpg.

Adding the diesel may not get rid of the message, we have a member with a C5 with the message, tried to top up, it was already full care of the previous owner. To remove the message would require expense, possibly the additive ecu replaced since trying with a diagnostic tool had not worked. I think the level may be determined by calculation of something like fuel tank fills rather than an actual level measurement and the no. of fills needs to be reset. You would think the software mods when removing the dpf would take care of this.