paul.h

Colvon, welcome to the forum. There is a very popular Picasso forum which may be worth you joining. There is a link to it at the bottom of this forum front page.

At the bottom of the forum front page, there is a link to the Picasso owners club which is a very popular forum and worth a look and joining. I have not done one of these filters but you need to make sure seals are in good condition so no air leaks after, prime the filter where possible with the priming pump or some are done by running the engine. It will be covered in the Haynes manual if you have one.

The Citroen service manual says the C8 does not have a level plug and it only says to fill with the correct oil quantity through the air vent hole after draining. The same gearbox in the C5 it says has a level plug on the differential housing but on the C8 it says this does not give the correct level.

Our 2003 C3 1.4 petrol does not have a block drain valve and the air bleed screws on it are on the thermostat housing at the side of the cylinder head (I can not remember but the Haynes picture looks like it uses an allen key to undo) and the other is on the heater matrix outlet hose and looks like a tyre valve cap. Getting the air out and filling this car was not easy, filled by the expansion tank and applied vacuum at the thermostat bleed screw hole since it filled very slowly. Also raised the left front corner of the car so air would go towards this air bleed point. On running the engine air could still be heard going through the heater matrix for some time and needed to be bled again and level topped up.

A car accessory shop will sell a special tool, has a couple of prongs on it to engage with the piston and such as Machine Mart sell complete kits to cover many cars. The pistons on the 2 sides turn in opposite directions. There is a pinned note on the problems and fixes pages on changing the pads, it mentions removing a pin but there is not one, only the lower guide bolt to remove and then pivot the caliper up. Pad replacement is covered in the Haynes manual. The slots on the piston have to line up with a raised bit on the caliper body so the pads go in correctly. I prefer to wind in the pistons with the bleed nipple undone to release the excess brake fluid in to a container to avoid possible problems with the master cylinder, if not check the fluid level in the reservoir does not go too high. Refit the handbrake cable to the caliper after the footbrake has been used a few times to push the piston out to the pads. Job is something like: Raise car to max height on suspension, chock rear wheels, jack up one front side, fit axle stand, remove wheel, check thickness of brake disc is not below minimum, turn steering to side jacked up so more room for working, release handbrake, pull off pad wear sensor wires at the top, thread lower one through bottom of caliper (may break plastic doing this), unhook handbrake cable from caliper and pull back, undo lower caliper guide bolt, pivot caliper up and tie back, remove pads, clean everything up, clean brake disc with fine emery paper to remove glaze and remove rust from edges and wipe clean (brake cleaner), wind in piston (right side anti-clockwise, left side clockwise) making sure the rubber boot does not turn, check new pads fit, apply a bit of copper grease to the pad and mounting bracket contact surfaces and the backs of the pads (but not the pad friction or brake disc surfaces), fit pads, lower caliper, fit guide bolt (31 Nm), fit wear sensor wires, push brake pedal to push piston against the pads, refit handbrake cable, clean hub and if alloy wheels apply a smear of copper grease, check tyre for damage/stones/nails/etc then clean wheel/hub contact surface and refit wheel.

A car accessory shop will sell a special tool, has a couple of prongs on it to engage with the piston and such as Machine Mart sell complete kits to cover many cars. The pistons on the 2 sides turn in opposite directions.

A lot of people here would suggest avoiding the 1.6hdi, it is a bit underpowered for a heavy car (is great in our C4) but more importantly can be prone to turbo failure if the oil is not changed regularly. So any fuel savings could be lost in maintenance costs. The 2.0hdi may be the one to go for but the problem may be in sourcing a car, took me about a year to find a decent low enough mileage one not too far from home and then it was a 2.2 hdi. The fuel economy between the 2.0 and 2.2 is probably not that different and the road tax is the same. Mine is used mainly for longer distance motorway miles and towing a caravan. Unless it is used for short trips through town with stop/start drinving, about 45mpg should be possible and I get about 45-55 mpg on motorways depending on driving speed/wind direction. Before the 2007 estate we had a 2004 earlier model 2.2 hdi hatchback - this is almost as large a boot but gave slightly better fuel economy on the motorway - however, I prefer the estate, partly since the mark 2 C5 handles better and the estate is enormous with the back seats down, plus being a heavier car is better for towing the caravan. If the passenger front seat is moved forward, you can get an Ikea 2m wardrobe in. You will find the C5 takes a lot of beating for comfort/smooth ride and they are amongst the more reliable cars. Beware that at about 70k miles the exhaust particle filter needs replacing, cost several £100, but many instead have it removed/drilled out and a software mod so the ecu does not try to inject the eolys fluid which burns off ash in the filter.

Is it petrol or diesel, model year, engine size ? Does the engine try to start or only turn over ? Is the engine fault light showing ? Has it recently had any work done ? Have you tried the spare key in case of an immobiliser fault ? Does the engine run normally when warming up ? Any fuel leaks/smells ? Any info will help with diagnosing possible cause. One possibility could be the crank position sensor - these often fail and early symptoms are not working when hot but ok when cold. They often do not cause the engine fault light to show.

Sorry, cannot help with this but there is another C3 site worth a try although I could not see anything similar there but it would widen your audience http://citroenC3owners.com You can also look at the parts diagrams on service.citroen.com if you register as Other professional and company name Citroen owners club

Welcome to the forum, the earlier C5 is a popular choice here for caravan towing, you will have to let us know how well the new one copes for when we need to replace them. For myself I would like to know if the standard suspension is ok and if an electric handbrake helps when towing.

Just a comment on this problem. When I have disconnected the battery on our 2007 VTX C5 car, the sat nav/radio only loses the date/time. I have not yet tried to save any destinations but previously used ones are still there. So having a constant 12v supply may not be your problem. I do not know if the radio has an internal battery that keeps data saved, decades ago I had a removable one (for security reasons) and when the internal battery went flat it had to be reprogrammed when put back in the car. A secondhand unit may need to be programmed to your car before it would work, requiring a dealer or somebody with a lexia.

Requirements are listed as Hardware; 2.0 Ghz processor, 512 Mb RAM, 16x DVD drive, 17 Gb of hard disc free space. Operating system: Windows 2000 or later (I have used it on XP and Vista, you need to check if it would work on a more recent version), Internet Explorer 5.5 or later (I have used 8 and 9 with no problems), Acrobat reader 5.0 or later, Adobe SVG viewer (this I seem to remember comes with it or was a download). You can install all the data from the DVDs onto the PC but I used the standard option to reduce this and to use the DVDs when needed to see the diagrams which uses less disc space. Printing is easiest by using a mouse right click. I do not know if the pin out is included since to see wiring diagrams for your car you need to input the vin and RPO but it should be possible to see it from the wiring diagram.

By resetting the trip meter I meant just what you have done, push the button on the end of the wiper stalk. As for having to accelerate hard to stop the exhaust filter blocking - never had to do this on 2 C5s and the C4 although they have not been high mileage, 47k the highest. The other day I was talking to somebody who had recently bought a C4 with the 1.6 hdi and his filter kept indicating as though it was blocked and he was getting the dealer to try and sort it - may be it is a common fault.

Another possibility is the intermediate bearing in the right hand driveshaft could be worn. A worn cv joint is supposed to make a clicking noise when turning on full lock but probably would not be noisy at other times. Haynes manual also says an inner cv joint could give vibration. Uneven tread wear on a tyre could be noisy - had this on a car on the rear tyres and the tread could be seen and felt to be unevenly worn. I can not think of anything else that would get worse at higher car speeds but not at higher engine revs in different gears. On high mileage Saabs I have had to replace gearbox bearings that were worn out and they gave a whining noise that increased with engine speed or car speed depending on the gear selected - eventually on one it started jumping out of gear due to the wear allowing the gearshaft to move. My favourite though is still a wheel bearing for a further check since you say it changes when turning and this will effect the load on one side of the car. You could also check if one wheel hub is hotter than the others after a run. There is also a citroenC3owners.com forum that may be worth a look.

Just had a look at the site, it has been changed recently and the terms and conditions are not obviously there but from the Help page for registering it gives the options as You have to choose from the 3 profiles on offer : 1.Auto-repairer professional if your profession is that of auto repairs 2.Other auto professional if your profession relates to autos, but you are not a repairer ( e.g. equipment supplier ). 3.Other professional if your profession is not in autos, but you need to access the services in our Internet site ( e.g. students, agencies, big fleets ). So the car club as you have found must be covered by 3.

Unless the terms and conditions have changed recently, a member of a car club such as this one is/was allowed to register on service.citroen

If everything was ok before the battery was swapped I would check the voltage of the new one in case it needs a charge - should be 12.5 to 12.7 volts - a low voltage may be enough to spin the starter bypassing the solenoid but not if it is engaged and trying to turn the engine. Also try a battery disconnection - switch off ignition, remove key, open bonnet and wait a few minutes for the bsi to shutdown. Disconnect battery, wait a few minutes, reconnect battery (do not get it connected wrong way round, from memory the positive cable may be black and confusing), wait a few minutes, put key in ignition, wait a few minutes, turn key to first position, wait a few minutes, turn key so ignition lights up, again wait a few minutes then try to start the engine. A bit long winded but helps to avoid problems with the bsi. The clock/date will need to be reset, possibly the radio stations and the windows switched down and back up - info is in the handbook.

If it is a whining noise it could be a wheel bearing - jack each corner up and spin each wheel to try and detect any roughness/noise and holding the wheel top and bottom see if there is any play.

We have a 2011 C4 with the same engine on 24k miles and it is currently giving about 48 mpg on short trips and due to the colder weather. Motorways doing around 65 mph normally gives 60 to 70 mpg depending on the wind direction and resetting the trip meter at the start. Like any car the faster/harder it is driven the worse the economy so steady driving/not accelerating up hills and keeping to legal limits help. Resetting the trip meter before a trip will likely give a more realistic mpg than leaving it for a long time plus on previous C4s and maybe others, the trip meter stops at 9999 km (about 6200 miles) and would no longer be accurate without resetting. It is worth checking if any brakes are binding - jack up each corner and spin the wheel. Our air filter has not yet been replaced. Last service at 23k miles was £280 for oil/filter, cabin filter, diesel filter replacements and the checks that are done. The flickering lights could be a bad connection or earth point. Does switching them on without the engine running give the same effect when cold ? If you want a workshop manual citroen dvds are available from such as ebay as a set of 3.

I can not help directly but if you want a Citroen dealer workshop manual these can be found on such as ebay on dvd as 3 discs to install on a pc and do not cost much. These cover all models. They include the parts diagrams, repair procedures, time to do a job (but not for an amatuer) and wiring diagrams. The parts diagrams are also free to see on service.citroen.com as well as handbooks on more recent cars - you can also pay for additional such as repair procedures but I have not tried this.

The parts diagram appears to show the pipe goes from the rear door into the roof at the left side then goes across to the right side. Then it goes diagonally across to the left side of the roof towards the rear passenger door. Then along the left working its way to the front and then somehow to the right of the engine compartment/possibly inside the wing to the washer pump. This routing seems a bit odd, you would think it would stay at the right side of the roof and down the right front pillar. 2 connectors are shown so unless the pipe has broken it has likely just come off the connector. 1 is shown over the rear right passenger seat (which ties up with the water seen) and the other is at the front of the cabin/engine compartment. To access the rear connector the roof lining will have to be lowered at the back/right corner area. If you bend the lining it may permanently crease so need to be carefull - this happened on our C3 when replacing the rear door. If removing part of the roof lining is a big job, you could consider finding the front end of the pipe (possibly in the pillar trim) and feeding a new pipe through the lining to the back (a bit of house wiring may be strong enough to not bend to poke/pull it through) with new connectors at the front and back where they are easy to get at.

It will be in the car handbook but is as follows (from 2007 C5 handbook and Haynes manual): - Switch off the ignition. - on the instrument panel there is a reset button near the engine temperature dial. Press this down and hold it down. - switch on the ignition (not sure if the engine needs to be started since I have not had to do this yet). - once the display resets to zero (=0) and the maintenance key goes, release the button.

The part nos for front and back are different but whether just the handle bit is the same and could be removed is hard to tell from the parts diagrams (these are on service.citroen.com if you register - terms allow as a member of a car club). There are some on ebay for £20 to £30. I have no idea of the new price from a dealer.

From the Navi Drive handbook with our 2007 C5, use Menu / Map icon / Orient the map / select orient the map in the direction the vehicle is headed (or North or in perspective 3D).

If it is a C5, it appears to be a reliable car by the lack of posts on the C5 subforum. So just make sure everything works and being an exclusive, the suspension goes up and down and the electric handbrake is ok. For a workshop manual, the only option is a Citroen one on dvd from such as ebay which will also include the parts diagrams. There is a French RTA ETAI one but that does not cover the 160hp engine - available from Amazon UK or French sites. The parts can also be seen if you register on the service.citroen.com site plus if you pay, the workshop manual bits can be seen but I have not tried this. Also on this site you can see the Characteristics of your car using the vin and see what is fitted - some of the posts have been about the lack of parking sensors so these may now be an option.