paul.h

A guess would be something to do with engine oil level. A similar shape symbol appears on the C5 when starting up but it also gives an indication of the oil level between min and max below this symbol. I would make sure the oil level is ok.

From memory (not shown in Haynes) the white (?) one on top does height adjustment so the other must do sideways adjustment. Set the dash leveling switch at O before making any adjustments.

For info. the front spring broke on our 2003 car when it was just over 5½ years old and about 30k miles. When I booked it in with the dealer (Barclays in Warrington), without me asking, they said they would contact Citroen about payment and luckily I did not have to pay. It was also a few days before Christmas and they did the work to make sure I did not have to wait over their shutdown. Both front springs were replaced so they were a matched pair. The spring broke on a cold morning a few yards from setting off - apparently a typical failure. Our car had the spring cups fitted which prevented any tyre/brake hose damage so was still driveable to the dealer which is only 1½ miles.

Is the the car petrol or diesel (already asked by Coastline but not yet answered) ? There have been lots of posts on this forum on anti pollution warnings but I can not remember anyone mentioning replacing the catalyst or lambda sensors. Before you buy any bits, have a good search of this forum. To check the cat I think possibilities are you could use a code reader to see the lambda values either side, measure the exhaust emissions, measure the pressure drop across it, tap it to see if it sounds rattly (broken up internally) - presumably the Citroen garage have done some checks though to say it needs replacing plus also checks on the lambda sensors to make you want to replace them.

For most of us, Citroen have also paid for the front springs to be replaced when one has broken.

Maybe the hole in the jet needs cleaning with a pin. I do not know about this one, but on many the direction of the jets can be adjusted by putting a pin in the hole and moving/levering the pin.

Probably also worth checking the air filter is clean - it is a 40k mile service interval which is a bit high. I think I have also read on here that when the exhaust particle filter is due for replacing (about 75k miles) this increases fuel consumption.

I have been using Barclays in Warrington for 5 years now and have been happy with them. All 4 of our Citroens were bought and serviced there. Items outside the service schedule such as brake cleaning I do myself.

The brake squeal is most likely from the rear. Corrosion occurs between the caliper and the axle arm due to dissimilar metals and this pushes the caliper out. The corrosion needs removing every couple of years and the contact area between greasing. Some have had the caliper move as far as the wheel so it has touched. There is a pinned post how to sort this and I did a later post. It can be done without disconnecting the brake pipe and definitely do not split the caliper - remove only one caliper mounting bolt at a time by turning and levering with the other in place and the pad cover bolt in place, then drill out the loctite (if yours has it and this is the first time it has been done), once both mounting bolt holes have been loctite freed remove both the bolts but not the cover bolt and the caliper can be moved away from the axle arm to allow the contact surfaces to be cleaned up with a file and greased. I think Coastline has mentioned putting a bit of polythene in the gap so the metals do not touch. I keep the tyres at about 36 psig as per the door post label. Note the 45 to 61 mpg is a range I have mostly from M62 trips to/from Warrington to Hull, normally hope to get 50 to 53 but with 45 at 70ish mph and into the wind/rain. The hills seem to knock the fuel consumption back a lot so I try not to accelerate too hard up them. The recent higher values have been due to the roadworks around Leeds and their 50 mph limits and also keeping to about 65 mph (about 10% less mph gives about 10% more mpg but adds about 5 to 10 mins to the trip each way). The 61 mpg was when I inadvertantly put in a couple of gallons of Shell V power diesel on top of a similar amount of Sainsburys best - the increase in mpg (if from the fuel) just about paid for the fuel £1.25 vs normal £1.18 per litre.

You probably know this but anyway - the cabin fan needs to be running (engine fan will also run) before the air con will work. If it still does not work and give colder air, then it is possible the air con needs regassing.

What fuel consumption are you getting and type of driving ? Our 2.2 hdi VTR hatchback mark 1 2004 C5 is used mainly for long distance motorway journies and has given anything between 45 to 61 mpg depending on speed/hills/wind direction/rain but generally going a bit slower improves the mpg.

We get 40 to 50 mpg from our 2003 35k miles 1.4 (petrol) sx manual gearbox car. Usually short journies of a few miles. Problems have been front coil spring breaking, replaced throttle pedal to help setting off smoothly, rear wiper does not always stop - still to sort out, injectors failed and needed replacing (make sure the wiper washer jets holes in the bonnet are sealed since rain can get through and drips on to the injectors causing the coils to fail - a known problem. Also check the plastic pipes to the jets do not leak at the connections), a couple of times on the M62 motorway it has gone to high temperature but so far I have not found any faults. Last winter I used it in the snow and it always went well, not getting stuck but I had put new tyres on. Our C4 with its wider tyres and more power was worse and had to be dug out a couple of times.

Welcome to the forum. Not sure about the boot lock problem (could try pushing the door more closed - this works on our C5) but the rear wiper not working properly is a problem with our car and I have seen notes on this before on this forum. On our car the wiper does not stop after one wipe but keeps going for a while before stopping. I have yet to sort it out. Sometimes it stops in a different position to normal but then will move later when the doors are unlocked. I suspect that the on/off switch contacts may need cleaning.

If you ring up your local Costco they will give you a price over the phone - there is also the £25 annual joining fee if not already a member. I recently had prices from them for 2 different Michelins, one was cheaper and the other dearer than Bromley tyres. Someone I used to work with has used Costco and was happy with them saying it is like a supermarket where you put the tyres in a trolley, pay for them and take them round to the tyre fitting bay. They are open late as well. I guess you know, most places give a discount the more tyres you buy so I always ask.

Welcome to the forum. A few thoughts, however, we do not have any problems with our 1.4 petrol, 35k miles, 2003 SX model. 20 to 30 years ago, a car with your mileage often would have a worn syncromesh baulk ring on second gear and would grind when changing up from first. But it would not occur from when the car was new. Also when cold the gearbox oil would be thicker (more viscous)so would be more likely to occur when warmed up and the oil had thinned. So it is probably not a worn gearbox problem but could be a faulty part problem. A clutch problem can also make gear selection difficult - does the pedal bite near the floor as though the clutch is worn or as if there is a hydraulic problem (air or worn seals in the master/slave cylinders, fluid needs changing - should be done when the brake fluid is changed). Again this is not likely to occur from when the car was new. If the gear lever mechanism is not adjusted/set up properly this could give a problem selecting the gears. When I have replaced Saab gearboxes, if it was not set up properly you would end up with the gears on the same side of the lever difficult to select such as 1st and 2nd or 5th. Also on the Saabs, you had to have the correct type of gear oil and oil level and occasionally they would recommend a different oil if there were problems.

Our 2004 mark 1 C5 VTR 2.2 hdi hatchback lasted 28k miles on the original Michelin Primacy Pilot so I replaced them with the same (although they were slightly different) Primacy HP. So far after 12k miles they are still ok. The Michelins on our Citroens (Picasso/C4/C3) all seem to have given about 30k miles when needing replacement although the C3 was due to the tyres starting to perish at 35k miles/6½ years rather than all being worn out. In the past on other cars other makes such as Pirelli/Dunlop would give about 15k miles on the front driven wheels. If you live in the Warrington area, Bromley Tyres are usually competitive on prices.

Deleted - internet probs resulted in repeated post three times

Deleted - internet probs resulted in repeated posts.

What year/mileage/model is the car, any engine warning lights ? Is the air con manual/climate control, was the warning light mentioned the one on the on/off switch ? Does the air con operate normally when switched on ? Known problems (and from experience of our 2003 1.4SX) include - fuel injector failure due to water from rain or washer jets dripping on to the injectors through the jet mounting hole in the bonnet - in our case at 25k miles after heavy rain, this also gave the engine warning light and poor running/misfiring all the time. There are posts on this. - accelerator pedal needing replacement as the electrical pot in the pedal wears - in our case to set off high revs were needed to prevent it juddering at low revs. A new pedal was £30 to 40 a few years ago and was a stock item and from memory only 2 nuts hold it in place. Other possibilities could include usual servicing items such as air filter, spark plugs, throttle body/plate cleaning, air leak between air flow meter and inlet manifold. Also possibly coolant temperature sensor fault, crank position sensor starting to fail - symptoms worsen to failing to start particularly when hot, ignition coil pack starting to fail, a problem with the clutch or a CV joint.

Does anything need to be done to adjust the pads once they are installed ? I have noticed on mine if I keep a foot on the pedal and keep lifting the handbrake lever then the pedal keeps moving down although it is over a year since I last had the pads out for cleaning. Compared to other cars I seem to need more effort on the pedal and it seems spongey - I had the dealer bleed the brakes recently but they found nothing wrong since I had though air or adjustment could be the problem.

This happened to our C3 (2003 1.4 petrol sx) last week for the first time, not happened since. It had not been used for a couple of weeks so at first I thought the battery was flat but on second start attempt was ok and has been since. I have not done any checks yet but thoughts were low voltage (the same happens on our C5 if the voltage drops below about 11 volts when the car has not been used for a few weeks), loose battery connection, relay fault, starter switch fault. A check on the voltage though showed normal 12½ volts without engine running and about 14 volts running. Possibly not related but also the remote sometimes fails to unlock the doors so have to use the key - could be mobile phone/mast related. There was a case in the news recently where a cafe had started to use handheld key pads to do orders and this was interfering with car locking systems - they stopped it by changing the key pad frequency.

I put a post on the Picasso site asking if anyone knew why this one was not working and Joe Blunt asked Glen to have a look at it - so maybe they are the ones who have sorted the problems. I have put a thankyou note on there for them. I guess it will take some time before everyone gets back to using this site again.

Have you had new tyres fitted recently - there have been reports of different tyres causing pulling ? I would jack each corner of the car up and see if all the wheels turn freely to check for any brake binding or wheel bearing problems. Maybe also look from behind to see if the rear wheels are vertical.

ant7, welcome to the forum, you will find a lot of helpful people here with a lot of experience who will go out of their way to help each other. You should be able to find the location of your nearest dealer from the Citroen.co.uk web site under Find a Dealer and entering your postcode. My local dealer is Barclays in Warrington and I get most parts from them. There are some comments on a scrap yard under the C3 pages.

If it is just a split in the rubber then maybe it could be glued back together. If you need to buy one try your local euro car parts but I suspect it will be a dealer only part or a second hand one from a scrap yard. Anyone know how much they are from Citroen ? A home made colour one sounds like a good idea and would brighten the car up.