clarenceover

I do think that maybe I'm being a little mean to what has been a good car! I had a Xantia before and was fond of that so this was a natural step on and at only two grand nearly five years ago, was a lot of car for the money. I have had a few problems with it but the problems that are occuring now are becoming serious and I just feel that if I spent time out in the cold trying to fix things (if it had been summer perhaps things may have been a little different) some other problem would then occur. As I said earlier, rear radius arm bearings, tubro failure, ESP,ASR., Anti pollution, random headlights (switched on they are fine), one wheeled handbrake. The day before yesterday a momentary complete power failure driving to work, yesterday all the dash lights came on on the way to work and as I walked away from the car in the car park the speedo still read 45mph, the rev. counter 1500rpm! Yes, they had stuck when the 'lights on' episode occured. Plus, there is another car in my garden (kind of in the way) which is mine, SORN'd still with MOT and desperate to be driven. It wasn't mine a year ago but was written off when my eldest was side-swiped at a junction. We kept it, repaired it and re-registered it. He switched to a BMW 330Ci Sport Coupe and hated it and now has an Impreza WRX STI so he doesn't want this one back! So all things considered I'm afraid the C5 is not ideally placed for a long future. On the subject of auto-lights, I disabled them long ago as they seemed to illuminate when not needed and not bother to turn off. I'm also not a fan of auto-wipers, they wipe when they don't need to in my opinion.

My thanks for the replies. My brother is a professional mechanic and he is all for repairing the faults. He also has a diagnostic plug-in system which may pinpoint the problem. My problem is that if I repair these faults, what's next? The headlights are random and probably leave a lot of motorists wondering why I'm flashing them. The handbrake cable is seized in the tube and not a caliper problem. I have a handbrake on one side only at the moment. I was told the rear radius arm problem was expensive, probably because the parts are not just bushes but the whole component as I was led to believe that Citroen the bushes are not available by themselves and that the entire component has to be replaced. The ESP/ASR-Antipollution warnings have not gone away this time as they usually did. I was a little surprised that the two responses I had told me to repair the car. I've had the car nearly five years and paid 2K for it. In the words of a colleague, "It doesn't owe you anything!" I just feel that recycling it is the better option. Another factor is a Sorn'd car parked on my lawn, MOT still but rusting discs and going mouldy. But at 43mpg if driven carefully and 225bhp if I don't...................

My 2002 C5 HDi SX is coming to the end! (142,000 miles!) I've had a love-hate relationship with it for the five or so years I've had it. The nice dark green with a cream interior which I've adored! Ant that still looks good (the interior) It started within months of my ebay purchase. I ran into the back of a chap at a roundabout and cracked my bumper, and his claim cost was £7200 for his car and injury to three occupants........................ I repaired mine for £25 with paint and fibreglass. That was an inauspicious start to out relationship. Then the faults would appear. ESP/ASR/Anti Pollution Fault. Would come and go over the years and is currently showing. Crankshaft pulleys replaced twice. The second time it was infact the alternator 'clutch' pulley. Starter motor failure one very snowy morning last January. £75 for an exchange one which I fitted myself. The motor factor warned that as it was the not entirely correct lower torque one it may not even turn the engine. It's been excellent! Handbrake cable seizure on the nearside! Thank you forum members for defining the problem of replacement! Passed the MOT with a fair few advisories in May. Not amongst these was the fact that the rear axle was starting to clank over bumps. "They all do that!" said the garage owner for the MOT, "But your radius arms are going to need replacing and that's mega-bucks!" The car was Sorn'd for a few months while I drove No1 son's 'cast-off' (written-off in Janurary but bought off the insurance company and repaired by me and re-registered). He's now in a 'Scooby' (Bank of Mum & DAD!) By the way, that's a Seat Leon Cupra R Mk1, currently Sorn'd itself now and in the garden but was great for the nicer summer months. So I'm back in the Citroen and just recently mentioned to No1 son that it was a bit sluggish from a standing start. (I drive cars gently, the Cupra gave me 43mpg to-from-work!). The ESP etc. lights have just returned and I have a horrible idea I've missed an oil change and it may, just may have done 12000 since the last semi synthetic change. Has that killed the Turbo? I don't think it's there any more. The car drives ok but has no turbo 'kick' and overtaking is not quite the same. Is it now just a big normally aspirated 2.2HDi? So the car has a handbrake problem, 'lights' on the dash, headlights that stay on, yes, that's another thing!, a 'terminal' rear axle and turbo failure. On ebay if it was fine (but it's not), perhaps £500, a scrapper 20 miles up the road if you deliver it £220........................ Is it time to part company? Remember I have the Cupra in the garden SORN'd, MOT'd, discs rusting and mouldy inside (they let water in the doors!)

I know, I didn't proof read and it says non stop Nigle's not NIGGLES

It's been just about 7 months since I acquired the C5 having had a high mileage Xantia TD SX with 186k on the clock. The C5 (ebay) was a bably at 95k. I've had a few problems with it so far but they are starting to come a bit closer together. The first of the latest batch of problems was a sudden onset of a metallic tinkle when idling and driving. This came out of nowhere. Noisiest by the right wheel arch. Took it to my local garage and after ten second Craig at the garage said.........."I know what that is, dodgey crank pulley from Citroen. They should have recalled these, there are thousands like this design. Are you keeping the car for long?" "NO!" I said as it's starting to get to be a pain. So they put a second hand pully on as this one has had it's rubber sandwich fall apart, they all do apparently. That cost £150 (£200 for a new pulley part alone!). Next the old ESP/ASR Anti-pollution fault routine. Never lasts but a few days. Next, passenger air bag warning. Just an afternoon that one. Next, the oil level LCD indicator. Worked again after a while when I last changed the oil. Now after my second oil change it definetly seems to have ceased working. Next, an electric window problem. Driving home the other day, just opened the front passenger window a bit to dry the condensation that collects in the top inch. Now the window shuts but pops back down about 4 inches everytime. Not yet sorted itself as most things do. The latest event. Last night parked in the drive and the cooling fan was going '19 to-the-dozen'. No reason, never stopped, cool night and both temp gauges fine. Oh, one more thing my temp gauge occasionally drops to 'off' and comes up again to normal. Sometimes it drops back to an off position for minutes/miles at a time. Just a dodgey contact I suspected but sitting outside the Scout hut waiting for kids the other day I noticed 2-3 times the temp drop to an off position but co-incident with this was the revs picking up to over 1000rpm. Each time the two events occured simultaneously so must be connected. Not a problem but a bit bizarre. So that's it really, 7 months down the line of ownership, smooth, comfortable, quite, quick, good on diesel, looks good apart from my smacked front bumper from a summer shunt (my fault, still not bothered to have the repair company fix it) but it's just starting to have a bit of a laugh with all these niggles. My Xantia never dreamed of such nonsense. I'm starting to wonder what's next. Oh, one more thing. The screen washer pump failed. Got a cheapie on ebay. A single/double outlet problem then occured. Mine is single outlet, the only ones on ebay were double. So bodged a fix. Connect it all up, absolutley nothing. To cut a long story short, the female plug from the car would not talk to the male pump connectors at all. So soldered wires to the pump tangs and stuffed them into the car's female plug end...............................AAHHHHHHHHHHHH!

It's been a few weeks since I penned the original article regarding the performance of my C5. I think I now have the answer! The problem was me having to sink my foot to the floor to get any performance from the car. A great hobnail boot was needed when driving around town and on longer journeys my foot was in danger of going very numb having to keep the accelerator pedal rather a long way down. I did come to the conclusion that the power was there, only it was a long way down or even on the floor! As was suggested a while ago, a stretched throttle cable appears to have been the problem. The car has 96k on an 02 plate by the way. I had no assistant so I wedged the throtte to the floor and discovered the throttle pulley under the bonnet still had some turn left. I decided to investigate if I could shorten the cable..............NO! So instead I lengthened the outer cable. A very simple process of removing a spring clip and positioning it further along the ridged outer cable end. (Presumably ridged for that purpose). As they say in France..VOILA! The difficult bit was getting access to all the bits. This required an intercooler pipe to be removed one end(More an that in a minute). Removing the fuse box and battery plastic 'bin' lids as well. The car is fine now although it still doesn't have the feel of the pedal on the 2.0 HDI C5's where I work. (06 plate). I am happy however and it does 'get-up-and-go' when I want it too. Driven gently it gives 47mpg on a round trip of 50 miles a day on A and B roads. This, according to the trip computer. The day after the fix I hadn't gone a mile when a great pop under the bonnet followed by serious lack of performance and 'ESP/ASR' failure and 'Anti-pollution Valve' failure texts and lights lit up. You guessed it. I put the intercooler pipe back on and this time tightened it. The ESP/ASR lights warning recovered a while late but the Anti-pollution took a while longer(This with the 'SERVICE' light lit and engine management light on also). They've gone out now and all is well! I'd be interested if many others find this helpful!

Well it's being quite a few weeks since I went on the forum to discuss my C5's lasklustre performance. My thanks to ronin and daviddad (I think) for their concerned replies. The car has been and had the camblet and tensioners replaced and it had a full diagnostic (so the garage say) all for the princely sum of £377..........not too bad, but I did my Xantia belt and waterpump myself with expert coaching and proper tools for a lot less. Sadly this cheap path is no longer an option. There's nothing wrong with it apparently. The egr valve makes no difference as it is broken at the top end. I've wired bound it to work and it made no difference! The lads at the garage tell me that their plug in gizmo measures throttle position but I have an idea this is where my C5 performance issues lies. I have an 'expert' at work who suggested I take the slack out of the throttle cable. So I lifted the engine cover and the injector pump was missing (remember my experience is with Xantia's). I've still not located the pump but I have found where the throttle cable joins the engine in what looks like a fly-by-wire (my 29 years in aviation) box of tricks where the cable operates a pully which sends electrical signals to the fuel bit. If you recall, I bought this on the strength of driving 2.0 VTR (TD) C5's at work which have a light throttle and lively performance (yet 2.0 not 2.2 as I thought) I believe, basically, that my performance is all their but it's at the bottom of the pedal where it hits the floor. There is a very great deal of travel for little performance. To be honest, when No4 sons marching band season starts and the long drives begin, I'm going to get a very numb foot because I have to keep a lot of down pressure on the pedal. Simply put, lots of downward pushing produces little performance. As we get near the bottom it does liven somewhat. The possibility of a stretched cable will be looked into. When idling, big throttle movement gives a modest, almost lazy response. It will climb hills better than I first thought because I wasn't putting my foot down far enough. I was terrified of poor mpg! I cannot complain about fuel consumption. Most use is work and back, 50 miles a day outside of rush hour on rural roads and my trip computer reckons 46+ mpg..............I drive gently and with a special 'long travel throttle' I don't have any concerns of fuel use. So there we have it.........................I think the performance is there, but a throttle calibration or maybe new cable might be in order. I think the car is great. No pin numbers or waiting for glow plugs, and it starts in an instant when warm unlike the Xantia this issue of which was getting a bit embarrasing. All the toys work, remote central locking, cruise, climate, a button that turns dash lights off at night etc.etc.. The only failure so far is a rear door central locking which is intermittent. (That said, this was what began the demise of my Xantia!) I'm going out to the car now, putting the throttle to the floor, and with the help of an assistant, trying to see how much throttle pulley movement is left. I will report back.

HI Ronin, Thank you very much for the comprehensive reply. It was an ebay car as was my Xantia. Actually i didn't drive it! Except when I'd payed up and left. I've discovered that our speedy C5 estates at work are 2.0 versions. This makes me feel even worse over the performance of my 2.2 as I'd based the purchase of mine on the speediness of the estates Coupled with the fact I've have just read about cambelt failures before 100k, mines got 95K and a bit on the clock! I have a Citroen dealer a few 100yds down the road. I'll look at some of the things you mention, and get a new belt fitted if it doesn't go bang first. Then I'll let you know how I did.

My beloved Xantia has developed an electrical problem, coupled with the fact it has done 183,000 miles it was time for a change. (It's on ebay this week with tax & mot). My company has the VTR estate which I presume is the 136bhp version (06 reg.). They are very quick with a light responsive throttle. So based on this I got myself an 02 reg. C5 2.2 TD SX. It is a lovely car with lots of toys onboard and looks very good but the performance is poor and the fuel economy is still open for debate. It has a very heavy throttle which needs a hobnail boot and a brick to extract any performance. The car is best at climbing hills in a low gear. Even on a motorway 5th (which is very, very tall and certainly doesn't help) has to be abandoned for a lower gear when a hill is reached...........I had no idea the M11 was so hilly. It genuinely feels like I'm going to have to cut a hole in the floor under the accelator pedal when going up any incline to get more room to push it down. I do feel something is wrong. My 1.9TD SX Xantia is much faster from a standstill and there is absolutley no comparison with hill climbing. The Xantia will climb any hill in 5th on a motorway. I know there is a big question over claimed fuel consumption according to the Honest John website. Supposedly better than the Xantia 1.9 (40mpg) with 44mpg claimed for the 2.2 C5. I'd be happy if it could match the Xantia for mpg! It is a bigger car of course but what I CANNOT live with this is the completely lacklustre acceleration and hill climbing....................................................HELP!

My brother who is a very experienced mechanic took one look and said............undo the bolt through the brake pedal and remove the pedal . It can be done. With that out of the way it's possible to do the job fairly quickly. But if your a WWE wrestler with banana hands, you may have big problems. With the new clip in place in the pedal, it should be possible to hold the pedal fully up and have someone push the new cable from the bonnet end and it slip into place. I've replaced this twice without any problems.

Hi kfk, Sadly I've checked all fuses in the box bottom right of the dash and under the bonnet. All are fine and have been visually and circuit tested. clarenceover

I've lost a load of electrics on my 1998 1.9TD SX. They all seem to be items with permanent live feed. Central locking, interior lights, horn? possibly, radio coding and clock. All fuses in the car and under the bonnet seem fine. Any ideas please? clarenceover

Hi Will, I've lost a load of electrics on my 1998 1.9TD SX. I opened the filler cap by putting a thin bladed screwdriver in the gap by the solenoid bolt and managing to move the shoot bolt back in stages, it took just a few seconds. Now the filler cap stays un-locked.