Randombloke

My local indy tells me oil level indicators can be slightly temperamental and NEVER to over fill the engine oil. Never had any problems with same on sh*te old BX shame it's taken a step back. In truth when working an excellent idea to avoid a seized engine, if used.

It's blowing a fuse because the motor is taking too much current. Why is it doing this? One or more of the spindles on which the wipers turn has become corroded or stiff, requiring more torque to turn it = higher current in the motor. Something in the linkage is worn or sticking, again, making it harder to turn the whole assembly with more current being taken. It may also be that water has got into the motor or worm gear on the end of it, causing the same problem. The motor has got too hot in the past and now has some shorted turns on the windings, causing it to take too much current. The first two are easy to check. As per the logic of the main fixers on this forum like kfk or techbod, check all the simple and cheap to sort out things first. If the wipers are off does it still blow the fuse? Any one got any other ideas?

You must check and be 100% sure that there is no leak in the inlet side of the manifold downstream from the turbo - I've seen this problem quite a few times. This needs to be 100% checked before any more serious costs are incurred. Some cars have a manifold absolute pressure sensor (MAP) and if this damaged or disconnected then the same problem will arise. If the service is showing the car might be in limp home mode - this also needs sorting...... Not sure what limitations the oil level warning might be placing on you....

At least one valve is burnt or chipped/broken. It may be all four valves in that pot have some damage. No point putting a less than ideal head back on the block if for another 100 notes or so it can be sorted for another 100k miles or so. Depends on whether the car is a long term fix or just sort it out for sale...... Bit like doing a clutch - so much labour you may as well change all the bits?

It's not a good idea to use cold start spray because in addition to being volatile it's also a solvent, dribbling down the cylinder walls, washing the thin layer of oil away, and sometimes getting past the rings and into the sump, diluting the oil. I would suggest turning the key a few times, but not starting the engine, so that if the temperature is low enough to trigger the glow plugs you can give the engine several doses of glow and it will start more easily, but this will not help if the plugs are not triggered by the cold. Maybe leaving the engine for some 15 to 20 seconds might allow the pressure to build up from the pump.......

Spot on. A chance to get the 408 road tested by the public without damaging the reputation of the Lion badge. S/h values of the early C5 were very good in the first year/18 months but then plummeted. Now, looking at the D5, that's possibly something else, and return to Citroenisti values..... D5 link 1 D5 on Wikipedia On va aimer le D5

I'd check to see if the float (or whatever drives the sensor) is sticky, and if the wires to it are connected properly. Only after that would I get as radical as disconnecting the battery. An ECU is seeing a short or open circuit, or a high/low resistance value somewhere, it may be that the ECU is right but what is feeding it is wrong.

I read somewhere it was standard (H3+) at certain trim levels. I suspect the fleet buyers will have 100s of the coil version though. The French forum did say that in France the greater number sold (67%) were H3+ not coil.

This post might help for fault codes: PSA fault codes However as it was a sudden fault I'd look for a problem with coil pack, connectors or spark plug first.

A work around is to set the lights manually to side lights only. It's a PITA but it does stop the main lights going off and on unexpectedly.

Unmistakably German, and therefore a poor copy of the Passat/A4/A6. If I wanted a car with hard unsupportive seats, jouncy suspension, and an extremely high second hand price, I would have simply gone to a VAG dealer. PSA are forgetting some of the Citroen history, although it's probably the SM fiasco that's upper most in their minds during the recession. However, the average Joe terrified of Citroen suspension will only see a cheap Passat alternative, with shed loads of electronic extras he'd pay a fortune extra for in a Passat, and at a price that doesn't buy anywhere near an A4 or A6 of similar spec. PSA see a good chance to get the beta version of the 408 road tested including the suspension they will offer with it (something they did not have with the Xantia/406 or C5/407 as the suspension was still hydraulic) and hopefully those of us in the know may still find some nice H3+ bargains in 6 years time. Methinks I'll be looking at an 07/57 C5 in 5 years time.

AAAaaaaaarrrrrggggggggghhh.............. Anything but Jeff Lynne - as a teenager when I heard "The Diary of Horace Wimp" I was convinced that this was a classic novelty record but no - ELO were serious. Last Train to London - Is this about the London, Tilbury and Southend (aka The Misery) Line? Mr Blue Sky..... the over dubs of demented violinists..... a drum sound that was very loose and sounded like a classic large crockery accident on the beat rather than the tight percussive sound that gives a good groove..... Bev Bevan to blame, before he left for Black Sabbath. Xanadu? Xanadu video - so much cheese, so little time Lots of vocal processing/vocoder, sounded cool in 197x but was naff by 1982. If ever we are to tell younger generations that music was so much better in years past, we must be sure that they cannot taunt us with ELO records. ;)

From memory glove box, details of fuse numbers in owners manual. Left and right headlamps on older cars have separate fuses. Don't know about newer 1.6. Get two of each type of use, when you replace it and it blows then you must look for a short. Sometimes blown bulbs fail as a short, blowing the fuse.

With that age of 2.2 the dimmer is usually on the dash itself, with short presses to turn the dash lights up and down and a long press to kill all instrument lighting except the speedo. Is it possible to bypass the dimmer?

Be worth checking fuel economy manually between fill ups. Reset the trip computer also next time you fill up. When I got my C5, there had been a glitch which had the trip computer reading 99.9 mpg. A clear and reset showed me high 30s (2.2) which improved after DPF replacement to low 40s. Small fill ups (less than 10 litres) can confuse the trip computer. Have you checked the MAF sensor?

I suffered the same problem on mine and here was the fix I used: (Engine off, no key in ignition) Find a toothpick and go round the edges of the buttons carefully with it. You find they are very grimy and its important NOT to push any of this grime into the buttons. Next, get a cotton bud with alcohol or a safe with plastic organic solvent on it and go round the buttons. Push the buttons in which will allow you to clean off the grime on the surrounding plastic. Keep carefully cleaning until the buttons push in and come back out without sticking. All the grime will need to be removed which has basically come from the driver's hands. When the buttons are moving freely, get some silicone lubricant and spray this on a fresh cotton bud. Wipe it into the areas you're just cleaned and allow it to dry off there. This will keep the buttons moving freely and hopefully avoid you having to do this fiddly, foul job again. I didn't pull the switch assembly out as I didn't know about this. Thanks kfk! Removal of the switch assembly should make this job so mush easier. Let us know how you got on................................

RTA manual says that it's very easy to remove the tailgate, but you will need a second person at the last step. Caution - I've never done this repair before, I'm just lifting it out of the manual. You may wish to file this under BS, no hard feelings...... Boot open: Disconnect the electrical connection to the boot (LHS). Carefully remove the big plastic cover between the two hinges. Unclip the struts (My note - support needed here?) Close the boot and open the glass on its own. Undo the four screws holding the boot on, and remove the boot with the help of a second person. Then it says in French, re-assembly is the reverse of the removal procedure. ;-) Struts are in two tunnels. When I replaced the aerial on my C5 roof, it was possible to get the lining of the roof far enough away without damage to just get a hand in to unscrew things, don't know if you can do this with the struts. Note - Hinges remain in place. Looks like there are multiple struts to them as glass and window operate separately, but when the glass is locked into the window I'm guessing that if any of the struts are weak, there will be a problem. Worth seeing if when the glass is separate from the main boot, if it is the glass or the boot that is sagging. HTH.......

This is worrying. My 2.2 is much smoother than the 2.1 IDI that proceeded it. Could it be a problem with the dual mass flywheel or that the balancer shafts have slipped a tooth? That, or there an injector not firing properly?

I've had real life ESP/ASR fault warnings not connected to any form of anti pollution problem. Car engine/performance not affected. Ride is. It's a 2.2 HDi 02 Exclusive. The idea is to share knowledge so that people will be able to learn and diagnose their own faults. Depreciation values of PSA cars reflect poor public confidence in them and cost of repairs. I think most of us know that. If you are a diagnostic consultant, isn't cars going wrong a cash cow for you? If they didn't go wrong.................... To get back to the subject of ESP/ASR, there are a number of sensors, measuring steering wheel angle, lateral acceleration (via gyrometer) etc., and allowing under or oversteer to be calculated and corrected by brake application on the relevant wheel. The ECU for ESP/ASR is combined with ABS and lives under the main engine ECU and between the battery and the brake servo. The manual does not give locations for these sensors, so if you wanted to trace them some wire following might be needed. ESP/ASR was an option on the 2.0 HDi SX and was fitted to all 2.2 HDi in the first phase (-> 04). ESP (+ASR) is a system that's optional and is part of the ABS system. It has sensors. Sensor location is not documented in the RTA manual.

Higher end C5s have an ESP/ASR system which can be disabled by use of the button to the LHS of the gear knob/shift controller. When the ESP/ASR fault is up, the ESP/ASR disable light comes on and the handling/ride of the vehicle changes. This change is identical to the feeling you get if you manually disable the ESP/ASR using the button. The ESP/ASR system does have a number of sensors, if necessary I'll have a look in the manual and post more details. I'm not 100% sure but in theory they also use ABS sensors to check relative speeds of wheels...... Whilst a lot of the time I've seen ESP/ASR faults to go hand in hand with anti pollution problems, this is not always the case in my experience. On a car with a full ESP/ASR system it too can have faults. See here for info from iannez: ESP/ASR, can it be enabled? ASR is a form of traction control, more info here: Acceleration Slip Regulation FAP changes are dependent on the age of the vehicle. AFAIK the earliest ones are 50k, later ones 75k and it may be possible that with some of the 04->08 vehicles it's 120k. There are sensible independents who can do the job in an affordable way. YMMV. I'd also agree that the EGR valve and connecting tubing should be checked out. I would also check connections to all sensors, where possible. In this case I agree with you but want to point out that on a car with the ESP/ASR system, it's possible to have faults with this on its own and they are not tied to anti pollution.

All this sounds like the problems you get when the battery is slightly low voltage, probably cranks well but it's low otherwise. Worth doing some measurements on the battery both with and without engine running, plus leaving a small battery meter in the cigarette socket whilst driving. Tried this? Helped me sort a problem on my BX: Car cigarette lighter voltmeter

At the moment, my car has the spanner indicating for a service but no service light. The service light usually comes on when there is a problem, anything from a reporting valve saying low pressure to an ESP/ASR warning. When the problem that caused it is cleared, then the service light goes out, in most cases. There is a screen on the display that shows outstanding problems. Mine's an 02 Exclusive, so it can be found in the trip computer screen under diagnostics. Look in the owners manual, find out how to see outstanding messages then either fix the message or post it here. If you've got reporting valves it's likely that a tyre needs pumping up or a valve is no longer reporting. Seefive has posted the instructions for the B&W LCD screen cars.

The Haynes manual is supposed to be out in Dec............. I would check all the air ducting downstream of the turbo for a leak. Any gash or cut in the rubber/plastic or a jubilee clip not done up can cause this problem. Especially check the top and bottom of the intercooler, next to the other radiators. Sometimes there's a leak at the bottom and a small puddle of oil..... MAF sensor is fairly obvious on the ducting just after the air cleaner?

If you run a search on the C5 sub forums you'll find that this is a stock fault. All C5s suffer from premature failure of the opening rear window, and if you are buying your car from a dealer get the window fixed. The new rear window is about £350. Alternatively, if you can't get the window fixed before collecting the car and you can't get it paid for by the dealer or previous owner, send me a PM and you can have a PDF of the fixing instructions. In your search, however, you may come across instructions from a member of this forum which are slightly quicker and easier. HTH.

Range forecast on fuel will not recognise anything under 10 litres AFAIK. I don't trust the reserve indicator. It goes blank with about 25 miles predicted range. Electrics failure: You will need to look for a damaged cable or a loose connection. Be 100% sure that all cables are secure and all connectors are tight. Check the main +ve and -ve straps from the battery. Having properly disconnected the battery, be sure all nuts are done up tight and there is no corrosion. Check the condition of the battery. If you have ANY doubt replace it. If the battery is not very healthy and capable of absorbing spikes from the starter motor and hydraulic pump, then the many sensors and ECUs will get a supply spike which will banjax them. Lastly, with the engine running, maybe consider lightly tapping each fuse in the glove box with the plastic end of a screwdriver. With an assistant helping do the same in the engine bay. Put a meter or plug in indicator in the cigarette lighter and read the voltage with engine on and off. Post here?