raveydavey

The condensation in the headlight is probably down to the car having had a replacement bulb fitted and the seal at the back of the light not being put back in place correctly. It's well known and I'd guess often due to the near non-existent space at the back of the headlight to get your hand into when changing the bulb. I had the problem after a Citroen dealer fitted a new bulb during a service and the entire headlight was replaced under warranty.

It depends who you ask - the dealers will tell you it's every two years for an "air con service". Look further afield and you get different answers. They guys at Thatcham tell me air conditioning is a sealed system and should not need attention for the life of the car unless it sustains damage or a component fails. The best way to avoid component failure is to make sure it's used regularly as a lubricant is suspended in the refridgerant gas, so you're doing the right thing there keeping it switched on. I think in the UK manual it tells you to ensure it's switched on for at least 15 minutes every month. Despite what a dealer tried to assure me (whilst trying to sell me an air con service) you don't "use up all the gas" by having it switched on - the only way for the gas to escape is via a leak, which will shut the system down in seconds as it runs under such high pressure. Basically, if it's working I'd leave it alone. I've heard tales of 15 year old cars running round with the A/C never having being touched and still working, it's all down to the quality of the original install, which my own experience of Citroen and their dealers tell me hasn't been that cracking... One final thing I'd point out with you living in Spain: the gas now used as a refrigerant in EU countries will only cool air by around 15 degrees celcius. That means if it's 40 degrees outside, the a/c can only cool fresh air coming in to around 25 degrees. It will be colder than outside air, but it perhaps won't feel as cold as it does on a cooler day. The way round that is to hit the recirculate air button on the dash. Bear in mind that a car parked up in the mid-day sun will quickly get very hot inside indeed. The UK manual again advises to switch the a/c on AND open the windows for the first mile of so to expell the hot air from the car when this happens.

Well I don't know about the model Halfords are selling, but I've heard a few horror stories of cheap roof boxes being poorly sealed against the elements and people arriving at journeys end to find eveything inside is soaked and there is an inch or two of water in the bottom of the box...also security may well be pretty basic, but again it depends on the actual box. It will definately knock 10% or more off your fuel economy, especially if you're at motorways speeds. If you're travelling with 4 people in the car and a full boot as well as the roof box I doubt it will make much difference to the handling under normal conditions, althought I wouldn't recommend doing any handbrake turns or trying to navigate roundabouts too quickly. Check the manufacturers advice, as there will be a limit to the weight the bars can handle - remember that this includes the weight of the box as well as whatever you're putting in it.

Smokescreen is right. Open the lower glovebox. On the "roof" of the lower glovebox is a ring shaped vent - you won't be able to see it unless you lie down, but just feel inside and rotate it until you feel the airflow. Obviously it only chills if you have the aircon on... Although the Desire (my model) has aircon as standard this feature isn't shown in the manual - in fact I'm fairly sure it is listed as only being on SX models and above, but it is most definately there.

I'm glad it's all sorted for you now. If you see my earlier reply, Citroen have superceded several A/C components so they must be aware of an issue (otherwise why change them?). It sounds like you had the same problem I had.

The headlight issue is a pain but easily fixed by refitting the cover at the back of the light properly. Once done run round for a few hours with the lights on and it will burn the moisture off - or park the car facing into the sun on a hot day. The bonnet catch failed on my C3 and was fixed under warranty. The dealer had the parts in stock (shock horror!) so I'm guessing it's a fairly common fault? It's been fine since.

You are quite right, but that doesn't alter the fact that my C3 is the only car I've ever owned where the A/C is switched on when set to demist and cannot be turned off. Whilst hitting the screen with "dry" air is good when the screen is fogged up on a winter morning, I can see no reason why on a dry day that you should need the A/C switched on after 5 minutes. Then again the C3 fogs up like no car I've known when it's raining so perhaps it's to combat that?

Sadly that is typical of Citroen UK. I spoke to them before Christmas last year and they promised they'd investigate a very serious matter and get back in touch with me. Despite having home, work and mobile numbers and my address I've heard nothing from them at all. Whilst I like my C3 it will be the last Citroen I own. Goodness only knows how they think they can take on the likes of Audi and Mercedes with the C6 with the sort of operation they run.

If you have the air direction set to demist (ie the windscreen) then the air con is ON all the time. I noticed this when I first got my car and assumed it was a fault, but the dealer assured me it was standard to the model, for reasons no-one has been able to explain to me yet...

Put it on "recirculate" (ie with the light on), close all the windows and turn the a/c off. After a couple of miles, if the windows start fogging up, the air is being recirculated. Personally I'd get it back to the dealer to sort - even if the car's warranty has expired any parts they've fitted will come with a 12 month guarantee and the fault was reported / diagnosed before the warranty expired.

Sorry I can't help with the whistle (although to be fair, I've never heard a C3 whistle, so I'm guessing it shouldn't be doing it...) It will have been oil in the turbo - probably a slip of the tounge at the dealer, or someone on service reception getting confused. It is vitally important to let any car with a turbocharged engine tickover at idle for 30 seconds or so before switching the engien off to allow oil pressures to settle down and equalise in the turbo or it will cause premature wear which will give the white-ish "smoke" you saw and ultimately lead to a replacement turbo. The absolute worst thing you can do is to rev the engine as you switch it off.

Now that summer has finally arrived, the air con in the car has been a real boon. The best bit though is I'd forgotten that you can set it to chill the glovebox, into which you can just nicely fit a 500ml bottle of pop. Now that is clever design and a really welcome idea.

I've got an 03 Desire HDi (8v) and the cam belt change in the book is 100k. I'm just approaching 60k now so it's a fair way to go yet. I went on a factory tour at Jaguar Halewood a while ago and the guy taking us round had originally worked there building Ford Escorts. As you probably know the workers got big discounts on new cars so he changed his Escort every 3 years - and he changed the cambelt every 10k even though the book stated every 36k....you'd like to think he'd got some idea given that he'd probably built his own car! :(

I'm glad you're happy with your choice. There is a lot to recommend about the C3, even though my experience hasn't been 100% hassle free. That said I had a Japanese car before my C3 and despite their reliability reputation I had as many problems with that... The main issue for me has been the dealers - customer facing staff haven't been up to the job. I've been called and told urgent work needs doing "for safety reasons" when that very same work was carried out by the same dealer only a couple of months previously, staff have not known what problems have been and have decided to be creative with their answers and ended up looking foolish (by having the A/C switched on I had apprently used up all the gas...). I could go on. Oh, and dealers appear to stock nothing except basic service items nowadays so every diagnosis involves the pain of arranging another visit to the garage once parts are in. I'm approaching 59,000 miles in my C3 now - it almost always returns 60mpg+, it cost £35 a year to tax and it's cheap on insurance. It's very comfortable and it seats 5 adults fine (when it has to). My basic advice would be avoid the Citroen dealers as soon as the car is out of warranty and find a good independant with knowledge of the marque. It will be cheaper for your pocket and you'll get better service.

My car (03 plate C3 1.4HDi Desire) has had the recall for the cups fitting at a dealer. I have noted that ever since this was done though the car has expereienced a vibration at low speeds - anyone else noted this? The dealer that fitted them initially denied this could be anything to do with it and had the car in several times in an attempt to find the source of the vibration but always returned the car "NFF". On the last visit for this they had cured the fault but couldn't / wouldn't tell me what they'd done. On having a service done at an independent several months later I was warned that the recall had only been carried out on one side of the car - oddly enough the cup was missing on the side that had had the rattle / vibration. I called Citroen who confirmed that the dealer had claimed for both sides and they wanted me to take the car back for them to sort. We agreed after some discussion that I'd take the car to a different dealer and oddly enough the vibration was back as soon as I drove away from their premises, so it is clearly the cup that was fitted. I'm still waiting for Citroen to call me back about the original dealer removing the modification (6 months + and counting.) When discussing it with the owner of the independent garage I now use, it appears that the cup fitting is a penny pinching exercise as it's a question of when the springs break rather than if....

White is the new black - trust me

Sadly it looks like a garage job. Given your car is well out of warranty I'd try and find a local Citroen specialist who has the necessary equipment to check the fault. It will be significantly cheaper than going to a dealer. Be prepared to pay £60-£70+ an hour at a dealer if you end up at one.

I've noticed that some C3's have black grilles, whilst most have body coloured grilles. What is the significance of this? It's probably something simple and boring, but it is bugging me now and I'd like to know the reason. Can anyone help?

It is probably worth your while getting a second opinion, probably form an independent garage specialising in French cars. I'd try to avoid dealers for diagnostic work unless the car is under warranty as too many of them have abandoned proper investigatory diagnostics altogether.

I know what you mean - in the current range we have the basic models as follows: C1 £5995 C2 £6495 C3 £6995 They should have aimed to get the C1 down to £4995 (or less) to provide a cheap entry point city car. This would have allowed the C2 to be pitched at £5995. It seems daft that they have three models within £1,000 of each other with massive overlaps between the three ranges dependant on spec. A chap I know who works for Premier Automotive Group (the posh part of Ford) reckons that there is approaching a 50% mark up in the retail price of a decent spec Mondeo compared to the actual build cost, so I'd guess all the major manufacturers are in a similar position?

Hi Ian The point I was making was how we've become used to getting all the "bells and whistles" on our cars now - stuff that was unthought of not all that long ago and which we could all really live without if we had to. It's not that long since heated rear windows and a passenger side rear view mirror were a cost option on Fiesta Pops! It's about seven years since I bought my previous car and when I specc'd air-con on a small hatchback some people said I was mad. Now nearly everything has it fitted as standard. I wouldn't buy a new car now without air-con through choice, although I know people who've bought cars with it fitted and who have never even switched it on. I agree that due to the evolution of car design many of the associated costs are marginal, which ultimately means a better deal for the consumer in terms of kit fitted to the car. That said, Renault are having a massive success with the Logan which is sold in former Eastern bloc countries and South Asia through their Dacia subsidiary. It's a modern looking car using previous generation (proven) running gear but without all the extras we've come to expect in Western Europe. OK it doesn't have airbags, etc which I don't know if many customers would accept over here, but it does retail for the equivalent of £2995 - for a car the size of a Laguna. I can't help that there would be a market for cars like that here, if they were available.

Let's be honest, the C3 is cheap for a 5-dr hatchback, with prices starting at £6,995. And that is the retail price - a bit of haggling should see a decent discount off that. OK, thats for a 1.1L that struggles outside town, but you get the point. It's very cheap when you compare it to a C1 or a C2. But look at the standard equipment on the C3. How much of that is actually needed? Could you cope without remote central locking and speed sensetive wipers? Could you manage without a rear wiper that comes on automatically if the front wipers are on and you select reverse? Could you just switch it on yourself? Or why not just do away with the rear wiper altogether like Honda have done with the new Civic? Do you really need to be able to dim the dashboard lights? To save money would you be prepared to wind the windows up and down yourself? How often do you actually use your electric headlight adjusters? Do you really need 4 airbags as standard? Could you manage without a stereo that automatically adjusts the volume depending how fast you're going? (when it works...) Do the bumpers have to be painted? Yes it looks better, but do they need to be colour-coded? Legislation now requires the car to have ABS brakes and an immobiliser, but do you really need them? Do you need two rear foglights and two reversing lights? Audi and VW have managed OK for years with just one of each - why does a Citroen need two? I notice on early C3's (like mine) you got a cig lighter and a 12v socket in the centre console. The last loaner I had just had a 12v socket - that's the way Citroen! I'll wager if they did away with all the unnecessary stuff they could probably shave another £1,000 off the price. I'm not saying I'd buy a stripped out basic model but I'll bet a lot of people would.

Shop around for a warranty if you are keeping the car - try www.autotrader.co.uk who list loads on their website. Bear in mind that most will want you to keep to the manufacturers stated service schedule at a recognised garage by a qualified person - typically this means a proper VAT registered garage. Also bear in mind that if you're paying £20 a month for a warranty that is £240 a year on top of all your other running costs - you have to weigh up if that is worth it. You may appreciate the piece of mind given past problems. Read the small print, make sure you have the appropriate level of cover - I have seen warranties with a limit of £250 which doesn't cover a lot these days. Also bear in mind that whatever is going wrong will have to fail before they will get involved. Just because something is noisy / about to go doesn't mean they will pay for it fixing - it will have to fail first. Not very convienient f you're on a touring holiday of the Western Isles. Finally note that some warranty companies will expect you to settle the bill and then claim it back from them and their is usually an excess for you to pay. Not all garages will deal direct with all warranty companies too.

It is a principle of law that a guarantee (or warranty in this case) period is not a "cop out" for a manufacturer to avoid intervening after that period has expired. The goods (ie the car) should be expected to provide usable service for a reasonable length of time. It could be argued, I'm sure, that you should not expect to have to replace the injectors on a four year old / 55k car, especially if you can show that the manufacturers recommended service schedule has been followed. Of course, what the likes of Citroen depend upon is that not many people know this and as individuals it is a lot of effort and cost to take something like this through the courts. Have you considered getting a specialist independent engineers report on the car? It might cost you £100 or so but it could be money well spent.

The seals on the back of the headlights need to be 100% in place or they allow moisture in. Had a bulb replaced during a service and two days later the headlight was fogged up - took it back to the dealer and they initailly denied all knowledge and then agreed to look at it. They fitted a new light FOC (car was just out of warranty) although I noticed when I went to pick the car up that my keys were attached to a job card with different vehicle details on (oddly a car that was still under warranty and parked outside on their used car pitch...) Still, it got it sorted for me! I've seen a few C3's with foggy headlights now