ando7p

Well what a disaster! Evening before going away it wouldn't start. Fetched rac out who plugged in the gizmo to reveal a tail light out and an unknown fault! Couldn't get it started. Rushed around and managed to get a different car fitted with a tow bar and off we popped on our hols. Arrived on site to find our caravan covered in oil. On inspection found the steering rack had a leak. After checking the engine oil it needed 2.5 litres to top it up! Didn't use the car for a few weeks whilst on holiday for obvious reasons. Complained to the place we got the car from and they agreed to take the car back. So after the boring story and after returning home called a local recommended auto electrician who turned up as promised. Plugged in the gizmo and told me the unknown fault is actually a fault being returned by the can bus. On inspection he located a pin in one of the connectors that had been arcing and was burnt out. A few minutes later and a new pin fitted and eh voila, all good again. The faulty pin was responsible for sending the signal to the fuel pump which explains the reason why it would fire first time then just spin after that. Apparently the fuse box on the C5 (and pugs) is known to be prone to failure, usually due to water ingress. So peeps, if faced with an immobiliser fault check the connectors in the engine fuse box before losing too much hair!

Thanks for the suggestions. With the main battery off all night and on trickle charge I had no problems today but now the confidence is rocking! Will try using the key only (spare is only a key and not fob / plip). Going to change the battery on the plip just to rule that out too. Is it possible to completely disable the immobiliser? Thinking it may be wise for a few weeks as I can ill afford to lose my holiday!

Hi folks - kind of embarrassed as it has been an awful long time since I dropped on here, let alone contributed. Nice to see some of the familiar names still around and ticking. Anyway, the problem! Couple of weeks ago key in as normal, turn, engine spins and fires into life then immediately cut out. BONG - Engine Imobiliser Fault displayed. Super. Only time I've ever had this happen before was when I had disconnected the battery. Do the normal lock / unlock but to no avail. Disconnected the battery for five minutes, reconnect, key in ignition, hold 'lock' down for 10 seconds, lock and unlock doors and hey presto! Life in the old dear. Since then tickover seems around 150 rpm lower. It hasn't threatened to stall but it just seems lower. Weird and may be my imagination. Tonight, shorts and training vest on ready to head off to the gym - BONG - Engine Imobiliser Fault. Do the usual lock / unlock to no avail. Battery off. Reconnect. Re-sync key (just in case), lock / unlock. No good. Tried several times. Left the battery off longer. No good. Trawled the tinterweb for any possible answers but the only thing different I could find was a reference to the airbag fuse. Look in the Haynes manual only not to find which one it was! Took them all out but didn't find any blown. Reconnect battery, lock / unlock and hey presto, she fires up! OK, maybe a bit of a duff connection. Switch off. Lock car. Unlock. Key in - BONG!!! Losing the will to live and need the car next weekend to tow the old tin box 300 miles to Cornwall for 2 weeks r n r. Does anyone have any ideas, pointers, reliable cars they can lend me? Or is there a way of bypassing the imobiliser? Thanks in advance.

Not sure why you would want to add spacers. Not exactly a boy racer car!! Couple of things to consider. The chances are that the spacers are of a different material to that of the hub, wheels or both, in which case will expand or contract at a different rate to the hub and or wheels, with the potential effect of causing the wheel nuts to loosen. I have witnessed this and it wasn't a pretty sight nor a cheap repair!! Another thing to consider is that the wheels must not protude outside of the bodywork and wheel arches as this would be an MOT failure (unless the law has changed in the last few years). Widening the wheel track will also have an effect on the dynamics of the handling; afterall they aren't fitted as standard so have probably not been tested in such a setup. Just noticed that you said rear wheel spacers - may cause understeer.

I might be barking up the wrong tree, but might it possibly be your dual-mass fly wheel? I seem to remember that this was one if its symptoms along with a 'tweeting' noise. Mine does vibrate at tickover (fairly intermittently), but as the clutch doesn't need changing yet, I have done nothing about it yet. Seem to remember that the solid flywheel was around £100.

Sounds daft, but also worth checking the bulb is actually seated right. Had to change mine recently and noticed that it wasn't seated when I looked for the retaining clip using a torch and mirror. Bulb replaced but alignment a mile out now.

Most makes have their problems. My colleagues 07 plate Fraud Focus is on its 3 drive shaft (dealer mechanic addmitted its a known issue but Ford no design fix as yet), new set of front discs (only done 15k) and one gearbox failure. Ford, by the way, is Fix Or Repair Daily! Has anyone got one for CITROEN??

Could be just as bad. Metal to plastic. Different expansion rates and given the relative amount of heat in the area I would not be confident that a metal valve would stay tightly screwed down and not work its way loose over time.

Had this problem some years ago on my old over head cam pinto engine. The rings were leaking allowing pressure to build which kept forcing the cap to pop. Needless to say it wasn't a cheap fix. Not sure with a more modern engine if this could still occur as I guess that there may be pressure relief in the rocker area. Compression test would disprove this.

Welcome back. By the looks of one of the other hot topics, Aberdeen may be a good place to go hunt some dealers down! Dealers and taxi drivers; all the same. Over charge and give poor service. Shoot 'em all I say ..... ..... just kidding. Thought I'd keep the flaming going abit! Just got mine back after having a couple of new doors done at a dealer and they have done an excellent job, so I suppose not all dealers are bad (sorry Dave, let the side down with that one). Oh, and for the record, I drove taxis for a couple of years too.

Had mine since last July and have had to change 2 bulbs; 1 either side. Don't forget that its still cold out there and with no burn in (fade start) you are taking a cold element to white hot in a millisecond which is always going to be a risk to its integrity. I have noticed my lights dip momentarily a lot. Pattern seems to be just after setting off when the suspension 'does its thing', so maybe there is a relationship. If you are that interested then a simple capacitor across the wires will help to reduce the surge, but might be a bit awkward to fit on the standard loom given the access restrictions.

Thats good to hear. Last car I had with high mileage was a Mitsu Pajero (350,000 kilometres on the clock). My C5 has got just under 80K so hopefully will have plenty of life left in it. Currently got a Volvo S40 on loan whilst mine is in the garage having some straight doors fitted. Even though the Volvo is top of its range (high spec) I don't think it is, overall a patch on the C5 (110 HDi 52 plate SX). Looking forward to getting the ride comfort and better power useability back.

I must admit that I don't find E-Bay good for car prices. Last few searches for cars have resulted in expensive results. I personally tend to lean towards autotrader.co.uk. Its at least worth looking on for a price comparison!

Lol. Interesting reading all of this. What is clear is how different industries are driven (no pun intended). In my industry I have little choice but to absorb costs and not pass them on as far as possible. Due to competetion I have to look to reduce costs around 10% year on year (impossible task and the workforce ends up suffering the most). At the end of the day for me, it comes down to cost / quality. I don't mind paying more for a good service, as opposed to paying less for a poor service. The quality and costs across the automotive industry vary widely with no real reason why. An indi will always have more flexibility to change prices as they do not have to worry about franchise as much, etc., but to have such varying standards and costs across dealerships is, in my opinion, a major no-no. I am nothing more than a DIY mechanic and greatly appreciate the help in these forums. I will not tackle larger jobs for several reasons. I am not a mechanic. I can't be bothered to get filthy all the time repairing the car. I can afford to pay someone to do the work, so have the luxury of choice. That said, I did the cam belt, water pump, rocker gasket and oil change on my lads Corsa (cough, spit on floor!) this weekend and took far too long over doing it!! Peace to all, dealers, indis and DIYers alike!

Spot on. I don't expect anything for free. I DO expect to be charged a FAIR price for a COMPETANT service. My previous note was for illustration and example only as stated and by no means constitutes a formal price guide. I have had to produce many business cases to purchase tools, amongst other things, with expenditure into some very serious amounts of money (£7k is loose change) so know a little about this subject. Expensive kit can be bought without having to pass too much of the cost onto the customer. Problem with doing this is that it requires someone to actually think about it and think about the customer. Easy answer is to just simply pass the full cost on with the aim of the quickest cost recovery. All too easy to then 'forget' to reduce the costs again once the kit has been paid for. Regards the recession, garages going out of business, not doing things for free and just whining about the cost of a dealer, yes it is sad to see business' fail, but that is innevitable in the current climate. What is also innevitable is that if a service provider does not 'dangle the carrot' then I will look for one that does, therefore they lose my business anyway. My local indi looks after me, hence why they are now my first point of call and why I recommend them to friends and colleagues which keeps bringing them work to keep going, etc, etc. 'nuff said.

The whole topic is very subjective. As I see it no-one is right nor wrong, depending on perspective. If a dealer / indi pays out £7k for a diagnostic tool then there would have to be a business case to justify this expenditure. Part of this justification is cash return on investment and the obvious one of required tools for the job. However, this should not be a 'get the money back today' kind of justification. Typically a business case would expect to start to see a return in 2 years, therefore I would expect to see charges of something like :- 7000/2 (years) = 3500 3500/48 (weeks – allowing 4 weeks for downtime for items such as holidays, sickness, etc) = 73 I have no idea how many cars need diagnostics on a weekly basis so I will pick a number for illustration purposes. 73/10 (diagnostics a week) = 7.3 pounds In my area hourly costs vary from around 30-50 pounds and I would expect a diagnostics to be fully completed in around half an hour, therefore (50+30/2 average) 40 (per hour) / 2 = £20 labour + £7 (to recover the cost of the tool) = £27. I personally do not think that this would be an unrealistic cost as a consumer to have my car diagnosed. This then leads to Techbods point of surely after the costs have been recovered, should the price not be lowered accordingly? The point that as a goodwill gesture, any work carried out after a diagnostic would see this charge waived, is a good point and idea and maybe some places already do this. I know the cost of diagnostics in my area varies considerably. My local that does all the work that I can’t manage charged me £15 last time. The main dealer wanted around £55. My local indi talks me through any items that need work on and gives the best explanation and will tell me if his is unsure, and in this case does his best to borrow parts to swap out rather than expect me to pay for a new un-needed one. The main dealer (last time I used them) appeared to be guessing as to what the codes meant and wanted me to give him a blank cheque to cover his inability to effectively diagnose the fault. End result is that I feel I am being unjustifiably ripped off by the main dealer, whereas I feel I get very good service from my indi. No prizes for guessing which one I use. Unfortunately everyone gets tarred with the same brush (and only the bad gets publicised, typically), therefore general perception is that the diagnostics scenario is a completely overpriced scam, hence why the likes of you guys want to buy your own tools and do the work yourself. Saves money and you have far better confidence because you are actually doing the diagnosis yourself and you can see the results, and after all, would you rather trust yourself or some dealer that you do not know and have no confidence knows what they are talking about? My two-penneth!

Got this fault code yesterday whilst waiting to pull off at traffic island yesterday. Was sitting in the middle lane when a Polish truck driver decided that the left lane was not big enough. Symptoms include passenger side doors exhibiting a different shape to what I remember them being as well as a different colour paint on them and the car moving sideways/slightly forwards whilst the handbrake was enagaged. Any ideas ??

Mines arrived nice and promptly. Lets be honest, the Haynes manuals are good for reference and as Techbod says are good as a guide to a point. Interesting that this is the first Haynes that I have seen where a lot of the pictures are of corroded / dirty components! Maybe a result of taking so long to produce a manual for this car ....

Thanks for letting us know. Ordered mine (hopefully) before the rush!

Love the 'tache on the avatar!! To be honest I had the angle grinder out ready to use when I discovered it was broke, otherwise was going to use it! Half an hour of losing skin, patience and grinding down of teeth had me reaching for it. Finding out that it didn't work gave me a fresh adrenaline rush and the strength to belt the living daylights out of it and get the nuts moving!

For reference :- Just had full cam belt kit, water pump and coolant change at 78k at my local indi for 313.19 pound (fully inclusive of taxes) at Oakwood Cars Hilltop Oakwood Derby DE21 4FY (01332) 831334 Have used this indi a few times and never had a problem. Thought the price was pretty reasonable.

Got fed up with the noise coming from the suspension whilst going over minor bumps on the road surface, so decided to change the drop links. I searched the forum but could not find anyone that had posted the 'how to' so thought I'd add it here for reference. I am not a pro Mechanic, so this is not necessarily the 'official' way of changing the links, nor maybe the best, but hopefully may help someone who wishes to save themselves money at a garage. The job of changing them itself is not difficult. Anyone with the slightest ability should be able to do these, however I had to apply a LOT of brute force. Costs :- £26.50 for the pair from a local motor factors (note - actual box came marked up for Peugeot, so must be common across several models of French cars). Tools used :- Note - the ones fitted differed slightly in nut size between the old and new, therefore needed different sets to remove and fit new ones. To remove - 18mm (yes, 18mm) ring spanner (swan neck gave more clearance) or a deep 18mm socket on 1/2" drive (recommended). 17mm open ended spanner. Hammer. Extension bar (to give greater leverage). Release oil, wire brush. Optional - blow torch or angle grinder! To refit - 5mm hex key and 19mm ring spanner (may differ dependant on the parts purchased - this was what was on mine). Time taken - about 3 hours due to heavily corroded threads and only being able to get about 1/8 of a turn at a time, otherwise would easily be done both sides in under an hour. How I did it :- Raise the car to its top suspension setting. Loosen the wheel nuts. Chock the other 3 wheels. Raise car on trolley jack. Remove wheel. The link rods can easily be seen (approx 18" length, solid bar with ball joints both ends fitted between the side of the shock body and roll-bar). Due to the flex in the roll-bar I suggest attempting the lower bolt first, as the top bolt tight will help reduce the movement whilst having to force the bolt to undo! If you have time, spray liberally with release oil and leave to soak (best to do previous night), but I didn't think about this until the time I started the job! Carefully wire bursh the exposed thread section (if necessary) to remove excess corrosion. Apply a small amount of oil to help lubricate the old nut as it undoes. Undo the nut! On mine these were 18mm, were siezed solid and I had to apply a lot of force to get it to move (you may wish to use a blow torch to get some heat to the bolt first, just take care doing this as you are close to the break lines). Once the nut was moving the whole threaded section continued to rotate at the same time. On the ball-joint side of the arm was a 17mm flat to use to stop the whole thing rotating. If I had a 18mm deep socket I would have definetley used it at this point (may be worth paying a fiver or so and aquire one just because of the time and effort saved over using a spanner - just check that yours are 18mm before purchasing). Remove the top bolt in a similar fashion. Replacing was easy and took mere minutes. I fitted the top bolt first, then used the jack handle to gently lever the roll-bar upwards to allow easy insertion of lower bolt. Tighten to specified torque (which I do not have, so 'tight' was my setting). Replace the wheel and repeat for the other side. Take car out for a drive and 'listen' to the silence and enjoy the ride.

I know what you mean with the electrics! Love the car and comfort. Good economy and not a bad looking machine, HOWEVER, regularly get stupid electrical problems. Occasional Airbag warning. Windows sometimes play up. Oil level sometimes says empty when car parked on a level, even if it has sat for a few hours - once even went into economy mode. Heater blower resistor pack failure. Was on holiday over the half term when I got a weird fault. Wife and kids still in car with keys out and nothing electrical on. Got back in car, put keys in and hey presto! Immobiliser fault. Dashboard lit up, front lights on, rear not on, key fob would not work. Engine would not turn over. As always when I get a fault that can't be cured by removing the key then starting again, I removed the battery for 5 minutes, reconnected and et voila, all ok again. The whole electrical system seems to be very fragile to the point where it is making me think of getting rid and never touching a Citroen again. Shame really, otherwise its a nice car (2002 110 HDI).

On mine (as described in previous posts) if you look in the area of the clutch pedal, just above and to the left, you should see a flimsy black trim that fits into the corner. The only thing holding mine was the pressure of the lower centre console side trim that runs from the bulk head to the gear lever area. Carefully pulling this away (clip fit) allowed easier access to remove the panel and see the resistor pack. In the pack were two electrical connectors (both green). If you have hands like spades the same as I have, I found these a bit awkward to even unclip, but slight pressure using a small screwdriver on the tabs and gently pulling rearwards sorted that. There were two screws retaining the unit, one at the top and on at the bottom (6mm socket fits). Once undone the unit slid out towards the clutch pedal. Due to the large heatsink you have to extract it quite some way. The unit is approx. 3.5 inches long (including aluminium heatsink), 2 inches wide by 1 inch high.

Done. Took 15 minutes. Thanks for the advice. For reference the part number was 6441L2, described as a Heater Resist C5/406 and cost me £50.10 inc VAT.