pork_pie

"Theres a newer Technical Specifications brochure out for it dated February 2003, as a m8 got it the other day, I got mine about a month ago and its dated something like Oct/Nov, ask for a brouchure from the citroen website and you'll get the newer Tech Spec with it." I been looking at the website and it says its got an oil temp gauge but mysteriously no auto headlights. Not that I am complaining as an oil gauge is not totally useful and auto headlights are good for impressing yer mates when entering tunnels. "Got my options down to colours now, i fancy the Tuscan Blue but she likes the Wicked Red .........s'pose it'll be wicked red then eh." Tuscan blue is nice but all the press pics are in that colour so i wanted something different. I fancied silver but they clashed with someof the silver ancilliary items. The fun prevention officer wanted wicked red. I decided to pick black. "It's only the moose loss of power on that holds me back from making inroads at the mo," Feel sorry for moose as his problem seems to be ever more isolated by Citroens inability to fix it. I had a few teething probs which is typical of a citroen product but its the best small diesel engine money can buy along with the Polo Tdi 1.4. "wondering if I take the rear parking sensor option will it mean it'll be built to spec ie: straight off the production line or will they just fit it locally at a Citroen dealer....decisions decisions " You can have a dealer fit one or a factory fit. The latter may incur a long wait (4-6 weeks) as most models are sourced from stock with their standard spec. The dealer fit is the same price but I would not trust them at all. Only thing electric would trust them to fit is the in dash CD multiplayer (rip off at 380 quid). If you can wait and would like an extra knob (pfnaaaar) on the dashboard then pick it when ordering but parking sensors are a bit superflous on a small car? but if you fancy your car to be a tad different go for it along with them lovely 16 inch alloys.

Selecting the C3 in my final shortlist (along with Polo Tdi - rude lazy dealers expensive and poor equipment, Clio 1.5 dci - pig ugly design, good engine but dated package and Pug 206 D Turbo - lovely car but getting on a bit and poor engine spec forra 2 litre) the spec was an important issue and the fella at Citroen who specified the spec went tick happy. It said in the brochures that the HDi Exclusive had an Oil temp gauge and auto headlights. Was this a typing error as my car has none of these but let me say hand on heart, the standard equipment on this model is superb. Opinions please.

Deadlocks prevent you from opening the car from inside when the owners locked it. Normally thieves smash a window and open the car from inside. With deadlocks they cannot open the door and can only enter through the window they just smashed and hopefully bleed to death.

I owned a Pug 306 6 years ago and two presses activated the deadlocks so yes for a while I was reducing my security buy thinking the same applied for the C3. The ladies? I notice you come from Cumbria. Yer don't go to Barrow to hunt do you? Scary!

Was driving down the M56 and noticed the cruise control was not working. Also noticed that the engine took a while to return to its idling speed. In some cases the engine was stuck at 1000 rpm. When changing gear noticed the engine slightly revving up. Sometimes this resulted me in rocketing thrrough when changing into second but then chugging along in third. This jerked me off big time. Parked the car and decided to go to the garage. The problems went! I was able to use cruise control and throttle was fine. They booked it in for Tuesday but the guy said it could have been 3 problems.. 1) Stuck pedal 2) stuck cable 3) Engine management. Drove it again last night and everything seems okay. The most embarassing thing is that the fellas in service know my name.

As for the second part of your posting Moose. You say that press the button twice it seems to relocks but on other occasions the second press does not relock the car but JUST flashes the lights. Easy. Press the knob twice in the space of one second and the deadlocks are disabled but car is still locked from outside. If you leave it for more than a second and re pres the knob the lights flash. This is a conveinience feture to locate your car in a busy parking area. The car is so clever yet it does not make any dinner.

Moose. When you press the button the second time, it disables the deadlocks. For maximum security press once otherwise the thieving ******* can open your car from inside.

"The Engine does something magic with the diesel as long as its above 0 d degrees so it has no need for glo-plugs. Or thats what I got from the Citroen website." Thats precisely what Citroen Manchester said. Wonderign if they said out of knowledge or get told to read the websites and tell out the info like robots. "Fuelguage? Mine lets see on the top two segments I get 79 miles. The lowerones are much better but I forget how much each. Will have a look. I always get over 600 miles on a tank, unless its playing up with its no power thing." When the air pipe was incorrectly fixed I was getting lousy range. I really had to give the car some welly to move. It seems to be back to normal now but I really think fuel consumption fiqures are fudged. "That orange light comes on its own just a few litres from when it lit up with the last segment. About two litres is it? It says in your manual. Never actualy ran mine out." Then the orange light comes on only theres around 4 litres left. "Guage is better than my Saxo ever was." What SAxo did u have Mine was a 90bhp VTR and that was suprisingly frugal. I would have bought another one IN OCt 2002 (bought Hdi Exclusive instead) if only it came with Airconditioning. I know it was not available in UK models (as the RHD steering column takes up the space normaly occupied by the compressor devices" but Citroen Sale said to me back in Jan 98 (ended up buying from Citroen Manchester) that they can fit air con for £1600 and it does not damage the warranty. Hmmm. Thankfully I did not approve the work.

The ones in France must be good. I mean you get Marylin Monroe posing in them. Everytime I see that commercial I laugh as I took up a C3 with there was VAT off and not £1000 as stated in the advert.

Does it light at all? Or is the bulb in mine gone caput? I was told by the knowledgeable dealers tat the direct inj. models don't have one whilst in the book it says it does. That fuelgauge...... do any of you get a poor range from the 6th (full) and the final bar? I seem to get only 60 miles from the 6th light ( I bet 110-135 miles from the other ones) and only 40 miles from the final one before the orange light appears only. Number of times I nearly touched cloth on the motorway faced with the prospect of running out of fuel.

"Apparently the camshaft change was due to concerns about the life of them. Wow I actualy foud out something from my dealer. I'm waiting for the parts, but have not been told about timing chain. Are the two connected? Does the timing chain due the same as a timing belt?" Hello Moose. About the timing chain/belt (more likely a belt as chains belong to old engines), there was a concern about the tension in them making them liable to snap. When that happens, save up for a new engine. Kerrrching! I am suprised that you have to wait for these parts considering how serious the damage could be. Are you waiting for a courtesy car? I was told if I wanted one, I'd have to wait until march for the repairs to be done otherwise I could take the car in the next day. Very conveinient.

I found no difference in volume quality but something else about the stereo........ Play a CD after a while then revert to FA radio, the unit loses it preset. Radio is normaly tuned to Key 103 (Manchester) but after playing a CD, the unit goes to Radio 3. A minor problem but a pain in the backside.

Got a letter last week regarding the recall on the timing chain and exhaust camshaft. Dealer would not explain WHY this needed to be done. Had the probem fixed after 2 days. Had car registered on Oct 28th and a week later the "water in diesel" in warning light came on in the form of all 6 fuel lights flashing. Problem was fixed in a week but then over a matter of months I noticed poor acceleration over 70 mph and a "deterioration" in fuel economy. Only 550 miles out of a tank - oh boy!!!! I found out to my horror three weeks ago that the air intake pipe was not installed properly after that warning light problem was rectified. The garage could not confirm if this was a factor in poor fuel economy and poor acceleration. 3 visits followed to fix the pipe. Ended up sorting it myself and now it seems to be fine.