stimulator

There is a large debate over on the Picasso part of this site about mpg. My own experience is that my 1.4HDi SX returns 61 to 67 mpg, it has done 37000 miles.. My C3 1.6HDi returns a less than this but then it is newere and has only done 5000 miles. If this is your first diesel car then you have to drive it slightly differently compared to a petrol engine. You need to change gear earlier going up the box i.e 1 to 2 to 3 to 4 to 5 and the best revs that you should do this are around 2200 to 2500. This is because a diesel has its maximum torque and therefore efficeincy at lower rpm than a petrol car. The rev counter above the speedo is red lines at 4500 but you will rarely if every go that high. When changing down still in the highest gear possible until you are able to change down where the next lower gera will give you a rev count of 1800 to 2000. On my 1.4 2000 rpm equates to 11 mph in first, 22 mph in second, 30 in third, 47 in fourth and 57 in fifth. When in 5th if you go much below 40 mph you will labour the engine and the response and fuel ecconomy will suffer. Next time you fill up zero the trip computer, press the end of the wiper stalk IN towards the column (if it's got a separate radio controller or press the middle of the shorter of the two parts if it has the radio on the wiper stalk. The shorter part has a (0) on it. Hold the button in for 5 secs so that the display zeros. By pressing the knob you can cycle through the readouts.

Owning a car with A/C is a bit like having a pet by which I mean it's not just for Christmas it's forever.. Basically if you do not use it you will loose it. What model C3 do you have? Some have automatic a/c which is where you dial up the temp you want and it will maintain that. Others it is manual. However both are controlled from the same place just in front of the gear lever under the radio, the hand book covers both in detail. As another member has said the oil that lubricates the syetm is contained in the refridgerant. A sthe seals in the compressor dry out if not used, the lubricant prevents this, the refrigerant boils off and escapes into the atmosphere. Once you have it repaired then run it at least 10 mins a week to keeep it happy. Now a contraversial bit. I have two C3s, I had a Pic before all have/had a/c, this is run all the time winter, spring, summer and autumn with the result that the a/c on the now 4 year old C3 has never had to have any maintenance done on it. It is still operating correctly. Why do I run it all the time? Comfort, and the lack of window misting when the weather is cold or wet. The cost about 1 to 2 mpg. Now eqaute that to the repairs bills that you have had or about to have, a big difference in my favour. I do know that the a/c on my neighbours VW golf packed in and he was told he needed a new compressor £700 but he went to another garage, a VW specialistr not main dealer and got it repaired for £40 as it was a circuit card, try a Citroen specialist not your dealer. As for a recharge, my dealer says he will do it on service for £100 Renault dealer will do it for £56 so where would I go. There is a farther part of this reply, a friend of mine lived in Spain, bought a VW with aircon, never use it as she hated the cold air, did tell her that you can heat it up with the heater (which you can) but she didn't. When she sold the car it was worth 2500 euros less than it should have been becauise the a/c didn't work.

Hi and welcome, good choice. You don't even need to open the bonnet as I can assure you it has a turbo; all HDi Citroens do. It is also 16 valves that's 4 per cylinder real nippy too. However if you open the bonnet there in front of you you will see a grey metal device that's the turbo, beware it gets very hot.

At each end of the lens there are two small holes, you have to insert a small screw driver into the holes to release the catch.

Ok so you've got discs on the rear and it's OK on very short journeys. As you corner does slightly pulling the handbrake lever make it worse or better? As you corner does a very slight pressure on the brake pedal make it worse or better. my bet would be that one of the pads is loose in the caliper and is 'falling against the disc' on cornering. This could be due to a small warp in the disc itself which causes the pads to retract further as it 'knocks' them back into the piston.

I thought about this again this morning on the way to work, the rerar doors have two ways of activating child locks, one is on the dash by the radio the other is a slider on the door by the lock. If these are ON then the rear doors will appear to be deadlocked from the insdie.

The later model C3s (post face lift with bigger front grill) have boith intermittent and auto wipers. Why I don't know but they do. the intermittent ones work on the first up detent and they wipe irrespective of whether ther is water on the screen but decrease the time period the faster you go. The auto ones work by pulling the lever down to what was a single wipe position. They then operate if the screen is wet. The problem here is that you have to select the intermittent position and then OFF to cancel the AUTO or wait until you kill the ignition.

Visit the ICE section on the Picasso forum (click on Citroen owners club above this box) and back track. There is a lot of excellent info on how to fit other heads to the car and still use the controls etc.

What year is your C3? We have two in our household. One is a 2004 54 reg 1.4 HDI SX. To activate the door locks, pressing the blipper ONCE will deadlock the doors. This inhibits the internal door levers. However this is a dangerous situation to leave the car in with an occupant so Citroen in their wisdom made the system respond to a second press on the blipper locking button. This Locks the door handles on the exterior BUT leaves the internal levers active. The other C3 is a 2007 07 reg 1.6 HDi SX. To activate the door locks, pressing the blipper once leaves the interior levers active so occupants can get out but others can't get in. The second press of the lock blipper dead locks the car doors. As you can see this is the reverse of the earlier car. If your blipper stops working you can lock the car by using the override devices on the doors. These are under small black plastic discs or in some cases exposed and look like a large Phillips X head screw. Use your key to turn them a 1/4 turn. Now shut the door. Note that these are one shot devices and when the door is opened from inside they release, NOTE they are not dead locks.

Citroen car radios do not require an unlock code or PIN. However they are set in the BSI by the manufacturer or dealerships. Some car ICE dealers acn also do it. If the radio is the original as fitted at the factory then it should work OK. If however the previous owner took out the original and fitted a super set with DVD or the like then the BSI may have been reset for his new unit. The only way out will be to visit a dealer or the like and get them to check it out. the reason for all this is to make the radio of no use to thief

Have you got disc brakes or drum brakers on the rear? If it's drums then I'd say as the previous poster that the rubber bushes may be dry. If you do have discs maybe the pads are touching the disc. If a caliper or piston is jammed then the pad will be mis-positioned on the slider, this will allow it to float too much. As the car corners the centrifugal force will throw it against the disc where it will rub and make a noise. Do you have disc on the rear,

If the seller wants to sell it he'll get it fixed. If he's not willing then walk a way from the car as you don't know what else is lurking under the bonnet. there are many others out there to look at. Remember that when you buy privately you are on your own as far as come is concerned, buy from a reputable dealer and your rights are protected. Also £130,000 seems a bit high for a C3 at the latest price you could buy 13 of them for that. :lol:

Sorry to hear your woe. How far is the distance from home on the roadside if it's 1/2 mile push it that far and then call them out.

Yep 1961 to 1977, Inst Fitt Nav and then Sim tech.

Have looked at my C3s and found how to lock the doors if the central system fails. On the door body next to the lock there is either a black circular patch covering a circular opening (about 5p size) or an opening with what looks like a black plastic screw head in it. With the door open, insert your ignition key into the cross and turn 1/4 turn and then remove the key. Now shut the door. The door will now be locked and the outer handle will not open the door. This applies to the passenger doors front and rear. The drivers door has one of these and it also has a key hole to open the door. To open the doors again operate the internal handle. NOTE that doing this will release the black plastic device and activate the outer handle again. To relock you have to turn the device again.

When he changed the spring did he undo the brake lines. Did he bleed the brakes by the old fill and press the pedal method. If so that could be the problem, as ABS have to be pressure bled by use of a pressure feed.

Looking at your reg 55 you'll get that done on warranty, both sides need changing to match the ride height. The age of the car and the mileage have no bearing on this problem, it a batch of springs that cause it and it's aggrevated by potholes , speed bumps and other road problems. Was your car subject to the spring cup fitting recall. Mine wasn't in the VIN range but the OFFside spring broke and was rplaced no problem

Your avatar suggests you were in the R.A.F. or still are. What branch?

Have you asked the dealership. My latest SX was delivered without the rear quarter light SX badges. At the first service they fitted a pair. I have seen 'de-badged' car and assume that the dealers forget to badge at PDI.

I assume your 1.4HDi is the 70BHP 8V model and not the now defunct 1.4HDI 16V 92BHP model that was replaced with the 1.6HDI 16V 92BHP engine. I tried the 70 one when I bought my first C3 and decided it was underpowered for the job I wanted. So I went for the 92BHP. Quite a revelation after the 70. 3 year later we decided to trade the 90BHP Picasso and went for another C3 . Plumped for the 1.6 this time and boy what a difference. Altough the two cars are both 92BHP, the lkow end torque on the 1.6 is amazing and it's a joy to drive. One question why did you decide on the 1.4?

Well we seem to be getting somewhere now. The answer to your question is that the reverse light switch is on top of the transmission case. However before you go and find that I'd disregard the switch as the problem as it is only acting as an input (trigger) to the BSI (built in systems interface) In my earlier reply I explained how this works and my Haynes manual confirms this. On the C3 there are no direct connections between any switches and the lighst they appear to control. the power to the switch is from the battery via Fuse MF7 20A to 80A switch. From the switch it goes to the Engine fuse box and out via F1 10A. This fuse is for the Diesel preheat, Air con and reverse lights. If all those work the others work the fuse is OK. The power is fed to the reverse swicth and when that is made, an input is sent to the BSI which is processed. The BSI switches on the output to feed BOTH of the reverse lights. So does the other light work? If that is OK then the problem lays soley with the other one. We now come to the earth path. The radar msut be an add ON (is it?). If so it may have its own return path straight to the body. The rear light clusters have earth return points near the units. Look for a BROWN set of wires that go to single point on the body from the light fitting. Haynes says that this is for the left hand lights point E17 above the left hand wheel arch and for the right E10 above the right hand wheel arch. For a further test try this. Run a piece of cable directly from the bulb holder to a clean metal point on the body and see what you have then. If you have a ohm metetr put one lead on the metal case of the holder and the other on the body it should measure near 0. If it's way above that fig then you ahve a bad earth.

Is the bulb you are using to test this the one that is normally in the holder OR is it another bulb? the reason I ask is that the bulb itself may be the problem. Also is it 21W or 5W, If it's 21W it draws 1.75A try a 5W which will draw only 0.4A and see if that works, side ligh bulbs are 5W. I'll look in my Haynes manual tonight to see if I can find the reverse switch on the gear box but your info really tells me that that is wroking OK.

The problem here may not lay with the sender/switch but in the BSI. On modern cars the switch is not connected directly to the bulb. The switch sends a signal to the BSI, the BSI then does its computation and switches on the ouput stage to the required light. Strange that the 12 V won't light the bulb evcen though its available, at the socket with the bulb missing. The output stage will usually go open circuit if too much current is drawn through it. Are you sure that you do not have an earth fault at the return line of the light?

it aint that easy. Take a look at the ICE secetion on the Picasso sectrion of this site for ways around this. Citroen make the car and the radio fitted at birth a matched pair and a dealer will need to reprogram the BSI to see your radio.

The makers name is Citroen and as such the computation is for fuel is litres per 100 KM and not MPG as we are use to. Consequently the system has to recalculate from litres/100KM to MPG and it rounds up the figures, this why you ahve the strange jumps in the display. it also accounts for why the display shows 999.9 mpg on the instant readout, when in L/KM it reads 0 as that is the amount of fuel you are using at that time. The 999.9 is as close a sit can get to infinity as it is dividing miles by 0