stimulator

The clue is in the name PICASSO he was a well known Spanish painter.

Yes it's a sound proofing device. There isn't one on my C3 1.4HDi 16V 92BHP but my Picasso had ione till it fell OFF. There is a polythene back filled with sound proofing felt stuck to them. This rests on the sump. My Picasso has run now for a year without it and has not suffered.

This is one of the best auto functions on a car. It ensures that when you are driving you can not be highjcked by the oppertune door opener in the street. You may also be interested in trhe action of the blipper. When you lock the doors with the blipper the first press of it will lock all the doors and the boot. However that is a deadlock condition and anyone in the car trying to get out will not be able to as all the door handles are disabled. the second blip locks the doors but removes the deadlock function and now those in the car can get out even the mother in law. The outside handles are however still disabled. in the event of acrash an inertia switch unlocks all the doors sop that rescue crews can get you and the mother in law OUT.

My average MPG on the dial is 61.4 and I do not hang around however if you drive hard and keep changing down to get rapid acceleration the MPG will drop off rapidly too. I never go below 40 mph in 5th but will try to get into 5 by 45 to 50. the engine is excellent in its ability to accelerate the car fairly rapidly BUT and it's a big BUT, never floor your accelerator squeeze it down as you will get a better response from the turbo. Ah yes nearly forgot, when my tyre pressure went down by .3 bar (4 psi) the MPG dropped by 4 mpg. Always check that your tyres are at the cold pressure shown on the door jamm

For the aircon to run the engine cooling fan must be running. On the C3 with CC this starts automatically. If there is a problem with the fan then the aircon will run but only for a few moments as the condenser which is located in front of the engine rad will overheat and the system will de-clutch and shut OFF. check by looking under the front bumper when the a/c is selected ON If the fan runs when you select ON then the next failure point could be loss of refridgerant due to LACK of use by the previous owner. This is a probnlem with aircon, it has to be used even in the winter to ensure that the rubber seals in the unit do not dry out. The lubricant is contained in the refridgerant and a sthe unit runs it lubs the system. Does the dash display show the correct outside air temp. the sensor signal goes to the CC brain to control it There are two small grills on the dash in the centre. Insdie one of these is a small fan that samples the cabin air temp and blows it across a thermistor which signals the brain that the car has reached the required temp. If this is full of dust it will not work. can you hear the aircon compressor clucth engaging when the A/C is switched ON. CEO5LDb when you say that your system runs when the engine is not running will not produce cold air a sthe compressor is driven by the engine. The problem here appears to be that the car brain is trying to get the heater to cool /heat the car although the a.c is dead.

have a look on the Picasso forum under ICE

Much to my suprise and I've just tried this: Putting key in the drivers door when the car is locked and turning the key unlocks ONLY the driver's door. When the door is then opened it unlocks all the other doors and the boot. If the door is now shut and the key turned it only LOCKs the driver's door. The button inside and the key blipper will only LOCK the doors IF all the doors are shut. If one of them is open then it will operate the lock and then unlock again, double click. Also the blipper key on the C3 has triple function. When you shut the doors and press the button the doors lock and deadlock so that the inner handles are disabled. this is no no situation if anyone is left in the car a sthey will not be able to get out. the second press removes the deadlocks and allows the inner handles to work BUT the outer do not.

Needs you to sit in it and with your feet on the floor, pull the handle and push back and down. The rear of the seat will lower. It reality the seat doesn't go up and down it tilts about the front edge.

I find this on my C3 but only if there is an uneven part of the road. In Crawley the Tushmore roundabout has a ridge that goes across the road just after the spur road down to the M23 when you are going SOUTH. If I cross this at more than 15 mph the back end feels like it is leaping into the air and sideways. By chance I was following a Focus which has a similar rear end suspension system (springs and dampers) and that too 'jumped' into the air. my other car is a Picasso that has torsion bar rear suspension it doesn't jump like the C3 So I'd not worry too much about it justa characteristic of the car. On all othyer bends etc the car stick like sh1t to a blanket.

I don't have a XTR but I do have a C3 SX 1.4HDi 92 BHP on a 54 plate. The 1.6 is just a bigger cc version of the same engine The engine is superb and I find it performs way outside of expectations and returns never less than 61 mpg average to a tank. The acceleration is excellent and the road holding is great. have seen 115 on the clock but only the once. Very difficult to keep to 70 (that's 2500 rpm) on Mways always wants to be higher. We also own a 20HDI Picasso SX but the C3 knocks spots of that only downside, it's smaller and consequently not as useful when it comes to load lugging, but hay you don't buy a small car to do big car jobs. No problems at all during two half years of ownership 24000 miles, windscreen cracked and was replaced but that's not a fault with the car. The C3 was bought to use for the daily commute, but to be honest it is the more used of the two. With insurance at £143 and car tax at £35 after the last budget you can't beat it

You can disable the lights by putting the key in the ignition turn it on to the first position, and then pressing the end button on the left hand stalk. You will hear a beep. Now wehn you start the engine DO thelight still come ON. If they don't then try setting ot back on to see if the problem has gone. if they are still ON then you either have a sensor problem or as the other reply says the computer needs resetting by the garage.

On the Picasso it is thought that it's the aerial loop within the steering column shroud. some mebers on that site have had new aerial. the small chip in the key for the immobiliser is passive, it has NO BATTERY and completes the circuit purely by being there. If you have change dthe blipper battery recently you can once the key is inserted int he ignition press eother of the buttons to re-initialise the blipper but that shouldn't affect the immobiliser. orth a try though. Note that this is not reprogramming a new key that has to be done by a dealer.

This could be immobiliser related. On my PICASSo this occurs at random times, cold or hot same day or weeks/months apart and it's not a rare problem. The cure on the Picasso is to just remove the key and reinsert after a count to 10, engine will then start. I also own a C3 1.4 HDi and can only recall one instance of this happening on that, key out cured.

OK now understand the directional bit didn't think that C3 warranted directional tyres but there you go.

Good point about the stepper motor, my SX 1.4HDi 92 (54 reg) started makiing a clicking noise which became louder. This occurred when the car was cold and first started. I found that i could induce the noise by selecting RECIRC on the heater system, select recirc, wait a few minutes then deselect RECIRC, result noise. took it to dealer they changed stepper motor as it's a common fault.

There I was sitting in the local dealership waiting for my C3 to be serviced when I overheard a conversation about a C5 and its rear brakes. The complete caliper and discs had to be replaced on both sides because the pistons had seized in the bores. the owner was quite upbeat at the £700 bill he was paying BUT the receptionist did give him a discount off the parts and explain that he now had the new type calipers with a diffeent piston set up and different shims fitted so he hopefully wouldn't have the same problem again.

strange it posted twice ignore this one

penny, try reading the manuals that came with the car, there should be two, one about the car and one about the radio.;)

Well now last week my C3 1.4HDi 92BHP with auti climate control had to go for its 2nd service. Earlier in the week it started to make a loud clicking noise under the following conditions. A/C in auto first start of the day, after about 10 minutes a loud clicking noise coming from the heater box. Select RECIRC and then after 5 minutes deselect RECIRC and loud clicking noise again. Could be made to do this everytime. Took car in and they changed the flap stepper motor under warranty, result no more noise. apparently this is a common problem.

If your stalk is split into two halves at the end it will control the audio and change the central display. The half of the stalk furthest away from you, it's also slightly longer, changes the volume up and down. If held pressed in the centre it will mute the audio output. The half of the stalk nearest to youchanges the station or if on CD the track. If the end is pressed in momentarily it will cycle thru the computer readouts on the centre pod screen. If held pressed for 3 secs or more it will reset the computer readings. The readouts our DATE, distance to empty tank, distance since last reset, MPG, instant mpg (shows --- when car is stationary) and average mph since last reset. Note this will be in litres and KM if your computer is set to KM. This done by pressing the PAGE button which will allow you into the settings step thru this and use the tick button to make changes.

Don't you just love these sweeping statements from 'dealers'. i own a C3 1.4HDi SX 92 54 reg, with automatic climate control. It has a fantastic heating system and is left on AUTO all the time. No misting up in wet weather as some seem to suffer. We also own a Picasso 20HDi 90 BHP 51 reg, that too has auto climate on it. It does suffer from a slow warm up of the heater and the screen does mist on very cold days until the system has sorted itself out. The pollen filter on Picassos has been the cause of burnt out ignition switches due to the extra load imparted on the electrics by the aircon blower when the air flow is low due to a dirty filter, solution to this is change the filter yearly. Another cause of misting is the result of the water trapped in the evaporator when the car is shut off. The aircon works by removing moisture from the incoming air by passing it across the very cold near freezing evaporator in the air con box. This causes the moisture in the air to condense and if you like rain out of the air. this water is drained away from the evaporator thru a drain line to under the car, that pool of water underneath when you park. When the engine is shut off and the aircon is OFF the evaporator will retain some of this water. when you first turn the engine back on the initial air passing thru the aircon will infact get wetter which will mist up the screen. The same happens if you turn off the aircon when you are travelling in the car, more so on rainy days. So how do you fix this, well you can't completely but you can reduce the amount of misting, if it's a problem, by turning off the aircon and running the last mile or so home with out it as this will tend to dry out the evaporator.

The terminolgy leaves a bit to be desired on this. The button to the right of the stereo does activate a warning that sounds when you exceed a set speed. Setting it is difficult. Once you reach that speed it beeps at you BUT it doesn't automatically reduce the speed. It's also fitted to the Picasso, I have one of those too but it's as much use as a chocolate tea pot.

This can occur because the leading edges of the pads 'sing' on the discs. A common cure for this is to remove the pads and chamfer the leading edges with a file so that they have no sharpe edges to touch the discs. Give or the father-in-law give a try.

My C3 HDi SX 92 runs on fully synthetic oil. Shell Helix there are two ways of looking at this problem. the tappets are hydraulic and use the engine oil to fill the gap between the bucket and the cam. If the oil is too thin it drains out from the buckets when the engine stops and they rattle when the engine starts. If it's thicker they may stay filled and not rattle. Synthetic oil is better a sit retains all its properties thru ots life. However there is another possibility, it's not the tappets but anoisy fuel injector that is the cause, natrally both the tappets and the injectors are in the same place.