Weebachle

Hi All, For the past week or so my estate sinks down completely overnight, till the wheels are buried in the wheel arches.. Opening the car doors or starting the engine quickly brings the ride height back to normal. Through reading topics on this forum I have found mention of "anti-sink Reservoir" and "anti-sink-valve" but I don't know what they look like or where they are physically located on the car. Also the Haynes C5 manual I just bought does not seem to mention either of these anti-sink devices. There are NO apparent leaks under the car. As an Senior Citizen with limited funds, expensive visits to main agents have to be avoided! I am prepared to tackle most mechanical repairs but the Citroen suspension system is a completely unknown item to me. I would be extremely grateful if any of the lots more knowledgeable guys out there could suggest the most probable cause(s) and if possible a (non main agent solution) to this problem? Many thanks Graeme

Thanks guys for all your help, I just thought I had better let you know about an entirely unexpected and mysterious solution. I gave the car to a mechanic friend of a friend to look at, I explained the problem and left it with him. He called me yesterday and said that reverse was working, I asked how? and he said that he hadn't really done anything, just reconnected the cable to the collar and used a little bit of extra effort to put it into reverse. The end result is that the gearbox is working perfectly again, exactly as it was before this problem started. I am at loss to explain this, all I can do is to give my sincere thanks to you all for trying to help me with this puzzle. Thanks Graeme

Thanks for responding. No, there have been no problems whatever with the other gears, nor until now with reverse, no stickiness or reluctance to engage, nothing. I'll have a go at trying the lifting the clutch trick tomorrow, the car is not at my home right now. The car prior to my buying it at end November 2008 was a friends company car and has full service history with the Citroen dealers. Anything that needed doing got done promptly, though he assures me there were no big problems, the car has been completely reliable up until now. Mileage is about 120,000. Thanks

Hi, I joined the forum a couple of days ago to see if I could find some help with the problem I have with the Manual gearbox on my 2003 C5 2.0TDi Exclusive (110HP) estate, I've only had it a couple of months. I am hoping that the C5 experts among you out there might give me the benefit of your knowledge of the C5. One afternoon about four of five days ago I found that I could not reverse the car off my drive, it just would NOT go into the reverse gate, there had been no indication of any problems up until this point. I had a quick look at it in the driveway, thinking it was a linkage problem. I thought that the little collar on the gearstick that you pull up was somehow not lifting enough to "open the gate", or maybe a plastic bracket had snapped or something like that. I lifted the leather boot and surrounding trim but I still could not see the linkage without slitting the rubber boot which I did not want to do. I tried almost completely undoing the four nylock nuts surrounding the boot but that didn't seem to help release it. So I took the car to the Citroen agency the next morning. Later that day they called me and said it is not the linkage, that there is something wrong inside the gearbox. They gave me two alternatives (a) A replacement gearbox costing approximately two thousand two hundred pounds Plus labour charges. OR - (b) fix my gearbox - Labour charges to remove the gearbox, strip it down to find and fix the fault then refit it = approximately nine hundred pounds Plus the cost of whatever parts are required. Since I am not working and cannot afford that at this time, I had to collect the car back from them They gave it back to me with the little spring loaded wire cable that attaches to the collar on the gearstick disconnected (presumably to stop me damaging anything else?). My questions are :- (1) Has anyone come across this problem and knows how to fix it? (2) If I have to tackle this job myself with a friend, are any specials tools needed to remove the gearbox? (3) I don't have access to a lift or a pit, Could gearbox removal be done with the car up on axle stands? (4) If the gearbox does have to come out, then it would make sense to fit a complete new clutch but the Citroen dealers are quoting 250+ quid for parts, is there an alternative cheaper source? Also there seem to be lots of part numbers for C5 clutches, Can you give me any advice on ensuring that I get the correct clutch parts if I don't get them from the Citroen agents at Citroen prices? Thanks Graeme