sifaan

Checked fuse 18 under the bonnet (40A) and it's fine. How do I go about figuring out if I have a dead resistor pack, or dead blower motor? Edit: Pulled out the resitor pack; it seems that at some time in the past one of the connectors had melted, so it had been repaired by shunting two wires to the supply wires (the ones going to the melted connecter), and soldering those wires to something (probably the pins of the connector) by cutting a hole in the plastic of the resistor pack. There was a loose connection / dry joint on the soldering; wasn't ready with any soldering stuff so just left it as it is - will pull it out again and solder it if it dies on me again. So, back to my original question - any ideas why the driver side air flow is not blowing cool? And even if I should check a motor, which one is it? citroen's service diagram shows 3, one on either side of the unit (which I presumed were driver/passenger) and one a bit forward/up, which I guess is for the windscreen. I would prefer not having to dismantle both sides of the dash! Thanks!

Small update - today it turns out the blower is not working either; initially the "blades" on the display appear solid (there is no air flow) and after a while they turn off and stay off. Does this point to a problem in the resistor pack? Should I be checking any fuses first?

Hi all The climate control on my C5 (1st gen) has developed a problem recently; the issue itself seems to be fairly common, but the suprising thing is that every incident report I've found talks of the problem on the passenger side, whereas mine is on the driver side. (BTW this is in Sri Lanka, so still RHD like in UK) The symptom of the problem is as follows: Passenger side blows fine, the airflow temperature changes according to the control. On the driver side, the air is neither hot nor cold (probably ambient temperature) except when the control is set high, when it blows hot air (it definitely blows hot at 28; not sure at which settings it starts to blow hot). Very rarely (after fiddling with the controls, but not sure if it is because of that), the driver side also blows cold. The blower itself works fine (blows at different speeds according to the setting) so I presume my resistor pack is fine. Of course, until I open things up I can't confirm if the problem is the same as what others have encountered - the plastic socket that connects to the motor that regulates the flap has spread out. But it seems to be quite a job to open up so I'm hoping to get few options/suggestions before I take that route. I suspect that the reason the passenger side fails so often is because there is a coolant line nearby, which maybe makes the plastic more malleable or brittle. Any ideas as to what I can do? Thanks!

you can get used struts from ebay; I replaced a bonnet strut and it was just a case of unclipping the old one and fitting in the new. there's a small clip that locks the ball-and-socket joint that needs to be released. looking at the tailgate struts for sale on ebay, it should be the same procedure. (btw I paid 7.5 pounds + 4 for postage for a pair of bonnet struts; Dealer quoted ~17 pounds each new) if you remove them (get someone to hold the tailgate open) you can check if you need to replace one or both - if it's working, you won't be able to push the strut in by hand, and if it's not working it'll slide in and out easily.

What do you do to activate cruise (and not recall a previous speed)?

according to the owner's handbook, this may actually be the expected behaviour - i.e. the plus or minus buttons "recall" the last stored cruise speed. only question is how do I set cruise at the new speed without recalling the earlier speed? if I turn the knob from off to on (say when driving at 60) would that do the job? I'm now thinking that the reason the settings doesn't appear in BSI is because there's no place on my 1st gen to display that cruise is active. whereas on facelifted versions I think the cruise speed is displayed in the instrument cluster.

I have an interesting situation where I enabled Cruise Control in the Engine ECU settings but couldn't find it in the BSI settings. On my daily travels I don't have a chance to try cruise, but on Friday I had a longish drive and just decided to try it and I found that it works - i.e. with cruise in the "on" position, and driving at a decent speed (over 60km/h, although I think the threshold for activation is only 40 km/h) I pressed the plus button and took my foot off the accelerator and it maintained speed. hitting the brakes deactivates the cruise. the problem is, let's say I had activated cruise at 70, braked, and now picking up speed and going at 60, and try to activate cruise (plus or minus button didn't make a difference as I recall) and it goes back to the last speed at which cruise was activated (i.e. suddently revs upto 70) which is not what I want happening. I don't know if this is because of not enabling cruise in the BSI settings or just that I don't know how to use the cruise properly.

I had the immobilizer kicking in recently when I had a loose connection on the battery. locking/unlocking the car using the remote fixed the problem (there's a small delay between reconnecting the battery and the car accepting the remote)

bump! Was trying to retrofit cc on my C5, and the dealer in Sri Lanka has an ancient proxia setup. managed to find and enable the setting in the ECU, but couldn't find it in BSI... don't recall seeing anything called vvr or rvv (which is it). do you remember which submenu it was in (customer, diagnostics, miscellaneous...)?

did you manage to enable the cruise control? I was trying to do it on a proxia system at the (only) citroen dealer in Sri Lanka; we found the option in the ECU settings to enable Cruise Control, but there's supposed to be a another place in the BSI to enable it and we couldn't find that option :)

hi! do you know the exact steps to configure this - preferably on a proxia cos that's what the (only) citroen dealer in Sri Lanka has? I have a C5 (sorry this is in the wrong forum) and installed a cruise stalk (I have motorized throttle body) and managed to enable the setting in the ECU settings; but couldn't find it under the BSI settings.

the double filament bulb is for the dimmed/main beam the single filament bulb is the foglight

thanks; will also check on possibility of a used part on ebay, or is that not recommended?

I had a similar prolem and the garage was able to take it apart and clean/lubricate it (not sure exactly what was done though). I'm supposed to replace a brake piston (corroded) as well as apply the caliper repair kit - until that's done the handbrake has been left disconnected. (and even after, there is some grime buildup that needs to be cleared regularly - e.g. at service - or will cause seizing again... but this is probably more due to the dusty atmosphere here in Sri Lanka and is probably not an issue in the UK)

Hi all! 2 nights ago I noticed a patch of lighter colour on the rear view mirror (oval shaped, slightly above the middle) and on further inspection it looked like there was some fluid in the rest of the mirror that was missing in the patch. The next evening, the mirror was almost totally clear, but there was some fluid at the bottom, and further more there was fluid slowly dripping out of the bottom (where the switch is) the auto-dimming function is normally ON, but was OFF when I noticed the problem and the leaking. Does anyone know if this can be repaired (refill the fluid and seal the leak) or does the mirror need to be replaced? Thanks /Sifaan

Hi kfk/others just wondering if you have access to wiring diagrams for C5? Thanks

for the oil level - safest is to check the level from the dipstick (car on level, engine off at least 10 mins). if it's low then you need to top up the oil (and find out why you lost so much so quickly). if it's high then you probably have a problem with the sensor. AFAIK it is the same sensor that gives the oil temperature reading (if you have one on your cluster, not sure if it's standard on all cars) so if it is the sensor then probably the temperature reading doesn't work either (it should warm up after a longish run, takes much longer to warm up than the coolant) if it is the sensor, it may or may not be worth the trouble to get it fixed (you can anyway use the dipstick once a week or once a fortnight to monitor the levels)

Liberally WD40'd the height sensor and now the self-levelling appears to be functioning well, both when the engine is running and when it was not. (i.e. same experience as OP). Still don't understand how the sensor was "stuck" only when the engine was running though. recently on a relatively colder day (22 degrees) I heard the pump running when unlocking the car, but couldn't really notice any movement (or was maybe too late to look) so perhaps it is something to do with the ambient temp. (colder => less pressure => pump works to increase pressure?)

if it's off by a fixed amount; you need to remove the cluster (instructions on doing it are not hard to find), remove the connector at the rear (press the raised center bit and rotate the lever), take the unit out, remove the front cover, plug it in, then adjust the needle to 0 by gently rotating. (it has to be plugged in when you do this) i think you don't have the room to put the cover back on while it's plugged in (moving the steering column down and forward may help) so you can disconnect if needed; but make sure not to touch the needle while you are doing this as it may move off kilter again. however, it's hard to see how this problem could've occured in the first place (I learnt how to do this when replacing the motor).

is it consistently showing +20mph (i.e. show 40 when doing 60; show some off the chart value when not running, etc.) if so it just means the needle is out of kilter and that's easy to fix...

Yes, the overheating was fixed (replaced the radiator). The switches do raise/lower the car (interestingly, it doesn't work on N. I wonder if that's how it's intended to be, but if so it's a bit strange that the display shows that it was raised/lowered (just as it would if it was actually raised/lowered) WD40ing the sensor seems to be the thing to try but haven't got around to it yet (do I need to get the car on a ramp? or is it enough to raise the car?) I've never noticed anything happening on unlocking (except if I get in the car) but that maybe because of a higher ambient temperature (25-35) here at all times of the year :) tried it just now and it doesn't wait for the door to close to adjust (opened the door and stood on the sill, and up she came; stepped off, door still open, and it went down)... possibly that was a change in the facelift then?

are you sure? if so it means my car is behaving really wierd :S here's how it works for me: unlock car from remote someone opens the back door and get in car sinks for the weight after few seconds, can hear the pump whirring and car levels itself (comes up) get out of the car car rises after few seconds, whirring again and car levels itself (comes down) (is the above not supposed to happen?) on the other hand: unlock car and start engine someone opens the back door and get in car sinks for the weight and stays there with 2 people in the back the car is too low to be driven (can hear clunking noises) at this point if I switch off the engine and wait, the car will level itself (can't remember if I have to take the key out of ignition or not I'm sure the above is not how it's supposed to work, or all taxi drivers would be cursing C5s BTW for the front (driver/passenger) the levelling happens regardless of whether the engine is running.

sorry if I'm being dense but I still don't get it :( the fact that the ECU uses input from the sensor to adjust the ride height I understand. what I don't understand is how a dirty sensor can do the job when the engine is off, but not when it is on ? :blink:

In my quest for a used main harness (loom) I managed to find someone willing to sell the harness off a car that matched the specs that defined the harness: EW10J4 engine, automatic, motorized throttle body, no ESP. Or so I thought. It appears that Citroen also distinguishes harnesses as "with BSI LIGHT COM 2000" and "except BSI LIGHT COM 2000". In the specs section in service.citroen.com, for my car it lists "SLAVE CONTROL UNIT" as "BSI COM 2000" In the prospective donor car it lists "BSI LIGHT COM 2000" Does anyone have an idea what is the difference between these? My car has automatic headlights (halogen), and front and rear fogs; so it can't be any of that. It also can't be HID because the donor car also has halogen bulbs. If it just means that the "BSI LIGHT COM 2000" has some extra connectors I should still be good to go?

Thanks, but I think we're not quite seeing eye-to-eye on this... If the car is unlocked, engine off (actually key not even in ignition) and people get in at the back, the car levels itself just fine (i.e. car sinks for the weight, after a couple of seconds rises up smoothly). i.e. load sensor is detecting load and corrective action is being taken. If the engine is running, and people get in at the back, it sinks and stays down. Switch ignition off and it levels itself. I'm quite happy to squirt some WD40 to solve the problem but I'm curios as to how the load sensor reacts fine when the engine is not running... ??