AlanFC

Well, well guess what has turned up outside my house?..............yep it's my C3, all repaired and all singing and dancing! The dealers managed to find out what the problem(s) was. The initial starting problem was cured by an ecu change, after 4 weeks of investigation. Then straight away it would not rev above 3,000 rpm and the engine management light kept coming on. This second fault was cured by replacing a 4-way vacuum valve that sits at the back of the engine,(I think he said) after another 4 weeks of investigation during which the dealer kindly gave me a courtesy car (my car is out of warranty, but I am a long standing customer) I do not know if the second problem arose as a consequence of the first, it seems odd that it should go when it did. So effectively my car had been off the road for around 2 months. How painful. Now that it is back my wife (it's actually her car) does not want to change it for a boring (reliable) japanese model no matter how I try to convince her.....I am still trying believe me! If I lose, I reckon it has to have a Warranty Direct, warranty to calm my nerves until the next major component goes, around this mileage I expect the good 'ole fuel injectors will start giving up. (£400 a pop). I will say (again) that I believe that the dealership tried to the best of their ability to sort it out and eventually got there, (2 months). I have no doubt that they were as cheesed off by it as I was. CitroenUK were involved including some 3rd party help I got from the press for which I am very grateful. I received the car in perfect working order F.O.C. (for my inconvenience I imagine). If this is CitroenUKs new face of customer service, I can only say that I am impressed and thanks very much to the dealership for being so persistent. It has been a rough and strained couple of months for all involved. Thanks to all who have given their constructive comments and I hope if any of you experience the same type of faults as I have, that this post may help in troubleshooting so your car isn't off the road for 2 months.

Thanks very much for your constructive suggestion raveydavey but to be honest I don't think I particularly wish to see this heap of junk again. I will be driving it with baited breath waiting for a fuel injector to fail on me next, like poor old akf or some other major component. jannez,....I really am at a loss, maybe I've got selective vision but I can't see anywhere where I have taken a pop at the mechanics working on my car. All I have stated is that it is beyond their abilities and expertise to repair it. Which clearly it is otherwise I would be happily behind the wheel by now!

Absolutely you should, there is a fundamental flaw in these cars, look at my most recent post. These cars are marketed as being economical, this particular engine was billed as the most efficient in its class. You bought this car for economical motoring. This defeats the object. Even though the warranty has run out you still have your statuatory rights, use this forum as evidence that these engines are not fit for their purpose. Good luck

The latest development is that the dealer cannot repair the car, this car as I said has been well looked after and ran fine without a peep for 3 years 8 months and 55,000 miles.oh, and the heap of junk cost me £10,000 when I bought it, hows that for depreciation, £10,000 to heap of junk in 3 years 8 months? R.I.P. It now cannot be repaired after being with the dealer for 7 weeks, how unbeleivable is that? They have spent over 20 hours fault finding and still cannot find the cause of the problem. The sales manager is working out a deal for me to replace it with something else, I can't say anymore as I have yet to speak with him. I'll let you know the outcome. Certainly, I will say that I believe the service manager has done the best of his ability to try to fix it. Again, I will reiterate what I said, do not keep these cars beyond the 3 year warranty period, better still don't buy one in the first place and save yourself the pain that I am going through. Had you asked me what I thought of my C3 before this problem began I would have recommended it but what with other owners who have had to change fuel injectors prematurely at a rip off £400 a pop, it is clear that these 'economical' cars are anything but. Ford had a lucky escape not putting these engines into their models. Get rid of yours now, do not be 'seduced' as I was by trouble-free running, it is a false sense of security. Boy, am I mightily cheesed off by all this! Any apologists for this piece of junk...save your breath, the facts are as you have just read them and as they appear in my other posts. For those out there who have classed me as a whinger, let me educate you.......a whinger is one who moans and complains without a legitimate reason...work it out for yourselves. I can't believe that there are people out there who buy cars like these at auction, very brave indeed.

Flitwick, unfortunately it seems your advice to akf not to be influenced by horror stories on this site was not good. The poor guy has reported that his dealer wants at least £1,400 for changing all the fuel injectors. hence my advice to owners of the 16v Hdi diesel to get a warranty or get rid. Thats three of us now on this site with major problems on this model, (mine has been at the dealers for 5 weeks!) what faults have you suffered?

I would imagine your mileage is less than 100K. This should not be happening on a car of this age. you need to speak to CitroenUK and insist for some goodwill payment., fuel injectors are not 'service items' these cars are not fit for their purpose. The whole point of buying these models is for economy. My old ZX diesel had 250,000 miles on the clock on original injectors. What mileage and age is your C3? Hope you are over your flu CE, I've been away hence no updates. The garage still have my car, please see my thread, 'C3 cant be repaired' its been 5 weeks now.

Thanks for your useful reply jannez, a classic case of engage brain before opening mouth. There is only one 'Alanfc' on this site so you can quite clearly see that I have detailed the problem with this car on another thread. I hope you end up with the same hassles with your car as I have with mine, then perhaps I can learn from you how to deal with this major problem effectively. Oh, and for the benefit of your own education, you may wish to look up the definition of the words 'rant' and 'whinge'......bye, bye.

Well, my C3 has been at the dealer for almost a month now.........and they still can't find out what is causing the problem with it. I am extremely cheesed off (substitute the worst expletive you can imagine in the previous sentence). What a ridiculously unbeleivable set of affairs. Basically Citroen cannot repair a 3yr 10 month car with 55K miles, serviced by the book, always using fully synthetic oil, always using shell diesel. the car has been off the road for a month. The garage still has the car. Let this be a warning to all of you, get rid of your C3 before the warranty runs out or take out a comprehensive extended warranty, thinking about it.....whats the point anyway if Citroen do not have the expertise to fix their own products? Get rid it and buy yourself a Nissan Micra or a Toyota Yaris If you think I am exagerrating or making this up for some warped reason, I will be happy to substantiate what I am saying in whatever manner you wish. If there are any motoring journos out there who can put the squeeze on Citroen, please let me know because i really don't know what else to do.

There is a fundamental flaw in the C3. It is cheap and nasty. Don't just take my word for it, look around, its obvious. Day 11 and My car is still with the dealer, in his own words he has hit a brick wall and CitroenUK technical are not much help. Paid £10K for a car drive it for 55K miles, service by the book, it goes wrong take it to Citroen, they cant fix it. So what am I supposed to do now, scrap it? I've heard about the throw away society but this is taking the biscuit. Just thank your lucky stars that yours is on motability CE Any one have any idea whether I have any avenue of recourse? It is 3 yrs 10 mths old, ie out of warranty.

Which diesel engine do you have snorbens? £200 each sounds cheap for 16v hdi injectors, more like a reconditioned price rather than new, I was quoted nearly £400 each for new injectors. Like I said, punt them prior to warranty expiry or get a aftermarket warranty. I prefer first option as my car has been with main dealer for 8 days now and still no further forward. Ecu was replaced on recommendation of Citreon uk and guess what?......the fault persists! Dealer is scratching his head now, its not him I blame its CUK, don't know how to fix their own cars! you couldn't make it up.

Brilliant! Thanks for that insight kfk, seems like you guys get just as frustrated as us punters!

My C3, engine wise was fine for all the 55K miles until this happened, everything seems to point to a capacitor which supplies the injectors, probably on costs a few quid to solder a new one in, but no, it has to be a complete new unit costing close to £900. I sometimes feel we are being taken for a ride, I used to solder bits and pieces together when I was a kid to make my own transistor radios. It really isn't very hard! Is it really beyond the scope of a trained technician to do this especially with the thousands of pounds of diagnostic equipment they have to hand? I'd be happy to be educated by anyone with inside info on this one. Ta

CE, your right it is bad, I notice a few C3's in your line up, you might want to seriously consider getting shot of them before the warranty runs out or buy extended warranties if you wish to keep them. Just to set the record straight, I have nothing against Citroens in general, I had a ZX 1.9 diesel with over 250,000 miles on the clock when I sold it on in tip top nick. I own a Picasso that I'm reasonably content with. It's just rubbish cars in general that I have a problem with.

Thanks for your reply kfk and for the fact that Citroen will pay for replacement. My point is that in nearly 30 years of motoring, in various bangers, I've never had to replace the said items in any car let alone having them both go on the same car within a month. I don't expect things to last forever but from my research I can tell you that the C3 is a particular flimsy car. There are several independent motoring surveys that support this. What car? and JD Power to name 2. and speaking to other C3 owners and by comparing it to my Picasso (In America, some new marques have a 10 year warranty! Hyundai springs to mind....now that is unreasonable, I think) It is a great, well designed practical car when it is working, but one buys these for budget motoring and to have a failure of a major component at 55K miles defeats the object. It is the flimsy build quality, body and mechanicals which make it a hard car to live with. My Picasso 2.0 Hdi has 90K miles on it and by and large it is ok. If the ecu went on that, whilst being cheesed off I could accept that on that mileage you would expect things to go wrong (Fingers crossed!) If you read my other 60 posts closely (I do feel honoured by the way), you will find that I am not actually trying to right all the wrongs in the world. However if you feel it is acceptable to pay £10K for a new car which ends up having to be returned to the dealer at least 6 times for a squeaky roof!?, Has been to the dealer 3 times for this existing fault that is a £850 job. Has its coil springs snapping And have to put up with the level of service, less than would be expected, from most citroen dealers ( I must make it clear that I am content with the level of service I am getting refernce this current problem....but I would never take it to the dealer from where it was bought)!. I would suggest that you are in a minority. Thats not why people spend their hard earned on new cars over second hand.

See my ECU failure post on Problems and Fixes forum