Jonesy

So... problem went away for a couple of weeks but returned. Can sink quite quickly after turning the engine off but playing with the up and down height adjusters usually got it back on the level again. Until last Saturday (thankfully on my driveway at home) when I tried on about 6 occasions and the rear end would just not raise off the bump stops at all. Could hear the pump going and a sort of whooshing noise from the rear. Shook it, rocked it, lifted it up by the bumper, bashed the thing between the two central rear spheres with a broom handle but refused to raise. Tried again on Sunday and after about a minute the rear end 'jumped' up to normal height. The sinking I can live with but the not raising again afterwards is a bit more serious. Not wishing to allow this to happen to my wife whilst away from home booked it into a Citroen dealer where it is today. Needless to say it will not sink for them. Report is there were a few error codes for the suspension and they will 'start' with replacing the height sensor at I don't remember at how many £'s plus £90 for looking at it. Seems to me this is going to be an expensive business and resolving the problem may be a way off? Surely somebody on here has had this problem before and knows the solution before I just throw hundreds of £'s at it for a main dealer to replace everything on a trial and error basis? Would love to hear!

Thanks Paul. Have heard that when this happens Citroen dealers put it on the diagnostics and nothing shows up so unless they are savvy will probably get nowhere. Might give them a call to see if they have dealt with this before. As mentioned, no leaks. When it does sink, and it sinks right down on the bumpstops at the rear, after opening a door the electric pump whirs away and then after a while it suddenly jumps up all in one go much to the shock of passengers! When it does sink it does so fairly rapidly after turning the engine off. But... fingers crossed.. it hasn't done it for the last couple of days. It really is an all or nothing fault.

My 2009 Exclusive Tourer has developed an intermittent tendency to sink at the back end when parked over the last week. Seem to recall mention of an anti sink valve and or sphere? There do not appear to be any fluid leaks and if I restart the engine and adjust the suspension level to high and back to normal it seems to stay up. Question is, shall I just put up with this or is it something which could have further consequences so should be fixed? If so, any ideas how much it might cost to rectify? Pleased to hear. Best Regards John

Seems like you fared a lot better than me then! See post on rear wash / wipe problems. I went down the Citroen main dealer route, and even wrote to Citroen believing they may have known an answer to this problem. Perhaps they need to be educated!

An update... They replaced the stalks (at considerable expense) which finally fixed the rear wash wipe syndrome. Then the front wipers started playing up randomly, mostly when you needed to travel a few hundred miles on a rainy day. Random swipes of one or the other blade and they would stop wherever they felt like it. A few miles or hours down the road they would suddenly join the party again and start working all of their own volition. Dealer replaced the fuse box. No cure. Eventually it happened at their premises and they said two new wiper motors were required at around £250 a shot. Bit the bullet and had this done and wipers have been fine since but that 'little problem' cost me close on to a grand in total! Today I notice that the Air Con is not working. Dash says its on but it's not. No sign of cooling and the engine fan isn't spinning. Got to get it fixed but dread to think what this may cost. This car is such a shame. The good points are very good and make me want to keep it, but the bad points are just stupid and trying to ruin me financially. And you end up in that stupid situation where you think 'I've just spent £xx on it so can't afford to sell it now.' Then the next problem comes along costing you yet another £xx. The clutch and DMF were apparently replaced prior to my ownership at 60k miles. It's now on 110k and I have the squeak, and clutch judder after sitting in heavy traffic for a while. Another huge bill if that needs doing, but couldn't honestly sell it on otherwise. Guess I'll just breathe in, take it on the chin and soldier on with it. But it should be more pleasurable... I built up to this X7 Exclusive Tourer from a 2CV for goodness sake! I know what made me smile more.

Alex, I don't know why you are looking for a replacement but it is very unlikely for these led units to fail. What is more common (as on my car) is for one of the wires feeding it to have broken just where it meets the tailgate, between body and tailgate. The wiring is in two separate rubber conduits, the feed to the 3rd brake light is in the smaller one. Definitely worth checking this first. Regards John

An update on this one. Took it to a Citroen main dealer who said it could be 101 things (most of which seemed unlikely.) They said there were dozens of fault codes stored ranging from suspension to engine ECU to Comms unit to goodness knows what else. This, despite when I took it in for a service in February and asked them to look into an engine hesitation problem at about 1700 revs on light throttle they said there were no faults showing! I asked if they could disable it, because I really could live without it. I would just pull the fuse out but it is shared with the front washers. They said they could but it would throw up all other sorts of error messages. Their best suggestion was to clear all the codes and see how it went from there. Well, 5 days elapsed with no problems and I was beginning to feel positive. But the damned wash wipe went off all by itself again today in blazing sunshine for no apparent reason. I'm beginning to suspect the comms unit. That could be expensive right?

Yes same on this one Paul but doubt it's to do with that. Driving along on a perfectly sunny day, no lights or wipers on, and off it goes. Probably a coincidence but always seems to be after I've cleaned it that it spurts it's stuff all over the back of the car!

Hi Paul. No, the rear wiper is behaving exactly as it should. As is the wash/wipe.... except for coming on all by itself. So pretty sure there's nothing wrong at the back end of the car.

Did anybody find a definitive answer to this? My 2009 X7 Exclusive Tourer has started to randomly apply the rear wash wipe. Sometimes it wont do it for weeks on end then on another day it will do it 3 times without having touched any controls. If its as simple as replacing the stalk I might do it. But if its something more sinister like a Comms unit gone (sounds very expensive) then I may put up with it, or shift the car on! Other than this and the terrible road noise from the front that I just can't get to the bottom of everything is good. A fantastic car ruined by a few fundamental flaws. Look forward to hearing any suggestions.

Thanks Paul H. and Parkesie for the responses. I'll dig out the V5C when I get a chance and see what it says. But as you say Paul on a top range exclusive you would not expect to be having to fit an aftermarket sound insulation kit. Last time I did that was sticking sound deadening pads into my old Acadiane van! Another thing I am toying with is adjusting the tyre pressures to see if this makes a difference. On the B pillar the sticker says 2.3 Bar, but the tyres do 'look' rather under-inflated at this pressure (large flat spot at the bottom), so far have increased it to 2.5 Bar but no difference in noise. If anybody else has some more hands on experience I'd be pleased to hear.

Bump! Has anybody found an explanation/cure for this? I recently bought a 2009 C5 2.0 litre 138 bhp Exclusive Tourer and have exactly the symptoms explained above. This one is running Continental Econtact 5 225/55's on 17 inch alloys at the front, which from reviews I have read are not particularly known as being noisy. It's such a shame because other than this incessant noise the car is brilliant but this really spoils it. It is so bad that the immediate reaction is to turn the radio up to cover it, but you have to turn it up so loud that when you get home and switch off your ears are ringing, Not quite what I had expected from such a car. Previously I had a 2001 Mk 1 and there was no such road noise. I had long dreamt of having one of these Mk 3's as a step up but this has really killed the dream for me. I too suspected another cause could perhaps be defective wheel bearings, but from what I read on here am not too keen to pay to have them replaced with no effect. It has to be tyres, bearings or driveshafts, or some other unexplained 'Friday afternoon' batch of cars? It's almost as though there's an amplifier somewhere up scaling any road noise through to the car! If there is anybody else in the Essex area with a similar car that they believe is WITHOUT this problem I'd genuinely appreciate a meet to test back to back. If I don't find a solution to this I am very regrettably have to get rid of it because it is just not liveable with. I've had a long line of Cits building up from a 2CV to this, my ultimate dream car which is actually doing my head in!