SteveBoulding

I bought a Berlingo Multispace 1.9 diesel new in 2002 (no power steering) and worked it quite hard for five years, doing around 120,000 miles. I had previously owned various Peugeots and Citroens and always been very pleased with them, never had a breakdown despite high mileages. In Jan. 2007, being on the verge of retirement, I traded it in for a new Multispace with the 1.6 HDi engine and found it had power steering, which I thought would be helpful for my wife. It came with the 5 years/60,000 mile warranty, but as I now anticipated only doing maybe 6-7.000 miles p.a., that was fine. I have had it serviced and oil changed, etc., more frequently than the recommended intervals by my very competent local garage. Unfortunately, when it was literally a few weeks past the fifth anniversary of first registration, the power steering fluid started leaking. The garage initially thought it was just the pipes needed tightening up, which they did, but it didn't fix the problem, so in the end it became clear that the rack was fractured and needed replacing. The proprietor had never come across this in a Citroen before, and was as shocked as I was when the price quoted by Citroen for the unit was around £850, meaning a total bill of £1000 or so. As he had done for me before in relation to my other car, a 25-year old Peugeot 309, when, for example, the alternator needed replacement, he made enquiries through the trade to see if a cheaper alternative could be sourced, and came back with a remanufactured unit with 12 months' guarantee for under £500, so we went for that. I was reassured that he had never encountered a failure like this on a Citroen before, and assumed that I was just the one in maybe 10,000 owners who was just unlucky. Now, 2 1/2 years later, the same thing has happened again. It's fractured and needs replacement. I know that it was a remanufacture, not a brand new Citroen replacement, but you can understand that I'm a bit fed up. The car is now 8 1/2 years old, still only done 55,000 miles, well looked after, not driven harshly, not hit any really nasty potholes, etc., so can anyone tell me if I've just been really unlucky twice over, or is there a generic problem with this component ? Thanks, Steve