nevway

I also had no idea that there were problems with C3 springs until mine failed. I think we were very fortunate as it failed at low speed the evening before I was due to make a long motorway journey. What alerted me was when the recovery truck driver said that this was a common problem with C3's and that it usually destroyed the tyre Mine had dropped so low that they struggled for an hour to get it on the truck without causing further damage What horrified me most was that the flexible brake pipe had been severed by the spring. In my case the tyre was undamaged. The local Citroen dealer was cagey at first - they would have to take a look at the car first and submit a claim to Citroen. After looking on the net and taking account of the recovery service comments, I immediately stated that I expected that the repairs should be carried out free of charge as it was a known problem. The dealer took 6 days to carry out the repairs and only contacted me when they were finished despite me making several interim calls to them. When I picked up the car, there was no apology and when I persisted , the receptionist just said that the car VIN number was outside the recall range. He then implied that he was becoming accustomed to irate C3 owners as the spring failures were so commonplace. Make sure that the dealer knows that you know that there is an underlying problem with the springs on this car!

Just got the car back from the dealer - the following parts have been replaced free of charge: Both front springs, both suspension strut top bearings. nearside flexible brake hose, nearside ABS sensor and nearside suspension drop arm. The spring breakage obviously caused a lot of damage to suspension and braking systems. The dealer has not fitted the modification ie the spring cups as they were instructed by Citroen not to do so. It would appear to me that they are not addressing the problem as I still have a car that could suffer steering/ braking / tyre failure in the event of a spring breaking. When this was pointed out to the dealer. he agreed but said that they could only fit the modification to the cars that were subject to recall and that they have had dozens of similar failures. I will be taking this further with Citroen and Watchdog if necessary. It makes you wonder how many serious accidents have been caused by this fault and how many are out there waiting to happen.

The nearside frontspring has just failed on my 54 plate 23,000 mile C3. Fortunately it failed just as I was coming to a halt - the spring almost severed the flexible brake pipe when it broke. Citroen recalled earlier models because of this problem - why not later models as it is still clearly a serious problem. I dread to think of the consequences had it happened at speed. Car has been towed to local dealers ( recovery service struggled for an hour trying to get the car on the trailer as the front of the car was so low!) Will post the outcome