clipper

Well, I have to say thanks to you all on the forum (mainly paul.h and Simple, it has to be said) for the help over the last few years. My "faithful" C8 was delivered to the VW dealer last week in exchange (plus several bags of silver) for a Touran, so I will never know the cause of its various ills. But neither will I have to pay for the repairs... Thanks again and Goodbyeeeee!

I'm still hoping that it is the thrust bearing really, although I'm not sure if that is a good thing to be hoping for as I have no idea of the replacement cost.

In neutral, pressing the clutch partially down (to where the biting point would be if it were in gear) does make the noise go away, without having to depress the pedal to the floor.. In a very quiet garage, I can hear the output side of the clutch spin up when the clutch plates meet on biting point and the noise kicks in at that point, it is directly related to the clutch on the gearbox side or to the gearbox input shaft. I'll take it to the mechanic this week to get the box oil checked.

Thanks. I'll pay more attention next time I drive it and see exactly what clutch action affects the noise. I'm certainly planning the "live with it" solution for the time being, but as you say, things could get catastrophic quite quickly... that said, I have a 32 yr old BMW with a layshaft bearing rattle that's been there for 10 years. That gearbox has 360k on it and still going. Obviously I'm not expecting a C8 box to last that long, but it would be nice to know if this is the beginning of the end, or if we can eek another two years out of it.

Hi all! My long suffering C8 has developed a new "issue" and, ahead of taking it in to see the doctor I can't help but wonder what it might be. At first we noticed a ever louder whining noise, which seems to come from the transmission, and linked to engine speed (downshifting makes the revs rise, the pitch of the whine rise and increase in volume). The noise is now very noticeable on the over-run / under engine braking. Now I have noticed that at idle in neutral, there is a similar, but less intrusive noise. I'm pretty sure that it is the same issue but without load. The noise goes away upon depressing the clutch pedal. At first I suspected the clutch release bearing, but a noise from this wouldn't go away on pressing the clutch right? On the contrary, it is when it would be more noticeable? Therefore, I am suspecting a gearbox bearing on the input side. Any known issues like this? The car had a new clutch about 2 years / 50k kms ago, and it now has approx 210k kms.

Indeed, I was in "glass half empty" mode... The aircon always worked, but with reduced efficiency. I am assuming that the old electric fan was trying to spin on the lower speed setting, but not managing to do so, then finally spinning a bit when the aircon was engaged. Now the motor cools OK and the aircon cools even better! Time for our second summer holiday in the C8... about 1,000 miles ranging from motorway at 40º heat and 130 kp/h, mountain roads at 7% gradient a,d beachfront roads at 15 kp/h... I touched up a few scratches and re-sprayed a bumper corner last week, so I hope the C8 stays in a good mood!

I stand corrected on the filling procedure! But in the end I did not have an air lock. It was indeed the fan which had packed up. Cooling system checked, topped up, and fan changed for 250€. Seems fair. It seems it was just an unlucky coincidence that it happened just when I changed the temp sensor. Thanks again for your continued help!!

Thanks for the info. I haven't seen any written procedure for coolant filling specifically for the C8, but as per your write up on the use of the "special tool", it should technically not be required in the C8 as the expansion tank certainly is higher than the bleed points. It is in fact the highest part of the cooling circuit. That doesn't mean to say that I don't have an air leak of course.... More worrying is the statement that the fan is a three speed affair. Mine most certainly is not. In fact, it is possible to have the engine at well over 100ºC and the fan not spinning at all. It will spin slowly if I engage the air-con, so I know that the fan motor does physically work, but I have doubts about the fan control system. Given that a decent fan is up around the 200€ mark, and I don't understand the fan speed control circuit, all I have been able to do is test the fan relays (all OK), and clean up the connectors in the fan area. But this made no difference, so it has gone to the workshop.... yet again...

So, changing the temp sensor didn´t turn out to be such a good idea. On the first trip out after the change, the motor overheated to the point that the "stop engine" warning came on. I assumed that it wasn't related to the sensor itself, but rather to the act of changing it, thinking there may be air in the system. I couldn't find a procedure to bleed the cooling circuit, but I put the nose of the car up in the air with respect to the back, ran the engine hot with the heaters on full and bled the radiator at the bleed screw at the top. I couldn't find any more bleed screws on the thermostat housing nor elsewhere, so Iam assuming that the radiator is the only bleed point. The engine still overheats though in slow traffic, and the engine fan apears to do very little, spinning only slowly if the air-con is on, and not kicking in at all if the air-con is off. I took out the fan to inspect it and it seems ok. The thermal resistors in the fan shroud are visually ok. I checked that the fan relays are all in place and with good connections and they seem to be OK. But I don't have a multimeter with me at the moment to check them. Any thoughts? I just can't see why changing the temp sensor would suddenly make the fan not kick in. I had never paid attention to the fan behaviour before as I had not had any temp problems, so I don't know if it has always been like this, or something I have done / disturbed. I'm currently waiting for the engine to cool down to go and put the old temp sensor back in....

Thanks a lot! My EGR doesn't have a vacuum hose though, it is electrically operated. I guess it is a different system to the diesel motor. I was initially reluctant to buy a code reader to use on this vehicle because frankly, I didn't think it would be in my possession, or even still be running after two years, but maybe it is time to invest! My local mechanic is getting a bit annoyed that I keep "dropping by" to get the codes read. It does look pretty clear that the fuelling is regulated by the 1338A7 sensor given its name in the Service Box. Given its very low cost I'm tempted to just change it and see what happens, or at least have a good look at it and the state of the wiring / connections (clearly not best practice to change it on spec, and not my normal modus operandi, but it's ok to rebel once in a while right?) Thanks again! I will report back!

OK, so time for an update... The C8 has made it through another winter of spluttery start-ups and revving the hell out of it so that it doesn't bog down on pulling away. But in a strange way I am now quite relieved that the fault is getting worse. Relieved in the way that if it is worse it might be easier to find out what's going on. Now the engine doesn't even start if the temperature is below around 12 degrees C. We have to turn it over for a while without it firing, stop cranking for a second or two, then try again. At this point it will start with its "juddery misfire" type symptoms and eventually the idle evens out and off we go with a heavy right foot to stop it from bogging down. Sadly, there are still no consistent convincing codes being given (they seem to be random and range from coil pack codes, through to Lambda sensor faults, but none seem to repeat themselves after being cleared), but the EML light now does not go off from time to time as it did before. However, reading up on other petrol engined citroens of a similar vintage, I see that very similar symptoms have been reported in Picasso 1.8SX models. Anyone know if that engine is similar to the 16v c8 motor? It is of particular interest because one of the people reporting the similar fault said that the dealer "eventually found a faulty coolant temp sensor" and that cured the problem, and that indicates that it wasn't an immediately obvious issue from the codes. It also would make perfect sense for a faulty temp sensor to be the culprit in my case. I would be prepared to change the coolant sensor just to try it , but where do I find the sensor which sends the temp to the ECU? (from experience with other cars, it may not be the same one as sends the signal to the temp dial for example). Any help or suggestions where to look appreciated!!

It was the same old routine this morning according to my wife, but, the EML has been off now for a good while. The engine was flushed with a cleaner at the last service and it seems to have drastically reduced the oil consumption. We think that it has possibly unstuck a gummy piston ring, but no comp test was done before, so we'll never know. That could have been why the EML and polution fault was on, but I would have thought that the cat would complain like hell of burnt oil coming through it? For the start up, it has to be said that it looks like temp sensors to me now. Going on a trip to Portugal and the north of Spain later this week, so it will go as it is now. MPG is reasonable and except the service belt loss the other day it hasn't actually let us down yet (even then it drove home). I'll get back to it in September. Thanks for the inputs so far!

Yes, I had a can of throttle cleaner and used about a quarter of it cleaning the EGR. The rest I used to clean the throttle (with the motor off). There was a 1mm rim of carbon on the edge of the plate which came off quickly. The majority of the can went on the walls of the throttle and any technical features visible in there. I started it after a few minutes and drove it round the block. The start up was the same as ever, in warm weather you can rev the engine up in neutral after about 5 seconds of spluttery idling. In the cold it is worse, maybe 20 or 30 seconds, and even then it will bog down on the first clutch action. To be fair it has only had one start since spraying all those chemicals in it, maybe tomorrow it will be better....

I have just fixed this problem. Rather than broken plastic mounts which I expected after reading this thread,mine had a steel mounting plate, held by three bolts passing through rubber grommets in the plate. The spacers which go through the grommets were a "top hat" design and had been fitted the wrong way around, effectively shimming the motor away from its correct location. Turned them around and bingo. Full sweep from the wiper. The motor had been changed in the past, so the incorrect fitting was almost certainly by a mechanic.

Well, that's that theory blown. The valve is pretty clean, not clogged up at all, moving parts are free and it defaults correctly to the closed position. Back to square 1!! At least the EML has been off since the last big service nearly a month back.