Car Breakdown

[lab44]

Was driving down the motorway today and a STOP sign came up on the dash and the engine temperature went to max.

 

Pulled over and phoned the Citroen Assist (who turn out to be the AA). Anyway the bloke came out, checked the car over and found that it had run out of oil. The cars only done 7000 miles (6000 since its first service) so just wondering:

 

1) Why has it used so much oil - is this normal?

 

2) There was no oil warning light. I was under the impression it came on long before the oil run out

 

Anyway he topped it up but the engine was still saying it was overheating. Had it running for about 20 mins and he said there was no way the engine was overheating - the water etc.. were all cold. Plugged in his computer to the dash and told the temp sensor was faulty.

 

Looks like a trip to Citroen tommorrow :o

[C4VTS]

I would say 1,000 miles per litre is probably within acceptable limits set by the manufacturer, even though I would not be too happy about it. Oil consumption is often high on a new car for first 20,000 miles.

 

Oil level warning lights should never be relied upon !!

 

You should check your oil at least every week.

[lab44]

well fortunately i stopped in plenty of time - the engine seems okay and is working fine now. Though its still going to have to go in for the faulty sensor since its beeping at my now.

 

However still wondering why the oil light didnt come on - wondering if that might be faulty as well

[C4VTS]

Maybe the oil was not low enough to activate the sensor? and was probably just a faulty temperature sensor?

 

Did the AA guy say how much oil was used to top it up? and have you checked the level since?

[lab44]

No he didnt tell me how much he put in. Since then I drove 5 miles home. Will check it tommorrow morning before i go to the garage.

[kfk]

the red light that illuminates is for oil pressure.......if there is at least 2 litres of oil in the engine you will have enough o give you pressure.

 

With regards the oil level being low......i would suggest that the recovery person checked it first and found it low.....i doubt it was a cause of your failure, just another reason you might have broken down later!

 

More than likely there is an alternative answer to your problem.....faulty coolant temperature sensor maybe?

 

I often get it at work where a customer comes in with the dash lit up like a christmas tree and the engine making a distinctive ticking noise caused by insufficient oil to hold the hydraulic tappets open.

 

You cant beat going out on a sunday morning and doing the tyre and oil levels....sometimes a bit of water in the screen wash works wonders too.

 

Just cos its nice and shiney doesnt mean its being looked after!

 

oh, and a litre every 1000 miles is acceptable.

[lab44]

Thanks for that. Think it is definatley a faulty sensor or something since the engine now has plenty of oil in it but is still saying STOP in red letters with the engine temp on max.

 

Was told its OK to drive to dealers so will take a gentle drive over tommorrow and get them to check it - dont want to void my warranty by doing any damage.

 

Didnt realise it would use so much oil though - I check my oil but never expected it to use that much in so few miles - the VTS on 4car used 1 litre in 6k but then i guess cars / driving styles differ.

[Rich_Eason]

Does the Citroen not have a emergency shut down on overheat system/get you home mode?

 

On the Ford Focus I owned as it approached overheating the the usual lights come on, but shuts down two cylinders of the four. The manual states that this is to enable the engine to cool with the two cylinders out of operation relying on air compression. B)

 

You obviously drive the car with care not exceeding 2000rpm and only go "home" or to a dealer. This is obviously only a useful feature if you still have oil in your engine or things could get a little "tight" :o

 

I fortunatly never had the pleasure of experiencing this feature.

[lab44]

I have no idea - maybe KFK will know the answer to that. Anyway just had a voicemail from the garage and apparently its fixed - will let you know what was wrong with it when I find out.

 

Had a nice replacement Citroen C3 today - awful car - rattling, poor build quality, slow - handled reasonably and good fuel consumption - not sure what engine it was. Will be glad to get my C4 back later :o

 

UPDATE:

 

Just had a call from Citroen - apparently was the temperature sensor packed up - the car wasnt overheating / nothing to do with oil being low though probably the fault saved me since it forced me to check the oil.

 

Reminder: REMEMBER TO CHECK THE OIL LEVEL FREQUENTLY

[Z3M Roadster]

I too had the STOP PULL OVER warning in the middle of last summer in central London. It transpired that the fans would not cut in and the engine therefore reached maximum temperature. The RAC couldn't fix it so it was towed 40miles to my nearest dealer, who had the car for 9 days trying to fix it and then had the decency to charge £15 a day for a "courtesy" car

[syrup]

Decided to check my oil & water all ok. But how do you get the cover covering the coolant & screen-wash reservoirs off? I don't want to force anything.

[wozza]

Pull them

[syrup]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y39/bobtim/100_0567.jpg

 

I don't mean tho tops on the bottles but the big black cover covering them so I can see the levels, it shows nothing in the manual.

[kfk]

you dont need to remove the black cover.....the washer bottle will overflow when its full, the coolant reservoir will have the coolant visible when you look inside.....and should be aproximately and inch from the top.

[syrup]

Thanks kfk, it's that in my manual it says fill between the max & min markings.

[lab44]

Mines all sorted and working now. Great service from Citroen - took my car in this morning unannounced - provided a free courtesy car to get me to work. Phone up this afternoon to say the car the fixed and would be bringing it to my house to swap the cars round. Got home this evening, car was ready and waiting.

[Rich_Eason]

you dont need to remove the black cover.....the washer bottle will overflow when its full, the coolant reservoir will have the coolant visible when you look inside.....and should be aproximately and inch from the top.

You dont even need to fill it until overflow there is a level meter built into the washer bottle cap. As you pull off the blue cap you will see a very long tube comming out of it.

 

First pull off the cap and reposistion it as if you were going to refit it i.e. going to push it back on.

 

Put your finger over the small hole in the middle of the cap and lift cap away from car.

 

You will see as you pull up the pipe water remains in the tube and this is an indicator as to how much water is in the washer bottle.

 

Handy if you have some form of screenwash in there as this is normally coloured and makes it easier to see.