Dashboard Displays Fail

[C3 Fan]

Hello hope someone out there can help.

 

On my wife's 03 C3 1.4 diesel. She encounted a problem. Sometimes when the car is switched on & runnning we get a total failure of speedo, rev counter, fuel, temp and all other displays with that cluster. Also when you switch on the radio it beeps very 10 secs or so. Then when you switch the engine off the fault disappears. This can also occure when you travelling down the road which is not good at speed. This can happen at anytime. Can anyone suggest a suitable fix :rolleyes: ? please

[Gordo]

Hi C3 Fan,

 

I have an 02 C3 1.4HDi which I've had for over 4 years, when I first bought it I was getting weird electrical symptoms. These included the radio stations re-setting off station, the alarm setting and un-setting, displays going blank and trouble with the central locking.

 

The thing with diesels, they only need electricity to power the glowplugs to ignite the fuel/air mixture, after that the higher compression ratio ignites the subsequent mixtures.

 

I took it back to the place where I bought it and they said to go to the main local dealer. They traced the fault in mine back to a faulty battery connection. You could start by removing the battery cover and cleaning and coating the terminals with petrolium jelly, also have a look at the other ends of the leads to earth and main fuse panel.

 

No doubt others on here will help as well, hope you get yours fixed quickly as there's nothing worse than an electrical fault.

[C3 Fan]

Thank you Gordo will try that this weekend & let you know how things go!!!

[bansku]

Hi, my wife has also C3 1.6i from 2003. When i started engine it had similar symptoms as you seems to be having. Speedo meter doesn't show anything. Also a bunch of lights stay on in display. When i turn radio on, i can hear this sharp beep signal every 5 second or so. Otherwise car seems to be working but it is a bit hard to at least drive according to speed limit as i can not see any readings. Also, it does not help if i turn engine off and then back on. I also removed key from lock and put back on. It is also a bit weird that meter lights seem to stay on forever when this problem first occured. I have to try removing main battery and put it back on. I let you know my outcome.

[bansku]

Well, "hardware reset" did work. As long as battery is connected, i could not resolve this problem. To solve it, remove "positive" cable (not a single tool needed) and put it back in place. Only thing which is lost is current date/time in lcd display.