2003 C8 - Timing Belt - Car Going To The Grave

[camfag]

17th Jun 2010, 05:52

We have a Citroen C8 2004.

 

 

What a macabre club the 2.2 diesel C-eighters / Fiat Ulyssers and Perjo 8-0-seveners born between 2004 to 2006 find themselves enrolled to. Join us at camfag and help us find a way out!

 

 

We have a similar problem when we were on the motorway on May 31 and our cam belt snapped at 68,000 miles, again, well before the recommended change. Our car has been regularly serviced by Citroen dealership.

 

When we contacted Citroen UK, they said that they would only consider any payment towards repairs if we had it towed to a Citroen dealership, and no contamination showed on the broken belt. This of course was after they had taken the engine out at a huge Citroen dealership cost!

 

The dealership were really helpful and said said the last time this happened, Citroen paid £2500 and the customer £4500. We are having ours repaired at an independent garage, with an engine out of a C8 write-off. We still don't know the overall cost of this.

[Guest Pam C8]

17th Jun 2010, 05:52

We have a Citroen C8 2004.

 

 

What a macabre club the 2.2 diesel C-eighters / Fiat Ulyssers and Perjo 8-0-seveners born between 2004 to 2006 find themselves enrolled to. Join us at camfag and help us find a way out!

 

 

We have a similar problem when we were on the motorway on May 31 and our cam belt snapped at 68,000 miles, again, well before the recommended change. Our car has been regularly serviced by Citroen dealership.

 

When we contacted Citroen UK, they said that they would only consider any payment towards repairs if we had it towed to a Citroen dealership, and no contamination showed on the broken belt. This of course was after they had taken the engine out at a huge Citroen dealership cost!

 

The dealership were really helpful and said said the last time this happened, Citroen paid £2500 and the customer £4500. We are having ours repaired at an independent garage, with an engine out of a C8 write-off. We still don't know the overall cost of this.

[Guest Pam C8]

Hi Camfag... you have my absolute sympathy! I still havent been able to get any resolution around what happened to my C8. My little girl has been ill since the early part of this year and I just couldnt put any more of my energies into fighting Citroen or anyone else. My priority is my little girl and her health at the moment. I wish you well. I have put all the information that I found or used during my battle in my thread so I hope you might find some of it useful. I would urge you to contact your citizens advise bureau etc as the more complaints they get the more likely it is that they might investigate. Please keep us posted on here as to how you get on etc. best of luck

[dazntrace]

Hi all,

 

We have a Citroen C8 2005 and last year the cambelt snapped at 54K. We had the vehicle recovered to our local Citroen dealership. They took the engine out and diagnosed a cambelt failure. The engine was hanging by the injectors for a week as they were seized solid. We were told by Citroen that the cambelts dont fail on therse cars, its normally the water pump or the tensioners which fail causing the belt to break. After inspection of the engine, it was found that the belt had prematurely failed and that everything else was fine. As the injectors were seized into the head, they couldnt take the top of the engine apart to see what the damage was. They then told us the engine was scrap. The fight began!! Citroen then decided not to take any responsibility and we would have to pay for a new engine. We made call after call to Citroen, going into the dealership near enough every day to fight our cause. After all, the belts are suppose to last for 100K and the water pump etc were fine. No way were we paying. After 3 months of persistant badgering to Citroen, we walked into the dealership to be told that they would pay the bill and held their hands up to the fact it was their responsibility. The new engine was fitted without delay, guaranteed for 10k/12 months. I think with what we have read and heard we have been extremely lucky.

 

3 months later, after a conversation with a Fiat owner, we found out about this skuttle plate. Citroen didnt really know what we were talking about so we went to Fiat and bought the part for approx £17. This part is called a gutter and fits under the expansion tank with two clips, very easy to install. The purpose of this is to divert the water away from the top of the engine and the belt casings to the back so the water runs away. We found that if you go to Citroen and have a cambelt replacement, then this part should be fitted as standard as the part number comes up with the cambelt kit.

 

If anyone is looking for an engine replacement then there is a company on ebay that collect, repair, deliver and guarantee the engine for 24K miles for approx £1500. May be worth looking into if needed and they are quite knowledgable about the C8 problems.

[Guest Pam C8]

Hi Dazntrace

 

I read your posting with absolute glee ! I am so so glad to finally hear of someone making positive progress with getting Citroen to accept responsibility for SOMETHING ! I take it that they didnt admit to there being a design fault in the 2003-2005 models but by the very fact that the skuttle panel/gutter comes up on a Citroen Service for the cambelt kit when a new one is ordered up for fitting I think suggests that they know perfectly well that this fault exists. You shouldnt have had to speak to someone with a Fiat to eventually find this out and source the part either. Citroen should be doing a mailshot to C8 2003-2005 owners telling them of this fault. At least that way perhaps some people will be spared the absolute sheer worry and financial destruction that this is causing an awful lot of people... and that is only the ones that have started threads on here ...how many more are out there ????

 

Congratulations again on getting Citroen to take action AT LONG LAST.

 

I wish they had done the same for me and so many others :-(

[Guest Pam C8]

Hi ... I would be interested to hear from anyone who has successfully managed to get Citroen or their parent company to acknowledge that there was a problem with the C8 2003-2005 model. I have spoken to a few owners of the 2003-2005 models to highlight this issue and suggest they get a drip tray fitted. Hopefully I've helped a few other people avoid the horrors of these cars and some extremely costly damage that can be caused. Thanks

[Guest APAutodiagnostics]

Hi ... I would be interested to hear from anyone who has successfully managed to get Citroen or their parent company to acknowledge that there was a problem with the C8 2003-2005 model. I have spoken to a few owners of the 2003-2005 models to highlight this issue and suggest they get a drip tray fitted. Hopefully I've helped a few other people avoid the horrors of these cars and some extremely costly damage that can be caused. Thanks

 

Hi Pam

 

I would be extremely surprised if citroen/peugeot/PSA ever admit to any sort of problem with the cam belt / seized injectors. most of my customers say the dealers won't even attempt to remove seized injectors and simply state "new engine". The rain water diverter plate has reduced but not stopped the problem and the seized injectors will never go away (I removed some from an 09 plate only this week)It applies not only to PSA vehicles i've done the same job on ford/vauxhaul/alfaromeo/renault/mercedes/fiat/citroen/peugeot/landrover/LDV vans etc etc.

 

There are options to remove the injectors with great success, chemicals have little effect it doesn't get down the sides of the injectors, Most pullers are a waste of money, Only the best hydraulic ones are effective, applying upto 20 tons of force correctly is the only effective method for removal (unless of course they are already loose).

 

 

i could go on all day, if you have any questions feel free to contact me via this site

 

tony

[Pam C8]

Hi, I'm back...been away for a while now and probably too long a time lag for me to get any justice but my daughters health had to take priority. She is now back to good health so just checking in to see if anyone else has had any more luck with Citroen. I would like to hear if anyone else has made a breakthrough. Thanks Pam