C3 - Starting Problem

[JBSpain]

On occassion my wife's C3 fails to start on first turn of the key and it seems to short out such that the clock/display then flashes and needs to be re-set (ie time/day/month/year etc).

 

It's starts ok the next turn of the key but a bit of a pain then having to re-set the clock.

 

Again to me this is a problem of a car that has a poorly installed and overly electrified controls.

 

If anyone else has experienced this problem or has any solution please advise.

 

many thanks

[paul.h]

This happened to our C3 (2003 1.4 petrol sx) last week for the first time, not happened since. It had not been used for a couple of weeks so at first I thought the battery was flat but on second start attempt was ok and has been since.

I have not done any checks yet but thoughts were low voltage (the same happens on our C5 if the voltage drops below about 11 volts when the car has not been used for a few weeks), loose battery connection, relay fault, starter switch fault. A check on the voltage though showed normal 12½ volts without engine running and about 14 volts running.

 

Possibly not related but also the remote sometimes fails to unlock the doors so have to use the key - could be mobile phone/mast related. There was a case in the news recently where a cafe had started to use handheld key pads to do orders and this was interfering with car locking systems - they stopped it by changing the key pad frequency.

[JBSpain]

Hi Paul

 

Thanks for the reply.

 

All I can say is Citroen and their bloody electrics!!!

 

My first car was an old Ford Escort 1.1 and it had pretty much zero electronics and never gave me a problem.

 

Citreon appear to have 5 wires where other cars have 2 - running off to sensors and ECU etc and even Citroen garages have not got a bloody clue whether it's the part itself failing or a sensor as all the faults seem intermittant.

 

When you start the car you never know what warning light will be on or off. I've noticed these days the baby warning seal light comes on - so you just start ignoring all warning lights.

 

Also on some occassions the power steering does not engage and you have to turn off car and wait a few minutes and re-start or if you are in a real hurry pull the bonnet and disconnent/reconnect battery to allow reset.

 

It would have been a good idea to have an ECU reset switch in the car becuase that seems to cure most problems!!

 

I have spoken to many C3 owners some in the trade and they all curse the electrics.