Desperate For Help - Electrical

[Guest becca5985]

We've got a 52 plate c5 2 litre sx hdi estate, and started having problems about 4 years ago with the dashboard/electronics/fan.

 

At the moment the dials are very sporadic in working, they will go off for a few minutes or months. We have no speedo, rev counter, fuel, engine temp, mileage (or trip) or oil temp gauges. The warning lights which are always lit are - passenger airbag disengaged, abs fault, handbrake warning, service light, and the stop light. The indicators work but don't light on the dash. The hazard lights neither work or display.

 

Some time ago the fan failed and there was an electrical burning smell, like an electrical motor. The fan never worked after that. It has just been replaced last month and still doesn't work, and the old fan that came out has been tested and also worked fine. I've been to citroen and they had a look, they are pretty stumped and would basically need a blank cheque to start looking.

 

I'm quite confident to have a look about in the car, if anyone has any suggestions as to what the problem might be or maybe some help for how to get the dashboard off? It's just failed the MOT today (which has cancelled our holiday) so basically means the car is scrapped if we can't get to the back of this. The car drives perfectly, no loss in performance, suspension is fine etc.

 

Also the cd player cannot be used, while the instruments are down, as it makes a very loud beeping noise, almost like an alarm. Don't know if this is connected to the rest of the problems.

 

Again any help is very much appreciated, getting pretty sick of these problems now.

 

Thanks :)

[coastline taxis]

Hi right then where to start

the Fan

Weve found that 9 out of 10 times its the the wiring harnes and the relays imediatley to the right of the radiator under a black cover they corrode ove the years and the terminals on the relays also corrode. So take the bumper off and check them making sure you check the harness as far back as you can.

 

the dashboard

if you look at the bottom of the dash youl see 2 small holes if you use 2 credit cards or similarand push them into the seam where the dash cluster meets the dashboard and youl fell them click the dash will then just pull out from the bottom upover.

 

the whole problem in general that your having while not knowing the answer without looking at the car id star by checking the wiring harnes next to radiator then the earths on the car also every fuse both inside and engine bay using a multimeter and not relying on just looking at them. if nothing found then id start thinking about the comm or bsi unit because when your stereo is beepin it means it not coded into the bsi unit then other times it is as the beeping stops.

have you done a bsi reset on the car and do you have acsess to diagnotic tools to plug the car in

are you in the north east

And just a daft one have you recently installed/taken out a hands free kit

[Guest becca5985]

thankyou very much for your reply - sorry it has taken so long to get back to you.

 

we did the bumper check to have a look at the wires, they all seem alright, no corrosion. although the fan itself is now ceased. it was in at the dealer and they removed the fuses so i think a new fan is in order. we've taken the bsi out and had it looked at and it is a write off. the dealers want £427 + fitting for a new bsi and to be recoded, although i've spoken to a company down south who will be able to get me a second hand one coded for about £150 - £200, with a guarantee for 12 months. so we are probably going to try that.

 

the company that checked the original bsi aren't sure whether it was at fault originally or the car had caused a fault on it. but as it stands until i put another bsi in i can't get an mot. once that's done i will tackle the cooling fan problem at the front. but the other issue is the demister fan, which hasn't worked for some time and was replaced a while ago with a new motor and still didnt work. whether this is back to the bsi or not we don't know.

 

we havn't yet taken the dashboar doff as we are waiting for the bsi to come back amd fingers crossed that will solve some of the issues.

 

oh and we live up in north west scotland, but are quite often in inverness.

 

thanks again.