seatkid

From what I see gregers, the citroen forums are dead. Nobody ever posts there.

Need your views please.... Told my son to buy a replacement for his 7 year old 115,000 mile Skoda Fabia which has been a smashing little car although some expense was needed recently to get it through an MOT. He has 2 kids (6 and 2) and the Fabia is just too small now, plan is retire the daughter in law's ancient Punto and she gets the Fabia. Given him a budget of £15,000 - looking for low running costs and minimum nasty surpises. He wants a large family friendly car (hope he's not planning a 3rd child!!) He's torn between a new Skoda Octavia SE Estate (probably 1.2Tsi - the diesel is too expensive) and a 3 month old demonstrator Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 1.6Hdi VTR+ EGS (semi automatic box)with 4000 miles. Quick impression after test drives: Citroen: Plus: A very refined quiet experience although slightly wallowy not conducive to anything but relaxed driving. Surprisingly good 60mpg easily achieved and auto was pleasant and paddle response again surprisingly good. Lots of bells and whistles - CC/limiter, bluetooth, parking sensors etc etc. Adult can sit comfotably between 2 child seats in middle row. Servicing intervals at 12,500 miles Minus: Back row of seats useless except for small kids but no way to easily strap in child seats. Plastics and interior rather flimsy/low quality and positively low rent in the back of the car. Lots of holes around the fold down rear row of seats that just fill up with rubbish. The demonstrator was in a disgusting state with crisps, raisins etc everywhere and one door covered in dried out Cola. Middle row of seats knee room limited - with the 2 year old's child seat fitted, barely enough room for kids legs. Expensive servicing at £850 for 1st 3 services. Semi auto an unknown quantity, clutch cost £850 to replace. No spare wheel.....Unpleasant dealer. Skoda Plus: Reputation for longevity. Safe bet? 1.2 Tsi a pleasant quiet smooth engine. Large boot. Minus: a Bit boring. Hardly any bells and whistles, no CC or parking sensors for example. 1.2 Tsi more thirsty than a diesel. We tried the 1.6 Tdi CR diesel but that was quite noisy and gutless at low speed. Not enough room for an adult to sit between 2 child seats in the back. Windows high up restricts view for the kids. Service intervals at 10,000 miles though a little cheaper than Citroen. Plan is to run the cars to 7 years / 120,000 miles. Very nervous that the Citroen will turn out to be very expensive, but I must admit it has a lot of kit and is very quiet. Which car should he go for? Has any one had experience of Citroens and in partiucular the EGS gearbox?

The rear washer pipe comes down from behind the glovebox lhside. It has a joint near there and its common for this to come adrift (usually in freezing weather though). Pull the carpet up (you have to remove the floor trim under the door) and check. Its in the technical FAQ

Check all your brake lights work first, might be just a blown bulb

Add to that list: The pads are contaminated The pads/discs are glazed (as tends to happen with aftermarket rubbish) The discs are badly grooved or worn unevenly - the inside surface could be much worse than the outer, The caliper slide pins are seized. The calipers are faulty The ABS system is faulty/contaminated. A combination of two or more of the above. Standard discs/pads are more than adequate to trigger the ABS on an emergency stop.

Try both GSF and TPS (They supply genuine parts)

Try using OEM pads and discs instead of aftermarket rubbish.

Ask the dealer when you pick up the parts.

Hi pjw I am not a expert, but if that is the case I would say it is cylinder one, and that is where the belts are, but you don't say what the mileage is, but if one has gone down I suspect that others will fail, so I would replace or have all four reworked. Radiotwo This thread is surplus/duplicate - answer is is in the "Diesel Engine Started Tapping/rattling" thread (bolt sheared in injector camshaft bearing holder)

Ok, replaced it and its still clunking, when i was fitting the drop link i saw the big plastic cover under the engine is loose right next to the drop link, i bet this could be causing it, anyone got any ideas on a fix? seems to be missing a popper thing that holds it in place. The undertray is held on by 6 fixings - 2 bolts either side and two nuts at the back near the centre. Sounds like one of the bolts is missing.

between 30mpg and 60mpg depending on how you drive, state of maintenance and road conditions.

my guess is injector or worn injector cam/follower

Doesnt work. Does too! It's 95% certain it is an anti-roll bar drop link worn. To check, turn the wheel outward so you can see the link, then take a firm hold of the link and check to see if you can detect *any* movement in the end ball joints when pushing or pullling (very) hard, if theres any movement at all then it's nacked and is the cause of the knocking when going over uneven surface. Its an easy job (about 20 minutes), even without jacking up the car! (Although you will need to lay on the ground) You need a good fitting socket and open ended spanner. The bolts are tightened very tight (100 Nm) so you will need a long bar on your socket. Don't worry when removing the links, they are not under any tension... Only change the link thats nacked. They fail at wildly different interval due to poor quality control / design. Doesn't mean anything else is likely to go soon.

Faq nr 2

Its most likely just coked up injectors and an accumulation of soot in the exhaust system. Coked up injectors give poor spray patterns that lead to incomplete combustion and hence black smoke. Just use an injector cleaner additive. Millers Diesel Ecomax gives good results provided you use it for several tanks - its quite gentle and so takes several tankfuls to finish cleaning bad cases, but that's good as you don't want to detach lots of carbon from your head and crowns all at once. Be prepared for the smoke to initially increase substantially when using a cleaning additive. If you want to speed the process, run a couple of tanks at double the normal dose. At the same time give the girl several Italian tune ups to clear the exhaust system - I find the most effective method is driving at 1500 rpm in 3rd - then floor it and take it to the red line and immediately back off and slow down. Repeat 3 or 4 times. This technique ensures max turbo boost is developed, although it backs off when you approach max revs. If you check the rear view mirror you will see max smoke in the 2000-3000 rpm range. (don't spend too long looking in the mirror though!) Repeat the Italian tune up every few days until you see an improvement. IMPORTANT: Before you do any Italian tune ups - check your engine/cambelt is up to it (i.e. the belt or idlers are not overdue replacement and the oil is not past its change by date and all levels are correct) Also ensure your engine is up to temperature before any run. PLEASE! Have consideration for other road users (drivers and pedestrians) and don't do any Italian tune ups in built up or residential areas! Only do tune ups when there is no traffic and its safe to do so and on roads that allow 70mph :) Finally - change the engine oil as a smoking engine will have also loaded the oil with a much higher level of soot and all oils have a limit on the amount of soot they can suspend. P.S. Check you air filter is reasonably clean. A blocked filter can lead to smoke under load - although the MAF is there to stop that happening.

The fault as described doesnt sound like any standard fault so you should be prepared to accept it is a serious issue. I dont think sensor or timing issues are to blame here. Rough running when cold that clears when its warm sounds suspiciously as if its an injector related problem. At best it could be a failing/dodgy injector wiring loom - quite common but not usually temperature sensitive. At worst - and I'm inclined to think this, its worn camshaft lobes due to not using correct spec PD oil or neglecting oil changes. THe discount offered is a pittance. If you insist on buying it, get an engineers report and ask to examine the camshaft for injector lobe wear - which in itself will cost you quite a bit.

Possibly water pump failure, I believe your year car the water pumps had the plastic impleller that detaches from the shafts. They still manage to pump a little aided with natural convection so would give the symptoms you describe.

AFAIK the Ford TIS on that site (and others) will only work on Windows 95/98/ME/NT. It dont work on XP/Vista/Win7

Screaming or grating noise is probably from the compressor clutch. Needless to say it wont last long like that..... When the a/c is turned on you should quite a loud "clack" when the clutch pulls in( when outside the car) Reasons for a slipping compressor clutch are Failing compressor - internally seizing or shedding debris that blocks the expansion valve. Low voltage at the clutch connector due to an electrical fault. Overfilled system - although this situation should be protected by the 3 way pressure switch - there seems to be a general ignorance of how to read the a/c weight label. Most of us do not have dual a/c (that rare option has rear mounted roof vents that supply true cooled air and only one opening rear quarter window). Having dual LCD temp controls does not indicate having a dual zone a/c. Many a system has been filled to the higher value on the label in error. It may work for a short while and then cut out due to excessive system pressure.

The T-piece on the filter is a thermostatically controlled fuel return valve. It returns fuel to the filter when the temperature of the fuel is below/above 35 deg C IIRC (can't remember which way round though) and returns fuel to tank in the other condition.

:rolleyes: Why don't you just pop down to your local MOT test station and ask them if the tyre will pass. I'm sure the vast majority of testers will give you free advice. Its not surprising that some questions provoke a "oh dear...." response. Tyre wear is a very basic issue that most people should know about and there are dozens of sites with great detail on MOT requirements.

:lol: What do you think? Why not treat it to some fuel. :rolleyes: And a new T-piece while you're feeling flushed. (new as in not from a scrapyard) :wacko:

Your Remote fob has died. They all seem to do this with age and no fix possible but to get a new fob - if you do go this route make sure you get the exact fob type and frequency. Just because they look the same doesnt mean it'll work. Many forum members have experienced the same. Mines dead too. First started working erratically - changed the batteries - didn't help - reprogrammed it a couple of times - didn't help - eventually stopped working completely (although the LED on the fob still works OK). Basically I think the either its stops transmitting or more probably the resonator frequency chip drifts out of spec. Old age....or inbuilt obsolescence....or crap quality control.

Maybe your house or car insurance has key cover.

I'm assuming you didn't take the engine undertray off. Take the engine undertray off, it will probably be saturated with old oil. Then have a good look underneath the engine to see where the majority of the oil is at the same time give it a good wipe down. In my case, a lot of oil came from succesive oil filter changes. Oil spills from the filter and invariably runs down the block and in between the oil sump cover and the plastic oil sump protection cover thats fitted over it. The inside of the plastic protection cover is lined with foam which acts as a sponge - until it can take no more. Fortunately its easy to remove this protection cover - 2 or 3 bolts and a couple of clips. The difficult/messy bit is cleaning it all particularly the padding on the inside of the engine undertray - best to use swarfega or something similar, and you may have to duct tape the padding down when you're finished (or dispose of it completely) Its easy to check the steering pump once everything is clean. The brake master cylinder and reservoir is located on the engine bulkhead on the drivers side. To get a good look and certainly to fill it you need to take the plastic scuttle tray off (fitted under the windscreen held on with 3 bolts). Bear in mind that if your brake fluid (the same reservoir is used for the clutch) is low, than you'll get a warning light on the dash.