C5 Headlamp Bulb Replacement

I can't answer yout question directly, but as a C3 owner I can tell you that my local Halfords (Cambridge) charges only £5 to swap a headlamp bulb on that vehicle rather than £30 or so at the Citroen garage from which I bought the vehicle.

A phone call to your local Halfords might be good value.

-- Per ardua ad nauseam

Has anyone had any hassle with starting the C4? I find if it is left for any period - for instance 2 weeks while we went on holiday, or even a week if it has only been used on short journeys the previous 2 weeks - the car won't start. I have been to the Citroen garage and complained and they replaced the battery. I have also been to another garage who tell me that the battery is fine and there is no drain on the battery when standing other than the computer etc.

Can anyone help?

Clive

Has anyone had any hassle with starting the C4? I find if it is left for any period - for instance 2 weeks while we went on holiday, or even a week if it has only been used on short journeys the previous 2 weeks - the car won't start. I have been to the Citroen garage and complained and they replaced the battery. I have also been to another garage who tell me that the battery is fine and there is no drain on the battery when standing other than the computer etc.

Can anyone help?

Clive

My ZX battery goes flat and beyond re-charging if I leave the car un-used for more than about three weeks; the 'computer' is the only drain, but that seems to be enough to destroy the battery. I had thought that more recent models had some form of protection built in to stop the computer before the battery charge got too low to start the engine.

I've tried using a solar-powered trickle-charger plugged into the 'lighter' socket, but that didn't help much - perhaps the 'heavy duty' battery that my diesel engine requires is 'too much' for the solar gadget.

The only reliable way to preserve the battery is to disconnect it when leaving the car for long periods. Inconvenient, and it means having to set up the car radio again each time, but the 'security keypad' does remember the code number for starting the engine.

Some things were more reliable in the days of magnetos and starting-handles.

I've seen this on several cars over the years - the worst being a 7 series BMW which would drain the battery in 6 or 7 days. There can be some real odd-ball reasons too - like the Range Rover that "talked" to our neighbours house alarm :-0

There must be more equipment powered by an otherwise "off" car than just the computer ... how about the alarm, for example. You might want to check the current drain from the battery with all the electricals switched off. Anything more than about 100mA would need investigating.

HTH

"Clive Owen" skrev i melding news:Scn3h.128947$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

A friend of mine had a car where the light in the trunk didn`t shut down...and now and then the battery was flat..took him ages to find out what it was...

Frank The Poet (liverpoolrosenborgnardoforfarrangerswerdervalencia@crewegrimsbykiddermin sterstoke.no) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :

...it was only when his latest kidnap victim said "Umm, thank you - it was very kind of you to leave me a light..." that it twigged...

"Clive Owen" a écrit dans le message de news: Scn3h.128947$ snipped-for-privacy@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...

During december I received a retrofit request, for a "command block under the wheel" (sorry for my english, I am french and translate it word-by-word), to correct a default that could "cause the C4 to fail to start in some cases".

I never had this problem, but it was perhaps yours. Did you get that retrofit?

Ureir.

Clive,

I just bought a C4 diesel here in Oz. Esteemed Spouse and I enjoy sitting in the car by a river, listening to the radio and having a coffee. I was stunned to find that after on 30 minutes, the C4 goes into "economy mode" ie the car basically shuts down. Nothing works - not even the cigarette lighter, or the windows, or the radio - until the engine is started up. Everything works for another 5 mins, then shuts down again.

On a local internet forum, it was suggested that this was a battery saving "feature", used because all the modern, new-fangled electronics put such a drain on the battery.

I wonder if you have found a way to switch off the "economy mode". The implication is, of course, that there would be a way of switching it back on again if the car was to be left for a while.

If you (or anyone else) have discovered this magic over-ride button, I'd appreciate knowing how. I'd risk the odd flat battery to be able to enjoy our relaxing mornings again.

snip

I think it might be easier to take a self-contained portable radio to listen to while the car is parked.

Whiskers,

That seems to be the consensus on the other forums too. It just seems very dumb to be sitting in a great little car, newly paid for with Big Bucks, having to listen to a tinny tranny and start up the engine whenever we need to wind up/down the windows. Surely modern technology can overcome this???

Sadly, mechanical window-winders and such things seem to be more expensive to make and fit than the little electric gizmos, these days. I agree that it seems bizarre that 'better' technology is in fact less functional than the older stuff.

Perhaps car makers will eventually realise that car users sometimes want to sit in the car with the engine off but still use other parts of the machine

- such as door-locks, windows, and radio - and can be trusted to manage not to flatten the battery while doing so. (I spent 20 minutes stationary on the motorway a few days ago, waiting for the police and 'motorway maintenance' to clear some debris and let the traffic get moving again). However, a flat battery on a modern computer-controlled car is not as trivial as it is on a car that has no computers, and modern engines aren't as easy to push-start as the older ones even if they can start without the electronics working. So it is understandable that car makers try to prevent batteries from being drained.

Fitting an 'accessories only' battery alongside the main 'starter and essential electronics' battery, may be one way to overcome the present unsatisfactory arrangement. That would be well beyond my DIY abilities, but future care designs might incorporate something of the sort.

I've learned the hard way that my ZX will flatten its own battery over a couple of weeks or so, just to keep the 'security system' running - and the resulting flat battery is completely dead, it won't take a charge at all any more. That is expensive, quite apart from the inconvenience of having to move car batteries to and from the nearest car-related shop without benefit of a working car. The only way to stop that from happening is to disconnect the battery (or take the car for a drive, of course). (I have tried a solar-cell trickle-charger, but it can't be relied on - perhaps I need a bigger solar panel). So the battery-saving arrangement in more recent models is a sort of progress.