My daughter's 04 plate C2 has the battery light flashing. Handbook says "take it to a Citroen dealer" - but of course she's 100 miles away and they're all shut until Monday!
My professional mechanic friend (ex-AA) has looked at the car, fitted a new alternator, but it's still doing it - and it's intermittent. He doesn't know what's causing it now.
Anyone any experience of this?
the flashing battery light shows it is in eco (electricity saving) mode. this can be caused by fitting a non standard radio unit.
Not quite the same experience but might be a common cause.
My wife's car, an 07 Peugeot 206cc D, bought new and with no problems at all, last winter during a freezing period suddenly started saying similarly "Do not pass Go".
We duly took the car to the dealer who checked it over and told us that there is a problem with the ECUs in freezing conditions giving false information. "We've had several of these recently. Don't worry, there does not appear to be anything wrong. Do come back if there is a genuine problem." Our town has a population of 60,000. I am not aware of anyone in the neighbourhood that has a D version of the car, though there are plenty of the petrol version. I suspect that it might be an issue with the PSA ECU unit.
The issue has not appeared again even in the conditions this month, though the car is little used and has I think only 8k miles on the clock to date.
Although I didn't know what it meant, I discovered that when I tried to fit a new radio when her CD player was faulty. I quickly put the original back! That has since been fixed anyway, so it's always run the original radio apart from my 5-minute swap.
Is there anything else that can cause this light to flash then?
it flashes because it thinks the battery is low or being overcharged, so the first thing is a quality check on the battery, then loose belt, wiring (near the alternator they get very hot) connectors corroded, alternator or ecu.
Lots of people suffer this fault, many live with it without problems, some have it turn into a major disaster.
In fact it seems it's not actually flashing - it comes on for the length of a journey, then goes off for the next. Which is particularly strange.
Battery voltage is dropping below nominal minimum whilst starting?
Well as I said, my professional mechanic friend has looked at it and fitted a new alternator, and there's nothing in the computerised diagnosis that anyone outside a main dealer can access, so we're thinking in terms of living with it unless anything else happens. The car is in regular use, starts and runs fine, and she's done her motorway hop from Birmingham to Bedford without problems. It's just an irritation; we bought a modern car to replace her classic Mini on reliability grounds, and we still end up with distressed phone calls from the other end of the country!
It's a thought. I'm not in a position to check right now. "Nominal minimum" is 10v apparently, but the car is starting perfectly well. My friend said he had to rev it over 2000rpm to make the charging kick in - it's ecu-controlled. Possibly the low-temperature issue another poster has referred to.
We'll watch & wait...
Well you can actually get your hands on the lexia diagnostics, there's hooky copies on Ebay all the time & a couple of real shops selling it.
You bought her a C2 on reliability grounds? Oh dear...
Chris
Many might think that, and so did I but a relative has had one from new, its done about 100,000 miles in three years and she's never had a single problem. I drove it a few weeks ago and it's rattle free and feels just like new (I was also the first one to drive it back from the dealer when it was new) There are zero chips on the paintwork, no surface corrosion on any underbody, suspension or engine metalwork. Give it a valet and it would be indistinguishable from a brand new one in the showroom.
As has been mentioned here many times, the experiences of one owner, whether good or bad, are statistically meaningless. You need to look at the bigger picture.
Googling for C2 problems, or asking those in the trade who would know, will quickly show you that your relative's experience is atypical.
Chris
Googling for any cars problems will get you a huge list though. I've seen far more faults on Focus's than Citroens.
We're talking specifically C2 here though. You can't compare the whole output of one manufacturer to just one model from another.
How many Focuses are registered compared to the number of C2's? I'm willing to stick my neck out and say the ratio is at perhaps 100 to 1, so inevitably there will be far more reports of Focus problems.
Bear in mind also that the Focus has been around now for nearly 12 years, almost double the time that the C2 has, so there are far more high-milers to affect the stats.
The C2 came 96th of 100 in the 2008 JD Power survey. What must be particularly upsetting for those disenchanted owners is the fact that Citroen dealers appear to be somewhere near the worst.
Chris
Chris Whelan gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
Those statistics are always averaged out against the number of cars on the road and/or included in the survey, so the relative production/sale figures should be irrelevant.
No, the current Focus has been around for about five years.
Reliability Index C2 - 106.69 Focus (04-) - 62.13 Industry average - 112, lower numbers are better. So, yes, the C2 is less reliable than the Focus. But.
Average Age C2 - 3.94 years Focus (04-) - 3.47
Average Mileage C2 - 35606.44 Focus (04-) - 35110.49
Time off road is identical, average repair cost for the Citroen is slightly more expensive.
Of course, they're not really market rivals.
Compare the C2 with a Ka or the C4 with the Focus, and the picture changes.
The Ka, despite being older, is down as markedly more reliable, less likely to spend time off the road, and cheaper to fix - but, as you point out, is an ancient design - and no account seems to be taken for the well- known structural rot issues the Ka is beleagured with.
The C4 is a similar size, age & spec direct rival to the Focus - and is much more reliable, spends considerably less time off the road, and is much cheaper to fix.
That's certainly Citroen's big problem. If the dealers were better, I'm sure the C2 would come out better. That the C4 does so well despite utterly s**te dealers says a lot. B'sides, who'd use a dealer, when there's so many excellent quality and value independent Citroen specialists around?
I was replying to Duncan's statement where he said "...*I've* seen.."; that implied personal experience, rather than the results of a properly weighted statistical survey.
Indeed, but Duncan didn't make that distinction.
By a considerable amount then.
It wasn't my comparison though; it was Duncan's.
Am I missing a post or two? I never mentioned the Ka!
I very much doubt that statement, over the lifetime of the two cars.
Well, one of the many Citroen owners hoping to get some warranty support, I would assume.
Chris
Chris Whelan gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:
But the C2 is still better than the industry average.
Did I say whose comparison it was? No.
No, I did. Just there. You quoted it.
There's no need to use a franchised dealer to maintain the warranty. Hasn't been - by law - for a fair few years now. Just use a "proper" garage, OEM parts and OEM-spec consumables. EU "block exemption" regs.
The comparison was with the idea tha googling for faults would give you any idea oof the likelihood of them. The link has weighted results.
By a tiny amount, in one survey.
So why did you say "...as you point out..."?
Indeed. But where do you go to *get* the warranty repairs done?
Any dealer, let alone a Citroen one, is going to be less than helpful if they know you are only going to use them for warranty repairs, regardless of the legal situation.
Chris
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