C5 Tales from the Electronic Side

[MULLEY]

Well as some of you may know, a couple of weeks ago the BX overheated on the way back from work I can only presume the radiator was slugded up That was the nail in the coffin, either the headgasket or a cracked cylinder head, that combined with the rust underneath meant i couldn't look after the old gal anymore. Hopefully David & his mate John will be collecting to strip for parts to keep others on the road.

I needed a car fast, saw a Skoda Fabia, but lack of service history put me off, saw a big C5 Estate & thought, why not

It's not perfect, but drove ok on the test drive, was the right price so decided to go for it. Its an LX spec 2.0 Hdi, so its got the right engine & the spec is fine for me, although exclusive would have been nice, but none were in the price bracket that i was looking at.

A tad over 115k on the clock, so sensible mileage for a 2002 plate car & it was a decent colour, some sort of dark charcole/black colour, interior has taken a bit of a battering, but hopefully i can source a few bits & it'll be fine.

Went to Mark Lightfood on Saturday & had the following replaced:

Cambelt
Tensioners
Crank Pulley
Water Pump
Fuel Filter
Oil change
Oil filter
Driver side door check strap tightened up, no more creaking
Engine plastic cover, had the rubber grommets glued back on as they were loose, still need to get hold of one more though as one is missing. Mark did point the daft design where the plastic bleed screw sits & this cover can bite into it & then the car drops all its coolant, total crap design, i'm even contemplating removing the cover all together, i'll get some advice from C5 owners to see their views etc...

A little bit more than what i wanted to spend, but Mark did me a good deal, so i'm happy knowing that i don't have to worry about the cambelt for 10 years or 100k I would have done the oil & filters myself, but i just don't have much time at the mo.

This weekend i removed the tired looking air filter & replaced it with the k&n from the TXD, it feels faster already

Gave the car a hoover in the boot as there was quite a lot of shite,, dust, dirt, stones, gawd knows what the previous owner did, perhaps he was a builder

I also pulled up the rear seats & it was filthy underneath (so far i've found £1.05 in coins), so hoovered that all up as well. The car will get a wet clean on the seats etc once it starts to warm up a bit, that should make everything a bit more pleasent, its not bad, but i know the seats will look a lot nicer than they currently are.

There are some niggles, i need to replace the psgr front side door handle as the original has snapped off. There is some trim on the driver side rear door handle that needs to be re-attached, it was inside the car, so not sure why it was removed in the 1st place?

Stereo is very odd, plays fine with the ignition off, when the car is running it doesn't output to all of the speakers & sounds like its on a mute setting, so to get any sound out i'm having to turn the volume to max to be able to hear anything. Which of course then means that if i forget to turn the volume down before switchng the ignition off, next time i jump in the car the stereo comes on full blast & scares the shit out of you Can't seem to get any radio stations, so perhaps there is a loose ariel cable somewhere?

Erm, i think that's it for the mo, the 1st lot of fuel i put in, bearing in mind the car hadn't been serviced etc...for £30 which equates to 22.07 litres i got 229 miles before the amber fuel warning light came on, so that equates to just over 47mpg, not bad for such a massive car, that was including my commute to work & no long runs, so the car deffo has promise.

She's come into her own already by carrying loads of crap to the tip, today i even managed to fit in a double mattress & the boot shut properly, well impressed.

Handling wise i'm quite surprised, i can fling her over roundabouts & corners & it feels quite sporty, the hydractive suspension system seems to work very well, i don't have a sport mode button either More importantly, as it was quite warm i though't i'd test the A/C & it works a treat, this is going to be a nice bonus this year having this, the BX's didn't which was the only downer when driving them i the summer. The valver has a/c doesn't work though, but i'll see about getting tha fixed at some point in time if its financially viable.

So, do i like the C5, well yes i think i do, decent performance, nice smooth power delivery, fun handling, a few toy's to keep me happy, very refined at speed, didn't seem to make much more noise going a ton than at 60mph, on that private race track that i'm allowed to go on

Fingers crossed she turns out to be a good un, Mark had alread commented that when he took the car for a spin to ensure everything he'd done was ok, the engine was a good one & had been maintained well, so thats a good sign i hope.

[bxzx16v]

I'm sure the C5 will be fine Mulley, my two were good cars. Their not as bad as some people make out.

Mark

[Dollywobbler]

Drove an early one to Paris and back a few years ago. That was a diesel auto and I thought it was very pleasant indeed. I know the electric pumps can be problematic, but met a bloke via this very forum who seemed quite happy to pull the things apart and refurb then. In some ways, electric makes a lot of sense - self-levelling without the engine running for instance.

[electrokid]

Definitely the right engine (110bhp IIRC ?) Did you get the 6 speed gearbox with the 2002 model or did that come in later ?

I was looking into C5 and got the feeling that most of the electronics problems they have something of a reputation for having are down to poor connections - particularly ground connections IMHO. That is to say poor connections which cause electrical noise which confuses the electronics rather than just dodgy operation of particular items.

Needing a car quickly isn't usually a recipe for finding something decent - but then I bought my current BX under those circumstances... 8 years ago Hope your C5 does as well for you.

[Tim Leech]

For the money I dont think you can go wrong, BX's and even Xantias are all either snapped up or knackered so good on you for sticking withthe double chevron.

[MULLEY]

Brian, its got a 5spd box, i think its only when they introduced the 1.6hdi engine that the 6spd box appeared?

The car does have some issues to sort out on it, the stereo has a mind of its own, useless, hopefully easily sorted, possibly dodgy connectors? I was hoping to get the car Lexia'd by Alex off FCF, unfortunately his laptop decided to die when we plugged it into my car That was a shame as i was looking forward to seeing if there were any fault codes etc...

[Tim Leech]

If you come to the X Rally Mulley theres a possiblity of someone having one.

[electrokid]

Yeah - it would be good to see you at the X Rally Matthew

I think I was looking at around the 2004 models to get 6sp ? One thing I heard was that the software (actually firmware if I'm being pedantic) is no longer being updated but that it's worth making sure you have the final version wherever it's needed on the car. Checking for fault codes has got to be a good starting point - some car electronics is getting better - a friend's Volvo recently sent him a message to say that the keyfob battery needed replacing !

Whatever the radio is doing, it could still be controlled by some of the electronics on the car itself, so worth checking any settings that are user changeable - dodgy connections between car and radio might prevent correct control ?

[citsncycles]

The radio is definately tied into the rest of the car. One mate had to get his car connected to the diagnostic machine at Tony Weston's in order to get a replacement radio to work. Another mate had a C5 which had a radio that played up whenever the central processor filled up with fault codes.

[MULLEY]

Yup, hoping it's something simple

[MULLEY]

Spotted this today, i wonder how many miles mine will do?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CITROEN-C5-VT ... 43c7174bd4" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[citsncycles]

They seem to be another of those lottery cars Citroen enjoy building where they're either good or bad. I know of C5's that were scrapped with 60k on due to expensive electrical issues, while others have seen years of service as taxi's racking up 60k miles a year with no issues. When it comes to early C5's I suspect most of the bad ones are gone now.

[MULLEY]

Fingers crossed that you're right about the bad ones

[Thread Bear]

The radio is definately tied into the rest of the car. One mate had to get his car connected to the diagnostic machine at Tony Weston's in order to get a replacement radio to work. Another mate had a C5 which had a radio that played up whenever the central processor filled up with fault codes.

[Defender110]

You bored with this yet Matthew