15th Mar 2011, 06:38

I have just read all the comments on this site, and I am now so depressed that there is no hope that I will ever get rid of those horrible words "anti pollution fault".

I have had a new fuel pump fitted, and at least four fuel regulators in a little over a year. The engine just dies, and if you have cars behind you, it can cause an accident, which it did with me to the cars three and four back. Needed four police cars to deal with the traffic jam.

Last October I set off from Brighton to Huddersfield for my daughter's wedding, but only got 12 miles. It conked out, probably cos it didn't like the downs. I had to hire a car, which cost me £600, as I was house and cat sitting for 3 weeks.

The car is very sluggish now, and I don't go on any journeys over 10 miles and no hills. I do use 98 octane now as suggested by Citroen via my dealer. Oh, and the back nearside door has not opened for a year and a half. Costs a fortune for dealer to find out why, let alone fix. Seems a common fault, so surely they should know the reason.

I have a C5 2 litre Exclusive. WOE, WOE and thrice WOE.

23rd Mar 2011, 20:19

After compiling for the last two years a comprehensive and detailed dossier of Citroen C5 faults, I would be most interested in bringing a legal action against Citroen to make them answerable in court.

28th Mar 2011, 06:37

That cat problem can be silenced, I had my workshop cut the wires to the cat sensor, next day no more alarms.

Love the ride of my '02 V6 C5, beautiful car to drive.

27th Apr 2011, 05:35

Hi all.

I've had a 2002 C5 HDi Exclusive, SOHC 110 bhp since 2009. Anti pollution fault is a nuisance, but I get round it by starting the car and letting it warm up for 3-5 minutes before driving away. This works in cold weather, but if really freezing, run it a bit longer.

Now I've got a big problem. Auxiliary drive belt broke, at night. Drove home 18 miles on battery power, which was fine, just heavy on the arms with no power steering!

I started the car the next day, having acquired a new belt. Moved it to a flat location to start work, but left the car running for a couple of minutes. It stalled. Had to jack it up in driving mode to remove the front right wheel, no problem. Fitted belt, got tension right, no problem. Won't start. Checked all fuses, plenty of fuel, oil, etc. It's in economy mode according to the display. Have charged battery and tried boost off our other car. It turns over, but won't fire. Electric windows, radio, wipers and other bits don't work with ignition on, and no display except economy mode with ignition. on. Tried reset procedure according to BBA-Reman's website, still won't go!! Hope the timing belt didn't break co-incidental whilst I wasn't looking for two minutes. Bit of a job to get the cover off to see if it's OK. Waiting for nice man from car electrical specialist to come round. If he can't fix it, it's going to be scrapped, having read all of the above horror stories, this must be the thin end of my C5 wedge.

7th May 2011, 13:08

For wiper blades go to Amazon.co.uk.

Enter wiper blades Citroen C5, then click find.

Select AERO supplier and flat blades for £10.45. Gone up £3 since I bought mine a month or so ago. Quick service.

If memory serves, they are in the Channel Islands, and the price includes delivery.

Tony N.

16th May 2011, 07:33

I have a 2002 Citroen 2.2 C5 auto diesel and apart from the antipollution warning light coming on and the ESR/ESP warning light which have now gone out all on their own (very odd). The selector has now stuck in park so after lots, and I mean lots, of jiggling it started moving again. It now, when in drive, falls into the manual mode and I then have to tap it back into auto mode.

Does anybody know what the cause of the gear selector problem is and how to fix it as the local Citroen dealers want to charge me £100 just to look at it and then charge me for repairing it separately.

They must be able to advise beforehand as from what I have seen on search web pages this is a fairly common occurrence but I can't find any answers, so some help would be very much appreciated.

1st Jun 2011, 18:56

I couldn't agree more. After the hundreds of cars I have owned in a lifetime, I am 66 now, this C5 is positively the worst, most unreliable, expensive, if not impossible to repair car I have ever owned. In fact I have never owned any car as bad as this one. Citroen should read all the blogs, be ashamed, and realise why their C6 is such a slow seller.

I am so angry at the letters I read from people in despair at the myriad expensive faults that these appalling unreliable heaps suffer from. I could go into detail about my own personal problems, but it would be thicker than the bible. It's only stubbornness and the belief in myself that I can fix anything mechanical, that makes me stick with it, solving one thing after the other. One day I will drive it, or rather shunt it through a main dealer showroom window, preferably obtaining the maximum adverse publicity for Citroen. They leave car making to people who know how, ie Honda, Toyota..

1st Jun 2011, 20:11

This is an update on my C5. It has suffered from most of the faults people complain about; anti pollution etc etc.

I never thought I could hate a car, but I do these. I hate how unreliable they are, and I hate how they bleed people with their ridiculous overpriced servicing.

After a complete shutdown and total inability to start, I put it in, towed it in to a main dealer. 60 quid later, they diagnosed BSI failure. Had to tow it out, not happy with that diagnosis. I took out the BSI, sent it to reman, 60 quid diagnosis, sent it back, nothing wrong with it.

Where to from there? I was beat at this time. Took it to a friend's garage who specialised in Citroens. He found all the wiring burnt out from the front courtesy light down into the main wiring loom; horror, why should that have burnt? Explained courtesy lights etc etc staying on I guess. Should have figured that one, but there was no smell. Anyway, it would have cost a fortune to pay for a rewire, so it was a write off really.

Anyway, I got the loom out of a 2001 (mine is 2002), so colour coding problem, Citroen only put 3 numbers on their wiring, so I had to strip out the wiring, trace each individual wire, took me two days. Have it all wired, and spliced BSI put in loose, battery charged ready to connect. Wish me luck, will be watching for heating wires, ready to snip if they start to warm. To be honest, it should work, but these are not normal cars, they are so unreliable it's an outside chance it will work. If not it's a write off, brand new everything on it, but I will never have another french car, that's after owning 5 XM diesels. These modern computer controlled car are a nightmare when they go wrong, but Citroen are in a league of their own. I will update you later if I needed the fire brigade..