7th Jan 2012, 17:03
The timing belt goes frequently in the C8. There is a manufacturing defect that allows water to get in from the gutter below the windscreen. Citroen fitted a deflecting part after 2005-6, but never issued a recall, though a new cambelt kit generates a link to this part when ordered by mechanics!!!
I recommend Gavin Gray at http://www.c8centre.co.uk/. He'll arrange to collect and repair an engine in the car for £1065 + VAT; you just have to collect the vehicle from Edinburgh! Even with flight and a day driving the car home again, it's significantly cheaper than Citroen who can only replace the engine. Gavin can do it when Citroen can't because he has developed a tool to remove the seized injectors, allowing the rocker cover to be removed and the broken rocker fingers to be replaced. He knows everything there is to know about the C8, and the Peugeot/Citroen analogues also.
Best wishes.
Graham.
3rd Feb 2012, 13:55
Nine months later and we are still happy with our purchase. We got the sliding door fixed by sourcing a second-hand motor for it, and it works fine. The only "scare" we have had is when the ESP warning light started to come on whenever we were travelling at speed. Turned out it was just the tracking, so that was easily put right.
21st Feb 2012, 10:41
You can hire a tool to remove the injectors here in Ireland, at least that's what my Peugeot dealer did when my engine broke @ 89k. I wouldn't say timing belt failure happens frequently, at least not to the same engine. I've had 3 belt kits, plus a new water-pump each time, and there's now 155k on the clock, with the next belt change due at 190k.
I'm not convinced by the water ingress/freezing weather argument. One experienced motor engineer has suggested failure may be due to a seizing water-pump or alternator bearing, which sounds a lot more feasible to me. Would be interesting to know if any checks on pumps were made before they were discarded, or how many failed alternators occurred at the same time, and if their demise was blamed on the belt breaking.
This year I have had to again replace the under-bonnet main fuse box on my '03 Ulysses. Did it 5 years/100k ago, when the same problem of damp ingress caused corrosion to the fuse box 'motherboard', which disengaged the passenger air-bags initially, then a few months later caused the engine ignition to shut down completely. This week the airflow meter was replaced, as car was sluggish at low speeds, cleared @ 2,600 rpm and then ran out of puff/misfired at higher speeds.
Both replacements, with labour, cost a total of 400 euro. Hopefully, that's it until the next timing belt change in a couple of years!
4th Jun 2012, 23:03
Hi, interesting reading your comments. I have a 2.0 JTD Ulysse, which is identical in every way except name. Mine has a snapped cambelt. Could you give me advice on possible repairs, as in what damage should I expect, engine dismantling sequence etc?
Many thanks.
28th Sep 2012, 13:40
We have had our Citroen C8 since February, and the list issues seems to grow. Currently ours is in a garage, and has been for 2 weeks! The windows go down and the side mirrors in and out by themselves while you drive down the road! Then when you stop, the battery goes flat due to 2 amps going while it's turned off. Still don't know what's wrong?
27th Dec 2012, 15:37
Hi, we have owned a C8 since last August. At first it was great, no problems at all, then the tyre pressure values started playing up (all 4 of them). Had them all replaced, and no problems until March when it started leaking water in from the light area from the sunroof (as I thought). Took it back to them, it was fine for a couple of weeks, then it started again. I got fed up taking in back to the garage, for them to say nothing wrong with it, so I just sealed the sunroof up. That was fine for a month or so, then again more water in through the light, so I just left it until I had time to tackle the job.
So I took the headliner out, to find the roof was full of condensation, which I thought was strange. Just to be safe, I took all 3 sunroofs out and resealed them back in. Dried the roof, put the headliner back in, and everything was great until a week later, when I found water was still getting in the same place. Now I leave the back windows open, and that seems to have fixed it for now. Doing this myself has saved me over £1500 in labour costs. This was all done last month, and everything is still fine.
10th Aug 2013, 14:44
We had a 53 (Nov 03) 2.0 JTD Fiat Ulysse from 18 months old with 8000 miles on the clock up until December last year, when the aircon interior fan caught light, burning out the car's interior. Other than regular service items, we never had a moment's problem with the car. We then purchased a replacement, a C8 2.0 Auto Exclusive, and the problems started! Leaking sunroof, fuse box melted to name but two...
2nd Oct 2014, 23:11
You are right. I will never buy a Citroen C8 or any other. They are rubbish; I'd rather walk.
12th Oct 2014, 20:55
I have a Citroen Picasso whose belt has failed twice now, once at 64000 miles and again at 112000. Luckily I had no serious engine damage. The 1st time I had a bill for £573 with a £500 contribution from Citroen. The second time it was a bill for £703.
Reading on another forum, there is advice for getting Citroen to pay for the whole cost.
9th Dec 2011, 03:30
I also have a driver's seat that is falling apart, AND two days ago, the cam belt failed.
It went into the garage following antipollution warnings coupled to clean the diesel filter!
What a disgrace Citroen are. They know how poor their design of vehicle is, and do very little about anything.