My B pillars are clicking!

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Reggie
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My B pillars are clicking!

Post by Reggie »

My 2003 C3 has started "clicking" recently in the area of the B pillars on both sides of the car when driving on poor road surfaces. This seems to have started after I serviced it and jacked it up using my trolley jack, unless that is just coincidence, and maybe it's due to the ambient temperature increasing. Anyway, it never used to do it.
I understand that my car is not unique having this problem, and that "the fix" now apparently now approved by Citroen is to squirt expanding foam into the roof channels. I have gleaned this knowledge from reading another forum, but have not yet confirmed it with my local Citroen dealer.
Has anybody else had this fault, and can anybody advise how difficult it is to do the job. I am lead to believe the roof lining is dropped to facilitate access to the B pillars.
Reggie
gjb02
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Post by gjb02 »

It could be the door seals!! The Picasso suffers with a similar problem. The rubber gets very dry then clicks when it rubs, more so when the car goes over un-even ground.
A drop of baby oil, or vaseline on the door seals should stop it. If it has inner and outer seals, only lube the outer ones. Could be a lot cheaper than Dealer fixes.[:)]
alan s
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Post by alan s »

Datsun had this problem several years ago with I think it was the 200X that did similar things due to the windscreen and the plastic on the padded dash making noises when they rubbed together over uneven surfaces.
Trisk with them was to spray a silicone spray between the screen and the dash, sometimes several applications was needed, and this eventually cured the problem.
I also struck a similar one n a refrigerator once where a couple of minutes after the door was shut, it sounded like water dripping into a pan. Again it turned out to be the rubber door gasket moving across the area inside the door that it sealed to and a silicone polish was used which eliminated the problem so chances are it may just be an external thing not requiring any major internal mods.
Alan S
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JohnW
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Post by JohnW »

<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by gjb02</i>

It could be the door seals!! The Picasso suffers with a similar problem. The rubber gets very dry then clicks when it rubs, more so when the car goes over un-even ground.
A drop of baby oil, or vaseline on the door seals should stop it. If it has inner and outer seals, only lube the outer ones. Could be a lot cheaper than Dealer fixes.[:)]
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
About 10 years ago the much revered Lexus had exactly the same problem here in Australia. Silicone spray on the door seals fixed that. Of course Toyota (oops, sorry, Lexus) didn't exactly tell everyone....
JohnW
Reggie
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Post by Reggie »

It never occurred to me that it may be the door seals, so I never thought of using silicone on them.
I owned a 206 convertable a couple of years ago and that clicked and creaked, and so I have some silicone spray left over from then. I'll give it a spray some time later this week. If that doesn't work I will try and spray the B pillar seams.
Thanks for the advice everybody.
Reggie
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Post by 406 V6 »

Reggie
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Post by Reggie »

I tried silicon spray on the door seals, and unfortunatley it hasn't worked. I have spoken to a Citroen dealer in the west midlands, and he has confirmed that squirting expanding foam into the channels around where the noise is coming from is "the cure." This apparently is a known problem with the C3, but doesn't affect all of them.
Therefore as I don't have any information about how to take the roof lining off (without damaging/creasing it), can any body advise me of any pitfalls that I may face or general advice, such as how it is attached? I realise that I'll have to take the trim off around it and roof light fittings out, etc etc.
I could of course try my local dealer (in Yorkshire) but when I rang up about this he reckoned to have never heard of it! Also, since its first service, I have undertaken maintenance of it, albeit with oem parts, but anticipate "warranty grief" as the book isn't stamped since that service, and the car is 2.5 years old now.
Any advice gratefully received. Thanks in anticipation
Reggie
paranoid
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Post by paranoid »

I had this same problem on my previous rover for a couple of summers, finally cured it with KY jelly thinly spread over the rubbers, stoped them icing up in winter too!
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