C5 Cills / Sills? Tip

cachaciero · Post by **cachaciero** » 22 Apr 2009, 20:18

Do you have an older C5? is it pristine? are you planning on keeping it for a while?
Then if you have never done it take the plastic sills covers off (it's an easy job) and be prepared to be amazed / surprised / horrified.

Tip before starting this ensure you have a can of waxoil or similar ready.

Rgds cachaciero

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 22 Apr 2009, 22:59

So this is the trim at the bottom, on the sills, which is black in this picture below.

So how bad where your ones cachaciero?

Do you have a picture to illustrate the problem?

cachaciero · Post by **cachaciero** » 23 Apr 2009, 11:53

Yes those are the ones come of in two parts each side, held on with a series of re-usable (with care) plastic fasteners underneath.

Mine? well mines a 2001, in some places there is a considerable space between the plastic trim for that is what it is and the real metal cills underneath, this was absolutely packed with years of mud bits of grass you name it all slightly damp of course.

The paint on the cills was blistering in many areas, although underneath the galvanising was holding up (just). The blisters appeared to be caused by osmosis rather than puncturing of the pain film. I.E water had penetrated the paint film by osmosis and then started a reaction with the metal underneath the resulting pressure causing the paint to blister.

There is not an adequate seal between the inner wheel lining and the plastic trim which means that water and mud will get forced in at quite high pressure and work its way down under the plastic.

Yes I do have some photo's however as I can't directly attach them without jumping through hoops and this web site doesn't have a files section they won't get published here. However there is something else which requires publishing of photo's so when I get them of the camera I will try and find somewhere convenient to put them.

Cachaciero

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 23 Apr 2009, 15:11

In the past sills did deteriorate, and not last long, but then things improved, and they have not been the problem they used to be, but it looks like if they are covered up, that we are going back to causing problems with them again.

Is that progress? No!

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 24 Apr 2009, 09:46

A very interesting thread, this is certainly something i will be checking on mine. I might have a look later on today, and picture what i find under there.

I always quite liked the sills on the C5s, because they cover up all of the messy looking metal work which is usually left on display. However it seems they cause an issue anyway.

How does the muck and crud get behind the plastic sills? Is it dirt from the front wheels? I wonder if so, would mudflaps help prevent this.

Our estate has had mudflaps from new, but my hatch has not, although i have recently fitted them to that, so it will be interesting to see if there is a difference. If thats how the mud does get in of course.

Will investigate this later.

cachaciero wrote:However there is something else which requires publishing of photo's so when I get them of the camera I will try and find somewhere convenient to put them.

Cachaciero

Not something else for us C5 owners to worry about i hope?

ACTIVE8 · Post by **ACTIVE8** » 24 Apr 2009, 10:14

While looking around a scrapyard previously I came across, an Xantia with the outside door trim missing, and these trims like the C5 sill covers are there to help protect the item they are attached to, but it was surprising how much crap, and dirt was caught by the trim, and had accumulated behind where it had been.

This would not have been obvious if the trim had not been missing, and the trim was found inside the car, and looked OK obviously because while it was on the car, the outside painted surface was kept clean and looked after, so the finish on the trim was OK, but the same could not be said for the door surface that was now on show.

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 24 Apr 2009, 13:14

Just had a quick peek behind one of the trims on mine and it looks fine, not too much dirt at all.

Will take the trims off after lunch and give it a clean behind there. Ill take some pictures of what i find.

Chris.

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 24 Apr 2009, 17:17

I had a look at my offside sill, its not as bad as i had thought it might be, this is what it looked like as i took the trims off:

There was a bit of a build up of stones and mud, but nothing to worry about.

However, i think this might be what you mean about 'blistering', although mine only had a very small patch of that. There is slight rusting along the very edge of the sill, but that happens on all cars.

After i had cleaned it up:

I need to waxoil under there, but didnt have any handy at the time. Although its an easy job to remove them, if anyone else does remove them, you might need a few spare fixings, as some had gone soft and were not doing their job on my car.

Chris.

f00lzz · Post by **f00lzz** » 24 Apr 2009, 17:40

This is like going back to the 1970's what a c**p idea

I bet you wouldn't find shoddy body panel design like that on a T****a!

cachaciero · Post by **cachaciero** » 24 Apr 2009, 21:07

Citroenmad wrote:I had a look at my offside sill, its not as bad as i had thought it might be, this is what it looked like as i took the trims off:

There was a bit of a build up of stones and mud, but nothing to worry about.

However, i think this might be what you mean about 'blistering', although mine only had a very small patch of that. There is slight rusting along the very edge of the sill, but that happens on all cars.

Yes those are the type of blistering I refer to if you puncture them you will likely find them full of water and some evidence of reaction with the metal underneath.

Interestingly your is a LOT cleaner than mine and I believe that this is almost certainly due to the mudflaps.
The cill has a lip at the front edge which goes over the wheel arch plastic inner lining but it is not fixed to the inner lining which can flex back sufficiently to allow an appreciable gap for the water and mud hosing of the front tyre to enter.

I did /am thinking about applying an extra fixing along the lip so that the wheel arch lining is held tight to the lip on the plastic cill panel but maybe mud flaps are a better way to go.

Cachaciero

Citroenmad · Post by **Citroenmad** » 24 Apr 2009, 22:01

Ah, about the mudflaps, i have only fitted them to mine recently. They were a bit of a pain to get hold of actually, as Citroen do not supply them for the S1 C5s now, they do for the facelift versions and obviously the new models but not ones like mine. Luckily i was able to get a full set of 4 from a Citroen dealer on ebay, who still had them in stock.

However our C5 estate has had mudflaps on from new, so ill remove the sill trims from that and see how that one looks behind there.

Im not sure why mine would have less of a build up of dirt behind there than yours.

It does seem like a bit of a design fault, although going by what i found it was mainly stones which got traped in there, there wasnt much dirt, so that must have a way of it getting out.

sonoramicommando · Post by **sonoramicommando** » 09 Oct 2011, 23:51

I took off the sill covers the other week - kind of dreading what might be lurking behind the cover, given the previous owner lived in the country side.

There were a LOT of little stones (probably from the loose metal of the unsealed roads) and quite a bit of mud (mostly dry though) stuck on there.

Once I scraped it all off with a plastic scraper though, the sills themselves look like brand new! No signs of corrosion or bubbling at all - I was pleasantly surprised by that, to be honest.

Sam

robert_e_smart · Post by **robert_e_smart** » 10 Oct 2011, 07:57

This is all very interesting.

We have a S2 C5 here, and during the summer the front half of the passengers side sill cover was loose. I cable tied it back up, but the amount of stones that was under the cover was incredible.

This car has mudflaps from new.

Did you get a new car Chris?

Post by **CitroJim** » 10 Oct 2011, 08:11

Gosh

That's a nasty problem waiting to happen when the C5 becomes a late teenager...

They'll be in holes in the not too distant future..

Well done Citroen. Lift gun, choose foot, take aim and fire...

Yep, you've done it again

Another perfect built-in failure spot...

Was the C5 designed by the same bloke as the XM by any chance...

robert_e_smart · Post by **robert_e_smart** » 10 Oct 2011, 08:20

Was the C5 designed by the same bloke as the XM by any chance...

Can you really get away with using the word "designed" in reference to the C5 Jim

. I think it did a lame job of replacing both the Xantia and XM.

Do Citroen not remember what these plastic sill covers did on CXs!