C5 II Lexia

[RKM]

I have (perhaps stupidly) bought a 2006 (56 reg) C5 Exclusive 2.0-litre 16v HDI estate. 31,000-miles. Generally good condition.

As I have done my own maintenance on all of my cars, I see no reason why this car should be any different. Above all, I do not want to be at the mercy of Citroen franchised dealerships, most of which (that I have had experience of) have been absolutely shocking.

I am wondering whether to invest in a Lexia, so I can diagnose and sort out faults myself. Currently, I need to code the spare key and a new tyre pressure sensor; this would cost £60.00 from a dealer.

Which Lexia should I buy? Which cables/software is suitable for such a late model car?

I have had a browse on this forum but most Lexia purchasers are owners of Xantia/XM/early C5. Did Citroen make any changes by the time my whale came out?

Any help would be much appreciated...

Rob

[DHallworth]

Where are you located?

If you don't want to invest in one then there might be a local forum member who is happy to help you out.

I've got one, and it's good for reading faults but faults that don't trigger a fault code still need to be done the old fashioned way.

David.

[RKM]

I'm near Kidderminster (West Mids) but I travel frequently to both Worcestershire and Shropshire as well.

R

[myglaren]

Take a look on here to find the Lexia closest to you.

[Paul-R]

In order to pair up a tyre valve you'll also need an "exciter" for the valve as well as the Lexia. I don't know of anyone here that has one - only dealers seem to be able to afford them for the minimal use they get.

[cachaciero]

I have (perhaps stupidly) bought a 2006 (56 reg) C5 Exclusive 2.0-litre 16v HDI estate. 31,000-miles. Generally good condition.

As I have done my own maintenance on all of my cars, I see no reason why this car should be any different. Above all, I do not want to be at the mercy of Citroen franchised dealerships, most of which (that I have had experience of) have been absolutely shocking.

I am wondering whether to invest in a Lexia, so I can diagnose and sort out faults myself. Currently, I need to code the spare key and a new tyre pressure sensor; this would cost £60.00 from a dealer.

Which Lexia should I buy? Which cables/software is suitable for such a late model car?

I have had a browse on this forum but most Lexia purchasers are owners of Xantia/XM/early C5. Did Citroen make any changes by the time my whale came out?

Any help would be much appreciated...

Rob

Hi Rob

Yes there are some issues with Lexia and later CAN Bus C5's but I am not sure what they all are.

A Lexia system basically breakdown into three bits. A PC, an interface cable which is more than a cable contains a black box with interface hardware and the software which ties it all together.

The PC is a PC and provided it runs a micro crap operating system before Vista thats good enough, the software may install and run on Vista but I don't know that.

The interface, there seem to be two versions of this commonly available on flea-bay one is the earlier V3 Actia box looks like well.... a black box.
and a later one that's a bit sleeker and will do Peugot with the right software as well as Citroen.

Software there are several flavours of software about, originally Lexia V3 would have gone with the earlier box however Lexia V4.2 works fine with it as well. Don't know if Lexia V3 works on the later hardware but V4.2 is what you want anyway.

Now I believe that the Lexia V3 box has a problem reading some of the ECU's on a post 2005 C5 or indeed any "all CANBUS" Cits, however I seem to remember that that could be overcome using an alternative adaptor cable so the differences cannot be that great.

Have also seen reports of people having problems reading ECU's on CANBUS Cits using Chinese clones of the later Lexia hardware but don't know any details.

There are a couple or three comprehensive Lexia threads on this site would be worth reading through them.

FWIW I believe that it is nigh impossible to do any meaning full analysis of problems on these cars without a Lexia or an equivalent analyser that can read ECU parameters as well as fault codes, being only able to read fault codes only gets you part way there a Lexia is a very powerful tool and will do much more than just read codes.

cachaciero

[wheeler]

The interface, there seem to be two versions of this commonly available on flea-bay one is the earlier V3 Actia box looks like well.... a black box.


Software there are several flavours of software about, originally Lexia V3 would have gone with the earlier box however Lexia V4.2 works fine with it as well. Don't know if Lexia V3 works on the later hardware but V4.2 is what you want anyway.

Now I believe that the Lexia V3 box has a problem reading some of the ECU's on a post 2005 C5 or indeed any "all CANBUS" Cits, however I seem to remember that that could be overcome using an alternative adaptor cable so the differences cannot be that great.

There is no issue with the older interface talking to full CAN cars or working with the latest software version. The old interface can do everything the new one can do (as far as lexia is concerned, dont know about peugeot planet). Both the interfaces are the same apart from the new XS evolution interface is a bit more robust for use in a workshop enviroment.
The only issues with talking to full CAN cars is chineese clones.

[cachaciero]

The interface, there seem to be two versions of this commonly available on flea-bay one is the earlier V3 Actia box looks like well.... a black box.


Software there are several flavours of software about, originally Lexia V3 would have gone with the earlier box however Lexia V4.2 works fine with it as well. Don't know if Lexia V3 works on the later hardware but V4.2 is what you want anyway.

Now I believe that the Lexia V3 box has a problem reading some of the ECU's on a post 2005 C5 or indeed any "all CANBUS" Cits, however I seem to remember that that could be overcome using an alternative adaptor cable so the differences cannot be that great.

There is no issue with the older interface talking to full CAN cars or working with the latest software version. The old interface can do everything the new one can do (as far as lexia is concerned, dont know about peugeot planet). Both the interfaces are the same apart from the new XS evolution interface is a bit more robust for use in a workshop enviroment.
The only issues with talking to full CAN cars is chineese clones.

Hi Wheeler

Was hoping you would come in with some clarification on this

cachaciero