05 C5 Petrol Antipollution fault

[IMARLOW]

New to be board, so apologies if thsi has been covered before.
I have ahd a quick look around but cant find anything specific.
My 05 C5 petrol has developed the dreaded antipollution fault.
It came on about a week ago and went into limp mode, topped up the oil left it overnight and all was well.
This week it has reappeared with very poor idle and goes straingt into limp mode.
Ive heard all sorts of horror stories about garages charging an arm and a leg of diagnostics and dubious and sometimes expensive reapirs that dotn actualy seem to clear the fault.
Has anyone any straight forward tips on how to deal with this, i'm no mechanic by any means so dotn want to be spendign an arm and a leg to get nowehere as money is tight enough as it is.
I have purchased a fuel filter as this seems to be one of the choice and simple things to check.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

[Quackers]

Do you have any decent independent Citroen garages near you? Thats the best place so they can hook up a Lexia and tell you whats at fault. Normally less than £40 to tell you whats erroring. The Anti Pollution fault seems to be very generic and needs the lexia to see what it actually means.

[Ben82]

Do you have any decent independent Citroen garages near you? Thats the best place so they can hook up a Lexia and tell you whats at fault. Normally less than £40 to tell you whats erroring. The Anti Pollution fault seems to be very generic and needs the lexia to see what it actually means.

Before doing this, check the Lexia locations thread for board members with Lexias, see if there is any nearby. They won't charge £40 for checking it over for you (some - if not most will do it for free - or a beer).

[411514]

I believe that the antipollution fault is a very broad interpretation and can be brought up by a large number of faults not necessarily what it might sound like i.e. an exhaust problem, so a lexia session is probably the best course of action. If you have the hpi petrol engine then you may do well to investigate the high pressure pump as they are a common failure, Sam

[chrissa]

I had antipollution / engine management light coming on a few weeks ago with very poor idling.
This also happened in July last year. Both occasions it turned out to be the ignition coil assembly faulty.
This explained the poor engine idle and miss fires and lack of power which eventually caused the anti pollution
warning. From experience gained by my cousin who runs his own garage, he informs me that all French Cars suffer from poor
ignition modules and it is one of the first things he suspects when this type of fault is complained of.
I would recommend you change the spark plugs at the same time as the module. You can get a new Valeo module
for £94 at Eurocarparts and recommend Bosch quad core spark plugs Halfrauds £21.99
My cousin kindly let me use his fault code reader to clear all the fault codes out to get rid of engine management light!

Regards Chris.

[birstall]

Hi

I might be able to help you if you're anywhere in the Leeds area.

My comments on previous suggestions: the coil problem doesn't send the car into limp home mode in my experience.
HP pump problem doesn't necessarily come with any symptoms other than sending your car into limp home mode.
However, I've experienced HP pump problems on two cars when they got to around 55,000 miles on the clock.
Better if you get the car checked on a lexia to avoid spending your hard earned cash on the wrong thing.

Pete

[IMARLOW]

Thanks for the info everyone.
Spent a few hours poking around this afternoon with following.
Unable to locate the fuel filter so that didnt get changed.
However i remembered a while back havign a battery problem and the car wouldnt start, it took ages to get fuel flowing, a neighbour found a small blue cap on the fule line near the spark plugs.
When he unscrewed it fuel did eventually flow.
When i tried it this afternoon no fuel at all and all appeared to be very dry.
A quick google search mentioned depressing the valve inside, so i gave it a try and it did appear to be very much stuck.
Once released fuel was flowing.
Rather hoping that the engine woudl start, and lo and behold it started no wanring lights and depollution error message has gone.
Have tried it a few times and did a quick run around the local area and it appears fine, how long that will actually last however is another matter.
I will err on the side of caution until i can get the faults read properly.
I'm located in Ilford London if there is anyone local who coudl help out with that more than happy to travel to get it read (providing of course the dreaded limp mode doesntkick in).
Thanks again very much appreciated.

[IMARLOW]

Seems the cure was short lived as the car has now gone back into limp mode...
Hey ho.

[Steve T]

Mine has just developed this fault, seems to drive OK though. Did you ever find a fix?

SteveT