Picasso replaced bsi - no accessories - Now high Temperature

[knightsbane]

hi everyone,

As a previous pug owner and current renault owner im fairly used to the french electrical issues but im currently stumpped on this problem with my brothers picasso so im hoping some of you guys might have had similar problems,

hes got a 51 reg 1.6 xsara picasso, and a few weeks ago the battery light came on, and while the engine started and ran, he had no speedo reading, ie it just stayed on 0, no indicators apart from hazards, no wipers, and the windows and central locking wouldnt work, and the abs lights on the dash didnt light up any more - delphi diagnostics really struggled to communicate with the car, so no fault codes could be gained from the car, it wouldnt talk to anything really other than the engine ecu.

we had a good check over it and with the help of google found the alternator had burnt out completely (had to buy a new one - they couldnt repair it, it was that bad) then found the bsi was faulty so we removed it and sent it away for repair, BUT the ecu repair man said it had got water in it and the corrosion had made it unrepairable, so we'd need a new one.

following other advice - we found a second hand ecu bsi and key with exactly the same part/serial numbers from the same year/model of car, and fitted both of those and used the supplied keyfob, the car started fine and now delphi can talk to most of the systems except the dash but still not showing fault codes, the abs is now working, the central locking is working via the key, but we still have the battery light on, no indicators, no wipers and the windows still dont work aaarrrrgggghhh!!!!

ive read about a bsi reset but the current keyfobs buttons are broken, which im trying to get sorted to try, but im not sure this will cure these issues

any help guys?
anyone got a good fuse box list for these as well?

thx

[knightsbane]

i have now cleaned up loads of earth points, checked various connections, and replaced the buttons on the keyfob,

the central locking works from the remote now and i have also done the bsi reset procedure

but now i only have the same - indicators/windows/wipers dont work and battery light on at idle - if you rev it up everything suddenly bursts into life and works fine - it didnt do this before,

im now left with the dash telling me the car is red hot/overheating and the rad fan is running constantly,

i have disconnected the temp sensor and it stays the same, i bridged it across and it stayed the same, i have 5volts at one pin and 0volts at the other,

so all in all, the car shouldnt need to be revved to put the battery light out and obviously its not red hot when started from cold,

edit - just to be clear after first rev up and battery light going out it will idle without battery light on

any ideas here?

thanks

[Hell Razor5543]

There is an issue on Xantiae with the battery lead failing over time. I wonder if you are experiencing a similar problem? Pop the bonnet open, start her up, and then feel the battery leads. If they are hot, you probably have this problem;

http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =3&t=38273" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I wonder if this had caused the alternator to fail?

[Lighty]

Could be that your replacement BSI is configured incorrectly for the car, i.e. thinks it has A/C, but hasn't, hence the cooling fans. The chances of finding an identical BSI are slim. You really need to get it on a Lexia .

[knightsbane]

the battery is under the passenger seat on this one and the battery leads disappear under the carpets somewhere, so also it doesnt have the 10 or so earths that are supposed to be round it, but i have found quite a few in the engine bay,
it does have air con, and according to what we read and the specialist french breakers we got the ecu from as long as all the numbers are the same on the bsi and ecu and we change both and have the key for the replacement - it should just work, although i do appreciate what your saying about model variations.

could the new alternator be at fault? the fact that blipping the throttle once makes everything burst into life? surely the alternator should power up straight away

has anyone had the max temperature reading regardless of the fact i have changed the bsi/ecu?

thx for the help up to now chaps!

[knightsbane]

ive read up abit and there is 3 temperature sensors a on/off for the fan a on/off for the ecu/bsi warning message(??) and the usual varied for the temp gauge apparently,
heres a quote from a citroen expert? called 'technical guru'

the blue sensor is the coolant temperature switch....it has an on off function and should be open circuit with a cold engine.....closed circuit between pin 2 and earth means you will get an overheating message.
the green sensor varies its resistance according to temperature and in addition to powering the cooling fan it will also provide information to the engine management system to help it decide if its doing a hot or cold engine and adjust the fueling accordingly.
Both green and blue sensors provide information to the injection ecu, the injection ecu will then instruct the cooling fans to work if required or send a message to the bsi which in turn will put a message on the display to give you something to worry about and hopefully cause you to check coolant!
If the vehicle has air conditioning it should be noted that if you turn aircon on the fan should operate regardless of engine temperature.....Does it?.....and if you turn it off does the fan stop?..........

.............the one that looks difficult to get at (2 pin connector) that will require removal of the air filter to access is the switched sensor....it screws in.
The upper sensor (3 pin connector) that you have already replaced is the one that varies resistance with temperature.

im going to have another look tonight and see if i can find this other sensor, and see if thats causing the fault

[addo]

From around 2000, a lot of the PSA multiplexed systems went to a single sensor for coolant temperature. If you can't find the others, it may well be they're not there.

Also, as Lighty infers - you can get a lot deeper into the car with a Lexia or Diag, so it's worth getting your hands on a unit or seeing somebody with the kit.