MK1 C5 HDI issues

[Deanxm]

Good evening fellow Citroenist's

Hope we are all keeping well, ive got a slight issue with my brothers rather rubbish C5, the issue is ive got to fix it and looking at the MK1 C5 hurts my eyes, it may turn me to stone its that ugly. Ok enough messing around then.

Two months ago it killed its battery overnight, not even enough juice 12hrs after it last run to get a light on the dash and i couldnt get it to charge either so i got him a new battery, chucked it in and normal service resumed. One week later its killed the battery stone dead overnight again, i did get this one to recover just, but it took two days to charge it.
Straight after this episode it started telling anyone who would listen that there was a "brake failure" and "STOP!", after a quick look over the car i concluded the C5 was a damn liar and instructed his wife to ignore it. Since then its been saying the ABS does not work, a short test revealed it is working fine, now this is annoying partly because i cant stand a liar but mainly because there is nothing wrong with the brakes or the ABS.
For 2 weeks it was fine but two days ago the battery pancaked again and i now learn that on a late night trip to the little girls room last night my brother noticed the radio was on in the car, which was turned off, and locked.

Does anyone have any experience with this? are you going to say its the BSI thats rolled over and if you are would you be so kind as to tell me where it is and how its done.

Thanking you muchly in advance


D

[Deanxm]

Forgot to mention just before the lie's started the windows took on a mind of their own, the switches would work but you pressed up or down on the switch and the car would decide which way it wanted the windows to go, which was usualy down, this is good if your opening the windows, not good if its raining and you want them to go up.

D

[myglaren]

Typical low voltage behaviour.
I had similar but less severe symptoms with my estate and after replacing the battery and finding that there was nothing wrong with the old one that it was a current drain. Never did discover what though. The radio in your brother's sounds like the culprit and removing the fuses for it might prove that or eliminate it BUT the car SHOULD shut shut down all electrical activity including the radio after 25~45 minutes so that looks like another problem area - BSI possibly.

Try the recommended shut down/wake up procedure and fully charge the battery before replacing it, see what that does.

[Deanxm]

Thank you very much Steve.
So give the battery a good charge, follow your guide to the letter, then look for a drain starting with the radio as prime suspect.
I will give it a go with everything crossed.

Thanks again

D

[Northern_Mike]

Also check the fuseboxes, their mounts and the connection between the two (one in glovebox, one under bonnet) and generally give it a clean. It's not uncommon for the fuseboxes to go bad and cause maladies like this.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk

[SaabC5]

I'd also try a BSI reset, strange quirky electical gremlins tend to happen as a combination of duff battery causing BSi issues.

[Deanxm]

Thanks for all the replies, you have given me an easy starting point.
My bonus came through this month so last night i treated myself to a Lexia and splashed out £18 on a bargain Dell laptop with windows XP 32bit to run it on, once the reset is done i will break out the new toy and give the C5 a good going over, see if we can get the old lady feeling a bit better.

D

[Deanxm]

Well i hooked the C5 up today and i didnt think it was possible to have so many fault codes from one car, there were and still are 3 perminant faults and 7 int faults. The fault log was full however with all manor of faults, the fault log was actualy full with pages and pages of faults that had to be cleared before i could clear the current ones for some strange reason.

The remaining faults are as follows.
Heater fan open circuit (dual zone heating) not an issue
Radio ariel input connection fault (no idea)
Post/pre heater control circuit positive short circuit

Now the last one is interesting because i removed the relay, unplugged its ecu plug and main power supply which then threw up a second perminant fault saying wiring harness open circuit but still kept the original fault of a dead short in the positive which is interesting. There is no fuse for the glow plugs as far as i can see but i ran out of time and will resume in the morning, i suspect the short will be the source of the battery drain also..........maybe.

There were faults for the bsi, and dash display (interupted positive supply), plus another which laid blame with the brake peddle switch com's but that cleared and never came back, the dash display still says brake failure however.

The BSI reset proceedure has enabled the car to start and the headlights are not flicking on and off, the windows are still a bit unpredictable however.

Any thoughts before i attack again tomorrow?

D

[dnsey]

Beware - Lexia is inclined to say that there's a short or open circuit whenever mesured electrical characteristics are not as measured. Not to be taken too literally!

[Deanxm]

Ok, so we could be looking at just a failed glow plug then? its just strange it gives the same fault with the whole glow circuit isolated but it could just be an odity.

D

[Northern_Mike]

Well i hooked the C5 up today and i didnt think it was possible to have so many fault codes from one car,.......


The BSI reset proceedure has enabled the car to start and the headlights are not flicking on and off, the windows are still a bit unpredictable however.

Any thoughts before i attack again tomorrow?

D

[Deanxm]

LOL, ive already tried Mike but its a diesel so its rubbish at firey suicide too................

D

[Deanxm]

Sorted, new battery, new glow plugs as they were all pretty much a dead short, plus a chaffed control wire to the relay and a wipe of all faults seeme to have it sussed.
The windows still a bit iffy, the passenger side will only go up in stages of a few inches but i think this is due to them not being set right after battery disconnect, still ive set them and it wont work right.

I did take the car for a test to see if it would throw any faults and its as flat as hell, it will only do 55 ringing the life out of it, i can hear the turbo spooling and the boost pipe goes hard when you rev it, Lexia shows 1200mb pressure with no load at 3k rpm but there are no faults coming up, i was thinking MAF sensor but air flow through live data shows a smooth increase in air flow through the rev range again with no load. Bit odd this one, anyone any ideas on usual suspects?

D

[waynedance]

Is the accelerator cable ok no slack?

When I got mine it would not go over 70 mph and turned out to be a slack cable.

[Stickyfinger]

GJ.....

Windows, first thing, clean the upright rubber. Next is advance the window fully up bit by bit if you have to. When up hold button up for a count of 10, then lower window (bit by bit if ness) untill all the way down and then hold it there on the switch for 10. Go directly to the up position and bring the window back up, then down again......thats the method.

In my case it drove me totally boooooLooo and I just could not get it to work correctly. Then one day I cleaned the switch unit as its really easy to dissemble, and then did the above procedure again....hey-presto......works a treat.