Citroen C5 dead!

[Diamonddec]

Hi guys. Just found this forum after having trouble with my car.... Typically!

Anyway, I have a 2009 Citroen C5 Exclusive. Over the last few weeks, the windscreen wipers have started to play up. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't! I took it to my local mechanic and he suggested that he did a BSI reset (!) which he did, by performing about 10 steps... opening windows, disconnecting the battery etc. Anyhow, after doing this, the problem still persisted. The next day I started the car and the wipers were working again! The following day, they stopped working during a blizzard and I had to sit at the side of the road for 45 minutes until it stopped before I could drive on without any wipers.

I had a look on the internet and saw that it was suggested that removing a fuse for 10 or 15 minutes ( a "shunt" fuse?) would reset everything and could help. At my wits end, I removed the fuse and reconnected it 15 minutes later. I started up the car and the wipers worked! I got out the car and it wouldn't lock with the remote key! Damn it! I removed and replaced the fuse again and started the car. This time there the auto parking brake warning light illuminated and was flashing! The car wouldn't move because the parking brake wouldn't go off. I left the car and went to bed. I got up this morning and turned the key ... and nothing! The instrument panel illuminates, beeps and the warning lights are on, but the car won't turn over. It just clicks like the battery is dead! The horn and the sidelights work, but that is all. I just had a mechanic over and he tested the battery, which is OK. Why, oh why, did I touch the fuse in the first place? Now, I it's just sitting immobile in the garage whilst I contemplate having to send it to Citroen to get sorted - on a truck!... and worrying about how much it is gonna cost!

So, there's my problem! Any thoughts would be really appreciated.

Cheers.

[vborovic]

Seems to me the car immobilizer doesn't detect the car key (due to a fuse reset) ... you can reprogram the key(s) back to the car with Diagbox/Lexia software ... as for the intermittent wipers, maybe it isn't the fault in the motors, but rather the rain sensor/computer, which didn't know when to activate them (in case you have automatic wipers, being exclusive, I would think so) ... again, the diagnostics with the above software are recommended to see if any faults are displayed

[Diamonddec]

Appreciate your quick reply, vborovic. The car alarm was going off this morning. I don't know if that's related. After I replaced the fuse the second time, the key wouldn't work, then I pressed the "door lock" button on the dashboard and that activated the car locking again. It might be wise, as you intimate, to get an auto electrician with lexia software to take a look at it before I go to the trouble of getting it trailed to my nearest Citroen garage, which is 26 miles away.

I agree that it doesn't sound like the wiper motors since they work "sometimes".

[RichardW]

Hi, welcome along!

Whereabouts are you? There are a number of members here who have the necessary kit to interrogate the car: http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... 19&t=29178" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I suspect the BSI has gone into a tail spin due to the disconnection - hopefully it should be possible to re-initialise it. The battery may still be suspect though - they are very fussy about that.

Not sure about the wipers, but you need to get it to run first!

[Diamonddec]

Hi Richard. I'm in Northern Ireland. An update: Got a mechanic over and he had a look at it and scratched his head. He was on another call, so said he'd be back after a while. He came back and the first thing he did was to test the battery ... FLAT! He jumped it and got it going. He then ran through the BSI reset procedure. However, the wipers still didn't work. He took it for a test drive and said it seemed OK. He did another battery test and the battery had lost power already. He left and I took it for a 15 mile run and went home. I locked the car and went into the house... within a few minutes the alarm started going off. I went out and the remote key wouldn't work. I had to start the car to stop the alarm. I left it again and locked the car. Within a couple more minutes the alarm started again. I took it around to the mechanic and he again tested the battery, which seemed to be holding the charge this time. He did another reset thingy as he said that it sometimes takes a few goes, as it did with a Peugeot that he did recently. I drove the car home, stuck it in the garage and left it unlocked. It has been there for 30 minutes now and the alarm HAS NOT since gone off ... so fingers crossed!

I can't believe that the battery went flat so quickly though! It wouldn't account for the wiper malfunction for the last few weeks though. There definitely is an issue there.

I'm conscious that the car is coming up to 6 years old, so this might just be the start of the problems.... I'm thinking that seeing there is so much electronics that can go wrong on this model, that it might be worth considering a newer car...

Thanks guys.

[dnsey]

If the battery is in such a poor state, it's entirely possible that the wiper problem is related.
Can you perhaps borrow a decent battery to try?
Make sure that you follow the correct disconection / reconnection procedure though, or it might make things worse!

[citronut]

hi and welcome

you really need to get a session on a LEXIA, as the LEXIA is a dealers analyser, and even the cloned version as a lot of members on here have can do everything the dealer can do,

which most of the time is much more than the average general analyser most garages/car repairers use

[addo]

The battery needs 24+ hours on a trickle charger, then a proper load test - not a simple voltage check. I'll wager it's 9/10 of your problems.

Be advised that persevering with a dead battery can cause the car to forget recognition of its keys and this means you will need someone with the correct diagnostic kit to reconfigure - plus you'll require the four character secure code.

[Diamonddec]

Thanks guys. I've decided to take it to Citroen tomorrow and get it on their diagnostic machine and see what it shows up. They quote £50 plus vat for the job, so not a fortune and hopefully it will identify a cheap fix for the wiper problem. Then if needs be, I'll buy a new battery too. I can't believe the faff you have to go through just to change a battery though... and the possible associated repercussions!

[dnsey]

Do you shut down your PC by yanking the mains plug out of the socket?

[qprdude]

Get a new battery. many of the faults are thrown up by a battery on it's way out. I had loads of electrical glitches and had a battery test. Yes, it's fine they said.Give me a new battery I said. Fixed.
No "faffing".
Old battery out , new one in. Took a couple of minutes or so. No windows open, key in , key out, do the hokey cokey and shake it all about. No waiting for anything to discharge. Battery out---battery in, just like my old Morris Oxford.

[RichardW]

Sometimes you get away with that, sometimes you don't..... It's not too much hardship to just leave it a few minutes before disconnecting, and then a minute or so, plus a minute or so with the ignition on before starting it - well, not compared to the BSI having a fit anyway

[dnsey]

Apart from the possibility of generating more random glitches, the real issue with chancing it is that (rarely) the BSI's 'operating system' can be permanently erased. You really don't want to have to replace the BSI

[qprdude]

I say it as I see it. I have never, in 45 years of motoring, bothered about faffing about with this sort of stuff. If I ever get caught, I'll let you know, but I must have changed a hundred batteries in everything from the C5 to a Ford popular(OK no BSI,) Jags, Renaults, Honda's, Toyotas, Audi's etc and so far I've never fried a BSI, nor caused any glitches. Can I be that lucky? or is the procedure WAY over the top?

[Stickyfinger]

well yes..100 or more...OK
BUT

You NOW have a MODERN Bsi and not just one either, maybe looking after it by understanding how it works and respecting its processors and the time it takes for all the communication and recording to be written would help ?

Cannot see how it is a "faf" at all, it is a standard procedure and has been for a few years now.....ignore at your peril