C5 X7 2.7l v6 glow plug change

[ActivaV6uk]

Mine has about 3-4 working at a guess, when it finally starts it's on 5 cylinders for a second too. Anyone ever changed them or even seen them lol. To say that they packed the v6 well is an understatement.

[31mev]

I believe its the same engine as fitted to a Discovery 3. This may enlighten you and perhaps depress you a little. You will know where to find them though !

[ActivaV6uk]

Awesome, anyone looking for a C5 v6 estate?

I know why I couldn't find them now... They are buried in the v. That I fear is a days work done properly, role on summer!

[31mev]

How did I know you were going to say that! I am working on my daughters 1.6 hdi. I am fairly sure she has 1 working. It starts in the frost, thats plenty

[white exec]

That has to be one of the most uninformative videos ever.
It only has one message: p.i.t.a.
But, as you say, at least it shows where they are.

[ActivaV6uk]

Unfortunately we are down to one car at the moment so if it doesn't start and drains the battery (done that once already) the Kidd's won't get to school and my wife won't get to work. So I will have to do something about it sooner rather than later.

The other car we have is a Merc C200 coupé. Personally I hate the car, it's big doesn't perform well, and it's interior is very brittle, oh and it rusts like crazy. When my parents originally bought it I had my n reg activa, I drove both and seeing as they were both ment to be 150bhp the Activa left it for dead on the road there was no comparison at all either in handling (Merc can't be driven past heavy rain with out winter tires) or pickup. What's worse is the b5.5 Passat estate 130bhp of the same year also left it for dead and would do minimum 20mpg more per gallon consistently for 14 years!

Anyway Merc failed it's mot on emissions and has cost £1700 so far for new lambda sensors, new engine loom, oil blockers to protect the loom and sensors and fitting of the above. Best of all it's not even guaranteed to solve the emissions issue. Unfortunately my wife and parents like the car other wise it would have headed to eBay and my wife could have had the cactus or DS3 she has wanted for years... I hope when people have a go about french wiring the above makes you all feel better.

The Passat also had issues, VW installed a foam seal at the pollon filter, the area it's in floods, wicks through the foam and flows into the car at the passengers foot well, ruining the crash sensor and the control units under the passengers seat. The car also stank of stagnant water for the first 2 years I owned it. Because the VW garrage that dad bought it from also didn't tell him there was a recall going on at the time he reported the issue this car also cost more than £1k to fix the water damaged components. The garrage didn't even change the seal and instead left it leaking for 2 years before I took possession of it even though the car went into them 6 times during that 2 year period, and they charged for looking at it every time too!

[doctle]

In the passat you need to clear the plenum drains. Take off the scuttle panel and then take out the battery. There are a couple of small drain holes in there they get covered with leaves and dirt. When I had a passat I solved the problem with a drill!

[ActivaV6uk]

The Passat met it's end on the first of this year, once the seal was replaced in 2011 it never leaked again (blu-tak type seal). In the end it was falling apart, it had the usual rusted front wings, the rear seat mount had broken off, it was due a cam belt, then intermittently it wouldn't start taking 11+ attempts to get her to fire up and stay running. Hence the return to Citroen for me as I couldn't resist the allure of hydractive again, and after owning a xantia and a 406 v6 I wanted to try the hdi v6. Imho the car is let down by an aweful gearbox (which for most of the time sits in 3rd) spends a lot of time revving and going no where really. I find it very depressing going us some of the hills here at 9 mpg where the Passat would have got 25-30 minimum. And 380 miles a tank is nothing but painful. My activa when driven well could actually manage more and the 2l supercharged Merc also manages 4 mpg per gallon on average better than the C5 (even with a damaged loom and over fueling) on the same exact routes.

Using tiptronic I can get my average fuel economy up to 50mpg and it's more responsive too. The only problem is that even in tip the box changes down too early it needs about another 2-300 rpm grace to be really good. I've read the box can be reprogrammed, if the car was half the milage I would actually do it.

[GiveMeABreak]

The Box is auto-adaptive and there is nothing to reprogrammed from using Diagbox. I understand the AM6 software is specifically programmed for the engine at factory. I’ll see if there was a TSB though for anything related which may have resulted in a software update....

[ActivaV6uk]

I think the tuning is done more like that of an ECU. I found a company in Bristol who can change the firmware, my understanding is it will change the units behaviour so it changed up earlyer, uses the fluid fly less (that's the real issue) and changes at what rpm it will change up/ down.

I don't see why the car sits at 3k rpm in 3rd up a hill, most of the energy is just wasted the car can go up the same hill at 2k in 3rd in tiptronic with no issues it will even do it in 4th at 1.5k once warm. Living where I do there are a lot of hills some are a mile + long, the Passat and 406 would hammer up those at 60mph at 25mpg, the C5 will do 30mph at 9mpg or 60 at 6mpg. That's pretty aweful for a high torque engine.

[GiveMeABreak]

Then you have an issue with the box, as it isn't normal behaviour and I would suggest tackling that rather than trying to get the reprogramming done, as later if the fault is corrected it will be out of kilter again.

First I would highly recommend the oil is changed - plenty of threads on how to do that on an AM6 box here:

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=56837&hilit=AM6+gearbox#p517292

Secondly, there are several Technical Service Bulletins on the AM6, one sticks out to mind - note I have translated some of this as best I can, but essentially it is saying that if you have changed the wheel sizes (or these have been changed by another owner) then the ESP ECU must be told about it (using Diagbox). The ESP ECU has to know the right type of tyres that are fitted in order to calculate the correct speed information. If not it can affect the operation of the gearbox as this gets its speed info from the ESP ECU.

Customer Complaint: Switching from second gear to third gear and / or from third gear to fourth gear takes place only at high engine speed.
CONDITIONS OF OCCURENCE: Shift lever in position D
ORIGIN
Incorrect information about wheel speed transmitted to the Gearbox ECU (Dimensions of tires not compatible; Tire pressure not compliant; ABS / ESP ECU.
INTERVENTION AFTER SALE
Tire control.
Checking the ABS / ESP ECU configuration

Tire inspection
Checking tire technical data
Check that tire specifications are identical for all four wheels (dimensions, load indicator, make) and according to the definition of the vehicle:
· If technical data is compatible: Check the pressure
· If technical data is inconsistent: Replace the incompatible tire or Tires

NOTE: The least worn wheels should be at the rear
Checking the air pressure in the tires
Check the tire pressure (Difference of 300 mbar pressure in the rear wheels may cause an incident):
· If the pressure is consistent: Check the ABS / ESP ECU configuration
· If the pressure does not match: Restore the correct pressure

Checking the ABS / ESP calculator's configuration Check the ABS / ESP
calculator's menu to see if the wheel's dimensions match the dimensions of the wheels mounted on the vehicle:
· If compatible: Perform a deeper search for damage
· If incompatible: Configure the dimensions of the wheels manually

[ActivaV6uk]

Marc that's useful, the oil has been changed in the box but I will look at the rest the 2/3/4 gear issue sounds bang on. Maybe I can use this as an excuse to buy the lovely later black / silver alloys hehe

[GiveMeABreak]

There should be a section in the ESP ECU where this is specified Andy. I know some people hate the 19" wheels and have gone back to 17 or 18" because of the ride quality - so this may of been done and they didn't know about making the change in the ECU. Ditto for increasing the wheel sizes too.....

[ActivaV6uk]

If you nip onto the link for the review of the car the alloys are the ones in the photos, do you happen to know the tire size? I think it's got some cheap cr*p on the front so I wouldn't be surprised if that's part of the issue.

The diag box purchase is on hold, they have no stock. What os do you run on your laptop to use the diag box btw, I seem to remember there was a limit of windows xp at one point.