C5 X7 Parking Brake Stuck On

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melj
Posts: 9
Joined: 01 Feb 2019, 14:48
Location: Somerset, UK
My Cars: Citroen C5 (X7) Exclusive Tourer, 2008, 2.2Hdi 173 BHP
x 4

C5 X7 Parking Brake Stuck On

Post by melj »

Hi All,

I experienced a nasty puncture on the front nearside tyre but I was able to pull in very quickly so didn't drive on it very far. The tyre was wrecked with a huge bolt sticking into the tread area so I put the spare wheel on carried on the one mile to home. Within a few yards I heard a sequence of warning bongs and messages - handbrake failure, ABS and ESR failure. I made it home and parked it up. Now when I start the car it I get all these messages and the car will not move due to the handbrake being locked on.

I have removed the wheel and checked for cables or wires that may have been hit by the tyre but all looks fine. I have tried pulling the yellow strap in the centre console to release the parking brake but it will not release with reasonable force (do you need to use a lot of force?). The strap moves easily and there appears to be plenty of movement of the release rod but I can't hear or feel any clunk as I would expect to hear.

I do not have a Lexia so cannot read any fault codes.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
Mel
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Re: C5 X7 Parking Brake Stuck On

Post by GiveMeABreak »

The ESP system controls the electronic handbrake functions. Depending on your spare wheel type and size, the ESP ECU may have detected a difference in the wheel speed as compared to the other wheels, causing a speed fault error - but you will just experience the warning ESP / ASR messages.

2 things to try:

First to manually unlock the parking brake, you must have your foot on the brake when you push to release it.
If that is not working, try first to put the parking brake into manual mode. With the ignition on, go into the menu activated by the steering wheel right button - go to vehicle parameters, comfort and select the automatic parking brake option or similar. If it is available, put it into manual mode and confirm.

Then again, with foot on brake, push the control to release the brake.

Failing that, the emergency pull cord can be used, but the engine and ignition must be switched off with the key out of the ignition. Make sure the car is otherwise immobilised before doing this.

You should here a click when it is disengaged - try a little harder if you have not heard the click.

Then get it to the tyre fitters and I suggest 2 new identical fronts unless they are already reasonably new of the same brand and tread pattern across the same axle.

When you have the issue resolved with the tyres - make sure the strap of the emergency release it properly put back , and only then apply a long upward pull on the handbrake control until the lamp on the control handle flashes, then release and pull up again for a long period until the lamp turns solid. This should reengage the parking brake - but is essential that the strap I mentioned before of the emergency release is not snagged or caught and is in the receptical it came out of - otherwise the parking brake will not be able to re-engage properly.
Please Don't PM Me For Technical Help

Marc
melj
Posts: 9
Joined: 01 Feb 2019, 14:48
Location: Somerset, UK
My Cars: Citroen C5 (X7) Exclusive Tourer, 2008, 2.2Hdi 173 BHP
x 4

Re: C5 X7 Parking Brake Stuck On

Post by melj »

Thanks Marc,

Problem solved thanks to your sound advice.

I started to get indications that the battery was low because the rear tailgate wouldn't operate. This seems to be the first thing to fail on a Tourer even when the engine still starts well. Anyway, I gave the battery a good charge overnight then followed your instructions and the handbrake released first time using the parking control. I was probably too hasty in resorting to the yellow strap first time around and when that didn't work I started to suspect something sinister and lost sight of the more straightforward solutions. The yellow strap still doesn't release the parking brake but I will deal with that some other time. I tugged a bit harder this time and tried it many times but I stopped short of giving it all I have got as the yellow plastic clip doesn't seem particularly strong. Time to stop digging myself into a hole I think!

Thanks again for your excellent advice. I can't imagine how many hours you must spend reading the workshop manual but keep it up.

Cheers
Mel
melj
Posts: 9
Joined: 01 Feb 2019, 14:48
Location: Somerset, UK
My Cars: Citroen C5 (X7) Exclusive Tourer, 2008, 2.2Hdi 173 BHP
x 4

Re: C5 X7 Parking Brake Stuck On

Post by melj »

...............and finally

I didn't confirm the root cause of all this. As Marc suspected the spare wheel was indeed a lot smaller than the road wheels - 61cm diameter vs 67 cm (17" alloys). This seems like a big difference but the spare may not be original as the car had 90k miles on the clock when I got it and I don't recall ever having to fit the spare before. This must have confused the ESP system which stopped the electronic handbrake releasing automatically. This would probably have sorted itself out if the handbrake would have released manually but in this case it didn't, even with the yellow manual release strap. After a good charge of the battery it's behaving normally now and the tailgate is working again. There is no manual override on these tailgates and it can get stuck halfway up if the battery level is low, which is not uncommon in a UK winter with short trips, so I have to start the engine to get it moving again. Luckily there is always enough left in the battery to start the engine even when the tailgate stops. More by luck than judgement I'd guess. The mysteries of Citroen engineering!

Thanks again Marc.

Regards
Mel
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C5 MK II 2.0 HDi Exclusive Obsidian Black
C5 MK I 2.0 HDi SX Wicked Red
Xantia S2 2.0 HDi SX Hermes Red
C15 Romahome White
XM 2.0 Turbo Prestige Emerald Green Pearlescent
XM 2.0 Turbo Prestige Polar White
XM 2.0 SX Polar White
CX 20 Polar White
GS 1220 Geranium Red
CX 2.4 Prestige C-Matic Nevada Beige
GS 1000 Cedreat Yellow
x 5644

Re: C5 X7 Parking Brake Stuck On

Post by GiveMeABreak »

No worries - I have posted up a mod to hand control of the economy mode back to the BSI form the battery charge status unit, which does improve the experience for owners with electric tailgates, but you will need Diagbox to do this:

X7 Economy Mode Mod
Please Don't PM Me For Technical Help

Marc
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