Just purchased a 2010 Citroen picasso c3.

[Brommas]

Good evening, I'm new to this forum and just wanted to share a little account of a vehicle I've recently purchased.

Hopefully this is allowed.

I bought a 2010 c3 picasso 1.6hdi that had 2 previous owners, last owner had had it 8 years and looked after it very well, oil change every 6 to 8k , new clutch, front suspension rebuilt ,discs and pads all around , generally a very well looked after car with 102k on the clock.

The only thing I could fault it on was not having a documented cambelt change although the person I purchased it from said the person he bought it from stated definitely that it had been done. I've been around cars for a long time and always done all of my own work. I drove it the 120 miles home, used it a couple of times then parked it and decided to do the cambelt and water pump . I purchased a Gates full kit and when I got the original cambelt / water pump off I was shocked to find it was the original belt(year of manufacture printed on water pump and idler pulley has full date of manufacture on), the belt itself looked fine until I compressed it , when I did this fine cracks appeared and turning it inside out and stressing it also showed the ribs to be very very weak and cracked.

I basically wanted to put this here as a testament to I the quality of the original belt/water pump and idlers(all were still quiet) and water pump was still completely fine but obviously whilst doing the belt it was getting changed anyway. In 30 years of doing work on cars and many cambelt /water pump changes on many vehicles I think this is probably the oldest belt I have seen that hasn't self destructed. It really wasn't far off doing that i.m.h.o, but it didn't and hopefully it's good for another 100k now , the only other thing to add is what a pleasure it was(compared to some belts) in terms of how straight forward the job was, I didn't rush and did it over the course of a few days(as I have disabilities) and can't just go at it like a bull in a china shop.

Car drives like new and with a full service and fuel filter changed it really does feel so smooth now, it's as good as my Tucson 1.7crdi in terms of responsiveness and smoothness. Very impressed with this little runaround for not a lot of money and even happier that someone has done oil changes and documented it so regularly. It has a long way to go to beat my xantia, hopefully it turns out to be a very good car.

[mickthemaverick]

I'm sure it will be now that it will definitely be maintained correctly for the future. Sounds like a bit of a bargain to me.

[PaulC5]

Timing belt replacement is usually 10 years or a mileage if sooner so I would not expect the first owner to replace it when they only had it for 7 years. The second owner might have been confused and maybe the first owner had the aux belt replaced, the replacement is possibly 6 years on the service schedule with 10 years for its tensioner - was there a date on this when you took it off ?

[Brommas]

Yes, tensioner and water pump were dated, water pump was 2010 and tensioner had something like 06/07/10 stamped into it. I've thrown them away now and I'm not going through the bin, I will see if I have an image and upload if I did.

On a different subject I've just got back from her first decent trip with me, 200miles cruised mostly at 70 returning 64.3 on the way down and 61.2 coming home(uphill)., used 3 bars of fuel. It's not as comfortable as my other car for longer distances but it's primarily a runabout car for the dogs but it behaved wonderfully and the run will have done it done good no doubt.