New Member - out of my depth!

[Must be Mad]

Hi all just joined after lurking for a bit.

i made the mistake of taking on a well used and abused 2013 C4 1.6HDI. 115ps

I knew it needed strut top mounts, heavy steering and twang as the spring tried to twist, drive home confirmed brake discs shot warped and try rip the steering wheel out my hands at speed. Wheel bearing clearly toast given the tunes it was playing, and to top it all feels gutless low end.

MOT advisory bottom arms and strut bearings

Fast forward 2 weeks stripped off passenger side, new lower arm, new ball ball joint, new hub with new bearing, new Munroe shock, new ARB drop link, new discs pads, new slider pins and rubber boots on caliper. ARB drop link had to be ground off seized beyond all hope, to my shock the M6 bolt came out the wheel sensor, all other bolts tight but eventually came off,

Had to move the car out the drive, when to end of street and turned, but the speedo now playing up all the signs of failed wheel sensor or broken magnetic strip in wheel bearing absolutely raging I purchased replacement hubs with bearings to avoid this. Waiting on new wheel sensor, but feeling of dread knowing i have to take it all out again if wheel sensor does not fix it.

Made a start on drivers side this clearly had a replacement shock and bottom arm, to give you an idea how tight the lower arm bolts were, impact no chance, HUGE breaker bar nope scaffold extension bar and lots of heat, nope sheared the 1/2 square drive off the breaker bar, several days of hitting heating and swearing broke them loose, clearly been bodged before, the bolt under the driveshaft been replaced with a hex head bolt fitted from underneath. had to cut ARB links off of course. Strut lower pinch bolts 18mm head, had the captive nut end glowing red hot, breaker bar on bolt ring key on nut, nope no matter what i threw at it just rounded the heads off. no option but to grind them off and get replacements. Again caliper slider pins solid and beyond repair. Still to tackle the shock ran out of time, weather and patience tbh.

Rant over a few questions -

It rained for 3 days, came out to find drivers footwell swimming. I had removed the plastic scuttle to get access to strut mounts, did not refit it but did refit the plastic bulkhead under the bonnet. would this plastic scuttle alone cause this to flood? was ok until I took it off to do struts, tried to put it back on but some clips have been snapped off, my thinking is once ready to refit fill the channel with silicone or the like to get a decent seal to lower part of the screen? Would this alone have caused the flood or have I yet more problems?

DPF / EGR - i have basic scanner - TopDon Car Pal, no fault codes and says DPF is ok and pressure readings within spec, I would assume at 107k it will need a DPF and EGR clean at very least?

It feels like lack of use or constant city use the displayed economy was crap more like it should after couple of hundred miles and fresh diesel, now pulls much better just feels a bit down when cruising at motorway speeds, my old focus with same engine rolled on and pulled hard at any sped or revs, this feel much more like have to have it in the right power zone to spool up.

Given its age and total lack of care and maintenance, once i get suspension and brakes sorted, have oil, oil filter, fuel filter and cabin filter to change out. Should i drain the gearbox and refill as well at this age?

Anything else to check for the lack of error codes makes me think nothing major, no sign of split hoses or oil leaks etc. As said I expect to have remove or clean the DPF in situ and I presume clean or replace the EGR at this age and mileage?

Wheels are kerbed and a mess seem straight tho, body starting to rust leading edge of the bonnet has many bubbled areas, bottom of doors has rust spots and few spots on the arches, rust spot from untreated scratch on boot has become a large rust patch.

The one complaint from SWMBO is the door checks clank and bang, they are LOUD

Sorry for the rant just buyers remorse lol

Back to main issue speedo going haywire, I assume this is a poor feed from the wheel bearing magnetic strips to the wheel speed sensor, if one side not right that will cause speedo to go nuts yes? I will try a new wheel speed sensor but am I correct in saying the fault is probably a broken or poor quality magnetic strip in the wheel bearing? My scanner lets me see live data so i can check that when back on its wheels, my basic knowledge suggests a bad sensor will go to open circuit and generate a fault code is this correct? So more likely to be the wheel bearing?


New to the world of Citroen but not DIY or cars, so any advice very much welcome, and honest opinions, is this worth fixing or let it be scrapped?

thanks all

[PaulC5]

A few comments.
The trip computer only goes to 9999 km = 6214 miles and then does not go any higher. It needs to be reset by holding in the button on the end of the wiper stalk, otherwise any recent mpg values will not be correct.

Bubbling of the paint on the C4 bonnets is well known. We had them replaced at no charge by Citroen on our 2011 and 2015 C4s when around 4 years old. Something to do with incorrect preparation when being painted and them being aluminium. With your car being a lot older I would not think Citroen will replace yours since the paint/corrosion warranty was 10 years or maybe 12 years and then needed to be checked every 2 years at a dealer and the maintenance record book stamped.

The door check straps might just need greasing.

The timing belt should have been replaced at 10 years old at the latest so something to check it has been done.

Our 2015 C4 was not accelerating well and the dealer did a diagnostic and found a fault with the fuse unit on top of the battery. They replaced it under the warranty.

[Must be Mad]

Thanks for your comments yes I figured out the trip and reset it

The bonnet is flaking makes sense why not rusted if aluminum then, yes this old bucket well past any warranty work not been looked at in years just driven until it got too noisy for the previous owner.

Timing belt, water pump and ancillaries belts will not have been done, before I spend anymore money see if i can fix the suspension and brakes and now speedo faults.

Car pulls well when accelerating through the gears feels healthy, it just feels a bit breathless when coasting on in top gear, compared to my old focus, it was much younger and well maintained tbh so not fair comparison, either that of the gearing is different?

I will try slap some grease on the door checks but all my searches say they are worn out and need replacing, hard to justify at value of this car at the moment