54 plate Picasso Engine Warning Light Issues

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rieg77
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54 plate Picasso Engine Warning Light Issues

Post by rieg77 »

Hi

I'm new to this forum but it comes highly recommended to me. I really hope someone can help with this, as I'm not sure where to go from here.

I have a 1.5 DCi Citroen Picasso on a UK 54 plate which seems to have a recurring problem.

To give a brief history, I've had the car for approximately 12 months. About 9 months ago the I noticed a slight stutter when driving the car - basically this felt like the turbo was cutting out for half a second or so and then kicking in again - there was definitely a momentary loss of power.

Shortly after noticing this, I had the engine warning light come on when accelerating uphill. With this we had an immediate loss of power (as expected). After some roadside assistance, the error was cleared and the car tested. Apparently the error code we have is P0234.

The same thing has happened several times since. The car is driveable once turned off and on and each time the error code is cleared the stutter seems to go away for a while. There are also no other noteiceable problems with the car.

Sometimes the error light comes on when I'm coasting downhill. And sometimes it clears itself a few minutes after coming on (after an engine restart).

So far 3 different garages have failed to resolve it.

Nationwide Autocentre said it was an ECU issue and that it needed to be replaced, but they did recommend Citroen test it as they had used Peugeot software to diagnose it.

Citroen diagnosed it as faulty glow plugs and also replaced the glow plug sensor.

An independant garage has also replaced the inlet valve on the turbo after noticing that it was all crudded up.

Frankly I'm beginning to wonder if it is an ECU problem because some of this doesn'tmake much logical sense. I'm hoping that someone out there has had some previous experience of this and can help me.

Thanks very much in advance.

Richard
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Post by myglaren »

Looked that up as Iḿ sure it was what mine threw up when the engine was trying to leap out of the bonnet, which turned out to be a dud injector.

Found this on the Ilexa Forum which may be a pointer.

Welcome to the forums, hope we can help with the problem.
rieg77
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Joined: 03 Jan 2010, 18:50
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Post by rieg77 »

myglaren wrote:Looked that up as Iḿ sure it was what mine threw up when the engine was trying to leap out of the bonnet, which turned out to be a dud injector.

Found this on the Ilexa Forum which may be a pointer.

Welcome to the forums, hope we can help with the problem.
Thanks for the reply. I'm sorry I didn't come back to you sooner but weather left me with no broadband and this is the first chance I've had.

I read the thread you sent me a link to, but I'm afraid it didn't mean much too me.

My biggest problem is that I'm not mechanically minded and don't know that much about cars, so its difficult for me to judge whether what I'm being told is right. I'm one of those useless people who takes their car to a garage to be fixed rather than get their fingers dirty.

Unfortunately I now seem to be stuck with a car which has a complex problem for which none of the garages seem to be able to agree on what the problem is.

Personally, I'm thinking it has to be electrical in some way, because once the error code is cleared, without doing anything else the engine 'stutter' goes away for a while. Surely if it was a mechanical fault, clearing the code would not have that impact, right? So would this suggest a sensor or ECU problem?

I've read somewhere that the only thing P0234 indicates is a turbo fault, but this is a bit vague and too generalised for my liking.

I suppose I'll have to take it back to one of the garages and let them take another look. I just don't like the ongoing expense of doing this each time theres a false fix.
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