C5 electric seats

[Peter.N.]

Hi folks

Do you know if an SX has the necessary wiring to fit heated electric seats?

Peter

[Citroenmad]

See, I said there would be something next ... not stopping at the tuning box

If you dig around under the front seats you might well find them. Ive not looked but im sure someone on here (maybe a few) have fitted them to similar spec cars and have found the wires in place.

Something I would like to find out about mine in case a suitable MK2 leather set comes available.

[Peter.N.]

There are three sets of leather seats with door cards on ebay at the moment for around £100.00, I suppose I shouldn't tell you that really. What prompted my enqiry is that I have a bit of back trouble from time to time and the standard seats don't have lumber support, then I noticed they are available heated, I do like my heat and it helps my back.

I am going upt to Kent for a wedding this weekend and I wanted to take the C5 but having driven it ths evening its made my back ache, the 406 seats seem to be better in that you can tilt them, I will have to see how I feel in the morning.

Peter

[Citroenmad]

I have seen those Peter, though im wanting the dark leather and ideally from a C5II as I believe the wiring is different.

You can get C5s with lumbar adjust (my VTR has lumbar adjust) and also heated - though I think only some leather seats have them.

If you find a decent set of Exclusive cloth seats, you might well find them more comfortable as they have lumbar adjust too.

[waynedance]

Mine has leather electric lumber adjustment but not heated, not to bothered about heated.

The C5 is the most comfortable car seats I have ever had.

[c52012]

I bought one of those three sets of leather electric seats and now I am having great fun fitting them! ......NOT!

I have read several threads on different forums as although they plug in, there is no movement at all.

Now people have mentioned missing fuses in the fuse box and an 80 amp maxi fuse missing from a hidy hole under the main fuse box that you apparently have to remove to get to. Fair do's.

BUT! - On the passenger seat there were two plugs that mated with two females under the carpet - Great!
On the drivers seat, the same was true only with three plugs this time - Great!

Only........coming out of the drivers seat is another multi plug on an extended lead. the plug head is bright blue contains about ten or twelve thin wires including yellow, orange, grey white, blue, green etc, and it has a black clamping lever attached to it which straddles the plug either side, and pivots, suggesting that the plug is pushed into a receiver of some kind and then the lever clamped down to keep it in place. Its about 20 mm long and about 5mm wide. I have looked inside the carpet area were the other plugs live, inside the centre console through both the handbrake and gear stick apertures but can see nothing for it to plug into - this is the mystery piece of the puzzle that I fear will hold me up from puting these leather electric seats in my car.

SO! - does anyone have any ideas where that blue plug needs to go? It will only reach as far as the sides or forward a little, it wouldn't make it to the front of the console or fuse panel.

[cachaciero]

Possibly CD stacker cable ??? Believe the stacker tray attaches to the seat, would seem sensible from a production point of view to pre-install the cable.

cachaciero

[Peter.N.]

You obviously bought the heated ones, I was going for them but it wouldn't have been until we were on the way back from Scotland at the end of the month.

Peter

[c52012]

Peter, if things keep going the way they are with this damned car, I'll sell you the interior!

Thanks for the suggestion on CD changer - strongly believe this to now be the answer after two other sources confirmed the same - the embarrassing part? - I used to work as an audio specialist, but was so wound up by the seats not working and being in a hurry I just wasn't thinking straight! DOH!!!

So! - Out with the old AGAIN and in with the new AGAIN!! - BUT! - Not until I have checked out these fuse locations!

The car is far more refined than my series one Xsara HDI estate in many ways, and smoother to drive (mostly), But my God! - the Xsara is so much more sure footed! and economical! I thought this 110 was supposedly better on fuel, but after a full tank was used with mostly motorway miles, it only returned 38 MPG whereas the good old Xsara was getting as much as 53 on the 90 bhp engine.
The C5 sounds rough on cold idle & gets quieter as it warms up, and sometimes when cold, the whole car shakes with the engine as if a mount is dodgy - if so, would suspect near side as its the most expensive and a pig to get to by the looks of things, hence the least likely to be replaced if not totally necessary.
The auto wipers have a mind of their own, and often decide that when you're doing thirty or less with little or no rain, they actually need to go into "psycho mode"!!
Auto lights mostly work ok, but often come on when it seems a bit light still whilst on other occasions as the light is fading, can't be bothered and leave it to you!
Oh! and the thing tends to sway and wander on occasions at speed when changing lanes - not hugely, but a little unnerving to say the least! Guess this is the rear arms everyone mentions!
Sooooooooooooooooooooo glad I bought it!

[Peter.N.]

I'm rather glad you bought them, now I know what I'm in for I would suspect that there is something wrong with your engine as the 2.0 Hdi in my 406 will do 60+ at a steady 60 mph and I cant see the extra weight making that much difference, my 2.2 only does about 45 mpg which I reckon is abysmall, I used to get 50 mpg from the XM.

The vibration you have sounds like a misfire, I would suspect an injector which may be responsible for the poor fuel consumption. Apart from the poor mpg I have'nt had much trouble with mine and I only paid £300.00 for it, it does give a nice ride and its quiet, Im not to worried about the handling, I don't drive that fast I just want the comfort, could be uneven tyre wear though if its wandering about, mine is pretty stable although not as sharp as the 406 but I don't like the ride on that.

Let me know when you have the seats sorted and I will look out for some more

Peter

[cachaciero]

Decided to keep it then Peter inspite of the fuel consumption

cachaciero

[citroenxm]

I'm rather glad you bought them, now I know what I'm in for I would suspect that there is something wrong with your engine as the 2.0 Hdi in my 406 will do 60+ at a steady 60 mph and I cant see the extra weight making that much difference, my 2.2 only does about 45 mpg which I reckon is abysmall, I used to get 50 mpg from the XM.


Peter

Peter, we DID tell you the 2.2's werent especially economical! And they Arent! Your figure of 45 is astonishing, and Ive said MANY times over in other places, it makes me laugh that this "Ultra Modern" Direct injection engine, cannot beat on older 90's indirect engine for economy! Its apparently to do with all the strangular Eco friendly exhaust stuff that kills the economy, and the BPH it produces.

45mpg is perfectly correct for the 2.2 16v. No more..

PS: Dont you need to connect a Lexia to the ECU to tell the car electric leather has been added, just like everything else added or changed needs the lexia to tell it.. Im sure Id heard the option needs "Switching" on in the BSI unit...

[Peter.N.]

Decided to keep it then Peter inspite of the fuel consumption

cachaciero

Only for the time being, my aim is to get a 2.0 litre when the right one turns up at the right price, in the meantime we are using it as a second car. Went to Exeter today and averaged 49.6 which I didn't think was to bad but we are going to Scotland next week in the 406.

Paul.

I know you did but would have turned it down at that price at least it has given me some experience of the C5 so I know I like them now, Its a pity really because it has virtually nothing wrong with it.

The strange thing about all this FAP DPF rubbish is that the later 2.0 L 16v has it and they give over 60 mpg for that

Peter

[citroenxm]

Yea, later 16v have Second Generation fuel systems, giving even better fuel delivery.. enableing better economy.

You know, they could even be third generation!

[c52012]

Back to topic; all fitted and working now all that was required was an 80 Amp maxi blade fuse from the front edge of the engine bay fuse box - easy job; take off the covers, you don't have to unplug all the leads on top as I have seen someone suggest on another forum, you merely free the three sprung locating tags around the fuse tray's edges and it will tip upwards towards the front. The glovebox fuse box already contained the two 30 amp standard blade fuses on my car.

The biggest problem is actually the removal and refitting of the front seats as I have discovered to potentially damaging and highly problematic Citroen design faults in doing this job!
Firstly, the four seat mounting bolts that go into the floor, have two different types of nylon spacer that sit between the seat runner and the floorpan. The centre hole of these has been designed to screw up the thread of the bolt, presumably so that the bolts and spacers stay with the seats as you lift them out and therefore don't get lost. Great idea on paper, but terrible in practice! Two bad things happen as a result of this; when refitting the seats you have to screw the spacers up the thread a fair way otherwise the bolts won't start to bite into the floor nuts - in doing this, accurate alignment of the bolts and holes is much harder than if you could just put the spacer in place and drop the bolt through to the nut with a clear view from above. The other and more damaging problem, is that when lifting the seats out, the retained bolts, now act as sharp protruding studs, which as you struggle to get the heavy seats in and out of the car will happily (and do!) catch and damage the interior, and if the seat is put down in the wrong place, puncture the carpets all too easily leaving nasty holes! Fear not though! Now I know what occurs, there is an easy solution; once all the bolst are free from the floor nuts, tip the seat back. Unplug the wires under the carpet cover and then hold the spacers with a pipe wrench or similar whilst using the star drive socket to undo the bolts from them. Both spacers and bolts can then be easily removed. To avoid refitting and future hassle, I then used a round file to enlarge the holes in the spacers to a point where the bolts will freely pass through. Problem solved!

BUT!!!! BEWARE PROBLEM TWO!!!

When all the bolts are undone, do not tilt the seat straight back; get someone to help if necessary, but lift the seat straight up until the bolts clear the nuts and then tip back. Why? - Simple; another bad design fault! - some of the captive nuts in the floorpan slide around and have oval access holes to aid with positioning, and account for slight production alignment inaccuracies. Again, great on paper, and other manufacturers have been doing this successfully for many years. Where Citroen have gone wrong here, is that there is too much free space around the captive nut in its cage and the oval holes above and below the nut are too big really. As such, if the nut is prized diagonally by the bolt as you tip back, due to the oversized ovals, the nut can AND BLOODY WELL DID!!!! drop through into the chassis crossmember, to which there is no easy access! Thankfully, a lot of luck, and years of acquired tools and tricks from working on cars, meant I was able (with a struggle) to put things right! - were I not able to then the seat would have only been bolted down on three corners! - Dangerous, and an MOT failure! so please be careful in this area.

It really has been quite an amazing experience, as in the past, when upgrading car interiors for myself or others, I have always found the rear seats to be more involved than the fronts, but on this car, the reverse is most certainly true!