c3 Sensodrive snowflake

[gowza]

My 2004 c3 1.4 sensodrive has got the dreaded snowflake.

Local Citroen garage have said fault code is around the actuator and wiring harness but that the gearbox also sounds very noisy.

They say £3000 for new gearbox, actuators etc and that it is not economical to fix.

Also say exhaust will need replacing soon.

80,000 on the clock so not that many miles, well in my mind

In the 9 years I've had it the following has been repaired

Gear box software updated 2, once when it wouldn't go in reverse
New head gasket
Both headlights replaced due to water ingress/delimitation
New starter motor
new battery
Front brakes and pads done twice
Front drop bars
3 sets of tyres
New windscreen
4 sets of new headlight bulbs
New cam belt.
Air con stepper motor
New temperature sensor, dash only show 1 or 2 temperature lights and has for the last 3 year, garage said was working ok.
Normal wear and servicing, oil, filters etc

Annoyingly the front disks/pads and front tyres were only fitted 3 months ago

Would I buy another Citroen, unlikely. Need to go back to having a job were I get a company car.

[Lighty]

All of that sounds like normal maintenance for a C3, these cars can be repaired for a lot less if you go about it in the correct way.

[SwissSPEC]

Get a 2nd hand gearbox instead?

[Lighty]

The gearbox is not the problem, bearings can be replaced quite cheaply, it's the gear change actuator that is costly , in fact most of the automated bits are lots of money, but these can be sourced second hand.
Trouble is you need a good knowledge of how it works to correctly diagnose the fault.

[Peter.N.]

Don't get an auto next time unless you can't do without one, manual gearboxes usually last the life of the car and are more economical, even if you have to replace the clutch its a much easier job and cheaper than an autobox.

Peter.

[Lighty]

The gearbox he has is a manual, it's just automatically controlled,