2009 Citroen C5 1.6 hdi Flat spot and juddering

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grogann
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2009 Citroen C5 1.6 hdi Flat spot and juddering

Post by grogann »

Hi,

New to the forum and this is my first post - please bear with me....

I've just bought a 2009 Citroen C5 1.6hdi with 60k miles on the clock. It shows that it has had 4 services in the book, the most recent at 59k.

Since I picked the car up I have done 500 miles and almost immediately noticed a flat spot at about 1250-1500rpm when accelerating very lightly. Its more notable after a gear change that brings the revs down and when you bring your foot up off the clutch and begin to accelerate it hits this flat spot, and then almost immediately kicks in again and causes what feels like a juddering effect for a second maximum. It's only ever done it one other time and that is when I was crusing at about 70mph on the motorway with cruise control on and all of a sudden it began to judder. Takiong the car off cruise and slowing down a few miles per hour sorted it and then I took it back up to 70mph. There is no blue/black smoke out the exhaust, just healthy clear steam/smoke. The car has been back to the garage I bought it from where it is under warranty for 60 days. They reported no faulty found.

Other than this, the car runs like a dream, extremely economical (i'm getting close to 55mpg round town and 60mpg on motorway runs).

The other day I was driving at about 40-50mph and it did it again, and almost immediately the economy dropped down to 16-24mpg which was strange. There was no difference in running, it was still smooth, no noises or anything different to usual. I got home and took it out again a few hours later on the same journey and it was back up to the 50mpg mark again.

This morning, I started the car after it had been sat overnight and it immediaely cut out and the following messages displayed: ESP / ASR system faulty and Anti-polution system faulty. I restarted the car and the messages had dissapeared and the drive to work was fine.

I've read on here and elsewhere on the web that the problem could be to do with an air intake valve somewhere, fuel filters or the EGR valve? Can anybody shed any further light on this problem as I am worried it could be something more like the fuel injectors etc? I'm going to book it in again for this coming Saturday and so could do with some pointers to tell the garage (Arnold Clark Renault Dealer).

Thanks in advance,

Nick
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Re: 2009 Citroen C5 1.6 hdi Flat spot and juddering

Post by Stickyfinger »

Mine did a similar thing (1.6 2005)....it proved to be the electrical plug on the EGR valve (its a sob to get at)......pressed/pulled it off, cleaned with contact cleaner then silicon protector and refitted....

All OK now
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Re: 2009 Citroen C5 1.6 hdi Flat spot and juddering

Post by Lighty »

1.6 hdi is a complex beast, there is now way that it can be diagnosed without being hooked up to a computer. The Lexia machine will show stored fault logs, but anything on a forum would be pure guess work I am afraid.
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Re: 2009 Citroen C5 1.6 hdi Flat spot and juddering

Post by Stickyfinger »

Lighty wrote:1.6 hdi is a complex beast, there is now way that it can be diagnosed without being hooked up to a computer. The Lexia machine will show stored fault logs, but anything on a forum would be pure guess work I am afraid.
HI, sorry but I disagree with that. A good educated guess....I'll take that

There are a good set of actions that CAN be done quickly that could be the problem and are worth doing even if a session is finally required.
It was after a Lexia session that I was pointed to the EGR plug by an old Citroen lag, they always play up he said...I always pull em and clean them when the car comes in, 50-% chance...he said....he was correct.
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Re: 2009 Citroen C5 1.6 hdi Flat spot and juddering

Post by grogann »

Thanks for the replies. I have a mate coming around this evening who's going to take a look with me. Cheers
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