Advice please if possible. Possible swirl valve problem?

[joemac666]

Hi Guys

Complete newbie to citroen and have bought a 2005 C5 auto 2.2 hdi exclusive with fsh, 105K miles. Was going great but now not so good......I have read all the threads about the swirl valve and this site is so informative!

I would just like another couple of views on my issue if possible. The car has been doing about 200 miles everyday on motorway journeys. Going great but the wheel alignment was off so I got it done by kwik Fit. Drove another few days and then first the ESP/asr lights and into limp mode. It did this off and on over 2 days then the anti pollution alert and then limp mode. From this forum I discovered the swirl valve rod was broken on the linkage it attaches too and really do think this is the problem however I'm getting these codes and would like some advice if possible.

P1352
P0487
P0234
P0400
P0401
P0238
P1352
P0487
P0234

Do you think they are all related to the swirl valve or is there other potential issues? Could this be a wheel alignment thing as well? The brakes grab a bit on one side when i brake but brake dead straight on full brake. Thanks in advance for any help offered.

Joe

[Peter.N.]

The swirl valve doesn't do a lot and will work just as well permanently open, can't help you with the codes but if its done any amount of miles it could be that the DPF needs changing or that the Eolys fluid is low, or, if you don't ever drive it hard and fast it needs a good thrashing to get the DPF working and clear it out. You really need to get it on a Lexia, that should tell you the problem.

Peter

[SaabC5]

I found i kept getting the ESP/asr light and limp home when my steering wheel was out of alignment and the steering angle sensor would know this and bring up the warning. Once this was sorted out i'd then get the same warning lights along with "diesel filter blocked" on the info display. If the DPF is badly blocked no amount of motorway driving will clear it out and it will need to come off the car and be chemically cleaned out and re-installed once it dries out. A good way of knowing if the filter is blocked is to wind the window down and try to accelerate hard from 20-50 mph, if you hear a hissing sound from underneath the DPF is blocked and exhaust pressure is leaking from the front of the DPF because it can't escape through the exhaust. The swirl valve being broken shouldn't bring up a fault light but the car will be operating on either 12 or 16 valves permanently depending on what position the rod is in. You shoud be able to notice a surge of power at about 2100-2200rpm if the valve is operating correctly. The swirl valve is just under £100 to buy but a real PITA to fit as its buried where there's lots of wires, tubes and pipes etc, factor in about 1-1.5hrs to fit.

[joemac666]

Thanks for the advice guys. The eolys fluid was changed 4k miles ago along with a major service. These lights/problems only came after the wheel alignment was done but I was thinking it was a coincidence......is there something that needs set on a lexia for the wheel alignment or something that kwik fit have left out? I think this is worth checking by the sound of it. By the way, I have been driving from Belfast to dublin every day for weeks, 200 mile round trip, and not going slow believe me.

[Mandrake]

Wheel alignment won't affect anything Leixa or fault code related.

Either its a coincidence or something else was disturbed during the wheel alignment.

[waynedance]

Swirl valve actuator is approx £23 from the dealer. Mine was broken on the end so I just swapped that from the new which took 5 minutes.

[wheeler]

After adjusting the wheel alignment on models with ESP the steering wheel angle sensor is meant to be recalibrated with Lexia & if you don't get this done it can bring the ESP warning light on. However I cant imagine that the steering angle sensor needing calibrated would put the car into limp mode.

[Mandrake]

It's certainly not going to set 9 different fault codes

[joemac666]

Hi Guys

Quick update. Got the codes read again from a snapon code reader and it came up with

P0120, P2299, P0234, P0400, P0401, P0235. Turns out their is a procedure for wheel alignment which was completed. Now all the codes have cleared.......I've bought a new swirl diaphragm anyway which will get fitted at the weekend. I only drove home a couple of miles so wont know until tomorrow when I'll be doing about 150 miles if it really was that simple. Dont think so but I'll let you know.

Joe

[joemac666]

Did 200 mile round trip today, no codes......I'm hoping that the wheel alignment was the cause and it would appear after reading a lot more threads about the net that wheel alignment can cause all sorts of spurious codes. My swirl valve arrived today and I'm gona get it put in anyway. I'll update this thread as things happen in case anyone else has a similar problem.