Getting difficult to crank start my C5

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Dear all,

I have un-clip the battery, lowered the suspension and waited for more than half an hour.
It is still the same after connecting the battery.
I need to press hard on the brake pedal, in order to crank start. I used to able to crank start without pressing in the brake pedal.
Once started, "Parking Assistant system is faulty", Service word lighted up and go away in a short while.
When stopped at traffic light, will also get "Parking Assistant system is faulty" message when moving on at change of traffic light.

Where is this parking assistant system located in the car? Is it some sort of a sensor?

Kindly advise me and Thank you very much.

Regards,

[Stickyfinger]

Parking Assistant system faults are normally about the parking sensors (rear and/or front)

The ECU for it is in the wheel well/boot...is it wet in there ?

but I cannot see how that affects the starter........... so the ONLY way to tell is get it on a Lexia really

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Dear Stickyfinger,

Talking about wetness, we have been experiencing heavy shower on and off for the past weeks. I will check it out tomorrow.
For Lexia, I probably have to drive to the neighbouring country to find someone with the gadget but will inspect the wheel well first.

Thank you very much for the pointer.

Regards,

[lexi]

You haven't mentioned the engine, the model/year, or the gearbox.
If modern auto, there is a correlation between the brake ( switch) and the gearbox. If it has an auto handbrake, then brake switch and often brake lights all have to be working.

[Stickyfinger]

No auto/electric handbrake on that model, action on the front callipers aka Old School Citroen.

As it is an Auto box, maybe there is a problem with the No-Start in Park sensing ?

FYI, a Lexia would be the BEST investment you can make being so far from a service center. China copies seem to be OK with the C5 and are quite cheep when looking at a round trip to Singapore/Thailand.

Download this, it has all the information on your car. Let me know after you have it and I will delete the file.
http://www.mediafire.com/view/gbfbxb89x ... 787794.pdf

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Parking Assistant system faults are normally about the parking sensors (rear and/or front)

The ECU for it is in the wheel well/boot...is it wet in there ?

but I cannot see how that affects the starter........... so the ONLY way to tell is get it on a Lexia really

Thank you very much and you are right that my spare wheel boot well is flooded with water. I am not sure how this could have happened, so sad. The ECU wire are submerged in water.

I drained out the water and tried drying the ecu and wire. However now it gets worse and my parking sensor no longer in working condition. After drying the well, my crank start problem just vanished mysteriously.

Now I have to hunt for an ECU and import it in. Anyone can advise me on the part number? Thank you very much.

Regards,

[GiveMeABreak]

Don't panic just yet! I had an incident on my X7 where the 5 litres of screenwash concentrate I was carrying in the boot leaked! I didn't realise this for several months, until my rear parking sensors started playing up intermittently. Had it in the garage on the diagnostics and there was nothing wrong with the sensors - so when they went to check the ECU in the boot well, they said there was a lot of purple dye in there that smelled of blackcurrants! This then rang a bell as it was blackcurrant smelling screenwash that I had bought and then realised what had happened.

So I took the unit off the boot mounting. You can carefully open the ECU - but be careful as the circuit board and connector pins are quite fragile, but it is possible to separate the unit quite easily if you have a bit of patience. I used a hairdrier on it using only low heat and then some electrical contact cleaner - actually lots of contact cleaner. I carefully used some very soft wipes to gently clean the circuit board and contacts. It did take several days to keep cleaning it with the contact cleaner and drying out and repeating. The only way was to assemble and connect up (without mounting back on the boot fixing) and trying it out. After the third cleaning and drying cycle it finally got rid of all the moisture. I then gave it a final spraying of electrical contact cleaner inside the pins and connectors and that cured it. Never had another issue with it. Also - I never carry any screenwash in the boot again or any other liquid!! May be worth a try. You can live without your sensors for a while, just keep persevering with it. Good luck.

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So I took the unit off the boot mounting. You can carefully open the ECU - but be careful as the circuit board and connector pins are quite fragile, but it is possible to separate the unit quite easily if you have a bit of patience. I used a hairdrier on it using only low heat and then some electrical contact cleaner - actually lots of contact cleaner. I carefully used some very soft wipes to gently clean the circuit board and contacts. It did take several days to keep cleaning it with the contact cleaner and drying out and repeating. The only way was to assemble and connect up (without mounting back on the boot fixing) and trying it out. After the third cleaning and drying cycle it finally got rid of all the moisture. I then gave it a final spraying of electrical contact cleaner inside the pins and connectors and that cured it. Never had another issue with it. Also - I never carry any screenwash in the boot again or any other liquid!! May be worth a try. You can live without your sensors for a while, just keep persevering with it. Good luck.

Thank you very much for sharing your experience with me. Actually, it sounds like a labourious task to me .
I may make do without the sensors for the time being.

I am not so keen to invest further in the car. I will be moving to another country for work next year so I may keep the car for just one more year here. After which, I will have to get another car. However, under such hot and humid weather here, I may have no choice but to change the aircon compressor next week since it is failing. I will open another thread on this subject.

Thank you once again.

Regards,

[GiveMeABreak]

Ok - but remember re the air conditioning - all these loose gas over time, so it would be worth getting a recharge first unless you know for sure the compressor is out.

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Ok - but remember re the air conditioning - all these loose gas over time, so it would be worth getting a recharge first unless you know for sure the compressor is out.

Thank you very much for the advice.
This option has been attempted several times but to no success. The cost of doing 4 recharge is equivalent to buying a compressor over here.

Regards,