Berlingo Multispace (2016) judder on transmission with piloted gearbox.

[FranklinJ]

Hi to all and Happy New Year.

Starting off the New Year, I have a really annoying judder on this Berlingo which existed from new and has been back to the Citroen main dealer, from whom purchased, a couple of times without them being able to replicate the problem sufficiently which is intermittent but quite disconcerting when it appears.

The gearbox is a piloted manual type so although it changes gear automatically the transmission is via a clutch with a dual mass flywheel.

The juddering occurs only occasionally and when starting off or doing slow manoeuvring of vehicle, for instance when parking and it is necessary to change between first gear and reverse there is a judder in the transmission which shakes the vehicle quite violently on occasion and more lightly at other times.

When the judder occurs, doing a few changes between forward and reverse, for instance to position into a parking slot between two vehicles the judder can escalate to a violent level where a quick foot on the brake pedal is necessary to damp the oscillation. The majority of the time the clutch take up is uneventful in regard to the malfunction although it has always had a characteristic snatch to a greater or lesser degree when moving off. After moving off there is no judder in any of the higher gears up or down.

It is hard to believe that amongst the Berlingos’ of this year sold, I have the only one with this problem.

The dealer tells me the software is up to date but seemed a bit circumspect about whether they had had previous knowledge of the problem with this model. It would be tempting to put the problem down to clutch alignment but that would not account for why the transmission operates normally at other times, so if anyone has any experience of this problem or can hazard an informed guess at what may be the cause, I would be most grateful.

[clancy]

Hello You are Not alone
I have experienced exactly same issue and still do.
Did you resolve?
Anybody else have same/similar issues?

thanks for reading

[FranklinJ]

Hi, as your post is recent I hope you haven’t bought my blue Berlingo which is blue and has my addendum in the owner’s handbook to describe how to overcome an all doors locked up situation.

I’m sorry to say the juddering problem was never cured by the Citroen garage I bought it from and whilst they loaned me a couple of new C4 demo saloon cars whilst they were trying to remedy the problem they seemed to be at a loss to find a solution to the judder on the Berlingo.

The garage thought the problem was with the clutch actuator mechanism which is electro/hydraulic in operation but I have my doubts that they did anything like fitting a new complete assembly which, as a main dealer, could be rightly expected in the circumstances.

The bottom line is that they gave me a refund less the year depreciation and I bought a Vauxhall Combo with full automatic transmission and no judder. I would just say that piloted gearbox can work well, as with my 2012 Peugeot 3008 which has a similar if not identical power line as the Berlingo.

The problem with these more obscure and time consuming issues to investigate, as with the Berlingo, is the emotional climate between customer and vendor which becomes sorely tested if there appears to be little or no progress and the perception is they have really given up and are hoping you’ll go away or buy something else.


However, good luck and I hope you don’t have my old Berlingo.

[davidg4039]

I have a blue model bought last year and have that same judder problem! Reg: WR62TCY, not the same one by chance?

[Doo]

Could be any number of reasons, but the piloted gearbox electro-hydraulic clutch is never going to be as good as a human foot. I find on both our cars that when cold, the fine control is out the window. It's either on or off. When hot, I am able to feather the throttle until I feel the clutch biting and then try to keep at the pressure, trundling along in 1st at around 5mph.

It's possible your clutch needs to be adjusted for wear. My wife's C4 was playing up and I used DiagBox to fix it. I had to drive it 1st into 2nd, STOP, 1st into 2nd STOP, 1st into 2nd STOP, then onto a fast road and go through the gears for a few miles then it was fine.

[Jfm]

Hi, I have a 2015 Berlingo (36k) with the same problem. Took it to a Citroen specialist in Poole, Dorset. They said the gearbox needed reprogramming…they cleared the old program and reinstalled the software. That last for a couple of months and now it’s as bad as ever. They said overall it’s a troublesome gearbox.