How to undo this clip + Picasso starting issue.

[Richard_C]

Ages since I posted a question here - 2 cars running well and its a long time since I've owned interesting citroens.

My 2015 m/y 2016 reg C4 Picasso Blue Hdi, manual, 66k miles, gave me a fraught week. Running fine, battery good evcen to the point of stop start working properly. On Tuesday it failed to start, unlocked fine, mirrors didn't motor out, no power to tailgate, start button dead. Many minutes and button prods later it did come to life. Error 'check foglights', easily dismissed by turning lights on and off again. Ok for a day then the symptoms returned withh increasing frequancy. Same with both keys, from locked or unlocekd overnight. It always started eventually, between 2 and 6 minutes of random prodding and holding, but the will it/won't it question was ever present. I was on Orkney, didn't really want recovery to Cambridge, and the Saturday ferry on/off, overnight stay and so on was accomanied by too many worries. On Sunday with an almost full tank of diesel, once I got it going I disabled the eco stop start, we took turns to use facilities at services, had snacks at the car and kept the engine running for 8 hours till we got home.

I have seen suggestions that its the bsi 'fuse box' beside the battery, corrosin or damp, so today I did a disconnect/bsi reset (excellent instructiosn from givemeabreak on this forum), left it for 2 hours disconnected, restarted OK but I won't know if its cured until tomorrow and won't trust it for a few weeks even if it is.

One of the things I had planned to do while the battery was disconnected was pull the plugs into the unit beside the battery and clean any contacts, but I couldnt work out how to get them off so abandonned, didn't want to risk damage. I sprayed contact cleaner into every likely orifice instead.

So, from the attached photos, how to get those plugs undone? The top one is partially released, the bottom one still secured. (the red thing is just a cap I pushed over the naked battery + terminal to avoid accidents) Slide orange bit down, push the middle of the black bit and the white clip pivots up, but only so far. What next?

Plus, any advice or comments welcome. I could fix 2CVs and XUD diesels but I'm too old for this modern stuff.

The Citroen dealer/service network has been eviscerated in this area so I will likely take it to Duxford Motors who still have some staff from the days when they were approved agents, unless I can get a good diy fix for the problem.

[RichardW]

The power up fault is almost certainly the BPGA battery protection unit. The one you are trying to unplug is the engine ECU however.... the BPGA is directly in front of the battery.

[Richard_C]

Thanks. Probably best I couldn’t undo it then. I will have a look in daylight tomorrow when/if the rain stops. I am sure you are right so it looks like a replacement BPGA is what I need if it’s still causing problems.

[Richard_C]

Just a quick follow up. The bsi reset didn’t achieve much, although it started fine straight after it was back to square 1 this morning. I’ve identified the bpga and seen the part number on the label and it’s all consistent with what I’ve read including the advice here. Will get it replaced. I’m sure I could do it myself but the labour charge is likely to be minimal compared to the part cost so I will get my local independent former Citroen agent to do it. Thanks for the advice and clarifications.

[Richard_C]

The story updated, and more help needed. It’s been in the service garage, former but not current Citroen agent, for 11 days now, during which time they have done an inconclusive diagnostic and nothing else. No commitment to when they can look again, short of staff. So my plan is to give them another day then go get it, order the bpga which will cost me 250 to 300 and fit it myself. A risk if I am wrong, but progress.

It looks easy to access and fairly easy to change as long as you are methodical.

Has anyone fitted one and is it straightforward?


.

[GiveMeABreak]

A few things you need to be very aware of when replacing these Units:

1) Carefully clean up the area of the Electrical Supplies Protection and Management unit (BPGA) where all the fuses are and take photographs of the positions of each of these. The Fuse numbers are etched on the surrounding metal.
2) The connections of these are not the same for every vehicle and will differ depending on options and equipment, so there is no default or guide to where these go, hence point 1 above.

Make sure you follow the BSI Reset / Battery Disconnect / Reconnect Procedure before and after competing the work.