Battery Charge Fault - Only when reversing

[NellzieJ92]

Hey,

I'm new to this forum so bear with me.

I recently took my 2018 plate Citroën C3 Aircross to the garage after it broke down randomly with an Engine Warning Light. It was in the garage for 3 months.

It had a new battery as it was only at 40% health. It had a new throttle body (air intake) as it was stuck at an 8 degree angle. It had a new wiring harness (loom) as the plug had "burnt out". The plug burnt out due to an ECU short circuit so yep you guessed it, the ECU was also replaced.

£4000 later... I collected my car over Christmas, was still visiting family 200 miles from home where the car originally broke down anyway, drove it the 200 miles back home... 150 miles in it breaks down on me again with 31 stored faults and once the recovery man (Who took 4.5 hours to see to me on a mins 3 degree evening) plugged it in and erased codes, it was suddenly okay to drive again claiming Citroën hadn't programmed the new setup properly but that one code in the ECU itself (Something to do with error during ECU start) would need to be looked at by the dealership as he was locked out of sorting it on his diagnostic.

Adding to this, ever since that day every time I put it into reverse the "Battery Charge Fault: Please stop the vehicle" light comes on, but when it take it back out of reverse count to 5 and it's gone again.

Needless to say I want to sell the car as I have lost all faith in driving the bugger and don't even trust it to move 2 miles without needing a damn breakdown plan (i.e. 12v kettle and a pot noodle to wait) - Citroën have been to be honest horrendous during this whole ordeal. I emailed the same guy I collected the car off at the dealership post repair, telling him of my breakdown and asking him what to do given I only collected the car back off them after forking 4k out 7 days ago and had nothing from him in response which personally is so rude. When I called the local Citroën they said to me I'd have to pay £144 for the first hour and then the labour charges after that as only the part was covered under warranty which I get, but peed me off if it is in fact because someone didn't set it up properly and did a half ass job - they're brand new items for heavens sake.

I can't sell the car without figuring this error when putting into reverse as I'm already in negative equity in this finance and will literally PAY someone to buy it off me lol But don't want to loose even MORE value because of this bloody issue.

Any advice? Please... desperate here to be honest as this whole situation has been stressful, isolating and has put me in debt to the point I can no longer own a car in order to recoup my money and avoid ruining my credit score.

Thanks!

[wurlycorner]

Really sorry to hear of your experience. The selling dealership absolutely should have dealt with this for you, IMO - regardless of any 'warranty' they give you, the Consumer Rights Act means you're entitled to repair, replacement or refund within the first 30 days!

I'm not familiar with the C3 Aircross specifically, but my first thought on what the 'reverse' problem might be, is potentially a loose wire that is 'pulled' (loses connection) when the engine goes into reverse; or something related to the reverse switch (perhaps introducing a short).
What engine do you have and what gearbox (manual or auto)?
As a very basic check, you could check that the battery terminals are tight and give the cables there a tug etc. to check there's nothing loose. Then the same for where the cables at the alternator; any earth cable connections between the engine and the chassis; any earth cable connections between the battery and chassis.

[xantia_v6]

If this has a conventional manual gearbox (with manual clutch), there is probably a switch mounted on the top of the gearbox that controls the reversing light. If you can reach that, it would be worth unplugging it to see if it changes the behaviour.

My instinct says that the new ECU has not been configured correctly.