Citroen C4 Picasso 7-st (2007 - ) - Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ?

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Fri 13 Nov 2009 19:59
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - elmwoody
Hi - has anyone else had problems with their Citroen cars catching fire?? We had a Citroen C4 Grand Picasso 07 reg vehicle (car was 6months old when we purchased it) - still under manufacturers warranty that caught fire just after myself, my partner and our two children had just got out of the car. We have had two reports done - one from the fire brigade, the other from an insurance assessor both of which state that the fire was caused due to an electrical or engine fault. Apparently, according to Citroen - this is NOTHING to do with them. Has anyone else had an exceptional standard of service from Citroen?

Edited by Pugugly on 13/11/2009 at 20:37

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Fri 13 Nov 2009 20:28
Anyone had problems with Ciroen car fires ? - Altea Ego
Assuming your insurance has paid out, what are you expecting from citroen?

(its not only citroens that catch fire!)
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Fri 13 Nov 2009 20:40
Anyone had problems with Ciroen car fires ? - Old Navy
Ford have recently done an anti fire recall for the Focus so some of them must have self ignited.
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Sat 14 Nov 2009 10:20
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - gmac
What type of engine was fitted to the car ?

I'm surprised the insurance and fire brigade reports could only conclude "the fire was caused due to an electrical or engine fault". The car must have been pretty far gone by the time they got there.

Had the car received all the recall work ?
18 Sept. 2009 there was a recall on certain cars as the front brake caliper could become unsecure.
24 Dec. 2008 wipers / lights/ battery charging may be affected.
There were five recalls of these cars in 2008.

EDIT: Not all cars are affected by recalls.

Edited by gmac on 14/11/2009 at 10:22

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Sat 14 Nov 2009 10:27
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Altea Ego
"I'm surprised the insurance and fire brigade reports could only conclude "the fire was caused due to an electrical or engine fault". The car must have been pretty far gone by the time they got there."

I'm not. An underbonnet fire gets pretty hot pretty qucikly. The wiring melts in short time making diagnosis of fault there impossible.
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Sat 14 Nov 2009 10:42
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - bell boy
yes AE
its better when they start in the fuse box because you then know definitely it was a wiring issue
sometimes underbonnet fires are easy to diagnose if they are put out in time as its usually somewhere obvious that the heat turned into fire either fuel or wiring or a fuel line split
To the OP if the men with the clipboards decree it was wiring then its wiring and thats the end of it citroen and any other manufacturer can only do the best they can
As an aside the wife bought a new whirly gig for the kitchen this week and it flashed and banged when she plugged it in, i accept even new can be faulty sometimes so she will take it back today and expect nothing less than a cursory apology and another one to try that hopefully doesnt burn the house down
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Sat 14 Nov 2009 11:18
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - gmac
The wiring melts in short time making diagnosis of fault there impossible.

Sorry I didn't make myself clear. I didn't mean for anyone to say it was the live feed to X shorting with Y which caused the problem. I thought they would be able the area where it started. The battery, the fan motor, fuse box, that type of thing.
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Mon 16 Nov 2009 11:06
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - elmwoody
Hi Just to clarify to all of the above - the insurance has paid out - however we still had finance on the car which has had to be paid and have now had to take out additional finance on a new car. Furthermore, we have a two year old whose buggy and pram have gone up in flames- the reason they were both in the car was due to the fact that the boot lock had jammed that week - citroen were due to inspect on 19th October (this boot lock had previously been replaced on 18/09/08) so I had the buggy in the footwell at the rear and therefore as our insurance policy only covers us for 100.00 for personal belongings we feel that Citroen should pay for our losses. With regards to fire and insurance reports we are paying for a copy of both of these reports and so I should be able to clarify exactly what they have said. However, we are thinking of employing forensics to establish exact cause as indeed the car did go up extremely quickly although that said the rear of the car looks immaculate and the front - well there is no front!
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Mon 16 Nov 2009 13:56
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Falkirk Bairn
>>we still had finance on the car which has had to be paid

Gap insurance - much discussed (maligned?)by BR would have paid on this occasion.
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Mon 16 Nov 2009 14:25
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - injection doc
Gap would of been brilliant for a case like this. For the sake of few hundred quid he would of been quids in. Dealers are always keen to sell Gap so i guess it must of been refused
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Mon 16 Nov 2009 16:08
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - elmwoody
Yes agree Gap insurance would of helped but would not have replaced everything in car
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Mon 16 Nov 2009 19:49
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Altea Ego
Nor will Citroen
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Tue 17 Nov 2009 13:59
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - boxsterboy
Surely the contents of the car would be covered on your household insurance (assuming you have such a policy).
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Sat 13 Nov 2010 09:33
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - LucyBC
Most household policies would cover this - and the level of cover for contents is likely to be significantly higher than on your motor policy.
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Sat 13 Nov 2010 09:08
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - LucyBC
GAP insurance is a very good idea - particularly if you are putting finance on a car - as it pays the difference on a total loss from what the car is worth to the amount of finance on it.

Some policies will get you more - back to the purchase price or enough to buy the equivalent new vehicle.

Cars (particularly new cars) depreciate very quickly immediately after sale so the chances are that if your car is a total loss - even if it is not your fault - then you will be facing a loss on the finance. I have had a number of cases when the finance house has issued a demand for in excess of £5,000 payable within 14 days.
Many people do not have that amount of money readily available.

The problem with GAP is that many of the insurers who sell it pitch it through the dealerships and will pay massive commissions on a sale - £200 to the dealer is not unusual - so a similar policy to that we retail for around £180-£200 for three years cover if paid up front (or less than £10 a month if paid monthly through a credit agreement) - is marked up to more than £450 when sold by the dealer's F&I man.

The *real* problem is when people are offered a perfectly sensible product at the sort of prices offered through the dealerships they don't buy it at all so when something like this happens they face big losses, and repayment demanded immediately.

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Sat 7 Jan 2012 17:37
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Camperman1

Not exactly a fire but a potential one. I have an 05reg C5 diesel which has behaved perferctly, apart from eating dip headlight bulbs, on average one every six months. Recentyly, while driving in light rain and with the wipers on 'auto wipe' they just stopped.The fault was traced to a dead short on fuse 12 (the supply to the wipers) replacing the fuse simply blew it again even with the wiper motor disconnected. The fuse box was replaced (£185 plus vat) total bill c£450. I have retained the old fues box and there are signs of bubbling on it which would indicate extreme heat. During conversation with the mechanic he said that this was the eighth one that they had fitted in the past year (2011) but no mention of actual fire although I have since heard of several under bonnet fires thought to have started in the area of the fuse box, lefthand side just behind the battery. It would seem that there is an inherant fault in the fuze box, it has not been subject to any external damage. Nor have there been any previous problems with fuses blowing.

I am awaiting a response from Citroen, if non is forthcoming or it is unfavourable I will have the box dismantled in an endeavour to locate the exact cause of the failure.

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Tue 17 Nov 2009 17:05
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - barney100
Mate of mine a few years back had a BX spontaneously combust. He had parked up and was playing bowls when someone said his car was on fire, total writeoff too and the AA told him it was not unknown for this car to catch fire.
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Fri 20 Nov 2009 12:50
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - elmwoody
Hi Thanks for link - makes interesting reading
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Mon 23 Nov 2009 23:31
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - barneybear
Elmwoody
only trying to help, but I have several child buggies free of charge - contact me via moderators and will deliver FoC if near Luton or Durham or between. Anything else kiddy-related you need? We had a car nicked many years ago. Police recovered it, but yobs had chucked most things out and weritten off. Insurance Co offered £3000 plus £250 for goods within it. I rejected their offer.
We made a detailed list of everything (and I mean everything) in it. I then looked up several garges for a near identical model. I showed photo's of the car (was pride and joy), and all receipts for any work done to the assessor who visited me at work.
In the end after two more offers I accepted £4500 for the car and £350 for the goods.
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Fri 12 Nov 2010 17:32
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - MGWDSW

Hi,

Our 07 Gran C4 Picasso spontaneously combusted on my parents in law drive just after midnight on Friday 29 October 2010. It set fire just 5 mins after we'd parked it from the front to the side of the house. There is virtually nothing left of the front of the car. The fire brigade arrived just in time - the fire damaged all the outside PVC on the house and cracked the 5 windows upstairs and downstairs, it wasn't that far from getting in the house. It even damaged the next door neighbour's bungalow.

We had to evacuate the house with two sleeping kids under 4 as passers by were beating on the front door for us to get out. It was very traumatic.

This is what was left the next morning (despite the smiles, this was utterly shocking) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJej2PTSyBY

We are awaiting the proper reports, but arson was eliminated on the scene.

What would make a stationary car with no engine running burn like that?

It was well looked after by us, regularly serviced, recently MOTd by the local Citroen garage and had far less than 20,000 miles on the clock.

Did Citroen ever respond to your contacts?

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Sat 13 Nov 2010 15:32
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Falkirk Bairn

Late neighbour bought new C4 picasso in 2009, he only lived say 6 months and the car sat at the side of the house for another few months. The son decided to sell the car, it failed to start and on lifting the bonnet the wiring looms looked like melted chocolate.

The car had not had flames but the local garage repaired under warranty foc. The son failed to sell it at his price and now runs the car and it appears 100%

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Sat 12 Nov 2011 15:43
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - ecrusouth

Our 2008 C4 Grand Picasso spontaneously caught on fire 5 days ago as I was driving in Budapest, Hungary, were we live. A warning light began flashing on the dashboard, and within 1 minute, someone behind we was flashing their lights, I pulled over, rolled down my window and the guy said my car was burning. I got out of the car to see some significant steam coming from the hood. Before I could open it, the steam turned to black smoke. Then I saw flames. Luckily, there was a police officer near by who called in the fire department and the fire was out within 10 minutes, but not before it completely destroyed the engine, and melted everything else under the hood. The rest of the car was unscathed. But the insurance company has labled it totaled. I was surprised, but after having read similar reviews from others, and having a Citroen dealer mention that they had two other vehicles in recent past randomly catch on fire, I'm beginning to wonder about the C4 Grand Picasso. Our fire was also blamed on an electrical or engine fault.

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Sat 12 Nov 2011 16:04
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - ecrusouth

I forgot to mention that we bought it used 3 months ago. It had one previous owner. The car had always been kept up on regular services. In fact, it was given a thorough check-up just two months prior. Too bad, because we really liked it, but we don't trust Citroen anymore.

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Sun 12 Feb 2012 03:18
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - HardyTroy

I forgot to mention that we bought it used 3 months ago. It had one previous owner. The car had always been kept up on regular services. In fact, it was given a thorough check-up just two months prior. Too bad, because we really liked it, but we don't trust Citroen anymore.

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Sun 12 Feb 2012 03:37
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - HardyTroy

I have my own mechanical business in Australia, repairing european built cars.

I had carried out a scheduled service and cambelt replacement, road tested the vehicle, (C4 Picasso 2007 built, 2.0 Hdi)

I parked the vehicle for the owner to collect the following day. Cleaned up and left for the day. Within 20 minutes I had calls that my workshop was on fire. I returned to find the fire brigade putting out the fire in the engine bay of the car. My workshop was damaged and also alot of my equipment.

After investigation I was told the fire was also caused by an engine bay electical fault.

I contacted Citroen and let them know the events, but was told to contact the vehicle insurance company.

It has had a major impact on my business and also caused a lot of stress. But having worked in car dealerships for many years, and dealing directly with the manufacturers, I know their viewpoint in situations like this. It comes down to percentages and a problem has to occur a certain number of times before action is taken.

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Mon 4 Jun 2012 22:12
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - mollleah

good evening eveyone, read your posts with some worry. i have a c4 grand picasso 2008 year, purchased in july 2011 from citroen uk. since then it has been back 3 times and due to go back on thursday again. ihave been expericing problems with the hatch suddenly unlocking itself and leaving car unsecure, the work so far and the reasons it has been returning to citroen is the exectric windows being controlled from the drivers door, the rear passenger window, wont wok from driver control and when it does the window goes down when i want it up. similar problem with the passenger front. citroen have replaced the driver control twice most recent being last friday 1st june, got car home then straight on phone to them. i have stated from the start this car has an electrical gremlin and i am now worried this cvould develop further and create a fire. not had any fuses blow but noticed some strange increased engine revs when braking and coming to stop, its auto but the revs are more the the car changing down at higher than normal speed. if any one can assist or advise would be appreciated as do carry my wife and two children in vehicle. previous car to this was xsara picasso and had no issues what so ever with it.

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Mon 18 Jun 2012 17:34
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Polandguy

Last night we parked our 2007 C4 Grand Picasso. As soon as we had parked dark smoke began coming from under the hood. I popped the engine compartment and there were flames. Within mintutes the entire frontend was in flames. Of course, I could not put out the fire but was able to keep it from spreading to tree above and car in front. The fire department came and was able to put out the fire. We have just returned from a weekend trip with no problem with the car. There was no warning lights or smells. In the last couple weeks we had come out to the car in the morning finding it unlocked several times. We thought it wierd but nothing was ever missing. It seems this might have been a warninig sign after all. I am printing off these reports and as least going to let Citroen know what happened to our van.

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Mon 18 Jun 2012 18:02
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Armitage Shanks {p}

Old fire recall here

h*********************/car-news/peugeot-and-citroen-order-recall/217846

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Wed 10 Apr 2013 23:16
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Aliing

lovely functional family car but have had a fair few expensive problems...including almost going on fire. I was doing my modern man thingy washing the dishes when I noticed smoke pouring out from under the bonnet of my wifes 2008 c4 Grand picasso parked outside. I rushed out and found there were no keys in the ingnition, so I opened the bonnet to find the fuze box on fire and pouring out smoke. I disconnected the battery and managed to put the fire out quickly. It cost me €420 to replace the fuze box (the insurance paid for towing). This is on top of both wiper motors needing replacement (€700), handbrake refusing to disengage (€300- again the insurance paid for towing), clutch (and 1 injector) (€700). All of the above happened when the car was just out of warranty. In addition, bulbs (particularly dips) seem to last about a month or two before they blow, the tailgate switch is fiddly, one brake pad doesnt seem to disengage properly (needs new disk now), the washers refused to switch off (had to take fuze out). Maybe I should have let it burn and claimed on the insurance!

Edited by Aliing on 10/04/2013 at 23:22

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Thu 11 Apr 2013 09:58
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Cris_on_the_gas

Well done for putting out the fire.

Reading your article remined me of an old safety film I was forced to watch as an engineering apprentice.

There was this vehicle gently smoking away from under the bonnet, so chappie in film does exactly what you did and rushed to open the bonnet. Only to be engulfed in flames.

Reason. fire was burning away, suddenly opening of bonnet gives fire much more oxygen, together with fuel caused severe burns to chappie. Don't worry it was only a film but based on true life. apparently you are supposed to release the catch and give it a good spray of extinguisher, then gently lift while still giving it a good dose.

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Thu 11 Apr 2013 13:01
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Dabooka

Well done for putting out the fire.

Reading your article remined me of an old safety film I was forced to watch as an engineering apprentice.

There was this vehicle gently smoking away from under the bonnet, so chappie in film does exactly what you did and rushed to open the bonnet. Only to be engulfed in flames.

Reason. fire was burning away, suddenly opening of bonnet gives fire much more oxygen, together with fuel caused severe burns to chappie. Don't worry it was only a film but based on true life. apparently you are supposed to release the catch and give it a good spray of extinguisher, then gently lift while still giving it a good dose.

Indeed you are, preferably with a good old dry powder extinguisher just to really bu**er the engine.

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Thu 5 Dec 2013 16:44
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Bromptonaut

Reason. fire was burning away, suddenly opening of bonnet gives fire much more oxygen, together with fuel caused severe burns to chappie. Don't worry it was only a film but based on true life. apparently you are supposed to release the catch and give it a good spray of extinguisher, then gently lift while still giving it a good dose.

Several years ago now I watched the London Fire Brigade deal with a car smouldering gently on the car park at Lincoln's Inn.

They did exactly as above, squirting fire suppressant under the rad before cracking the bonnet open and sending in another dose. Took longer than it should as the appliance sent was a marginal fit through the gateway from the public road but the fire seemed in a state of equilibrium.

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Thu 5 Dec 2013 13:59
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Kneedown595

Hello

I just have 2 weeks ago and had the vehicle delivered to a Citroen dealer for examination.

I'm looking to gather a great deal of evidence together and also launch a website to start highlighting manufacturer defects and see if we can't force these arrogant individuals to face upto the fact ther are serious issues out their and THEY are responsible to repair them NOT us.

I realise your incident was a few years ago but affected the same age of vehicle - if your still able to I'd appreciate you letting me know the details about your incident so I can biuld a case.

Best regards,

Pat

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Fri 6 Dec 2013 00:13
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Avant

"I just have 2 weeks ago...."

Just have what? I presume a fire in your Picasso, but it would be good if you could make it clear. Were the circumstances similar to those that people have described above?

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Fri 6 Dec 2013 08:08
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Armitage Shanks {p}

Are these fires peculiar to the Picasso or do they occur in other PSA vehicles fitted with the same engine(s)?

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Mon 6 Jan 2014 16:37
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Kneedown595

Hi Avant,

Sorry for not coming back sooner - yes I had exactly the same issue, fire started around the area of the fuse box. Other half had literally driven the car back to the house, got out took the keys out (obviously!) unlocked the house came back out with some water to fill the screenwash to see first black then white smoke pouring out of the bonnet, back right as you're looking at the bonnet, ie fusebox.

She called the fire brigade who attended really quickly in I believe 5-8 minutes, the're only down the road from us. They commended her for the speed in calling them and then went on to say they've put out loads of these incedents, all C4 Picasso's.

I'm currently looking to get a report from the guys at the brigade to understand just how many incidents the've responded to and equally contact the owners to see how things were responded to you by Citroen UK

All the issues seem to apply to vehicles built around 2007. In all honesty apart from another issue we had, turbo failure (another well known issue), the car has been a good drive, taken to France 3 times and used regularly for school trips etc.

It seems to point at the potential recall I read about to do with wiring wearing through, this I'm unaware of whether we ever had notice for to be brought in for repair. The car was actually booked in for a recall on a membrane to be fitted/replaced the week the fusebox melted!!

As it stands - still waiting on news from Citroen UK. The car has been at Warners in Gloucester for 7 weeks and the workshop controller has said they are also waiting on Citroen UK Technical Department to respond. They issued a Safety Alert (whatever that means) - haven't seen anything in press - so gues it must be for internal digestion only.

Will update as soon as I hear - in the meantime, I've set up a blog to try and focus the amount of people this has affected - this incident has been reported on a number of differnt sites and it's a lot easier to update one than many!

http://c4picassomeltdown.wordpress.com/

Cheers,

Pat

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Tue 7 Jan 2014 16:05
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Brit_in_Germany

There was a recall in Germany in 2013 for 2.0 litre diesels built between 2007 and 2010 due to spontaneous combustion after switching the car off. The cause was rubbing on a cable leading to a short circuit.

http://www.autoservicepraxis.de/citroen-rueckruf-brandgefahr-beim-c4-picasso-1230966.html

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Tue 7 Jan 2014 17:05
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Kneedown595

There was a recall in Germany in 2013 for 2.0 litre diesels built between 2007 and 2010 due to spontaneous combustion after switching the car off. The cause was rubbing on a cable leading to a short circuit.

http://www.autoservicepraxis.de/citroen-rueckruf-brandgefahr-beim-c4-picasso-1230966.html

Hi Brit_in_Germany,

Ours is the smaller 1.6 diesel but I've read about this recall in other sites so not surprised it appearing in Germany. I suspect this may well be what caused the meltdown in the fusebox, what is concerning me is why the car wasn't recalled in the 1st place,

Citroen UK finally emailed back today, obviously a lot of people were off over the Xmas period only returning today, apparently the National Technical Manager is now involved with the case so hope to find out just what course of action Citroen UK plan to offer this week...................

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Mon 20 Jan 2014 14:15
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - BigJohnD

I don't think the recall MPR was engine specific.

More details on the C4 Owners site:

c4owners.org/plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?173...6 and

c4owners.org/plugins/content/content.php?content.10 (Search for MPR on the page)

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Sat 8 Feb 2014 00:16
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - MGWDSW
My car, a Citroen Gran C 4 Picasso, Uk version, spontaneously combusted October 2010. Luckily no-on was hurt, but the car was written off and it set fire to my parents in law's house. Check out the FB group for YouTube and picture links.
www.facebook.com/groups/611853838863408/


Feel free to add your own experiences and links to this group.
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Thu 6 Aug 2020 15:38
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - BarryMc

Hi Pat,

My sister in law had the very same issue, her Citroen Picasso 1.6 HDI was destroyed by a fire which started in the fuse box. The fire spead to the house, and caused terrible damage. Would you be in a position to correspond on this by email?

Barry

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Thu 6 Aug 2020 23:35
Anyone had problems with Citroen car fires ? - Avant

Unlikely, as we last heard from Pat / Kneedown in 2014.

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