Citroen C8 - lots of smoke!

Honest John Back Room » Technical matters
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Wed 8 Dec 2004 10:14
Citroen C8 - lots of smoke! - Jtp
My wife bought a new Citroen C8 in September, everything was fine until 2 weeks ago when she noticed a large amount of smoke coming from the front wheel arches. I asked her about her journey that day, it was normal apart from some heavy jams on the school run (it was the morning that the A3 was shut after a fatality).

The car was taken to the local Citroen dealer who performed a thorough inspection and could find nothing wrong with it.

She's noticed a burning smell on a few occasions since. I also noticed one on Saturday after I'd been stuck in slow moving traffic and was using the clutch to hold the car on a slight hill.

Citroen examined the car again yesterday and could find nothing wrong. They think its down to the way the car is being driven and, in particular, the use of the clutch. But could this actually cause a large amount of smoke?
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Wed 8 Dec 2004 11:26
Citroen C8 - lots of smoke! - RichardW
Is it an HDi, and did the 'smoke' only appear on cold days?

It may be fitted with an auxiliary heater which is diesel fired, and may cause steam on cold days. It probably exhausts under the nearside wing. Of course, there might be a fault with the heater (if fitted) making it smoke rather than steam.


--
RichardW

Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Wed 8 Dec 2004 12:26
Citroen C8 - lots of smoke! - Mark (RLBS)
Not a simple as a bit of debris/litter caught up somewhere ?
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Wed 8 Dec 2004 18:55
Citroen C8 - lots of smoke! - Mondaywoe
Oddly enough a similar thing happened to my C5. It was into the dealers to have the back suspension uprated. This involved changing spheres and adding soundproofing material inside the boot - bitumastic based sort of stuff.

At the same time the handbrake lever was changed (another little Citroen foible!)

When I picked up the car, I felt the handbrake had been tightened up far too much - couldn't get a 'click' hardly. Garage said it was to Cit specs and would slacken out in time.

Unconvinced, I set off home. About 5 miles down the road, thick clouds of black smoke started to billow from NS wheelarch and pungent smell like burning plastic. I stopped right away and called the dealer who sent a mechanic right out.

The car was taken back and examined. There was obvious signs of burning around the front disc - one of the pad sensor leads was burnt through! The mechanic loosened the handbrake (remember it operates on front wheels of C5) and sent me on my way, promising to fit new discs FOC at next service. They couldn't account for the burning though.

To this day, I think that a bit of the sticky bitumastic had been picked up by the front wheels and become trapped between the (vented) front discs.Possibly an over-adjusted handbrake had contributed to it burning.

Check this out - look between the sections of the vented discs. It might be something like a plastic bag.

I would not have believed the amount of black smoke that came off - I really thought the car was on fire!

It's never happened again!

Graeme
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Wed 8 Dec 2004 18:57
Citroen C8 - lots of smoke! - PhilW
"front wheel arches."
Do you mean BOTH front arches or just the nearside front arch?
When my wife first drove her Xantia HDi on a cold and frosty day she ran into the house saying her car was on fire! I went outside to look and sure enough there was "smoke " from the nearside front - but it was coming from the exhaust of the auxilliary heater as RichW above says. If it also sounds like Concorde taking off - it's the heater.
See also this thread
www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?f=2&t=27...4
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Wed 8 Dec 2004 20:09
Citroen C8 - lots of smoke! - Altea Ego
Using the *clutch* to hold it on a slight hill?
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