Citroen C4 Picasso (2007 – 2013) Review

End of plastic dipstick of 1.6 HDI engine can break and drop into sump requiring removal of sump to retrieve it.

Clutch life of EGS can be as short as 24k miles. Should be a warranty issue as Citroen cannot claim driver abuse for failure of an automated clutch over which the driver has no control.

Fusebox prone to moisture ingress and internal corrosion. Needs cheching regularly. Any sign of moisture inside, dry out with a hairdryer on gentle heat, then reseal the box using clear bathroom silicone sealant.

23-6-2011: Waterpumps of 2.0 litre petrol engines can fail early, flinging off the timing belt and wrecking the engine.

16-8-2011: Citroen will not cover the Dual Mass Flywheel under the 3 year warranty.

5-2-2012: More reports of turbo oil starvation on 1.6 HDi DV6TED4 leading to expensive catastrophes at around 100,000 miles due to carbon build up in the oil feed to the bearing . The cure is not just a new turbo, but new oil pipe, pump, pick-up, etc., etc. Failure to replace these paerts will usually result in another failed turbo within 10,000 miles. There was a Ford TSB45/2008 about this. Newer engines (2008+) have modified parts. Apparently you can get a new turbo for £350 plus £120 for a "kit" of modified pipes/pick-up unions etc. from Transitpartsuk (International Parts Ltd) to fit next week. eBay supplier TransitpartsUK

11-8-2012: Report of high pressure fuel pump failing on 1.6THP 150 petrol engined C4 Picasso 3 months out of 3 year warranty.

5-4-2013: Turbo of 30k mile 2008 C4 Picasso 1.6 HDi failed for the usual reason of coked up oil supply pipes. Essential to idle these turbos from hot before switching off the engines.

10-10-2013: Long tail of woe of a 2008 C4 Picasso fitted with the EGS automated manual transmission. Problems started in in November 2010 at 12,000 miles. Car became increasingly jerky when pulling away in first gear and shuddered significantly. Pilling Hemel Hempstead carried out a gearbox download and reset adaptions as part of the second annual service at 12,960 miles. Then in July 2011 at 18,182 miles the car suddenly slowed down and stopped in the road. Took a month for Theoco garage in Kingsbury, to diagnose a faulty gearbox computer total cost of around £900, including £140 for diagnosis. Agreed to pay half the cost (£454) for the computer and gearbox activation and reconfiguring. In December 2011 started to cut out again. Taken by Theoco twice for investigations and they reprogrammed the gearbox twice, but were unable to find the problem. Citroen UK refused to help further. In the period January 2012 – July 2013 to 31,005 miles the car became noticeably more jerky as it pulled away in first gear. Became so bad that the car was effectively undrivable, so in July 2013 car taken to Citroen Brent Cross. After an initial diagnosis (£65.40), the judder is confirmed and the clutch counter is found to be reading 8637 – which is a very high level. Advised to replace the clutch, trust bearing and flywheel at a cost of £1,126.46 exc VAT. Citroen agreed to a goodwill contribution of £250. Then in October 2013 the car simply stopped. Did not stall, just refused to move, and the words ‘faulty gearbox’ appeared on the dashboard. Eventually got going again, drove to Citroen Brent Cross who kept it for 4 days but were unable to replicate the fault and could not diagnose the problem.

6-3-2014: Repeat turbo failure on Picasso 1.6 HDi, probably because the oil feed pipe to the turbo was choked with carbon and was not replaced at the same time as the turbo itself.

15-8-2014: DPF and turbo failure reported on 95k mile 2008 Citroen C4 Picasso 2.0HDI automatic.

8-1-2015: Rear tyres of C4 Picasso wore out at 21k miles; fronts still okay, misalignment at build blamed.

18-9-2015: Timing belt of 2008 C4 Picasso (presumably 1.6HDI) failed at 61,000 miles. Car had not beens erviced by Citroen dealers so Citroen refused any goodwill.

29-1-2017: Report of failure of EGS system of Nocvember 2009 Citroen Grand C4 Picasso VTR+ 1.6 Auto Diesel at 32,000 miles. Intermittently started to shudder when starting from rest indicatiing a clutch problem as diagnosed by a well known Automatic Transmission specialist. He also suspected a problem with the actuator.

30-3-2017: Drivetrain, suspension and dampers are only covered by warranty for 40,000 miles and 3 years, whereas most of the rest of the car is covered for 60,000 miles and 3 years.

21-4-2017: Repeated injector failures reported in 10,000 mile 2011 Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6HDI EGS.

16-5-2017: Complaint of alloy screen posts of 2011 Citroen C4 Picasso oxidising under the paint.

12-7-2017: Two injector failures reported in engine of 25,000 mile 2012/62 Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6HDI.

15-11-2017: Report of gearbox faulty warning and service light coming on in 2008 Citroen C4 2.0 Picasso EGS. Probably the actuator.

9-4-2018: Report of parking brake failure on 2007/57 Citroen C4 Picasso.

29-7-2018: Report of single injector failure in 2012 Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6HDI at 57,000 miles. Quoted £295 to replace no 4 injector.

10-8-2018: Report of EGS of 2007 Citroen C4 Picasso 2.0HDI VTR continually changing down. Actuator problem.

25-7-2019: Report of 2009 Citroen C4 Picasso 1.6HDI EGS playing up: From a cold start gearbox juddering and "the whole car is hesitating and venerating when pull away at 1st gear. If I push the accelerator pedal very easily and nicely the problem minimized. When the car warms up the problem is gone. Some mechanics said I must change clutch and flywheel and reprogram the gearbox but it is very costly to do."

18-8-2019: Report of Citroen C4 Picasso 2.0 EGS lurching when cruising. Car had new gearbox and clutch fitted in 2018. Citroen said it was the clutch and replaced the clutch and flywheel under warrenty. Owner brought it home from the garage and still has the same problem.

2-10-2019: Report of repeated injector failures in engine of 2011 Citroen, bought ex Motability with only 7,920 miles. Since purchased, 3 of the 4 injectors have failed.

9-1-2020: Report of turbo failure on 2010 Citroen Picasso 1.6 HDi EGS Picasso purchased used in March 2019. Virtually since buying it within 2 weeks, various management lights keep coming on. Garage said it's this, it's that, reset codes but codes keep coming up again. Just had a new turbo. Within 2 hours of driving, it broke down again. RAC says too much play on turbo but garage says it's fine.

22-1-2020: Report of juddering from clutch of 65,000 mile 2010 Citroen Grand Picasso HDi. Citroen dealer told owner "clutch activator failed, slave cylinder leaking, requires activator clutch & flywheel". The cost of repair is 'discounted' to £3,500. Might be possible to convert to a manual for a lot less money.

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