Hi Folks,

I have an intermittent poor throttle response with my vehicle, a Citroen Xsara HDi. Apologies for the long post but I'd really like to hear from anyone that had experienced a similar problem.

The symptoms are:

· The engine can fail to respond to a re opening of the throttle from closed for a period of 1 to 5 seconds. This is particularly happen when reapplying throttle when coming out of a bend or roundabout.

· It does not matter if the throttle application is light or heavy

·But it is really bad in terms of its frequency and duration when the car has a trailer attached or has an internal load. In this case, the car just ?chugs? as if it?s just getting intermittent spurts of fuel.

·The revs level where this tends to happen most is around 1400 to 1800 r.p.m. It does not seem to matter if the engine is cold or warm.

·It also tends to happen for a much shorter time period, say 1 second, when reapplying throttle on open road, say after coasting downhill and re opening the throttle to overtake. This can occur at any r.p.m.

·The problem also can manifest itself when trying to pull away from a standstill from a junction. In this case, the engine is way down on power and is very slow to respond to the throttle.

·The problem never happens when increasing the throttle opening from an already open position.

·Its possible to drive the car for, say, 5 miles, with hardly any evidence of the problem. But driving the same distance on another occasion could see the problem reoccurring a few times. It really does depend on the road type in terms of whether throttle re openings are a common occurrence. Apart from that it?s random except that the only time it occurs is with a throttle re opening.


·In all cases, it?s like as if the engine electronics is failing to recognise a change of load and is very slow to change from a lean mixture to a richer mixture. Once the engine gets fuel, then it?s away as normal. My understanding is that Hdi engines have an ?overrun? valve that reduces the fuel to the engine when the engine load is low. Am I right?

When the problem happens, the engine management light on the dashboard remains off. The vehicle was checked three times by a Citroen garage but no error codes are being logged .

One other thing is that the cars overall performance in terms of acceleration seems to be down slightly.

At this stage, I've lost all confidence with the Citroen dealer and my patience is rapidly running out with the national importer. Nothing has been done in the last three months other than check the diagnostics.

All ideas are most welcome Read more

It appreciate the backroom's opinion on this one.

I usually do the school run by cycle, but occasionally use the car. The school is in a residential road (detatched houses) so the pick up involves parking outside the houses. There rare usually enough free spaces on the road, between each drive, but it I'm one of the last to arrive I'll park (still on the road) right outside one of the drives (drop kerb).

I would NEVER get out and leave the car, and would immediately drive off if I ever saw someone wanted to enter of exit their drive, so in effect I'm not causing an obstruction.

But is what I am doing illegal? I ask as I had an angry confrontation with someone else who complained that I was blocking not theirs, but their neighbours drive.

I can completely understand that someone would be annoyed if people parked and left the car, but I explained that I wasn't leaving it, and don't appreciate someone banging on my car.

No parking restrictions on this road.

Cheers. Read more

hiya i am after having an oil change on my bmw X5 3.0litre 2001,just usual spark plugs air filter oil filter and oil.i normally get my bmw parts from euro parts or german and swedish.being i bit of a tight wad!!! :)anyway getin to the point, the mechanic where i usually take my car has said it would be fine with semi synthetic 10w/40. and thats what he would put in if i just dropped it off and didnt give him any parts,i understand hes not a bmw mechnic,but hes been in the job for nearly 20 years.when i went to g+s they recommended i get the fully synthetic 0w/30 and they dont do this, best they have is 5w/40.they said its not worth risking an engine for the sake of 50 quid and said i was best to go to bmw and get what they would use which i think would be the 0w/30 castrol edge.euro parts said it would be fine with there oil which is fully synthetic 0w/40,so i just need someones advise on the the oil situation, do i stop being a tight wad and fork out nearly 100 quid in oil from bmw, or get the 0w/40 from euro parts.it just seems every person in the motor trade has different advise on oil.thank you for any advise you could give me on this matter ,michael Read more

I have had two CDI Sprinters, a 311 and a 313. Both have suffered the same fault. The first was standing for a few months awaiting an engine change. The steering was perfect before and when collected it was very variable and lumpy. It would be light for a while and then going extremely heavy. I replaced the pump, still the same and then replaced the power steering rack which solved the problem. Now my current Sprinter was standing for a few months as well, in similar excellent working order before and now going variably heavy and light. Could anyone advise me why this may be happening and if there could be a cheaper solution than replacing the rack? Regards, Michael Read more

Hi there,
a mate of mine has an 03 reg' pug 206, the alarm no longer sets, due to the car thinking that the rear left hand door is open. I believe this to be the door-closed sensor, or whatever its called, however, i do not know where it is! I believe the switch to be internal, does anyone actually know where the switch is loacted??? thanks DAN Read more