Just had my garage replace a speedo pod for me.(2002 SX HDi) The old one had an electrical fault (surprise!), and just kept on ticking up all the time. - Often parked at 80!.
I also asked them to see if they could get remote locking working again. - I had done all the 'key synch' stuff, and reckoned the car has just decided it wasn't going to play any more. (It had stopped working one day when I tried to start the car (by mistake!) while in gear. - The car lurched, the hazard warning lights came on, and remote locking has never worked since. I did inform the garage of this)
Speedo was a second hand unit at £50, rather than a brand new one at £500.
My questions: They didn't reset the speedo to match the rest of the car, which I understand does know what it is. - They said they didn't do it because it was (and I quote) "Impossible". - So had they fitted a brand new one it would have shown next to nothing. - I find this one hard to believe.
They faffed around with my keys, and came to the same conclusion I did. They are adamant that this cannot be resolved by resetting the BSI, and are '90%' certain that to get the remote sensor in the car working again, will need a new Comms 2000 unit at a total cost of around £250. Of course they won't offer any guarantees that a new Comms 2000 unit will get my remopte locking working again. (Several other people have reported on the web that non working remote locking has been cured by a BSI reset/reconfigure.)
Am I being fobbed of, or are my requests really unreasonable??
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Question: Is 'your garage' a Citroen franchise? If so, they could easily reset your BSI. But the fact that they fitted a used speedo makes me wonder if it is a franchised garage.
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Are they actually a citroen specialist or a generic garage?
Do you know what diag kit they have.
Quite possible that they've done all they can, but that they do not have the kit needed to do the odometer reset and reset the bsi.
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Question: Is 'your garage' a Citroen franchise? If so they could easily reset your BSI. But the fact that they fitted a used speedo makes me wonder if it is a franchised garage.
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I asked them to fit the second hand unit I supplied.
Yes they are supposedly the best Citroen franchise in Glastonbury, only I'm not allowed to name them on this thread.
And they are supposed to have fully Citroen trained 'technicians' and all the latest hardware and software.
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I would try the other specialist!
It sounds like the BSI had a brown-out fit when the starter strained the battery - have you tried disconnecting the battery for a while?
As for the speedo, at the end of the day all an odometer will be is some EEPROM memory, it's just getting at it manually that's the problem. Citroen might be special but I can reset the Corsa with a £20 scanner off eBay.
As we've said, try someone else.
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Caspian, I know the dealer you are referring to. Bought a ZX a few years back off them. Was quite possibly the most appalling garage I have ever dealt with, and would not trust them with a matchbox car, never mind a genuine one.
If you dont mind travelling a bit (guess you live near Glastonbury) Chris Hall Motor Engineers in Weston Super Mare seem to be very good. Is back street garage close to town centre, but it is a Citroen Specialist, been in business for a long time and did last service on my Xsara SX HDi.
OK, the courtesy car was an old shed, but was half the price of the main dealer in town, but was impressed by the quality of work.
As for the dealer you have been using, would have more faith with my 2 year old daughter doing the work.
Hope this helps.
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Sorry for double post, but my experience of them was that yes they do lie. A lot.
Don't suppose they've said that any of the faults could have been a twig getting into the engine system? First time they used this was when my brake pads had worn heavily. Manual said car had a warning system, but found out my car didn't have it. But garages excuse was twig getting into the wheel and ripping the wires out. But as they replaced pads and discs under warranty kept mouth shut.
Many months later the alternator belt went. Phoned the garage and again the excuse was a twig in the engine bay. Although car was in warranty, and they said would tow it back to the garage and fix f.o.c. did the work myself with my Dad as didn't want them touching the car anymore.
Unfortunately was only my second car, and was very young and naive, but learnt a lot of useful lessons the hard way with that car.
Even had a long written apology from Citroen UK after telling them exactly what I thought of the car and dealer!
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So, this post is saying to me perhaps it would be wise to cross the new Citroen C5 of my possible new car list in spite of the specification looking good.
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On what basis? Because someone has had a problem with a totally different car at one garage?
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The garage in question has told me that newer cars are a lot better becuase the cost of warranty work is dropping fast.
But this might just be that they just have better get out clauses now!.
On my experiences: The drive train and drivers aspects of the car have been great. Citroen (in my view) have first class engineering. - After all 150K with no trace of any mechanical problems isn't bad is it? - The front exhaust actually broke at the cat at about 90K, but the rest of the exhaust, battery, bearings clutch and gearbox etc are faultless. Tyres last between 45 and 50K miles (I use Goodyear Hydragrips).
But it's had more than its fair share of electical problems. And ther aircon is a joke.
As you can see I don't have a lot of confidence in my local franchise, and the guy who 'communicates' to customers on behalf of Citroen UK is an absolute disgrace. He has less idea of customer service than the council who prosecutes people for overfilling their dustbins.
As someone else said great car, shame it's a Citroen.
As to the C5, I reckon its from the same generation as the Xsara, so check out what others have said. At to the C6: Well if Citroen were to source their electronic / electrical designers and their after sales people from the same place they get the drivetrain ones, the cars would be just about best value on the market. -- Are they learning the lessons?? - No idea.
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www.reliabilityindex.co.uk/tophundred.html?apc=312...1 shows that Citroen's Xsara is the most reliable of the french cars, 26th of the top 100.
Only problem I've had is a suspension coil go, but from what I've been discussing with others, its become a widespread problem thanks to cost cutting at the manufacturing level, rather than the car's design in particular.
One annoying trait of the car is that its difficult to find someone to balance the centerless alloys, but other than that, its not too bad given its french roots.
Edited by smokescreen on 18/05/2008 at 12:53
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Would agree with this, out of all the cars I've owned think the Xsara is one of my favourites.
Problem was, after the disastrous experience I had with the ZX, I was put off Citroen for well over a decade. Looking back, think most of the problems were caused by the sheer ineptitude of the dealer.
Now that I have found a good dealer, confidence is restored and have no problems with the cars- the Xsara followed on from a Xsara Picasso.
Only problem I have had is the fan is blowing on full speed, BUT, daughter managed to knock the slats out of line on the passanger side air vent- when I fixed it dislocated the feeder pipe and cant get it back on so dont know if that is the problem.
Funnily enough a friend who is between cars at the moment has borrowed a T reg 1.4 Xsara of a mechanic friend of his, and phoned up raving about what a great car it was!
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I think part of the reason the Xsara (mk2 especially) is pretty good is the fact its based on the 306 and ZX chassis before it, so by now hopefully PSA would have worked out many of the kinks of the design and manufacture process.
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