2.2 HDi 16v VTR+ Saloon

Gremlins

My 6th car, my 4th citroen (after a 3 C4's including a Picasso) and the only one that has given me problems. Bought for 9.5k with 25k miles and for the first 5 months faultless then the gremlins manifested in dramatic fashion! The car wouldn't start, nothing, dead, the starter didn't even attempt to start. Checked the fuses all good, wondered if it was the key (had the same problem with my first car, a Clio), the wife journeyed out with the spare but still no dice. So called the AA out he proceeded to re check every thing I'd checked and concluded it wouldn't start but offered to give me a bump start to allow me to get home rather than wait for a tow truck. Got home turned it off tried it again still dead. Rather than pay £300 for a tow to my nearest citroen dealer, by passed the fuse box and Ecu and connected the ignition straight to the starter, and hey presto it was alive, got it to the dealer and when they removed the by pass the fault had gone, with no history showing on the system, best they could figure was a faulty fuse box (£150). 4 months later and I'm still crossing my fingers every time I start it especially as the car has randomly started to start in economy mode (should only do this after 30 mins of been sat in the car with the engine off but radio/lights on, which thinking back it had started to do before it died, other gremlins have reared their heads as well, mainly a random brake pad worn warning even though they're not. Other than that it's brilliant and very comfortable, glides alone at a fair rate of knots even on country roads but the mpg suffers as it's a very heavy car to be constantly accelerating and decelerating, better suited to the motor way (got to love that hydro active suspension), used the works insignia recently for a 160 mile round trip to Telford and it left my back in tatters for days.

Changed a couple of bulbs without any problems, with my C4 i ended up taking out the whole headlight and doing it on a bench rather than in situ, so a definite improvement.

On the whole love the car, quick, comfy bitter of a b***** to park though it's about the length of a narrowboat, just got to keep an eye out for those gremlins, which I don't think are a citroen specific issue these days as modern cars have as much electronics as a fighter jet, as a result a stray voltage spike or a mis read 0 or 1 can wreak havoc what ever manufacturer you go for.

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