08 Citroen C4 GP cutting out!

flanders2006

Recently my Citroen C4 Grand Picasso has started cutting out on me while driving. By this I mean that I loose all power and have to coast to the side of the road, first time there was a bus lane so didn't panic too much.

When I pull over the parking break automatically kicks in (its an automatic). I then see an engine warning light and the following messages pop up on the display:

Anti pollution system failure
Park brake failure
Gear box failure

The 3 times this has happened I have turned the engine off for a few minutes and started again with no problems.

Has anyone else experienced something like this and if so what was the cause? I'm concerned that I'll have to bring it to a Citroen dealer and pay a small fortune....

Row

flanders2006 wrote: »

Recently my Citroen C4 Grand Picasso has started cutting out on me while driving. By this I mean that I loose all power and have to coast to the side of the road, first time there was a bus lane so didn't panic too much.

When I pull over the parking break automatically kicks in (its an automatic). I then see an engine warning light and the following messages pop up on the display:

Anti pollution system failure
Park brake failure
Gear box failure

The 3 times this has happened I have turned the engine off for a few minutes and started again with no problems.

Has anyone else experienced something like this and if so what was the cause? I'm concerned that I'll have to bring it to a Citroen dealer and pay a small fortune....

Have you got the 1.6 hdi engine...?

Post your location and someone here maybe able to plugin for you to find what fault codes are logged...?

flanders2006

Row wrote: »

Have you got the 1.6 hdi engine...?

Post your location and someone here maybe able to plugin for you to find what fault codes are logged...?

Lucan

Row

flanders2006 wrote: »

Lucan

If nobody here can plugin for you maybe call to an independent garage and get them to record the p-codes that are logged before they clear them .....post up the codes and we maybe able help.

keithsfleet

I'll be driving through lucan tomorrow at around 6:30-7:00pm if you are around I can have a look at what faults are stored.

It's only a basic obd reader but it will give all faults stored and any that crop up.

flanders2006

keithsfleet wrote: »

I'll be driving through lucan tomorrow at around 6:30-7:00pm if you are around I can have a look at what faults are stored.

It's only a basic obd reader but it will give all faults stored and any that crop up.

Apologies, only just saw this post now.

Guy:Incognito

If your stuck, I'm in clondalkin. I've a Lexia.

flanders2006

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

If your stuck, I'm in clondalkin. I've a Lexia.

It happened again on Tuesday so going to bring to an indie.

flanders2006

Sorry for the gap in replies...

The issue didn't come back for a couple of weeks then about a month ago on a Sunday it happened again, same as usual except this time the engine warning light stayed on as did the Anti-pollution message.

I brought it to my indie on the Monday after work and he cleared the codes and said to come back in when it happened again but was indicating it could be the DPF or EGR. 20 min after leaving while stuck in traffic the warning for anti-pollution came back on and while trying to move off in traffic the car cut out again. I brought it back on Tuesday morning for investigation.

Later that day they rang to say that the error codes pointed to a loose engine fan as being one issue and they recommended replacing it first. I got the car back on Friday minus €350. Went on holidays for 10 days on the Sunday so little driving done.

In the following 2 weeks the car cut out 4 or 5 times as before but the last time, last night, I got an oil pressure warning too. I brought it back in today and they say that the codes point to the EGR again. They didn't have a lot of time to investigate it but reckon that the EGR valve costs approx 350 and will be a lot of labour as it's very hard to reach on the C4 Grand Picasso. They can't fit me in till Tuesday so getting car back in the morning.

Debating whether there is any point going to a main Citroen dealer as I really don't want to be charged crazy money!!!!

SteveAdti

Same thing happened to mine 2007 1.6hdi.
Its the EGR valve alright.
Threw up anti pollution fault, auto handbrake failure, Engine warning light, Esp Fault, and a few others .
Took it to a Citreon specialist in clontarf who hooked it up to lexia and recorded 16 faults and said it could take hours to find the problems and wouldnt touch it.
Took it to my Lithuanian mechanic and he said EGR valve was showing as a fault.
Changed it in 2 hrs and car is perfect .
Pm me for no if u wish.
He took the fusebox out and had access to the egr valve very easily .
Some guys are cowboys !

flanders2006

SteveAdti wrote: »

Same thing happened to mine 2007 1.6hdi.
Its the EGR valve alright.
Threw up anti pollution fault, auto handbrake failure, Engine warning light, Esp Fault, and a few others .
Took it to a Citreon specialist in clontarf who hooked it up to lexia and recorded 16 faults and said it could take hours to find the problems and wouldnt touch it.
Took it to my Lithuanian mechanic and he said EGR valve was showing as a fault.
Changed it in 2 hrs and car is perfect .
Pm me for no if u wish.
He took the fusebox out and had access to the egr valve very easily .
Some guys are cowboys !

Thanks for that. My mechanic did say that they didn't have time today to check for access to the egr fully so I will mention the fuse box solution.

Can you let me know how much it cost. You can Pm me if you don't want to post it here.

SteveAdti

Pm sent

flanders2006

Latest update:

So I got the EGR swapped out for under €600. Same issues cropped up again shortly after but one time I got an error message saying engine oil pressure warning. It actually cut out on mye on the N4 as I was crossing the M50, had to coast into the bus lane and just about made it....

Brought it back in and this time they reckoned that the oil filter and oil should be changed. Got this done and over the next 3 days it happened again 3 times, each time it cut out while sitting in traffic and about to take off. After the third time the engine warning light stayed on so I was back to square one.

Had it in for the last week and they sent it off to an electrical specialist to look at the ECU etc. These are guys that all the main dealers use too. They couldn't find anything wrong either so went with the common issue of bad solder joints and replaced some.

I got it back yesterday (no charge for last bit of work) and so far, fingers crossed, all is well. Mechanic advised me to sell it as that 1.6 HDI engine gives a lot of problems, he says the specialists hate seeing them come in.

Think I might look to trade it in!

monkeysnapper

So in end was it all down to bad solder joints or was EGR fault as well .

Sounds like a knightmare , I bought a 1.6 a few months ago , I'm dreading this car more than any car I ever owned before . I saw a 2008 a month ago outside where I work and it sounded so rough .

flanders2006

It seems that all of the above was required, first engine fan was definetly loose and damaged, then they EGR was being indicated and they say Citroen say it needed to be replaced. When this didn't solve the issue they went down the electrical route as they couldn't find anything mechanical wrong with it.

I only got it back yesterday afternoon and haven't driven much so will need to test it out before I can say if it was fixed or not.

monkeysnapper

flanders2006 wrote: »

I only got it back yesterday afternoon and haven't driven much so will need to test it out before I can say if it was fixed or not.

This all started in August , how much has all this cost you if you don't mind me asking ?

Get in it tonight and drive the Shyte out of it while you can send it back, thank you for your thread, it might come in handy to us citroen grand Picasso owners down the line

flanders2006

monkeysnapper wrote: »

This all started in August , how much has all this cost you if you don't mind me asking ?

Get in it tonight and drive the Shyte out of it while you can send it back, thank you for your thread, it might come in handy to us citroen grand Picasso owners down the line

Electrical specialist put up a few 100 KM on it and mechanic gave it a spin to Dundalk and back too, got it back with an empty tank, neither could replicate the problem so fingers crossed.

I have spent just under a grand on it!

LFCGavin

Ok, starting to think I need to steer clear. Might look at the Zafira instead. Anybody know of any big issues with diesel zafira 09/10 model?

iniall

flanders2006 wrote: »

Electrical specialist put up a few 100 KM on it and mechanic gave it a spin to Dundalk and back too, got it back with an empty tank, neither could replicate the problem so fingers crossed.

I have spent just under a grand on it!

Flanders can I ask you if your C4 is still working normally? I've had the anti-pollution system faulty warning with mine for a while now, followed by the car cutting out frequently (first time it was on the M1, very scary with a car full of kids). It's now stuck in Belfast with a Citroen dealer who's taking a second attempt at fixing it. Nightmare.

flanders2006

iniall wrote: »

Flanders can I ask you if your C4 is still working normally? I've had the anti-pollution system faulty warning with mine for a while now, followed by the car cutting out frequently (first time it was on the M1, very scary with a car full of kids). It's now stuck in Belfast with a Citroen dealer who's taking a second attempt at fixing it. Nightmare.

Hi,

It seems to be fine now but I haven't been driving it as much since i got it back due to the holiday period etc. Thinking of trading it in anyway for a 2010 car.

error404

flanders2006, how is the car running now? any more issues?

I have a 09 Picasso and have the car cut out on me a few times (in last few days, luckily at very low speed) and all the above messages appearing on the dash.

Leaving it in with mechanic.

Row

error404 wrote: »

flanders2006, how is the car running now? any more issues?

I have a 09 Picasso and have the car cut out on me a few times (in last few days, luckily at very low speed) and all the above messages appearing on the dash.

Leaving it in with mechanic.

Post up the fault codes your mechanic picks up and we can make a call on it.

Just fitted an egr value on a 08 Picasso 1.6 hdi last night were it was cutting out.Very common problem on the 08-09 models.
Valeo had quality issues with certain egr values in those years so its only now its coming to light...

error404

Row, thanks, will put them up when I get them!

Fixo

SteveAdti wrote: »

Same thing happened to mine 2007 1.6hdi.
Its the EGR valve alright.
Threw up anti pollution fault, auto handbrake failure, Engine warning light, Esp Fault, and a few others .
Took it to a Citreon specialist in clontarf who hooked it up to lexia and recorded 16 faults and said it could take hours to find the problems and wouldnt touch it.
Took it to my Lithuanian mechanic and he said EGR valve was showing as a fault.
Changed it in 2 hrs and car is perfect .
Pm me for no if u wish.
He took the fusebox out and had access to the egr valve very easily .
Some guys are cowboys !

I am interested to know more on how your mechanic got easy access to egr valve. Which fuse box, the board that sits atop the battery? I thought a big strip down needed, wipers off, scuttle pieces off, padding off etc. Anxious to know if there's a short cut. Thanks

SteveAdti

Fixo wrote: »

I am interested to know more on how your mechanic got easy access to egr valve. Which fuse box, the board that sits atop the battery? I thought a big strip down needed, wipers off, scuttle pieces off, padding off etc. Anxious to know if there's a short cut. Thanks

i think he unbolted the fuses from top of battery and removed batery

Fixo

Thanks for quick reply. It hopefully will save me some hassle and time soon when I need to get to the intrepid egr.

Row

You will gain better access if you do remove the battery....you will also need to remove the sound proofing and scuttle panel to get into it.

Row

You will gain better access if you do remove the battery....you will also need to remove the sound proofing and scuttle panel to get into it.

Fixo

Good of you to comment on this Row. I was just trying to find a better way in to the egr without starting at the windscreen wipers and all that plastic etc. A friend has done that a few times and area looks rough and there is water ingress where top plastic piece used to seal windscreen area.

Living Off The Splash

I have just had this warning light flash on my car. Depolution system warning lamp. It stayed on while I drove my car for about two miles.
Is it possible that I put diesel instead of petrol in to my Citroen C4? Could that be the problem? If I had put diesel in my car instead of petrol would my car still drive?

Atlantic Dawn

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

I have just had this warning light flash on my car. Depolution system warning lamp. It stayed on while I drove my car for about two miles.
Is it possible that I put diesel instead of petrol in to my Citroen C4? Could that be the problem? If I had put diesel in my car instead of petrol would my car still drive?

A diesel pump will not go in to a petrol car so unless the station filled their petrol tanks with diesel you should be able to discount that, car would also be sluggish and cutting out.

ScumLord

I had something similar, not with that engine, it turned out to be the wiring was damaged due to other work and it was simply a faulty connection. Another suggestion given was the battery in the key could be gone.

If it's throwing up lots of unrelated issues then it's clearly electronic. I'm surprised that mechanics started swapping out parts when they saw errors like that.

I have a c4 with the 1.6hdi and it had the ERG issue and it didn't cut out like that. It would restrict the rpm to something like 2000 rpm and eventually wouldn't start. But it didn't bring up any other errors.

Living Off The Splash

Thanks. Having driven for 40 years I did not think it possible that I would put diesel in a petrol car. My car is an 05 car, I read somewhere that it is possible to put diesel in the older cars because of it's age. You can't with the more modern ones.
What is making me fret a bit is that I filled up last week in AppleGreen when they were price matching Topaz's 99c per litre price. There was a bit of chaos in the petrol station and the cashier said that I had purchased diesel. I said I hadn't. Then he said I had. Then he contradicted himself and confirmed that I had in fact purchased petrol. Hence my anxiety about this warning indicator.
Anyhow I have read online that this warning indicator is fairly common with the Citroen cars. Everyone says it is an electrical fault. My electrics have been behaving strangely for a while. When I open a door my rear screen windscreen wiper is activated. My windows don't open or close properly either.
I like the look of this car. I had hoped to keep it. However with all the electrical problems I may get rid of it. I don't want to spend, more than it's worth in having it repaired, if you know what I mean.
Has anyone had this electrical check done on their Citroen and was it expensive. More importantly were they able to fix the problems because I have read that this is not always the case.

_Brian

Living Off The Splash wrote: »

I have just had this warning light flash on my car. Depolution system warning lamp. It stayed on while I drove my car for about two miles.
Is it possible that I put diesel instead of petrol in to my Citroen C4? Could that be the problem? If I had put diesel in my car instead of petrol would my car still drive?

Most likely DPF is blocked or partially blocked.
Have the codes scanned and they should be able to tell what the pressure is before and after the DPF

We had a C4GP for a few years. The DPF is scheduled to show as needing work based on mileage too, ours light up this fault and the main dealer scanned the pressure and said it was fine, the reset the software to show an mew DPF was fitted and it was grand.

We never had electrical gremlins with ours, some niggly mechanical stuff, but taking into account the C4GP is ?5-7k cheaper than other similarly sized 7 seaters the repair costs we saw didn't mount to anything near this in four years of ownership.

Living Off The Splash

My car is a petrol model. Does this have a DPF?

zilog_jones

No, it shouldn't have a DPF. There is still an EGR valve and several sensors related to emissions controls, so maybe something is wrong with one of them. To be sure you'll need to get it connected to some diagnostics scanner to see the fault codes.

ragnorsguitar

SteveAdti wrote: »

Same thing happened to mine 2007 1.6hdi.
Its the EGR valve alright.
Threw up anti pollution fault, auto handbrake failure, Engine warning light, Esp Fault, and a few others .
Took it to a Citreon specialist in clontarf who hooked it up to lexia and recorded 16 faults and said it could take hours to find the problems and wouldnt touch it.
Took it to my Lithuanian mechanic and he said EGR valve was showing as a fault.
Changed it in 2 hrs and car is perfect .
Pm me for no if u wish.
He took the fusebox out and had access to the egr valve very easily .
Some guys are cowboys !

Having same problem, can you pm the mechanics number please?

Alanstrainor

ragnorsguitar wrote: »

Having same problem, can you pm the mechanics number please?

This is a very old thread. I suggest you send that member a PM, but really any mechanic should be able to diagnose and fix this issue.