Towing a C3

[DerekW]

I apologise for raising a non-XM subject.

My wife has a C3 with sensodrive gearbox. The gearbox ecu has thrown another wobbly, which means that the engine cannot be started and gears cannot be selected; this requires a visit to a Citroen main agent and the nearest one is 29 miles away.

The last time an ecu fault struck it cost me £150 to have the car collected by the garage so this time I've bought an A-frame so that I can tow the car myself. The "chin" at the front of the car is so low the A-frame can't be fitted. There are three sections at the bottom of the chin which look as if they are removeable, the two outer pieces pull out easily enough but of course it's the middle one that I need to remove to give the necessary clearance. Knowing how fragile plastic bits can be, I don't want to pull too hard and so far I've not been able to move it.

The car is so low that I can't get under it to see how it's fastened. Can somebody please explain how it's attached? I feel a bit of a fool for asking such a simple question but desperation is setting in .

Grateful for any help.

Derek

[marc61]

We don't have one anymore, but it's pretty easy to take the whole front panel off and put it in the back of the car. From memory raise the bonnet take off the flat horizontal piece thats about 2 feet long. Then if you pull out the flexible piece in front of each front wheel and look up with a torch you'll see two 10mm bolts which attach the front panel onto each wing at an angle - undo these and I think the whole thing will drop off. It's all plastic, can't go far wrong.

Sorry if this is a bit drastic.

Marc

[DerekW]

Thank you Marc, I'll try that. It sounds as if it will give better access to the suspension to attach the A-frame.

Derek

[captainhaddock]

Glad some Marc gave the advice you needed. I don't know about these things but I did wonder if you couldn't just jack up the C3 to make it fit..Just a thought but probably not very useful

[DerekW]

Here's the final chapter:

I pushed the C3 out of the garage, having previously pushed it in, so it was obviously stuck in neutral.

Attached the A-frame - easy when you know how - and set off to Louth with some trepidation using my V6 as tow car.

To my surprise the V6 made very heavy weather of it, never getting out of second and with 40mph as a usable maximum. There was a howling noise which became noticeable at 30mph and got louder and higher the faster I went.

I stopped after a couple of miles and checked everything over, no apparent faults so I carried on. Like my body, my brain has slowed down with advancing years and I continued to puzzle over this enigma. eventually after 17 miles it struck me, "Feels as if the C3 is stuck in gear. If I stop, I should be able to feel some warmth in the cylinder block if the engine has been rotating".

I stopped, lifted the bonnet to be met with a cloud of steam and the expansion bottle bubbling like a kettle! With the ignition off the gearbox must have been stuck in first gear - goodness knows what the engine RPM was at 40+ mph - I hope I didn't do permanent damage.

Anyway, I sat in the C3 wondering what to do next. I decided the safest course was to wait an hour or so to let everything cool down and then proceed slowly to the agent's. I switched the ignition on, hoping the fans would start up, but zilch. Just the diagnostic light permanently on and a horizontal dash line showing in the gear indicator. Whilst sitting there I had a play. Turned the ignition on, operated the brakes a couple of times, attempted gear selections with the floor lever and the paddles and generally went a bit manic.

Suddenly the was a loud click and everything was working again, including the cooling fan! So I completed the journey in top at 50mph, bliss! Told the garage I didn't want it back until they sorted the gearbox computer properly.

Derek

[CitroJim]

That's rather interesting Derek...

I'm likely to need to put my Lexia over a C3 Sensodrive some time in the near future. One that's demonstrating the same woes as yours and appears to be stuck in gear...

I shall try the same to see if this one will go into Neutral...

[marc61]

Derek thats bad luck. Our manual C3 Pluriel drove me nuts occasionally, simple small car that needed expensive fixing at a garage when it played up. In the end I sold it for a paltry £800! Afraid I am sticking to older Citroens from now on as I can fix them, usually. Ambition is to have minimal dependency on Citroen garages and electronics.

Good luck with getting your C3 fixed - would be interested in knowing outcome.

Cheers

Marc

[CitroJim]

I had a look at a C3 Sensodrive today and popped the Lexia onto it. The Gearbox ECU was full of faults which all cleared bar one and that was one referring to a failure of power to the ECU.

It's odd as if the ECU was not powered then logically it couldn't be read. Further investigation showed the battery to be only at 8.5V and because of this none of the actuator tests would work.

Interestingly, any actuator tests must be done with the battery on charge from an external charger which makes me think the whole system may be very voltage sensitive; if the battery is starting to fade then this may account for the problems perhaps?

I don't know but I'll be looking at this particular C3 again when the battery is charged/replaced and a charger can be connected to it.

[CitroJim]

Derek, I may be over-thinking this a bit but going on a possible sensitivity to battery voltage I'm wondering if after towing yours all that way in first gear if perhaps the alternator was fired-up enough to put enough charge in the battery to make the sensodrive work again?

I wonder if the battery is weak and the engine is not running, as it won't be when the ignition is first switched on before starting, the ECU detects that and then declares the Sensodrive is not going to work because it perceives the battery voltage to be too low?

Just a thought...

[Dieselman]

Modern Mercedes cars have spurious gearbox faults if the battery voltage is low on start, so it stands to reason that these may do as well.

Probably nothing wrong with your car Derek.