2002 Citroen C3 Exclusive from UK and Ireland - Comments

Just been reading some of the c3 comments as I am looking to change my car - thought I would judge the reliability of the comments based on my citroen experience. I bought a new c3 sx in march 2003. I kept it 5 months, having only had it in my possession for 1 month in total. Engine Diagnostic.. if I never hear that phrase again it will be too soon. Breaking down in fast lane on motorway, first name terms with all local rac men (brilliant job - glad citroen keeps them in a job), engine safe mode, dealer bumping car, new clutch, new gear box... bascially the dealership didn't know what to do so they basically kept changing parts to TRY to keep me quiet, paint problems you name it... nice car to drive when it drives. I decided to cut my loses and bought a japanese car instead! believe it or not citroen couldnt even get my name correct on letters and they sent recorded delivery letters about recalls 6 months after I had sold the car and didn't even pay the postage! what a cheek - Citroen no thank you...never again... please be careful on your choices of car! The worst thing was the lies both from teh dealership and citroen uk. I work in IT and they gave me so many lies about computerised systems, that proved they didn't have a clue!

My wife has a 1.4LX C3. The wiper linkage broke last year. Never happened before Citroen dealer tells us, no new part in stock not even at Citroen France. 4 weeks later we get the car back after Citroen UK agree to pay for hire car as no courtesy cars available. Car was Clio which used more fuel and only 3 door. Dealer not very helpful and not first time they didn't seem to care. Had a Saxo before C3, went in for service, car was not cleaned inside or out as it clearly said on notice on the wall, nor was 1 litre can of top up oil supplied. Still charged full price for it. When I complained they said they didn't have time to clean car. A couple of weeks ago I noticed engine seemed to be missing a beat when accelerating, wife said yesterday it was cutting out and was going to ring dealer to book it in for investigation when she got to work. It didn't get that far before breaking down and engine warning light coming on. Rang dealer who said you'll have to get it recovered as we can't and we'll see if we can look at it later today or tomorrow maybe. They looked at it next morning to confirm fuel injector failed. Of course no stock at dealership and got to be ordered from Coventry, if in stock there then hopefully part arrives on Monday. Still no chance of a courtesy car until 24th, when car arrived at dealer. I pointed out this was 2 weeks time and I would have hoped it was fixed and back on the road by then. Oh yeah, when my wife mentioned about the wiper linkage problem today the dealer said it was a common design problem... funny how they change the story so quick.

I bought a C3 in May 2004, approx 3 months later it went into the garage for a problem with the fuel injectors. Then after 9 months a noise appeared on the offside front wheel when the engine heated up - as I am driving along! - sounding like the brakes were sticking on, but the noise stops when the brakes are applied or the car is driven around a right hand bend. On a routine service I pointed this out to Citroen. They called after the service and said they could not see anything wrong, but it may be a build up of brake dust. I told them not to do anything as it was not covered under the warranty and I could get a friend to do it. 4 days after the service I took the car round to my friend and as I reverse it onto the drive the drivers front suspension coil shears off leaving the car un-drivable. I contacted the Citroen garage and they stated as it was a Saturday the car would not be looked at until Monday and no courtesy cars were available.

When the tow company turned up they made it quite clear they had seen this problem before so I am trying to find out if anyone has had this occur to them in-case the garage try to say it is the way the car was driven (I was only doing about 3 miles per hour!).

I am really gutted, I wanted a C3 since they came out, I love to drive mine, but I do not feel safe any more.

My wife and I bought a brand new Citroen C3 1.6 16v Exclusive in December 2002.

The car has generally ran well, apart from a coolant hose letting go just after we picked it up (bad P.D.I apparently) and a long-running problem with the fuel gauge misreading - down to the fuel sender we are told. The last time this was looked at one of the hoses wasn't connected up correctly which meant that when we next attempted to fill it up it spilt petrol all over the garage forecourt. As this didn't solve the misreading we decided to just live with it, rather than be at the garage every month.

The car is going in this weekend to have the front pads changed - not bad considering the car has covered 31000 miles in the 27 months we have had it. One thing that does concern me is fuel economy - Citroen claim 42 MPG for this car, but we rarely see better than 36 MPG and that includes over 75% motorway driving at 70 MPH. Next time I'll buy a diesel...

Not a bad car by any stretch (had 3 Saxo's before this - EVERY one rusted in the SAME place on the tailgate plus one (a VTS) went through 3 clutches in 15 months!) but think next time we will be trying another make of car.

Just one other thing - I personally think the 20000 mile service intervals quoted by Citroen UK for petrol engines is just too much, I would be much more comfortable with 12-15000 mile service intervals for any car I own.

I bought a brand new Citroen C3 1.6 16v Exclusive in February 2004.

The car I can may be consider it ran well, apart from the detailed items below:

Noises in the rare brakes, bad reading in the fuel gage (never marks the 8 liters per led as it says) both items, never solved by Citroen till today.

Had to change the fuel injection system for over consumption. This task to be completed took me over 10.000 km of use to convince Citroen the car used too much fuel.

Consumption was amazing: 20lt/100km!! And they doubted to make the necessary repairs.

After the service, it continued with such gas needs till an upgrade in the electronic system.

But yet it never gets the fuel economy Citroen claims.

Which was the reason for I bought the car, so I got really disappointed, 1st because of sensation of being ruled, then because I must be driving looking at the Fuel consumption indicator so as no to run out of petrol.

My resume is before buying a C3 1.6 16v exclusive:

Check down this points.

*Bad service attention given on post sales by Citroen, and lack of labor parts.

*The car is very noisy, (engine and interior)

*Noisy brakes

*Excessive fuel consumption (12.5lts/100km average) on normal driving (city and motorway)

*Company statements are not accomplished.

If you still want to have C3: make sure you have a gas station every 280 km or you'll get nervous by thinking you'll continue on foot. Disregarding climate condition (wind snow etc) and drive way condition (hills etc) which they will decrease substantially your fuel economy.

We Purchased our C3 1.4Hdi 16V in Sept 2002 as our main Vehicle. The car had some light use for the first 10 months – approx 9000 miles, but there were no problems (except stuttering from cold – see below), and despite apparently ‘flimsy’ trim – as demonstrated by Top Gear, nothing rattled or fell off. Good so far! In March 2003 whilst driving at about 75mph in the outside lane of the M6 suddenly I lost power - drastically, it’s as if the Turbo had been removed. I stopped in a service station having limped across the carriageways. The engine felt flaccid. After a short break, I started the car again, and all was well. – It has never happened since. My Brother who is a Renault trained Mechanic (and now college lecturer...) suggested that some valve on the turbo/ exhaust was not operating or had stuck.

I now have 48,000 miles on the clock and here are a few of the problems….

If I stall it - the power steering stops working

TIP operating the ingnition 3 times resets the ECU and it starts working again.

On cold (1-2C) days, when there is one bar of water temperature visible, the car stutters and hesitates whilst accelerating gently, this disappears completely when the car is warm – another couple of minutes running, the Citroen techs have never found the problem. It feels just like Carburettor Icing, but it doesn’t have carbs…… (I have a Japanese Motorbike so I know all about carb icing)

I struck some debris on the motorway and stalled as I braked and pulled onto the hard shoulder. When I started up, the engine was running rough- panic, my Citroen assist had run out... Guess what?, In desperation I operated the ignition switch three times...

At 37000 miles – the wiper motor failed (replaced under warranty)

At 38000 mile service, BOTH rear discs and pads required replacing – what’s all that about? I had to pay. Parts weren’t overly expensive, but I’ve never worn a set of rear discs out in my life, and the daily 105 mile round trip is on the motorway.

At 48,000 – I now get a rhythmic knocking sound from the front wheels at low speed, seems to disappear when the brakes are applied – could be pad knock, but I’ll get it checked at the forthcoming service.

Good bits. 62.5 MPG – reasonably comfortable – looks different, nice boot. Very few rattles. Lots of torque.

Would I recommend it??? Hmmm, not bad enough to hack me off is cheap to run (under warranty…) but a few pointers that make me nervous about hanging on to it. On the other hand, it’s all mine and with 50k on the clock in three years it’s probably worth bugger all.

My overall ownership experience rating = 60%

Just a quick comment about all these C3's. As a Citroen Technician, I can tell Citroen technical support and customer services are among the industries worst. The reason why you can't get any engine parts is that Ford and Citroen are on a massive engine building program and all the parts go on new engine... on there new engines... everything is built to a budget and Citroen's budget is small... hey you bought a cheap car and that's what you got...

September 2005 I purchased a 53 plate C3 1.4 (i.e. 18 months old). For the first six weeks it was wonderful and I was delighted... but then the problems started. It first broke down in mid-October when the engine fault light came on, and I lost all power. I was stranded in a school carpark for 2 hours awaiting recovery, and was finally towed to the Citroen dealership. They informed me that "the problem has been erased from the computer memory and it will probably be all right now". I was very unhappy with this, and sure enough within two weeks the same problem occurred - the warning light came on, I lost all power, and had to be rescued again.

We are now in May, some 9 months since I bought the car, and it has now BROKEN DOWN SEVEN TIMES with the same problem. The dealership are so sick of me that their manager suggested I try taking it to a different Citroen garage for repair, as his workforce appear to be missing something! We have tried to negotiate a replacement car or refund, but Citroen have offered £1600 less than the price we paid for it, and have the cheek to offer us a trade in that will cost us more money for a car of similar age and mileage.

They have replaced no end of parts, and I have had to use a courtesy car on several occasions. But they haven't been able to find out what is wrong with it, and I am sick fed up of an unreliable car that I cannot allow my teenage daughters to use in case they get stranded miles from home. I regret ever buying a C3, and would never consider buying a Citroen again. As I write this my car has broken down again today, but being a Saturday there is nobody in the Citroen garage, so I am left without a car all weekend, awaiting yet another call from my new best mate, the service manager at the Citroen garage.

I am now at the stage where I think I will have to cut my losses and accept the paltry amount that Citroen have offered, as my warranty runs out in three months' time and Citroen have confirmed that I will be responsible for any repair costs after this - even if it is the same problem that they have failed to resolve. No doubt the car will be put onto their forecourt with a huge mark-up, and some other poor, unsuspecting punter will buy themselves a turkey of a car. My advice - don't touch a C3 with a barge pole!

I have a great little Citroen C3 Desire, well it would be potentially, but I have had endless problems with the fuel injection. I am on first name terms with the guys at the Dealership in Northamptonshire who are most probably sick of the sight of me.

Lots of parts have been replaced and I have been in and out more often than not. I usually get a month or two consistent driving before it breaks down en route again though...

Never again... No more Citroen's.

Boy am I glad I found this site, I test drove a 2004 1.1LX C3 this morning, was seriously considering purchasing it, until I read the comments here! So it appears Citroen are still building poor quality cars, oh well, I'm going to stick with the good old trusted 2000 year Mondeo. Funny thing is, the garage selling the C3 only offered me a grand for my car, what a cheek, by the comments here, he should have been giving me a grand to take the C3 away!

Thanks for the heads up people.

I have used (2002) C3 and have had the following problems:

Motor would stop at traffic lights =>Injection system was replaced.

After new injection system, the petrol measurement could not be calibrated: it showed 50% with tank empty => dash board instrumentation was replaced.

When accelerating, the engine management light comes on. The reason "is" that the motor does not receive true wheel speed measurement. I do not have the necessary sensor located at ABS in this model. I waited 2 years for "new software upgrade". It was installed a week ago plus all wires were traced. The dealer now recommends replacing the computer for 700Eur (I am living in Finland)

that should "fix" the possible future fault indications. I have decided to try my luck without it...

I had the Citroen 2003 C3 SX - it broke down continuously, engine losing power which probably happened every couple weeks. All I can say is - don't touch them with a barge pole. It was a nightmare. Citroen couldnt fix it and when they did, it happened all over again. Said they couldnt find anything wrong with it. In the end they thought it might be electrical - with a result after spending hundreds I got rid of it and bought a new Ford.

Beware is all I can say.

Can anybody help. My C3 warning light come on, says auto fault, then goes out. The car runs OK, but this happens about 3/4 times a day.

My citron c3 petrol O2 model has managment light keep comming on engine stalls and cutting out changed injector 4 and wiring can any body help.

Hi All well I bought my C3 a week ago and guess what, the speedo has gone and power steering goes as well so having it diagnosed this week.

What happens is:

whilst driving at say 30mph the speedo will jump to say 60mph and then go down and then it will just go to zero whilst driving, the power steering will then go (but not all the times)

Sometimes the speedo will come back to normal over times I have to stop the car and hope it comes back on.

Has any body had this experience before and if so what was the out come?

Thanks for any advice.