2002 Citroen C5 Exclusive from UK and Ireland - Comments

Cooling fan would not turn off. Relay replaced twice.

Rear tyre wear uneven so had to have the complete rear axle assembly replaced.

Clutch judder developed and had to be replaced.

Immobiliser fault displayed. All electrics failed. AA call-out, had to disconnect battery to reset.

Anti-pollution fault has been painful. This last time resulted in the total loss of power, very frightening on the motorway. Petrol pump replaced and now waiting to see if this is the cure.

Vibration problems. Wheels have been balanced 3 times (once at Citroen dealer) at dealers who can balance these special centre-less wheels. Still have the vibration problems. Will have to put up with this for 4 months until car is changed.

Has had two safety recalls, one for the handbrake and one for a safety download?

Whenever you lift the tailgate you get water running into the boot.

Very quiet for motorway miles.

Very smooth ride.

Comment on the Air pollution problem.

My C5 HDI had the same problem. The problem came under driving in rain. The air filter got full of water, and the mix between fuel and air became incorrect. The dealer solved the problem by closing a pair of holes in the air filter box and drilled a pair of new holes in an other place.

Sorry if the english is not correct, but I thought this was an important information.

Regards

Jørgen Broen

Denmark

e-mail: jbr@elsam.com.

I agree with the other users and have had many of the same problems.

An additional problem I have is total electrical failure. This means, that all electrical components cease to work, i.e. wipers, lights, air con, radio/CD for a period of 3 to 4 seconds and then it all comes back again. Very disconcerting when driving on motorways in bad weather and heavy traffic, and not knowing when it will happen again. Two Citroen dealers have been unable to resolve the problem, and now the car is out of warranty, there's no interest from them.

I am experiencing exactly the same difficulty with my C5 HDi. The first time I took it to the dealers, they topped up the anti-pollution liquid. 2 days later, I returned the car as the fault started being displayed again. This time, the invoice I got stated that the fault had been traced to the 'camshaft variator'. This was replaced together with the timing belt. I collected the car and the light came on again before I'd left the garage. They investigated further and told me it had been cleared. I was told to take the car for a long drive and the drive would clear the exhaust. The problem is still there and I will take the car back after Christmas. It has so far cost me a fortune and although the work is guaranteed, I am afraid the garage may identify other 'sources/causes' of the fault. The garage is a certified Citroen repair centre.

Hello everyone I'm writing from Lithuania. My family has 2002 c5 2.0L petrol. A few days ago I was changing gears from 1 to 2 and suddenly everything turned off and I was in the middle of a corner, so the steering wheel locked and I almost had a crash into upcoming mini van. Still car does not want to start its engine, starter is working, but it seems that petrol cannot reach the engine. My display is a bit broken, so I don't see what it says, but there should be 3 letters or something like that. It is the first serious thing in almost 3 years of having the car. There were some small problems, like thermometer. The only problem that cannot be solved is the noise isolation inside the car, it is very loud when going through any bad road, the suspension (shock absorbers) are pneumatic and they are very "hard", a bit unpleasant, because mainly roads in Lithuania aren't very good.

Have a good day. I still don't have a car, because it is 24th of December, maybe on 27th guys will have a look at it.

I have a 2001 C5 Exclusive HPi and was suffering the intermittent shut down of electrics about every 5000 miles. Each shut down only lasted for a moment. The fault appears to have been rectified by replacing the “B” screen – this is the one that gives the trip computer, exterior air temperature and radio tuning info and is located in the middle of the dash board. This was done under warranty so I do not know details of the parts actually used.

Wheel balance is also a problem. I am just about to return to the tyre dealer after having two new tyres fitted to have the wheel balance rechecked.

Rear tyre wear is more even and less rapid now I have fitted the latest style of Michelin E3A tyre that has a lot of rubber on the outer edges of the tread.

Dealer back up has been very good and the car has not let me down.

I endorse the quiet smooth ride.

I have also experienced a LOT of problems with front wheel balance. I must have had the wheels balanced and re-balanced between 15 and 20 times in the 4 years I have owned the car! It has been back to main dealers and well known tyre fitters. No one has the answer. Can never tie it down - and garages never road test a car to make sure it is cured. This is the only major problem I have had - otherwise the car is superb. But - it is a major concern and may persuade me to buy non-Citroen next time.

I have a y reg C5 and I really regret purchasing this vehicle, I have had endless problems with the anti pollution system, resulting in having 2 new catalytic converters (which are very very expensive. I have also had problems with the balancing of my wheels, the boot gets full of water every time you open it on a rainy day. More often than not my radio will not turn off even when engine is turned off, the RAC solved this problem for me quite easily, each time this happens you have to remove the fuse and re-insert it and problem solved. My suspension has a mind of my own and changes itself, causing the car to judder and now to top it all off my car is refusing to start, the display is telling me that I have an engine immobiliser fault, I have had a mechanic out to look at it and apparently the car is not reading the key properly and even though it is the main key (and we have tried both) the immobiliser will not turn off so that my car can start. Does anyone have any advice on this problem.

Hi, saw the last problem with the C5 that would not start as it does not reconise the key. All you have to do is disconnect the battery and join together the battery leads for about 5 minutes, then connect the battery and the car should then restart.

My Y Reg V6 has lost its SAT NAV display screen and the CD and Multi CD do not work.

These faults are related as is the radio remaining on when you switch off. Its been an intermittent fault and they all recover together when its OK. Probably just a poor connection, but it seems impossible to get service info. Gave it to my local dealer, but this kind of fault is beyond them. Want me to prepay for £1,000 worth of parts without any guarantee that the fault will be fixed. I like the car, but these and other problems show that gadgets are OK until they go wrong.

I have a Citroen C5. It's about 5 years old now. When it rains, water runs into the boot as the back hatch is lifted. The Anti Pollution fault light has come on in the last couple of days, but I did go through some deep water on a flooded road recently so that's probably what caused that, and the windows go up when it rains. Disconcerting when you have an arm resting on the sill as it starts to go up. I am assuming that the electrics get wet when when it rains. This also means that one of the back passenger doors also refuses to unlock when I use the central locking. The car vibrates when it hits 70 mph despite having the wheels balanced by a Citroen dealer. Oh! And the petrol gauge lies and I have run out of petrol twice. Other than that, it's a great car! ;)

I am also having problems with the radio on C5 Exclusive staying on after key is removed. One correspondent states that a simple removal of a fuse clears the fault. Could he please respond with which fuse to remove and where it is located.

Well I do feel slightly better that it's not only me with a dodgy C5. I have a y reg 2.0 16V Exclusive SE it has all the electronic toys. The car runs smoothly, but I have probably had most of those faults mentioned atleast once. Currently I have the Engine anti-pollution system fault as previously described. interesting to know how to solve my radio not turning off problem. My drivers heated seat does't heat, and my external temperature gauge reads --C it has gradually crept up from 20C at one time over christmas according to the gauge the external temperature was 40C.

I have to echo most of the comments above. My C5 Exclusive needed a new rear exhaust whilst on holiday (not even able to limp home). There are no after market ones (in the UK anyway) and the genuine Citroen one cost just under £1000 - even the dealer thought this extortionate. It meant a fairly frugal holiday too.

I've also had 3 of the 6 coils replaced due to a 'known fault' where they overheat and fail causing a bad misfire - fortunately being a 6 cylinder it's still drivable - just. I have the wheel vibration problem. I get knocks from the rear suspension. My steering wheel makes clunky noises from the middle boss. Doors occasionally fail to unlock. The sunroof has a mind of it's own - I've stopped using it as I can never guarantee it closing again. And, of course, the boot fills with water from the tailgate - I thought this might be down to a blocked drain hole, but obviously not. I might re-route the drain holes into the radiator as this complains it's low about once every six months!

My wife won't sit in it by herself when it's parked because the suspension keeps self adjusting - but that's more of a complaint about her than the car.

The final straw today is the radio retuning itself, the display going completely mad (telling me all the doors were open when I'm doing 70 on the motorway) then going blank and refusing to come on again. My daughter, who was with me, is convinced the car is possessed - I'm inclined to agree!

Tomorrow morning I'm going to disconnect the battery (which I've just replaced last week as the original failed 8 months out of warranty) and hope that cures some of the faults at least. When I replaced the battery I noticed the earth strap was quite badly corroded so I may well do something about that in case it's causing a voltage drop.

It's a real shame about this car - it should be a classic, but if it was a horse I'd shoot it.

I have just read the comment about the outside temperature gauge going mad. In the last two days mine has gone from 24 C up to 60 C. I'm not sure whether this affects the climate control system, but it seems to be blowing a lot of very cold air on automatic. Does anyone have a solution to this?

Having read all the horror stories about C5`s, I am wondering now whether to go ahead or not and swap my (third) XM for a C5,probably a 3ltr. But, the C5 brochure`s tell me that these cars do not have the normal wiring loom, but a system using radio signals to activate all the various electrical components. Having done a lot in the past with radio controlled aircraft, I know that it is very possible for RC systems to pick up what we called spurious signals from outside sources using a similar wave band. These days there are so many devices sending out radio signals, and these could cause the receivers in the car to be activated independently, making the components work very erratically. It may be only a thought, but I do feel that this theory could answer some questions.