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My girlfriend purchased a DS3R in March 2012 with us both having owned Saxo's in the past we know that Citroen's aren't renowned for their build quality but the DS3 appeared to have bought Citroen to a new level. My Saxo was supercharged so I'm no stranger to having a broken Citroen but that was of my own making not one supposedly tried and tested at the factory..
Our issues started in November 2012 when the GF noted a knocking under acceleration, I passed it off as Citroen build quality and moved on, however it persisted and I diagnosed it as turbo knock to which we told the dealer and they ignored. Next up we noticed that the car was starting to use oil at an alarming rate to which the dealer started providing a regular top up. Our concern led to them 'assessing' the situation every 500 miles to which they seemed to believe after a few thousand miles that it wasn't excessive.
Toward the end of 2013 the knock/pinking began to get more aggressive and was now being followed by hesitation as the car was pulling through the gears, having told the dealer that something really needed to be done they took the car in and spoke to CUK. As expected the cylinder head and valves had become carbonized due to the way the oil vapour is re-routed into the breathers. The first attempt was to flush the cleaner through to remove the carbon, as expected it didn't touch the problem and the car was back in 2 weeks later. Next time around, head off, carbon cleaned off manually and replacement valves fitted as the current ones were beyond cleaning. Another 2 weeks goes by and the hesitation problem is still rife, back into the garage and this time they're replacing the high fuel pressure pump. Assumption is that this is now defective as it's giving erroneous readings when driven with the laptop hooked upto the diagnostics.
2 weeks ago it went in again as the hesitation was still there, now CUK have finally given in and are replacing the engine. 2 years down the line with a problem that really started 9 months after we bought it and we have a DS3R that'll be worth peanuts should we sell it.
Understanding the issues from working on my own S/C'd car and from my own experience writing about direct injection engines etc it's clear that the oil vapour breather issues, VVT, direct injection and additional power being utilsed for the 'R' are all issues that can be solved but not without modification. Owing to the fact that there are only 500 or less R's out there, there is no motivation for Citroen to do the right thing. If the issue affected all the petrol DS's to this level they'd have to recall/rectify the issue, instead they'll keep glossing over the problem...
I see two aftermarket modifications that would reduce the impact of the problem: It's been talked about and tried by several people on here already (after doing some looking around before posting) - Catch Tanks to stop the shitty oil vapour redoing the circuit. Whilst a single injector placed in the inlet and fired occasionally would wash fuel over the valves that it doesn't currently get owing to direct injection ( I believe that Audi/BMW have done this as a post solution on some of their models)
CUK are giving us a 2 year extension on our warranty once the engine is fitted and so I'm guessing unless they've made any modifications to the breather system, anyone know? on the newer engines we'll be back in this situation in a year or so's time...
Our issues started in November 2012 when the GF noted a knocking under acceleration, I passed it off as Citroen build quality and moved on, however it persisted and I diagnosed it as turbo knock to which we told the dealer and they ignored. Next up we noticed that the car was starting to use oil at an alarming rate to which the dealer started providing a regular top up. Our concern led to them 'assessing' the situation every 500 miles to which they seemed to believe after a few thousand miles that it wasn't excessive.
Toward the end of 2013 the knock/pinking began to get more aggressive and was now being followed by hesitation as the car was pulling through the gears, having told the dealer that something really needed to be done they took the car in and spoke to CUK. As expected the cylinder head and valves had become carbonized due to the way the oil vapour is re-routed into the breathers. The first attempt was to flush the cleaner through to remove the carbon, as expected it didn't touch the problem and the car was back in 2 weeks later. Next time around, head off, carbon cleaned off manually and replacement valves fitted as the current ones were beyond cleaning. Another 2 weeks goes by and the hesitation problem is still rife, back into the garage and this time they're replacing the high fuel pressure pump. Assumption is that this is now defective as it's giving erroneous readings when driven with the laptop hooked upto the diagnostics.
2 weeks ago it went in again as the hesitation was still there, now CUK have finally given in and are replacing the engine. 2 years down the line with a problem that really started 9 months after we bought it and we have a DS3R that'll be worth peanuts should we sell it.
Understanding the issues from working on my own S/C'd car and from my own experience writing about direct injection engines etc it's clear that the oil vapour breather issues, VVT, direct injection and additional power being utilsed for the 'R' are all issues that can be solved but not without modification. Owing to the fact that there are only 500 or less R's out there, there is no motivation for Citroen to do the right thing. If the issue affected all the petrol DS's to this level they'd have to recall/rectify the issue, instead they'll keep glossing over the problem...
I see two aftermarket modifications that would reduce the impact of the problem: It's been talked about and tried by several people on here already (after doing some looking around before posting) - Catch Tanks to stop the shitty oil vapour redoing the circuit. Whilst a single injector placed in the inlet and fired occasionally would wash fuel over the valves that it doesn't currently get owing to direct injection ( I believe that Audi/BMW have done this as a post solution on some of their models)
CUK are giving us a 2 year extension on our warranty once the engine is fitted and so I'm guessing unless they've made any modifications to the breather system, anyone know? on the newer engines we'll be back in this situation in a year or so's time...
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