Can I Disable Eco Power Saving Mode?

[Captain Nick]

Hi All,

Picked up a lovely DSport 110Hdi in Sport Red with Black roof, wheels and mirrors on 1st Sept from Citroen London West as it was a good deal through Drive The Deal! It is a great motor and is ideal for the girlfriend as the engine is so tractable and it has all the toys!

However, there is a big annoyance as when I am sitting in the car, engine off, waiting for a bit, listening to the radio the car goes into an "Eco Power Saving Mode" and switches everything off! It appears to be a (lame) attempt at saving energy. However, if I am sitting there waiting for example for 25 mins, to collect someone from the station in the grey gloom that is the end of summer in Lougborough, I should be able to listen to the radio or put the interior light on to read for a bit!

I have read through the manual and was totally flabberghasted to read Citroen suggest that if you want to use the electrics you need to re-start the engine and leave it running where you will be "allowed" double the time that the engine has been running for! ie: Run engine for 4 mins and you can have electrics for a further 8 mins! These guys are so eco friendly I can practically see the trees growing...must be some kind of weird French logic!

I often sit in the car waiting for periods exceeding 10 mins and my girlfriend will be using it for work so will be sitting in it in car parks trying to work before visiting clients and will need power too. Modern cars have massive batteries and I can fully appreciate that leaving the lights/radio on overnight accidentally can flatten a battery but surely to prevent this the "Eco Mode" should come on after say, 2 hours, not 10 mins! All other cars we have owned have never done this so why does the DS3?

Please can someone tell me how I can disable this "feature" or preferably change the switch off time to 2 hours? Thanks in advance for any help.

[Den]

you cant.
citroen can do it for you but no idea if they will or not- and if it would effect any warranty. (dont see why it would but you never know)

[Déesse trois]

My old C3 would switch off the radio after 30 minutes. That was acceptable because all it needed was a simple engine restart and almost immediate switch-off for another 30 minutes.

I find things such as lack of aux power when ignition switched off a bit annoying, as you can't use a laptop with power inverter or use any other 12v kit when stationary without turning the ignition on, or worse still running the engine.

I think Citroen are encoraging people to run the engine, rather than being sensible and allowing a decent time period and/or aux power with the car stationary.

So much for "eco"

[John Nicol]

Spoke to the workshop on this they think yes (our main man is off on hols) it can be re-programed via the citroen lexia the dealer may charge you to do this really best bet is the give them a call

[Captain Nick]

Thanks for the replies guys. I spoke to the dealer yesterday and asked him to find out for me. He did say that they have had several complaints from C4 owners about this and they haven't been able to address those so I don't hold out much hope! Is the Lexia and OBDII reader as maybe if I picked one up I couldmodify it myself?

[Bigfeet]

Spoke to the workshop on this they think yes (our main man is off on hols) it can be re-programed via the citroen lexia the dealer may charge you to do this really best bet is the give them a call

Would disagree there with you John, come across this a while ago and as far as I have been told no you can't disable the Eco-mode as it's part of the system.

[Rob1975]

should have bought the e-hdi with stop-start, engine goes off radio stays on, result!!!!!

[Captain Nick]

I got the response back from the dealer and their technician doesn't think it is possible. I am going to contact Citroen UK and see if I can get this sorted, it is starting to annoy me now. I was thinking about the legalities of sitting stationary with the engine running and iirc you can now get a ticket from the fuzz for it, so surely Citroen would have to do something about it?

[x6411]

I just thought the eco-mode kicked in when the car detected the amount of power left in the battery was reaching an amount that wouldn't be enough to restart the engine..?

I think when we first got the car it kicked in a lot sooner.. but now we've had it a few months & the battery has been charged properly it kicks in after about 30-40mins?

[nicksharp400]

its after a certain amount of time nothing to do with power left in battery

[Captain Nick]

Well I got a response from Citroen UK today and that was that their tech guys don't think it can be changed. Now, it has to be possible as there is some logic going on that is determining the drain whilst the car is not running and that must require some software code which by it's nature is modifiable!

Citroen UK have kept my case open and are escalating it at my request but the impression I got was that they don't see it as worthwhile due to the fact that I am the only one with an issue. Thus, they need to hear from anyone who is finding it irritating or problematic, so guys please email: cuk_contactcentre@citroen.com with a small explanation of the problem and hopefully if enough people complain then they will sort it!

Incidentally there must be lots of people with C3's and C4's that do this, so if any of you are on one of those forums can you please get the members there to email too?