Temperature gauge darting around but mostly next to cold - cause ?

[dstewart01]

I have a 2014 (14) reg 1.6 vti 120. My water temp gauge pretty much stays in the extreme cold sector all the time. The heater only kicks out very tepid warm air only, almost cold. Until recently it has had a very effective heater and very prompt warm up from cold, and the temp gauge has performed normally. Today, with the heater controls turned to off to fully remove that from the equation, after a mile or so from cold start the water temp gauge briefly went to the middle but then rapidly returned to cold, then repeated the process, then for the rest of the journey it stayed in the cold sector. Same again on a journey made later in the day. The expansion tank is filled as it should be and the radiator pipes are only lukewarm. Any ideas on cause ? I’m thinking if it were a faulty thermostat it would just lengthen the time to warm up from cold, so that doesn’t explain the symptoms of never getting warmed or darting gauge. Am planning to take to my local independent garage due to lower labour rates but fear that he may take quite a while to diagnose if it’s not straightforward/came across it before. Is this a known problem that Citroen dealer should theoretically know about ?

[BenS]

It's a recall issue, check with your local dealer if your car is on the recall list, if so then they should do the replacement free of charge.

I wasn't able to get mine done on recall, but my local independent garage knew exactly what the fault was as there's a technical bulletin from Citroen. So if you can't get it done on recall warranty and you go to your local garage, they should diagnose it very quickly, and are pretty naff mechanics if they can't.

Edit: to elaborate, it does sound like the thermostat issue. They throw up all kinds of weird signals when they are dying. Mine for example thought the engine was half warmed up on a cold start and therefore I was not getting enough fuel delivered to start the engine and it was verrrrrrrry rough. If I'd left it any longer, the colder weather coming in would have probably put it out of action completely.

[dstewart01]

It's already been checked, it's not on a recall list. So what was the solution to your problem ? Thermostat only ?


How was your independent local garage able to access Citroen technical bulletins ??


I've already described the problem to the service fella at the Citroen dealer and he certainly never mentioned any bulletin that he was aware of. Which doesn't fill me with encouragement, including him suggesting it takes longer for the car to warm up in winter. DUH !

[BenS]

Well I'm not certain that it was a TSB but my garage had a printout with parts lists and pictures of the modified assembly required.

Full fix was:

• New thermostat
• New design thermostat housing
• Modified wiring loom for the new housing
• Extra bits e.g. seals and clamps

Now if yours isn't on the recall list it might already have the new housing in which case it might just be thermostat itself which needs replacing.

Your garage should be aware of the issue, since it's a very common one for the DS3 and probably other Citroens too. Point them in the direction of "the thermostat is buggered" and they should identify the issue and solution quickly enough.

[dstewart01]

I ended up going to a Citroen dealer, but another to the one that suggested it was maybe the winter weather outside causing it, Anyway, as usual for franchised dealer it wasn't cheap, just over £400 and parts were just small bit of this (£127 total for 'coolant outlet housing', part no. 9808646980, and 'wire' which I take to be electrical.) They referred to a technical service bulletin B1AW0122Q0. The rest was labour which included £90 initial diagnostic charge which you pay for them just plugging it in to diagnostic reader). Didn't have full ds3 history and out of warranty by 7 months so out of my pocket it came. Hope reliability, and associated costs, doesn't continue on like this.