Engine temperature fault

[Star85]

Hi, really hoping someone can help me! Been looking through posts on here as I have an issue with my DS3 but thought I’d post for advice! So just to be clear I’m not car literate at all! I’m a complete girl!! So I’ve noticed over the last week or so while driving my temperature gauge wasn’t really moving but kinda ignored it and forgot about it. Last night after a half hour drive my car warning lamp lit up and said engine temperature fault and said to stop. Which I did! I noticed that while this warning flashed up the temperature gauge went straight into the red then back to low, I also noticed the fan was on. I turned the engine off sat for a minute or 2 then started the car back up, the fan went off and no warning light. I decided to continue Home as I was only 5 mins away.
So after talking to my brother this morning he told me to check the coolant level which I did, it was at the minimum level, he said to top it up with water and take it a drive. I done the water and drove it around the back streets for 10 mins then left it sat idle for 5 mins, there was no warning light and the temperate gauge did move from cold to the first line. So do you think it was because the coolant was too low or could it still be something else? I’ve booked it to go in Saturday but I don’t want to have to fork out money if I don’t have to, they will see me coming!!

[BenS]

Thermostat fault, very common on the earlier cars. Should be plenty of threads here about it, you can check if it can be done under recall warranty at a Citroen dealer by giving them your reg. If you can't it's a very expensive job, £300-£400 independent and even more at official Citroen workshops.

[Star85]

So it’s the sensor but needs new housing etc! Still don’t know what I’m talking about anyway said around £200. Never called Citroen as they aren’t close by and can’t be bothered with taking the car to them and being stuck without a car. I also have the warranty pack with Arnold Clark but I have to pay them £80 upfront just to put it on dignostics! I hate cars!!

[BenS]

All cars are expensive to maintain, there's really no good or bad ones when you average it out over the lifetime of them all.

£200 is not bad at all, is that parts only though? I would expect final cost to be £300 at least.

The reason it needs a new housing and wiring loom is that the new thermostat which was designed to avoid the fault was also designed with the housing, to stop the issue of it sticking open and letting all the hot coolant through the overflow rather than the radiator. It's a one-package thing but once it's done it'll stay working at least.

[tarquin412]

All cars are expensive to maintain, there's really no good or bad ones when you average it out over the lifetime of them all.

£200 is not bad at all, is that parts only though? I would expect final cost to be £300 at least.

The reason it needs a new housing and wiring loom is that the new thermostat which was designed to avoid the fault was also designed with the housing, to stop the issue of it sticking open and letting all the hot coolant through the overflow rather than the radiator. It's a one-package thing but once it's done it'll stay working at least.

my wife has a ds3, i have 2 german cars, let me assure you there are good car makes and bad one's, although in many cases asian companies are now closing or have closed the gap on european ones, especially france and the cheaper italian ones.
my wife's ds3 had a new water pump under warranty, it had a new thermostat, housing, and wiring 13 months ago at a cost of £300, it has just gone again for another doing after 6,000 miles since the last one.
they'll never be another frenchie coming into this house.

[manuelpt]

my wife has a ds3, i have 2 german cars, let me assure you there are good car makes and bad one's, although in many cases asian companies are now closing or have closed the gap on european ones, especially france and the cheaper italian ones.
my wife's ds3 had a new water pump under warranty, it had a new thermostat, housing, and wiring 13 months ago at a cost of £300, it has just gone again for another doing after 6,000 miles since the last one.
they'll never be another frenchie coming into this house.

That's a big oversimplification. There are lots of german cars that are trash and lots of good french ones. Very important is also how the car is used and mantained. Plenty of german cars had suffered from cronical issues. Yes, in general german cars have a more robust and carefull construction, but that doesnt allways have a so simple direct correlation with reliability. I have a cheap french car, that i bough in 1998, a Citroen Saxo. Still use it to this day, almost half a million Km on it. Yes, I had to fix some problems on it, but never major problems and not once it got me stuck on the roadside.

[Chris_Blue]

that's a big oversimplification. Almost half a million km on it. Yes, i had to fix some problems on it, but never major problems and not once it got me stuck on the roadside.

wowzer