Citroen C3 Owners

Hi all this my first post. Im from Australia and just bought a little c3 pluriel sensodrive 2004 model. The sensodrive works very well with a very nice smooth gear change. Now my problem is I can't switch to manual mode. If I press the auto button it stays in auto with the light still on in the button. If I hit the paddle shift again it shifts but stays in auto. I believe it should go to manual with the use of the paddle shift. My lexia has brought up no faults. Apart from this annoyance it drives very well. I just want to chose the gear I want it to use.
Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks Chris

cav91 wrote:Hi all this my first post. Im from Australia and just bought a little c3 pluriel sensodrive 2004 model. The sensodrive works very well with a very nice smooth gear change. Now my problem is I can't switch to manual mode. If I press the auto button it stays in auto with the light still on in the button. If I hit the paddle shift again it shifts but stays in auto. I believe it should go to manual with the use of the paddle shift. My lexia has brought up no faults. Apart from this annoyance it drives very well. I just want to chose the gear I want it to use.
Does anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks Chris

Hi Chris

I would use your lexia tool to see if the car can see the paddle movements. If the paddle position can't be monitored by the car it won't know you are using them.

Sorry, I guess i wasn't clear. It changes up and down gears with the
Paddles without a problem. They are working. It just stays in auto. I appreciate your feedback.

Thanks Chris

Hi cav91.

I'm not quite sure what you mean.

You say the gearbox shifts gear when you operate the paddles but it's still in auto mode?

Do you mean it doesn't hold the gear you select?

Missing Lincs wrote:Hi cav91.

I'm not quite sure what you mean.

You say the gearbox shifts gear when you operate the paddles but it's still in auto mode?

Do you mean it doesn't hold the gear you select?

Sort of. I can shift it with the Paddles or let it do it itself. But I can't put it in manual mode. I used to have a c2 vtr with the sensodrive. In that I could switch it to manual mode and it would only change when I told it to. The light on the auto button would also go off when in manual mode. The c3 let's me change gears but the next change it decides for itself, which is usually not when I want it to. My other car is peugeot 406 v6 manual. So I'm used to choosing the gear I want. This is actually my first auto... well sort of auto!

cav91 wrote:If I press the auto button it stays in auto with the light still on in the button.

If the switch is busted then the signal for switch to manual can't get to the ECU.

Since the light doesn't go out, I would try a new switch.

C3CAR wrote:

cav91 wrote:If I press the auto button it stays in auto with the light still on in the button.

If the switch is busted then the signal for switch to manual can't get to the ECU.

Since the light doesn't go out, I would try a new switch.

I actually thought the exact same thing. I pulled out the switch pulled it apart gave it a good clean and now all works perfectly!

Great news and an easy fix.

Missing Lincs wrote:Great news and an easy fix.

Kinda embarrassing for me! I put this on a forum then did what I thought I should do all along! But hey least if someone else has this problem its here now!

cav91 wrote:

Missing Lincs wrote:Great news and an easy fix.

Kinda embarrassing for me! I put this on a forum then did what I thought I should do all along! But hey least if someone else has this problem its here now!

Its useful for others and its a lesson to go for the easy stuff first. Thank you for sharing it