Citroen C3 Owners

Just bought a 55 plate facelift SX 1.6 HDi for my wife. We love the car and the economy.

We have a young son and want to use the child locks on the back doors.

The owners manual indicates two ways of doing this - a mechanical latch on the doors and an electronic lock from the dash centre console.

I can't seem to move the mechanical latch - is it hard to move? Should it turn or slide? Is it even there on this age and model?

If I activate the electronic lock from the dash it stops the FRONT electric windows from working (rear windows are mechancical).

Can this be correct? I would have thought that for a small car (usually aimed at the 'school run brigade' - no offense to mums intended, I'm in that group as well) this was a bit of an oversight.

Any help would be appreciated.

BTW - I'm not a complete car numpty but will also admit that I can miss the obvious.

Thanks in advance.

On my 52 plate, the only way to child lock the rear doors is by pressing the "child lock" button on the centre console (not to be confused with the main central locking button). The manual windows can't be locked.

If you have manual rear child locks, normally inserting the tip of the key into the slot and rotating will engage the child lock for the doors. (again, the windows still open with the manual winder). This is very easy to turn. If it doesn't turn, don't force it, as its not going to turn.

This is the central locking button to lock all the outside door handles

This is the button to activate child lock. The child lock deactivates the interior rear door handles

This is marked as a child lock, but nothing moves and is not operational on this model.

Thanks C3CAR.

The picture of the inactive child lock has confirmed what I thought - the ones on my C3 are dummies.

Does using the child lock button on the centre console also deactivate the electric front window operation on your car or am I looking at some sort of problem with mine?

Hi MrA

After activating the child lock on the centre console, The internal rear door handles didn't open the rear doors. The front electric windows continued to operate correctly.

This is what I would expect to happen, So I guess there is some very strange computer fault with yours if the child lock also knocks out the front windows. - Good luck with that one.

If you ever get to the bottom of the cause and find a fix, it would be great to hear about it.


The Haynes manual for the C3, available from Amazon.co.uk (click here) covers models 2002 to 2009 and will help you with finding and fixing faults.