Dashboard gone haywire?

Questions not related to the fuel type, like Manual Gearbox, Body Work, Lights, Interior trim and Seats, Steering, Brakes, Beeping, Wheels and Tyres to be asked in this topic only.

Audio has its own section - see further down the page.

Please provide as much information as you think may be relevant like recent work on the car and you can attach photographs directly to your topic using the form below the text box.
My Name: 1Scotty1

Top Contributor
Posts: 32
Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2014 4:58 pm
Model: C3 2002-2005, Original shape model
Year: 2003 (03)
Engine Size: 1.1
Fuel Type: Petrol
Mileage: 88000
Trim Level: VTR+
Gearbox: Manual 5 speed
DPF: No
LHD or RHD: LHD (Europe)
Engine name: TU3 (75 PS)
Has thanked: 1 time

Post

Hello, everyone

I encountered an issue with my dashboard today (and it also happened on 25th of July last time), I was driving normally like always and all of a sudden my dashboard went crazy.

To be specific, RPMs stopped showing, my speed shows as 0 and a bunch of indicators lit up, fuel reserve blinks constantly (even at full tank) and what is worse, the dash stays like that even when I remove the ignition key and the dash stays lit up for hours.

Only thing that helps (and helped before) is to disconnect the car battery.

Here is a picture of the dash in it's current state (am at work, have no way of disconnecting battery now).

Anyone know what may be causing this? Thanks for the help
Attachments
C3.jpg
User avatar
My Name: Arfur Dent

Guru
Posts: 3628
Joined: Sat Jul 23, 2011 3:47 pm
Model: C3 2002-2005, Original shape model
Year: 2002 (52)
Engine Size: 1.4 (16v)
Fuel Type: Diesel
Mileage: 100000
Trim Level: Exclusive
Gearbox: Manual 5 speed
DPF: No
LHD or RHD: RHD (UK)
Engine name: DV4 16-valve diesel (90 PS)
Has thanked: 397 times
Been thanked: 148 times

Post

1Scotty1 wrote: Thu Oct 28, 2021 5:39 am I encountered an issue with my dashboard today (and it also happened on 25th of July last time), I was driving normally like always and all of a sudden my dashboard went crazy.
Hi

I've had the same, but not for a long time.

The CAN/VAN bus locks up and you loose the speedo .

It was the speedo that I noticed first, but yes, other dashboard items stopped working.

Disconnect the battery and reconnect it, resets all the computers including the CAN/VAN BUS and it works again.

I didn't dig into 'why', being intermittent that is just not worth the time considering the fix is quite simple and the fault finding will be tedious and quite probably fruitless.
You can add an avatar to your account - Avatar or change your vehicle details - Car Bio or even add a signature to your posts - Signature. But this is not all you can do in the User Control Panel :)
User avatar
My Name: Ozvtr

Moderator
Posts: 1330
Joined: Wed Jul 10, 2019 3:31 am
Model: C3 2002-2005, Original shape model
Year: 2003 (53)
Engine Size: 1.4 (8v)
Fuel Type: Petrol
Mileage: 80000
Trim Level: Other
Gearbox: Automatic PRND
DPF: No
LHD or RHD: RHD
Engine name: TU3 (75 PS)
Location: Brisbane, Australia.
Has thanked: 80 times
Been thanked: 416 times

Post

The total mileage is shared between the BSI (fuse box in the glove box) and the instrument cluster.
So I can only guess the problem is either the BSI, the cluster or the wiring in
between, as the dash and BSI are not communicating with each other.
If you had a LEXIA it should tell you which one is not communicating (the BSI or the cluster).
If the central display works when the dash goes haywire, then the problem would most likely be the cluster. For the MK1 (pre facelift) C3's the dash and central display are on the comfort VAN bus.
If the central display acts up at the same time, then I would say it's the BSI or the wiring. Try opening the doors when the dash acts up and see what the central display says (if the central display isn't already mucking up). If it's only the dash that wont 'shut down', again, that points to the dash.
Being intermittent and a common fault between yours and Arfur's, I would tend go for a wiring or connector issue. However it's also possible the VAN BUS decoder in the dash or BSI has a production fault.
The most logical action would be to replace the dash, but if it's a production fault it could possibly pop up again in the replacement dash (unlikely)? ...And you would have the mileage problem to deal with too!
It seems pretty rare. I haven't seen or heard of it before but it seems Arfur has seen it.
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Return to “Questions about a Citroen C3 not related to the fuel type”

  • Information
  • Who is online

    Users browsing this forum: CommonCrawl [crawler], Criteo [Bot], IAS [bot] and 3 guests