hdi 1.4 8v year 52 (98000 miles) Lacks Power

Thank you so much for all your help.
its the most help i have had so far.

Thats ok, I think everyone has helped, reading back through the posts. Its so difficult to diagnose a unique problem on a forum without the car in front of you. Common faults are much easier to diagnose remotely. Hey, even mechanics and a citroen dealer couldn't suggest much, so its going to be difficult, as in more than one fault. 2 or 3 things not working can make it very tricky to sort out. As the time went on, more and more information showed up.

it is like driving a 1.cc engine gutless slow build up of power on hills.

A lack of power can be cause by many things, but reminds me of driving a worn out IDI diesel without a turbo. When all the other things are sorted and its still short on power check the waste gate and turbo but only after the crank sensor and vacuum loss are done.

They said injectors seem ok on there machine but they think i should replace them anyway because they might not be ok.

Did they remove the injectors to test them? There are companies that can test the injectors off the car, there is no point replacing them is they are ok, but you can't really test them fully on the car.

This company will test bosch (1.4 HDi 8 valve) injectors and Delphi (1.4 HDi 16 valve) injectors

im finding that since i have replaced cam sensor with a brand new one ,my car seems worse
like its going to cut out more, with more chugging.
and im getting air bag light with 3 beeps,if i turn car off and back on ,no air bag light,
then the next day air bag light again,go for a drive turn engine off ,get back in no air bag no beeps.

groundhog2378 wrote:im finding that since i have replaced cam sensor with a brand new one ,my car seems worse

groundhog2378 wrote:like its going to cut out more, with more chugging.

That doesn't sound right. I assume the sensor was fitted correctly? who did the work?

A new cam sensor has a different fitting technique than refitting the original or a second hand one.

I don't see a connection to the air bag ecu and the cam sensor, its all very odd and looking very much like a wiring fault somewhere .

Had another test today
my car is 1200 bar it should be 1350
i think he said i got lean fuel.
He says low fuel pressure,i need another test for this,
to see if its Bad Fuel Pressure Regulator or fuel pump.
were is the Bad Fuel Pressure Regulator on citreon c3 8v please and is it easy job.
thanks everyone.

were is the Bad Fuel Pressure Regulator on citreon c3 8v please and is it easy job.

Hi groundhog2378

The fuel pressure regulator is part of the high pressure pump.


The high pressure fuel pump with its inbuilt regulator is on the cam belt end of the engine, over the back, at the top.
Look for the hand priming pump and its somewhere under there.

Its driven by the cam belt, so you will need to start as if you are changing the timing belt by setting the timing marks and locking them off. Then remove the cam belt and remove the fuel lines and the fuel pump drive sprocket. With the sprocket removed, you can see the fuel pimp mounting screws, remove these to release the pump.

Seal off the exposed fuel lines and pump fuel line unions to stop even the smallest bit of dirt from getting in and damaging things later on.



The white arrow on the left is a pretty good place to look to find the high pressure fuel pump.

A picture of my graph from the rolling road


any comments and help welcome

The power loss seems to have happened after the cam belt change which points to the cam belt not being fitted correctly. the cam belt fitting needs to be done exactly correctly regarding the timing marks and belt tensioner. Anything slightly wrong on the belt/pulley/engine timing, even by 1 tooth will give a loss of power, any more than 1 tooth and it may not start.

If it were my car and it didn't run correctly after the cam belt change, I would double check it again, to the point of doing it again myself ensuring it was done 'correctly'.

It is easy to get the timing out of sync if the correct procedures are not followed when removing the old belt and fitting the new belt and tensioner.

Also, you had a new crank pulley fitted at the same time as the timing belt, its worth checking that the right one was fitted, even to the point of fitting a part that you know is the right one, after the belt installation has been checked thoroughly.

All the other work, although may have needed doing at some time, doesn't fit with the order that the problem (lack of power) occurred, so its unlikely that the HP pump has failed just as the timing belt was changed...... more likely the cam belt is wrong and the pump is as worn as it always has been in the last 10 000 miles and not much more worn than the last 25 000 miles.

Taking the HP pump out needs the cam belt off, so check the cam belt timing and tensioner first.

Its then worth checking all the bits went back correctly when the cam belt was changed originally, its going to be much cheaper than fitting a new HP pump, or even getting yours refurbished.

hi thanks again for your help ,im not able to do the belt myself ,i can only do the little things,
i have had the belt looked at twice by 2 differnent people and i was told its lined up fine.
i have had turbo checked i was told that was fine runing at 80% on a machine.
i have also been told by diognostics man that the fuel was flowing fine,but then the rooling road man whos a differnt person said he thinks it must be the fuel pressure and i should get fuel pressure test done.
is he just saying this to me because i paid £60 and he came up with nothing but lack of power ,which is what i told him in the first place lol.
i was told the fuel injectors are coming up ok on the machine ,he said it cant be the injectors unless all 4 are bad,
no fault codes from citroen too.
i have been told by almost everyone thats looked at my engine that it is quiet and sounds sweet.
it runs lovely just foot to floor on hills and and revs are under the 1 at idel my friends is on the 1 he dont have any problems with his car,
and hourse power is 35 should be 70
nobody knows.
there is not much left it can be i replaced most parts.
what to do next ????

it runs lovely just foot to floor on hills and and revs are under the 1 at idel my friends is on the 1 he dont have any problems with his car,

I don't think the idle is relevant, but the foot to the floor could be the accelerator pedal. A faulty pedal could be sending a bad signal to the ecu. Its unlikely, but its something that can be tested with citroens diagnostics or Lexia tool or by substitution of a known good pedal from another C3. Has this been tested?

i have also been told by diagnostics man that the fuel was flowing fine,but then the rolling road man whos a different person said he thinks it must be the fuel pressure and i should get fuel pressure test done.
is he just saying this to me because i paid £60 and he came up with nothing but lack of power ,which is what i told him in the first place lol.

I don't think the rolling road was ever going to tell you which parts are faulty. The rolling road man is giving you his advice based on what he saw on the day.

there is not much left it can be i replaced most parts.

I don't think changing parts without any proper reasoning is a cost effective way to find faults unless you have access to a pile of parts because you have a donor car or work at a vehicle recyclers.

c3driver52 wrote:The crank sensor and the vacuum loss are the first to do. Then take it from there.

I see you changed the cam sensor, did you change the broken crank sensor? and how did the vacuum loss investigation go?

I have fuel rail pressure sensor code
1164
£75 for the part from citroen were is it and is it an easy job.
cause citreon want £275 to fit it.
please help