Engine cuts off intermittently

Hi everyone!

Its my first time here.

I bought a Citroen C3(LHD) here in Italy. Don't know engine model etc. All I know is that its a Sensodrive exclusive. Model written on car documents as first registered in Italy is 2004 but manufacturing date appears as December 2003. Its 1.4 petrol engine. Not sure of other details like engine model etc. So if you understand the exact model from the information mentioned please let me know as well.

Its my first time with a sensodrive. I always had a manual or full automatic car.

When I bought the car I didn't encounter any issue except of pick. In auto cars I was used to drive, car starts to move at a very slow speed as soon as you release the break pedal and usually had a good pick when accelerator was pressed. But it was not the case here. But I was told that I must have to accelerate it to make it moving. So I kept it aside thinking that its how it works. Other than that I haven't encountered any issues.

The car remained in showroom because I had to get the insurance to take the car from the showroom. I picked car on 2nd day as I got my insurance.

No issues taking it home but next day when I was driving on a highway. the temperature gauge showed that its overheated(on last bar: RED). While I was pulling it over to emergency lane, it came back to 2 points. I came back home, left the car to get cold and checked the coolant and it was looking fine(I mean coolant level was appearing fine). But it keeps doing it even if I start the car in morning when car is actually not warm. It hits RED and then come back to 1 or 2 points sometime on 3. I called the showroom who sold me this car, they told me that its a common issue with Citroen c3 of this model and they can't do anything about it since there is no warranty of the car. But they asked me to go to some workshop and ask them to replace the temperature sensor with some modified temperature sensor but not the original one or leave it as it is because it'll not harm the car. I was quite surprised with the suggestion.

Other day I started the car, it took so much acceleration on its own and came to normal RMP after few secs. I drove the car 2-3 mins away from my home and the car cuts off in middle of road(quite embarrassing). Obviously other users were getting disturbed because of me. There was no power at all as dashboard light was also gone, no reaction on ignition for few mins then the dashboard light was on but it was not cranking(I mean engine was not starting when I was Turing the ignition ON). There was a (--) signal on the gear indication place at dashboard and break pedal was hard(I wasn't able to press it). After many attempts it started but keeps on cutting off. I called one of my friend and he putted the car to manual mode from the button placed with gearbox lever. We reached back home because I had an appointment and travelled by train. When he parked the car the fan was ON(Not sure for how long because I left the garage right away). At night my friend came to my place and we started the car for some self diagnosis and noticed that the RPM needle was fluctuating while standing and all of a sudden it dropped and car turned off. We waited for some time and started it again after few mins we took it to road and we had a 1 hour drive without any issue.

Next day I started the car and came to road but it was still cutting off. I started searching about it on google and found that I'll need lexia to scan the car. It was expensive and out of my budget but I had no choice because I have to keep the car since I can't afford to buy other one.

I scanned the car(not sure if I scanned the right model because there are many models) and got following errors:

1. Oil pressure sensor disconnected (No error code mentioned)
2. Remote fault, intermittent fault, coolant temperature incorrect value received. (No error code mentioned)
3. P0118 intermittent fault engine coolant temperature sensor signal short circuit to + or open circuit
4. P0138 intermittent fault, downstream oxygen sensor not defined short circuit to positive or open circuit
5. P0571 intermittent fault inconsistency between the 2 stop switches coherence
6. P0131 permanent fault upstream oxygen sensor short circuit to earth or open circuit
7. P0170 permanent fault richness regulation coherence
8. P0011 intermittent fault, variable valve gear solenoid valve command lower limits
9. P0012 intermittent fault, variable valve gear solenoid valve command upper limits
10. P1794 permanent fault, clutch actuator counter information coherence
11. P1719 temporary fault, gear lever signal fault coherence
12. P1795 permanent fault, gearbox information coherence
13. P1702 temporary fault, ecu power latch
14. P1208 remote fault, permanent fault, information sent by the engine ECU coherence

I don't know if these codes are associated with 1 issue or multiple because too many Errors

Not sure if its an easy fix and cheap because car repairs are too high here. Which is the reason I bought it at high price from a showroom instead of buying some car privately. But still...

Any help will be appreciated.

And sorry for long story, just tried to explain the whole situation.

Thanks in advance!

Hello, welcome to the forum

I scanned the car(not sure if I scanned the right model because there are many models)

With lexia it will detect the correct car by VIN, automatically after choosing the right shape from the pictures. Just add rpo and you are good to go. I don't know what you managed to do if you can't do that bit.

got following errors

Delete (clear) all the errors that will clear. Then run the car (drive it if you can) and then read the codes again. It is only these new codes from the last read that are worth bothering with.

Screen shot each lexia screen showing the code and add it to your post. This saves a lot of unnecessary typing but it also gives us the exact information we would see on the screen as if we ran the test on your car ourselves.

Hi,

First of all thanks for replying!

Okay, I'll remove the fault codes tomorrow and then I'll try to drive it in the parking area. Don't have guts to take it to road.

I'll then scan it again and will post back here with the results.

Shawn wrote: ↑Fri Aug 20, 2021 4:34 pm Hi,

First of all thanks for replying!

Okay, I'll remove the fault codes tomorrow and then I'll try to drive it in the parking area. Don't have guts to take it to road.

I'll then scan it again and will post back here with the results.

Trouble with intermittent is that is won't return when you are actively looking for it so you may need to go some distance to get the codes to reappear.

I see... in that case I'll try to drive it at night when there is less traffic load at road after erasing the fault codes first. I'll post here afterwards.

Ok you have a lot of faults there and most don't seem related but I think some might be related.

Check the green and blue electrical connectors on and under the thermostat housing. Make sure they are secure and the wiring is OK. If it's secure and the wiring is OK replace the green temperature sensor. These are known to go faulty.

The brake switch is also known to go faulty. It is located behind the glove box on a RHD car or on the pedal box on a LHD car. The switch has a white electrical connector.

The P0138, P0131, P0170, P0011, P0012, P1702 and P1208 might be related to a power failure for the engine ECU. I doubt very much that both O2 sensors would fail at the same time. Check the grey connector on the engine ECU for corrosion. Check the black 16 pin connector on the engine bay fuse box for corrosion.

If you still have your owners manual, look at the instructions for resetting the sensodrive gearbox. Basically this involves disconnecting and reconnecting the battery until you get a "-" where the gear selector indicator is, putting your foot on the brake and turning the ignition to on and holding your foot on the brake while the gearbox does it's thing.

In fact just check all the connectors on the engine ECU, the gearbox ECU and the fuse box in the engine bay for corrosion. Remove the connectors and spray with electrical contact cleaner.

The sensodrive gear box is just a plain 5 speed gearbox with actuators for the gear selector and clutch. The clutch actuator can go faulty and the clutch can just plain wear out. There are a lot of videos on youtube on how to repair the sensodrive clutch actuator(if it has failed).

I would concentrate on disconnecting the electrical connectors and inspecting them first. Replace the brake switch and the temperature sensor. Warning: perform the instructions for a BSI reset before and after disconnecting the battery. Disconnect the battery before doing any electrical work!

Good luck.

Hi Ozvtr,

Thanks for posting!

Sounds quite technical but I'll try to check as you have instructed. It'll take me sometime because I don't have any user manual. I'll have to search for everything online.

I'll post back here if I'll not understand anything even after searching on web.

Thanks again!

Because of the sensodrive gearbox, the engine will not start if the brake switch is faulty. The gearbox cuts power to the starter until you put your foot on the brake. There are 2 independent sets of contacts in the brake switch. 1 set tells the glove box ECU to turn on the brake lights and the other set tells the gearbox and engine ECU that you have put your foot on the brake.

If the green engine temperature sensor goes faulty, all the temp lights on the dash will come on, but there wont be anything wrong with the engine cooling system, as the mechanic said. HOWEVER, the engine ECU needs to know the (true) coolant temperature to operate correctly.

In Europe, during winter, they salt the roads to melt the ice. HOWEVER, this salty water mixture gets into the electrical connectors and corrodes the connections. A lot of the engine faults might be attributable to corroded connections on the engine ECU. It would be unusual for all of those engine components to have failed at once.

Shawn wrote: ↑Fri Aug 20, 2021 12:19 am
Its my first time with a sensodrive. I always had a manual or full automatic car.

When I bought the car I didn't encounter any issue except of pick. In auto cars I was used to drive, car starts to move at a very slow speed as soon as you release the break pedal and usually had a good pick when accelerator was pressed. But it was not the case here. But I was told that I must have to accelerate it to make it moving. So I kept it aside thinking that its how it works.

The sensodrive has an ordinary 5 speed gearbox with an ordinary clutch and it operates the same as a manual car except there is no clutch pedal and no gear selector. The computer does that stuff for you. So without applying any accelerator the clutch is engaged and the car will not move. In fact you will need to apply the hand brake when stopped on a hill to stop the car from rolling...just like a manual car.
One of the stupidest things about the sensodrive system is that there is NO allowance for a worn clutch. The sensodrive computer has no way of knowing if the clutch is worn out and therefore no way of telling the driver. It just complains that it cant do what it needs to do! Like a manual car, the clutch WILL wear out and WILL need to be replaced from time to time but the sensodrive gearbox just throws up random incoherent failures!

Hi guys,

I deleted all error codes and drove the car for about 1 hour even through hills tho not very steep and it didn't stall this time. Not sure why, but it didn't.

Wasn't able rescan it afterwards because my laptop went off. So I'll rescan the car tomorrow evening to let you know which codes reappeared now.

But one thing which was still there despite of no stall, that the RMP needle fluctuates unusual even when idling.

Rest I'll scan the car again tomorrow evening. Lets see what it says.

Sorry for delayed responses because I mostly have spare time only on Sunday.