Overheating Issues

I find that my 2003 Citroen C3 overheats in traffic but that I can bring the temperature back to normal by turning the heater fan up to high and opening the windows. A non-citroen dealer that did the last service said that they could not work out the issue and that maybe the whole radiator system need replacing (that was somewhat unhelpful).

Love my C3 and have had it since new. It has had regular services and other then this overheating issue, is in a pretty pristine condition - so really would like to fix it.

The Citroen online forums seem to indicate that it is either a problem with my fan, the temperature sensor, the thermostat or the connections related to these parts. I am looking for a good authorised Citroen mechanic in Sydney to fix this problem. What should he/she be looking for and what should this approximately cost me in AUD?

Hi Erik

Erik wrote:The Citroen online forums seem to indicate that it is either a problem with my fan, the temperature sensor, the thermostat or the connections related to these parts. I am looking for a good authorised Citroen mechanic in Sydney to fix this problem. What should he/she be looking for and what should this approximately cost me in AUD?

Until you know what the problem is, you can't get a price. The diagnostics will start at 1 hour, so a loose connection or temperature sensor may be found in an hour and the parts are not expensive.

But, if after several hours of diagnostics the fault is traced to the engine ECU, the hourly rate is multiplied by the number of hours plus the cost of replacing the engine ECU, which could easily be more than the cost of replacing a 2003 C3.

The first thing to check is for any error codes, these can indicate ECU, fan and temperature faults (use Lexia for this)
and the second thing I would check is that the radiator is not blocked.

A blocked radiator is uncommon in properly serviced cars using the correct coolant, but can give you the symptoms you describe but can also be confused with a faulty cooling fan.

You can find the cost of a replacement radiator from here and factor in a hour or two to change it and flush the system out.