Citroen C3 Owners

Hello all! I am new to this site but glad that I found it. I am a new owner of a C3. A 2008 1.4L flex model to be precise. It has been wonderful for the past few months I've had it but now that the weather's getting warm, some problems are showing up. In traffic, it overheats. The air conditioner also only blows cold at higher speeds or when engine is cold. I've noticed the radiator fan only turns on for seconds at a time which leads me to believe that is the root of the issue. But how do I determine if it's the fan itself, or a relay, or a sensor, or something else?

Disconnecting the two-wire connector from the green sensor causes the dash temp gauge to go to red.
The radiator fan intermittently turns on and off but only for very short periods of time. When it turns on, so does the air conditioner compressor. Then when it turns off seconds later, so does the AC.

Any help would be so greatly appreciated! I've scoured the forums for posts of the same issue but haven't seen the same one.

slicnic911 wrote:Any help would be so greatly appreciated! I've scoured the forums for posts of the same issue but haven't seen the same one.

You can test the fan with Lexia tool (here). This will bypass the sensor.

Its not uncommon for the fan to fail, you could try a working fan if you can find the right one HERE and this may be easier than setting up lexia from scratch.

slicnic911 wrote:The air conditioner also only blows cold at higher speeds or when engine is cold.

Does the heater blow at all speeds?

Thanks for the help! Are Chinese-made Lexia tools to be trusted? I assume they are copies of the original.

Acknowledging that I am new to Citroens, I think I've narrowed the issue down to the fan relay, the temperature sensor, or the fan itself. I hope it's not the fan for cost reasons.

Yes, the heater blows well at any speed. The aircon, once the motor is warmed up, runs for a few seconds at a time then cuts out again shortly after. The radiator fan seems to only get the message to turn on from the air conditioner but for whatever reason then turns back off. High engine temperature does not trigger the fan to turn on.

I ordered a Lexia but it's coming from China so will take a while.

The fan no longer turns on even with the engine cold, which is when it used to at least run for a few moments. So perhaps it was just on its last leg. I removed the gray relay from its housing and see that it activates when the car is running and deactivates a few seconds after the car is turned off. I assume that is its correct behavior.

So, without being able to see the ECU's codes or faults, all things point to the fan being the issue. Sound right? Thank you!