The suspension of the car is simple, strong and reliable enough. The links of the anti-roll bars are a consumable, as elsewhere. In the front, with runs in the region of 60 thousand, the rear arm silent blocks and support bearings of the struts fail, and in the rear, with runs up to one and a half hundred thousand, you only need to monitor the condition of the lower shock absorbers. Further, additional investments are possible: for example, in replacing the silent blocks of the rear beam and broken springs. The mileage to replacements can, of course, turn out to be significantly less if the car was overloaded (and this is still a minibus, so this happens).
Some cars had air suspension at the rear, but the system proved to be not very reliable: both the pump and air bellows could fail by 100 thousand. As a rule, no one is involved in a full-fledged repair of pneumatics - they change them to ordinary springs. By the way, they are not always original - “collective farming” is widespread with replacement for springs, say, from Shniva.
Steering with EGUR usually does not cause problems for a very long time, but with 250+ runs, you need to look closely at the pump and rack leaks. Pump leaks can lead to failure of the electronics, and the wiring to the pump itself can suffer in minor accidents due to unsuccessful laying. The rail is quite reliable, with high mileage, the side bushings wear out, but leaks and complete failure are rare.
The cars are strictly front-wheel drive and do not cause any mechanical hassle. The SHRUS resource is usually 300+, the drives are durable, the splines do not rust.
There are very few cars with manual gearboxes, and almost all with a 1.8 engine, which was not equipped with other transmissions at all. The BE4 box on the Citroen C4 has proven to be quite reliable. Problems are mainly created by the cable shift drive and, occasionally, by the gear shift mechanism itself. Bearings fail very rarely and with high mileage or with a missed oil level. Its level is worth watching, the box with runs of 150+ is already beginning to actively sweat with all the oil seals.
A 6-speed ML6 manual gearbox is found with diesel engines, it is also prone to leaks, but its resource is generally higher, and it is more difficult to break it.
There are two types of automatic gearboxes on the C4: the well-known hydromechanical gearbox of the AL4 series and the robotic automatic gearbox EGS6, the design of which is much more interesting.
But the EGS6 is a unique unit of its kind. The name itself is an abbreviation for Electronic Gear Shift, and the number "6" indicates the number of steps. This is a robotic mechanical automatic transmission with one clutch, but it is not robotic with simple electric mechanisms, but with high-pressure hydraulics - much like robots on sports cars or Fiat and Alfa Romeo with their Selespeed. By the way, the supplier of the system for Citroen is the notorious Magneti Marelli, just like the Italians.
What does hydraulics give? Shifts can be made very fast, if desired, a full shift cycle takes 0.35 seconds, and the thrust break time, when no torque is transferred at all, is less than 0.15 seconds. This is really fast and therefore avoids many of the problems inherent in budget “robots”.
Practice has shown that the number of failures of this system is quite large. Fortunately, most of the problems can be solved simply by resetting errors or adapting through the DiagBox / Lexia scanners. In general, the resource is not so bad, but there are enough nuances.
The design is based on the ML6C series manual gearbox, but with reinforced synchronizers in all gears and its own gearshift mechanism. The design itself is very, very reliable, the installation of reinforced synchronizers on it and the use of a dual-mass flywheel and automatic control affects the resource in the best way. On the mechanical side, problems appear mainly due to the wear of the dual-mass flywheel or for those who like to drive in the "sport" mode all the time. In the latter case, even more durable synchronizers cannot withstand, and with a mileage of about 100 thousand, you can already face wear of the synchronizers and couplings. The dual-mass flywheel is not very reliable here, but it is not cheap, so after 100,000 mileage it is worth listening to idle knocks.
In this case, the clutch, under favorable conditions, can leave 200 thousand: wear of the linings occurs only during prolonged operation with a partially serviceable system. But the resource of the release bearing floats strongly: it happened that with runs of less than a hundred thousand, it leaked or wedged with damage to the basket. Smart craftsmen try to change it at every opportunity, for example, when replacing the rear oil seal of the engine or removing the box for prevention. Even with pressure surges in the box, it can simply be squeezed out, but these are literally isolated cases for this box, although this happened often on EGS 5.
The main difficulties for the robot do not arise with the mechanical part of the box, but with hydraulics and electronics. Gearbox faulty usually means that something is wrong with the hydraulics. True, it can be banal burned-out bulbs of reversing lights, but for the most part the errors are more serious and are more expensive to fix. The first thing that the EGS owner should learn: the oil in the gearbox hydraulic drive must be Tutela, and it must be changed often, preferably every 10-15 thousand kilometers. There is no normal oil filtration in the system, and the pump performance and the operation of the solenoids strongly depend on its purity. For a complete replacement, 400 ml is enough. True, if you have frosts in winter after -20, then Italian oils will have to be changed to something else, because after -10 they become very thick and the system starts to malfunction. If the oil is not changed, then the problems will begin already at near-zero temperatures. In addition to oil, you need to remember about the wear of the accumulator: if you notice that the pump has started to start too often, it is better to change it. Otherwise, the pump will die or push through the oil seals, and then the repair will be significantly more expensive.
The electronics of this generation EGS have become quite reliable, but the position sensors of the gear selector have a limited life, and the wiring of the unit is very capricious, and its breakdowns occur quite often if the service does not know how to handle it.
In general, in the presence of a specialized service and neat locksmiths, this type of automatic transmission has a right to life, the box is moderately reliable and not very expensive to maintain at least up to 200+ mileage. But any breakdowns usually lead to its complete inoperability, and the bulk of problems arise in winter, when all of its reliability is required from the machine.
The tight layout with an overhanging windshield makes engine maintenance a little more difficult, but Citroen engines are traditionally configured for maintenance strictly from the front. The main thing is to remember about the peculiarities of the electrics of cars and the location of the BSM unit in the engine compartment. He still does not like water and dirt, and the limited resource of the relay in it with runs above 200 thousand affects the reliability of the operation of any units.
The bulk of the engines on the C4 Picasso are "magic" engines of the Prince family, and not naturally aspirated, but supercharged. As you can imagine, there are not many problems with them, but a lot. On average, such engines ask for money with runs of 60 thousand kilometers, and from 120 thousand they often require already serious sums for repairs, and C4 is no exception.
Let me remind you that there are almost no contract engines, the latest generations of these engines are not much better, and a radical improvement in the situation due to lower temperatures, more frequent maintenance and selection of more stable oil is possible only if the car was immediately modified and maintained "as it should", and not as it was recommended by the manufacturer. As a result, C4 with the Prince asks for a lot of money, the price of operation over a long period of time will be comparable to the German premium.
The old engines EW10 and EW7 with a volume of 2.0 and 1.8 liters, on the contrary, are very resourceful, reliable and even inexpensive to operate. Their main problems are simple and commonplace: leaks, wiring problems, leaks, ignition module failures. With more or less high-quality care, their resource is more than 350 thousand kilometers. If it suddenly breaks down seriously, it doesn't matter, there are a lot of used motors, they are cheap, and the residual resource is quite decent.
They were found on the C5 and other Peugeot-Citroen models, and mechanically, their latest versions differ from earlier ones mainly in the design of the timing and cylinder head, as well as in the design of elements such as crankcase ventilation and cooling systems. Everything here is sometimes not so smooth, the pipes used have a very limited resource even with these motors, although their operating temperatures are not high. Leaks of antifreeze and breakdowns of ventilation of crankcase gases are not uncommon, and some elements of the systems are disproportionately expensive, which contributes to a variety of "collective farming".
Theoretically, two diesel engines can be found on the C4 Picasso, two-liter DW10 and 1.6 DV6, but in practice only the latter is found. Most likely, you will not be able to find a car with a two-liter diesel engine.
The main engine variant is DV6TED4 with 110 hp. or a weaker version DV6ATED4 with 90 hp. They differ minimally, the difference is mainly in the turbines: the 90-horsepower has a conventional Mitsubishi turbine, and the more powerful one has a Garrett with variable geometry. The fuel equipment is in any case Common Rail Bosch. There are options with and without a particulate filter, and the latest releases were also equipped with a urea exhaust gas neutralization system and a catalyst. The motors are undoubtedly reliable, besides - with a good boost margin, at least up to 160 forces, but they also have enough nuances.
The turbine has a relatively small resource on any engine version. This is due to an interesting design nuance: a miniature filter is built into the banjo bolt for supplying oil to the turbine. On running motors, it clogs up, causing the turbine to fail prematurely. It is recommended not only to change the oil more often, but also to remove the filter in advance. A dying turbine drives oil into the intake, finishing off the pneumatic meter. And on the 110-horsepower version, it drips oil just onto the generator, damaging its wiring, and can cause a fire in the engine compartment.
Another problem is the high-tech block of cooling pipes, it is not cheap and wears out over time, the plastic cracks and flows. And when repairing it, they are often collective farms, since the original part costs well for 250 euros. Or they use used parts, which is also a so-so output, the resource will definitely be small. If the pipes themselves leak, they are simply changed to suitable hoses. And in Belarus, they are already making separate fittings that allow you to assemble a block of nozzles on your own.
Coking of the intake with soot is also a common thing, EGR is actively working here. The EGR itself is quite reliable, failing less often than the "hospital average". The high resource of the timing belt makes the owners save money, they often try to reach the mileage of 120 thousand for replacement. This is a bad idea, the belt may not stand up in cold weather. And in the timing chain, a chain is used to connect the camshafts, the resource of which must also be remembered. Sometimes it starts to make noise even before the belt wears out. And the camshafts often have chipping on the cams with mileage above 200 thousand. But this defect is characteristic of European cars, in which oil change intervals can exceed 20 thousand kilometers.
The rest is a good engine with a strong piston group, crankshaft and oil pump. Rarely found raised liners are mainly associated with severe overheating. Thanks to the not very reliable antifreeze level control system and the lack of noticeable overheating at low load.
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