[thetapeworm]

TL: DR Summary: if you've stumbled across this chances are you've got the UREA warning, fault messages and a countdown to the car not starting, chances are you need a new UREA tank, it's very expensive but contacting Citroen directly (0800 0939393) might result in it being replaced with a new updated part for zero cost as they are fully aware of this issue but not actively recalling it because it's not a safety thing.

------------------------------------------------------

The longer tale...

As you may have read on here already we had an issue with our 2016 BlueHDi 100 equipped car recently, I just wanted to document what happened and where we've ended up in the hope it helps people searching for the same thing in the future in the hope it saves them some stress / money.

Back in December the car suddenly decided to "smoke", a closer check revealed that it was actually "steam" but more interestingly it had a strong UREA smell, I surmised that the AdBlue injector was open and pouring AdBlue into the exhaust, the smell and white residue around the exhaust tip and bumper seemed to support this.

I called Citroen to discuss this and at the same time asked if there were any pending recalls for our car as servicing etc had been done outside of the network - they confirmed there was a job outstanding to replace a CAT bracket and another to replace the AdBlue cap with a newer vented one. I booked the car in for the "smoke" checking over and the other bits doing.

On picking the car up I didn't get charged and no issues were detected, the warranty work was carried out. As I followed in my car I saw the "smoke" again. Citroen hadn't looked at it at all.

So the next day we put diesel in, the smoke stopped and never came back - odd right?


Three weeks later, car loaded up with family and luggage we headed south for a 600 mile round trip for New Year, 30 miles in and the displays lit up... "Engine Fault: Have the vehicle repaired", "Emissions fault: starting prevented in 700 miles", the UREA light was flashing, the engine warning light on and the "SERVICE" indicator lit up permanently. Breakdown cover in place I decided to carry on with the thought that it was just the AdBlue tank playing up, we needed 600 miles, we had 700 in the bag. The car felt fine, performance was normal, economy as good as always.

I tried to book in with a Citroen dealership in Surrey, they never got back to me so we headed back up home and booked in at the one here in Yorkshire on the basis they would carry out a £144 diagnostics check and then tell me what needed doing.

(* I now know that Citroen Fixed Price Repairs quote diagnostics as £120 inc VAT and labour so watch out for this *)

In the meantime I pulled the codes I could with a reader and the Torque app, my FAP app wouldn't work for some reason - P20EE, P16EA and P208E error codes came up.

P20EE: Depollution of the deNOx system: Emission control ineffective.
P16EA: Depollution of the deNOx system: Excess emission of ammonia.
P208E: DeNOx system circuit: Detection of a blockage.

None of these are really that conclusive and rely on further checks, ideally with the support of Citroen Technical Service Bulletins to guide you, something I obviously didn't have.

So the car went in to Citroen and they came back with a request for another £144 for more diagnostics, it seems the tech hadn't bothered to warm the car so when he put it on their machine cold it said it needed to be up to temp, they expected me to cover this.

They also suggested I should pay...

1. £199 because they couldn't find the service book in the car and it would therefore need a service (it's not in for a service, the book is in the car though, just not out, it's been serviced).

3. £48 for a tyre inflation kit as ours is out of date.

4. £59 to change brake fluid despite levels being fine and it being done recently because "Citroën recommend its changed every 2 years".

5. £155 to investigate oil on the gearbox (at the last service they kinked the seal on the oil filter and it leaked a bit).

And a number I forget for a couple of other things like replacing 50% worn brake pads, it was £738.80 of work and that's still just to diagnose and replace things that didn't need doing and not to fix the thing it went in for.

I declined the "extras" but, much as it pained me, authorised the extra diagnostics because I was already £144 in.

I called Citroen UK at this point (0800 0939393) and opened a case with them about the "extras" they had tried to include and the way the diagnostics had doubled in cost, they listened and logged it for me on the basis I could update them later.

The dealer carried out the extra diagnostics then came back with the news - £1995 for a new AdBlue tank, the diagnostics and 2.5 hours labour to fit it. I was a bit shocked as I'd already read up on how much others had paid for the same and this was a lot more than any other prices I'd seen. They came down to £1750 as a token gesture but I was still not too impressed and told them to hang on to to the car so I could work some things out.

So I called Citroen back with this and the moment I mentioned a full tank replacement they said "we get a lot of those and usually cover the cost, let me assign this to a handler" - and they did this. And 4 days later they confirmed they'd cover the full cost of a new tank.

It took a while for this to get through to the dealer but 2 weeks and a day after first dropping off the car we got it back with a new updated AdBlue tank, fully fitted, with no charge for anything, not even the diagnostics.

Now the annoying thing is that the service chap at the garage said they know all about this, they know Citroen will usually try to cover the cost (even if the car hasn't been looked after by them) but, as dealers and not Citroen they can't tell customers because it would seem like they were generating their own easy to come by work. This doesn't seem right but apparently that's how it is and it's kind of understandable when you think about it.

So if you've made it this far here's my summary if you have AdBlue issues similar to this or just have a BlueHDi 100 car that was made before 2018/19 when I think they changed the cap.

1. Speak to your dealer and get the new cap fitted if you don't already have one - this supposedly vents excess pressure which is apparently causing the injector and sensor in the tank to fail prematurely. Now I reckon they'll fail earlier than they should anyway at some point but this might buy you some time or hopefully stop it happening.

2. Take out an extended warranty if it's not too expensive.

3. If you already have issues with AdBlue warnings etc (not just to top up obviously) then raise a case with Citroen themselves (0800 0939393)

4. Get diagnostics done to confirm the issue is with the tank and that it needs replacing with one of the newer improved ones - this might not need to be at Citroen if you have a good independent diagnostics place with Citroen kit that you can use but if you want to go on and raise a case with Citroen it's highly likely they'll insist on diagnostics from one of their main dealers rather than an independent.

5. Supply Citroen with all the facts and ask if they will cover the cost or contribute towards them.

6. Worst case don't pay full price for the part from Citroen - the invoice I have indicates the £1000 I was quoted is inflated and they can get them for £750 but bizarrely a Saab / Mini specialist I've used before called Neos Brothers is currently selling them brand new, OEM parts that are the latest type, for around £650 or a little more on eBay. Other suppliers may also have them - the part number seems to be 9818703780 and the same part seems to fit the 1.6 HDI 70, 95, 90, 92, 110 as well as the BlueHDi 75, 100, 110, 120 and many others like the 1.4 HDi but check this obviously.

Fitting should take 2 hours or so.

Sorry this is a long ramble but I'm hoping the 100s of people that seem to be searching for help with these issues find this and get the support from Citroen I did, maybe Citroen / Peugeot will eventually do the right thing and issue a proper recall for this and replace all the tanks before these cars get to an age where the tank costs as much as the car is worth.

Really interested to hear from anyone else with experience to add around this issue, anyone with better knowledge of all of this as I'm new to it all, Cactus owners or otherwise, so please add your thoughts if you have a moment.

 

[IanHurley]

Well done for posting, links look veryhelpful for some, thank you

 

[thetapeworm]

Well done for posting, links look veryhelpful for some, thank you

If it helps one other person then the stress will have been worth it

 

[Geefee]

TL: DR Summary: if you've stumbled across this chances are you've got the UREA warning, fault messages and a countdown to the car not starting, chances are you need a new UREA tank, it's very expensive but contacting Citroen directly (0800 0939393) might result in it being replaced with a new updated part for zero cost as they are fully aware of this issue but not actively recalling it because it's not a safety thing.

------------------------------------------------------

The longer tale...

As you may have read on here already we had an issue with our 2016 BlueHDi 100 equipped car recently, I just wanted to document what happened and where we've ended up in the hope it helps people searching for the same thing in the future in the hope it saves them some stress / money.

Back in December the car suddenly decided to "smoke", a closer check revealed that it was actually "steam" but more interestingly it had a strong UREA smell, I surmised that the AdBlue injector was open and pouring AdBlue into the exhaust, the smell and white residue around the exhaust tip and bumper seemed to support this.

I called Citroen to discuss this and at the same time asked if there were any pending recalls for our car as servicing etc had been done outside of the network - they confirmed there was a job outstanding to replace a CAT bracket and another to replace the AdBlue cap with a newer vented one. I booked the car in for the "smoke" checking over and the other bits doing.

On picking the car up I didn't get charged and no issues were detected, the warranty work was carried out. As I followed in my car I saw the "smoke" again. Citroen hadn't looked at it at all.

So the next day we put diesel in, the smoke stopped and never came back - odd right?


Three weeks later, car loaded up with family and luggage we headed south for a 600 mile round trip for New Year, 30 miles in and the displays lit up... "Engine Fault: Have the vehicle repaired", "Emissions fault: starting prevented in 700 miles", the UREA light was flashing, the engine warning light on and the "SERVICE" indicator lit up permanently. Breakdown cover in place I decided to carry on with the thought that it was just the AdBlue tank playing up, we needed 600 miles, we had 700 in the bag. The car felt fine, performance was normal, economy as good as always.

I tried to book in with a Citroen dealership in Surrey, they never got back to me so we headed back up home and booked in at the one here in Yorkshire on the basis they would carry out a £144 diagnostics check and then tell me what needed doing.

In the meantime I pulled the codes I could with a reader and the Torque app, my FAP app wouldn't work for some reason - P20EE, P16EA and P208E error codes came up.

P20EE: Depollution of the deNOx system: Emission control ineffective.
P16EA: Depollution of the deNOx system: Excess emission of ammonia.
P208E: DeNOx system circuit: Detection of a blockage.

None of these are really that conclusive and rely on further checks, ideally with the support of Citroen Technical Service Bulletins to guide you, something I obviously didn't have.

So the car went in to Citroen and they came back with a request for another £144 for more diagnostics, it seems the tech hadn't bothered to warm the car so when he put it on their machine cold it said it needed to be up to temp, they expected me to cover this.

They also suggested I should pay...

1. £199 because they couldn't find the service book in the car and it would therefore need a service (it's not in for a service, the book is in the car though, just not out, it's been serviced).

3. £48 for a tyre inflation kit as ours is out of date.

4. £59 to change brake fluid despite levels being fine and it being done recently because "Citroën recommend its changed every 2 years".

5. £155 to investigate oil on the gearbox (at the last service they kinked the seal on the oil filter and it leaked a bit).

And a number I forget for a couple of other things like replacing 50% worn brake pads, it was £738.80 of work and that's still just to diagnose and replace things that didn't need doing and not to fix the thing it went in for.

I declined the "extras" but, much as it pained me, authorised the extra diagnostics because I was already £144 in.

I called Citroen UK at this point (0800 0939393) and opened a case with them about the "extras" they had tried to include and the way the diagnostics had doubled in cost, they listened and logged it for me on the basis I could update them later.

The dealer carried out the extra diagnostics then came back with the news - £1995 for a new AdBlue tank, the diagnostics and 2.5 hours labour to fit it. I was a bit shocked as I'd already read up on how much others had paid for the same and this was a lot more than any other prices I'd seen. They came down to £1750 as a token gesture but I was still not too impressed and told them to hang on to to the car so I could work some things out.

So I called Citroen back with this and the moment I mentioned a full tank replacement they said "we get a lot of those and usually cover the cost, let me assign this to a handler" - and they did this. And 4 days later they confirmed they'd cover the full cost of a new tank.

It took a while for this to get through to the dealer but 2 weeks and a day after first dropping off the car we got it back with a new updated AdBlue tank, fully fitted, with no charge for anything, not even the diagnostics.

Now the annoying thing is that the service chap at the garage said they know all about this, they know Citroen will usually try to cover the cost (even if the car hasn't been looked after by them) but, as dealers and not Citroen they can't tell customers because it would seem like they were generating their own easy to come by work. This doesn't seem right but apparently that's how it is and it's kind of understandable when you think about it.

So if you've made it this far here's my summary if you have AdBlue issues similar to this or just have a BlueHDi 100 car that was made before 2018/19 when I think they changed the cap.

1. Speak to your dealer and get the new cap fitted if you don't already have one - this supposedly vents excess pressure which is apparently causing the injector and sensor in the tank to fail prematurely. Now I reckon they'll fail earlier than they should anyway at some point but this might buy you some time or hopefully stop it happening.

2. Take out an extended warranty if it's not too expensive.

3. If you already have issues with AdBlue warnings etc (not just to top up obviously) then raise a case with Citroen themselves (0800 0939393)

4. Get diagnostics done to confirm the issue is with the tank and that it needs replacing with one of the newer improved ones - this might not need to be at Citroen if you have a good independent diagnostics place with Citroen kit that you can use.

5. Supply Citroen with all the facts and ask if they will cover the cost - they may need you to get the diagnostics done again at the dealer, I honestly don't know, but if they cover the tank replacement you're saving money.

6. Worst case don't pay full price for the part from Citroen - the invoice I have indicates the £1000 I was quoted is inflated and they can get them for £750 but bizarrely a Saab / Mini specialist I've used before called Neos Brothers is currently selling them brand new, OEM parts that are the latest type, for around £650 or a little more on eBay. Other suppliers may also have them - the part number seems to be 9818703780 and the same part seems to fit the 1.6 HDI 70, 95, 90, 92, 110 as well as the BlueHDi 75, 100, 110, 120 and many others like the 1.4 HDi but check this obviously.

Fitting should take 2 hours or so.

Sorry this is a long ramble but I'm hoping the 100s of people that seem to be searching for help with these issues find this and get the support from Citroen I did, maybe Citroen / Peugeot will eventually do the right thing and issue a proper recall for this and replace all the tanks before these cars get to an age where the tank costs as much as the car is worth.

Really interested to hear from anyone else with experience to add around this issue, anyone with better knowledge of all of this as I'm new to it all, Cactus owners or otherwise, so please add your thoughts if you have a moment.


View attachment 2627 View attachment 2628 View attachment 2629 View attachment 2630 View attachment 2631

TL: DR Summary: if you've stumbled across this chances are you've got the UREA warning, fault messages and a countdown to the car not starting, chances are you need a new UREA tank, it's very expensive but contacting Citroen directly (0800 0939393) might result in it being replaced with a new updated part for zero cost as they are fully aware of this issue but not actively recalling it because it's not a safety thing.

------------------------------------------------------

The longer tale...

As you may have read on here already we had an issue with our 2016 BlueHDi 100 equipped car recently, I just wanted to document what happened and where we've ended up in the hope it helps people searching for the same thing in the future in the hope it saves them some stress / money.

Back in December the car suddenly decided to "smoke", a closer check revealed that it was actually "steam" but more interestingly it had a strong UREA smell, I surmised that the AdBlue injector was open and pouring AdBlue into the exhaust, the smell and white residue around the exhaust tip and bumper seemed to support this.

I called Citroen to discuss this and at the same time asked if there were any pending recalls for our car as servicing etc had been done outside of the network - they confirmed there was a job outstanding to replace a CAT bracket and another to replace the AdBlue cap with a newer vented one. I booked the car in for the "smoke" checking over and the other bits doing.

On picking the car up I didn't get charged and no issues were detected, the warranty work was carried out. As I followed in my car I saw the "smoke" again. Citroen hadn't looked at it at all.

So the next day we put diesel in, the smoke stopped and never came back - odd right?


Three weeks later, car loaded up with family and luggage we headed south for a 600 mile round trip for New Year, 30 miles in and the displays lit up... "Engine Fault: Have the vehicle repaired", "Emissions fault: starting prevented in 700 miles", the UREA light was flashing, the engine warning light on and the "SERVICE" indicator lit up permanently. Breakdown cover in place I decided to carry on with the thought that it was just the AdBlue tank playing up, we needed 600 miles, we had 700 in the bag. The car felt fine, performance was normal, economy as good as always.

I tried to book in with a Citroen dealership in Surrey, they never got back to me so we headed back up home and booked in at the one here in Yorkshire on the basis they would carry out a £144 diagnostics check and then tell me what needed doing.

In the meantime I pulled the codes I could with a reader and the Torque app, my FAP app wouldn't work for some reason - P20EE, P16EA and P208E error codes came up.

P20EE: Depollution of the deNOx system: Emission control ineffective.
P16EA: Depollution of the deNOx system: Excess emission of ammonia.
P208E: DeNOx system circuit: Detection of a blockage.

None of these are really that conclusive and rely on further checks, ideally with the support of Citroen Technical Service Bulletins to guide you, something I obviously didn't have.

So the car went in to Citroen and they came back with a request for another £144 for more diagnostics, it seems the tech hadn't bothered to warm the car so when he put it on their machine cold it said it needed to be up to temp, they expected me to cover this.

They also suggested I should pay...

1. £199 because they couldn't find the service book in the car and it would therefore need a service (it's not in for a service, the book is in the car though, just not out, it's been serviced).

3. £48 for a tyre inflation kit as ours is out of date.

4. £59 to change brake fluid despite levels being fine and it being done recently because "Citroën recommend its changed every 2 years".

5. £155 to investigate oil on the gearbox (at the last service they kinked the seal on the oil filter and it leaked a bit).

And a number I forget for a couple of other things like replacing 50% worn brake pads, it was £738.80 of work and that's still just to diagnose and replace things that didn't need doing and not to fix the thing it went in for.

I declined the "extras" but, much as it pained me, authorised the extra diagnostics because I was already £144 in.

I called Citroen UK at this point (0800 0939393) and opened a case with them about the "extras" they had tried to include and the way the diagnostics had doubled in cost, they listened and logged it for me on the basis I could update them later.

The dealer carried out the extra diagnostics then came back with the news - £1995 for a new AdBlue tank, the diagnostics and 2.5 hours labour to fit it. I was a bit shocked as I'd already read up on how much others had paid for the same and this was a lot more than any other prices I'd seen. They came down to £1750 as a token gesture but I was still not too impressed and told them to hang on to to the car so I could work some things out.

So I called Citroen back with this and the moment I mentioned a full tank replacement they said "we get a lot of those and usually cover the cost, let me assign this to a handler" - and they did this. And 4 days later they confirmed they'd cover the full cost of a new tank.

It took a while for this to get through to the dealer but 2 weeks and a day after first dropping off the car we got it back with a new updated AdBlue tank, fully fitted, with no charge for anything, not even the diagnostics.

Now the annoying thing is that the service chap at the garage said they know all about this, they know Citroen will usually try to cover the cost (even if the car hasn't been looked after by them) but, as dealers and not Citroen they can't tell customers because it would seem like they were generating their own easy to come by work. This doesn't seem right but apparently that's how it is and it's kind of understandable when you think about it.

So if you've made it this far here's my summary if you have AdBlue issues similar to this or just have a BlueHDi 100 car that was made before 2018/19 when I think they changed the cap.

1. Speak to your dealer and get the new cap fitted if you don't already have one - this supposedly vents excess pressure which is apparently causing the injector and sensor in the tank to fail prematurely. Now I reckon they'll fail earlier than they should anyway at some point but this might buy you some time or hopefully stop it happening.

2. Take out an extended warranty if it's not too expensive.

3. If you already have issues with AdBlue warnings etc (not just to top up obviously) then raise a case with Citroen themselves (0800 0939393)

4. Get diagnostics done to confirm the issue is with the tank and that it needs replacing with one of the newer improved ones - this might not need to be at Citroen if you have a good independent diagnostics place with Citroen kit that you can use.

5. Supply Citroen with all the facts and ask if they will cover the cost - they may need you to get the diagnostics done again at the dealer, I honestly don't know, but if they cover the tank replacement you're saving money.

6. Worst case don't pay full price for the part from Citroen - the invoice I have indicates the £1000 I was quoted is inflated and they can get them for £750 but bizarrely a Saab / Mini specialist I've used before called Neos Brothers is currently selling them brand new, OEM parts that are the latest type, for around £650 or a little more on eBay. Other suppliers may also have them - the part number seems to be 9818703780 and the same part seems to fit the 1.6 HDI 70, 95, 90, 92, 110 as well as the BlueHDi 75, 100, 110, 120 and many others like the 1.4 HDi but check this obviously.

Fitting should take 2 hours or so.

Sorry this is a long ramble but I'm hoping the 100s of people that seem to be searching for help with these issues find this and get the support from Citroen I did, maybe Citroen / Peugeot will eventually do the right thing and issue a proper recall for this and replace all the tanks before these cars get to an age where the tank costs as much as the car is worth.

Really interested to hear from anyone else with experience to add around this issue, anyone with better knowledge of all of this as I'm new to it all, Cactus owners or otherwise, so please add your thoughts if you have a moment.


View attachment 2627 View attachment 2628 View attachment 2629 View attachment 2630 View attachment 2631

Would like to say a huge thank you for this post.
My car 2018 Cactus C4 blue HDI, started the urea, service and management warning light countdown last week 16th Feb.
I phoned the 0800 number as you had suggested and opened a case.
Dropped my car into Citreon Leeds this morning 21st Feb.
After informing me it was going to cost £1400.00 plus the diagnostic charge of £144.00.
I informed the garage that I had opened a case with head office.
A further call to the 0800 number and this afternoon, they have said that they will fix it for zero pounds.
Again, thank you so much for your post as you have just saved me the best part of £2000.00 after the fitting.
I am truly grateful.
Many thanks
Jacqui

 

[thetapeworm]

Would like to say a huge thank you for this post.
My car 2018 Cactus C4 blue HDI, started the urea, service and management warning light countdown last week 16th Feb.
I phoned the 0800 number as you had suggested and opened a case.
Dropped my car into Citreon Leeds this morning 21st Feb.
After informing me it was going to cost £1400.00 plus the diagnostic charge of £144.00.
I informed the garage that I had opened a case with head office.
A further call to the 0800 number and this afternoon, they have said that they will fix it for zero pounds.
Again, thank you so much for your post as you have just saved me the best part of £2000.00 after the fitting.
I am truly grateful.
Many thanks
Jacqui

Hi @Geefee - sorry for the delayed reply but I'm chuffed to hear my ramblings have helped someone.

I suspect you've been dealing with the same dealership as me so they should have hopefully been extra efficient for you based on having just done the same.

Are you all fixed and back up and running again now?

If you are have you noticed any different behaviour from the car?

When I park up after a trip now I hear a "whirring" from the boot that's presumably the AdBlue pump doing something but since they changed the tank whenever I put diesel in I get an engine warning and the service light come on. If I turn the car off and on again it disappears until the next time I put diesel in.

I called them about it, they want to do diagnostics but if it's not relating to the Adblue tank work then it'll cost me £144 for the check plus whatever so I haven't taken the risk yet as I'm a bit skint. Seems a coincidence it would be anything else but the timing seems more like an EOLYS thing so they might try and sting me. I'd still suggest it was down to them though but probably wouldn't win that fight.

 

[martin_b]

Came on here to post a thread about "engine fault, have the vehicle repaired" and saw your post. I might have the same issue as you.

My AdBlue tank has been replaced some years ago (not in my ownership), and the pump whirrs like you describe. Today I got the fault mentioned after filling up with diesel. The "SERVICE" light is on, not the yellow engine light. Tester says something about additive pump, my mechanic just had a quick look before closing this afternoon. I can clear the fault but it immediately comes back on.

Mechanic said that it likely is the EOLYS tank/pump since the AdBlue work has already been done. I'm not even sure there's an EOLYS system on the car? But if there is, it might indeed be like your shop thinks. My mechanic will have a thorough look later this week. Car is a 2014 BlueHDI.

 

[thetapeworm]

Hi @martin_b - sadly we have EOLYS, I've had a stuck injector on mine in the past that threw up errors but thought I'd sorted all that a while ago.

I suspect the symptoms I'm seeing relate to EOLYS so yours could well be too, it just seems really odd that I had no issue prior to the AdBlue tank being replaced and then as soon as it was I get this. Unfortunately the dealers will say they haven't caused the issue and I'll have to pay for the system replacing because as we know in Citroen world you can't just replace the faulty part, you have to buy half of a new car

 

[martin_b]

I saw your post with the mention of a blocked eolys injector which was fixed by high pressure air blown through it. I am thinking my fault is indeed related to eolys since it came on after filling up with diesel - and that triggers an injection of eolys into the fuel tank. Will talk to my mechanic about fixing the injector first.

Also, there's this additive called "BellAdd City" which is used on cars that don't have eolys. You pour it into the tank when filling up and it does the same as the eolys injection, ie. regenerating the DPF at a lower temperature than normally. I think it could be safe to ignore the eolys fault and just manually add additive to the fuel. We'll see and I'll report back.

 

[martin_b]

Mechanic confirmed the error codes with his contact at Citroën. It's the EOLYS pump that's making the noise and it can't pump through the the injector because the injector is clogged. I read somewhere that a person had luck with blowing compressed air through the injector to clean it. Mechanic said it could work, but he'd never done it before. Probably safest to just replace the complete unit. It's about £200 plus labour. I thought about removing the tank myself and have a go, but I suspect it'll be a mess and it would take too much time.

 

[thetapeworm]

Mechanic confirmed the error codes with his contact at Citroën. It's the EOLYS pump that's making the noise and it can't pump through the the injector because the injector is clogged. I read somewhere that a person had luck with blowing compressed air through the injector to clean it. Mechanic said it could work, but he'd never done it before. Probably safest to just replace the complete unit. It's about £200 plus labour. I thought about removing the tank myself and have a go, but I suspect it'll be a mess and it would take too much time.

I was the chap who had the airline "fix"... twice... and now I'm here again with an issue so maybe it's not the most cost effective route long-term As you say it's probably more sensible to replace the unit, when I was having mine done the guys thought it would involve the whole AdBlue tank too so obviously I avoided that due to the costs involved and took their fix as an option.

I thought that might it be the EOLYS diagnosis for this one, very annoying that mine was fine until the main dealer did the work on the AdBlue tank but I won't have a leg to stand on getting them to cover it as being something they've potentially caused.

Part price seems about right, I don't know the part number for the one on the Cactus but the ones listed by Neo Brothers are around that, they're usually a little cheaper than going direct to Citroen though.

It might be this one - part number 9815712680 at £136 inc VAT from Neo which is less than the £144 for just diagnostics Citroen want from me so it might be worth me just getting one as even if mine is fine I'm sure it'll break at some point anyway

I can't remember if there's a need to plug the car in once this has been replaced so that might add a bit more cost, as will the actual EOLYS fluid itself if it's needed, might as well fill up now while someone is messing with it all.

 

[martin_b]

Do you know anything about the "airline fix" you got twice. Where do you blow exactly? If it's a 15 minute job to remove the tank and then easy access to the airline, then it might be worth a try.

Are you SURE your eolys tank is full? I actually suspect that my tank might be empty since there are no records in the otherwise full service book about eolys. Could simply be a case of it being empty and that's why I hear the pump whirring so much. I am intrigued about finding out if there actually is fluid in mine.

 

[thetapeworm]

Do you know anything about the "airline fix" you got twice. Where do you blow exactly? If it's a 15 minute job to remove the tank and then easy access to the airline, then it might be worth a try.

Are you SURE your eolys tank is full? I actually suspect that my tank might be empty since there are no records in the otherwise full service book about eolys. Could simply be a case of it being empty and that's why I hear the pump whirring so much. I am intrigued about finding out if there actually is fluid in mine.

I don't know any specifics about the airline fix sadly, they gave me a vague explanation of what they'd done but not the how and where side of it.

The car has only done 50k so I'd expect there to be plenty of EOLYS in there... unless it's been emptied during the work to do the AdBlue tank but I can't understand why it would be.

I hadn't connected the noise on turning the car off with the issue just after refuelling to be honest, I presumed the new tanks were just noisier and that this was normal because my understanding is that the EOLYS system only comes into play when you refuel and puts in a measured amount based on the extra fuel added, I'm no expert though.

 

[martin_b]

I did some tests and it is very clear that the whirring noise in my car comes from the eolys pump and not the AdBlue tank in the boot of the car. It whirrs every time i stop the car.

I have decided to go through with replacing the entire eolys unit. The parts you have found do not fit, I have checked with the seller. I can't find the correct part number for the eolys unit for our cars.

 

[martin_b]

Turned out my eolys tank was empty. Previous owner coded it incorrectly when topping off eolys so that it emptied too fast. Topped up and reset eolys in ecu and the problem is gone. Fingers crossed the DPF isn't too damaged due to no regen for quite a while due to lack of eolys.

 

[thetapeworm]

Turned out my eolys tank was empty. Previous owner coded it incorrectly when topping off eolys so that it emptied too fast. Topped up and reset eolys in ecu and the problem is gone. Fingers crossed the DPF isn't too damaged due to no regen for quite a while due to lack of eolys.

Thanks for the update, what are you using to communicate with the ECU at that level?

 

[martin_b]

I'm not too sure. It's not Diagbox from PSA, it is a OBD-dongle connected to a computer with some sort of diagnostics interface on it. It can communicate with many cars, including PSA, although it's a bit more hassle than if you had a real PSA scanner.

 

[thetapeworm]

Cheers, I've looked at getting a Diagbox a few times and in hindsight it would have paid for itself a few times over by now but I just had a basic Bluetooth scanner and a copy of FAPLite installed but that's obviously more about being able to read stuff than go on to do any changes. Maybe there's a middle ground to investigate.

 

[Bagpuss42]

Just wanted to add my thanks to the OP - I’ve had 10 months of hassle with my 2015 Berlingo culminating in needing a new adblue tank, and thanks to you I am spared the £1200+ cost of that. As a new parent on maternity leave this was going to mean we couldn’t have a family holiday. Genuinely, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to post.

 

[thetapeworm]

Just wanted to add my thanks to the OP - I’ve had 10 months of hassle with my 2015 Berlingo culminating in needing a new adblue tank, and thanks to you I am spared the £1200+ cost of that. As a new parent on maternity leave this was going to mean we couldn’t have a family holiday. Genuinely, thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking the time to post.

I'm so pleased it's proving useful to people, it's hard enough to get by these days without stuff like this coming up, I appreciate you coming on to share this, it makes the stress I had more than worth it.

Enjoy your break and congratulations on your new addition to the family (and the AdBlue tank).

 

[Citroen Since 1973]

Hi everyone, I found this site whilst looking for info on the same fault warning that has appeared on my 2018 2l C4 SpaceTourer, with 28,700 miles on the clock. I'm endebted to thetapeworm for putting such an informative message up and I'm very hopeful that this info will aid my case, when my local Citroen dealer checks the car, next Monday.

The 1500-mile refill warning came on a week, or two ago, but I've been really tied up during the past two weeks and so I put the refill on the back burner. Last Saturday, whilst travelling 40 miles down the M5 an orange message came up saying “Engine fault: Repair needed”. This was immediately followed by another amber warning saying “AdBlue Emissions fault: Starting impossible in 1300 miles”. A flashing AdBlue message, at the top right of the display panel, accompanied this. Over the next 20 miles this message jumped from 1300, down to 700 miles and after a further 150 miles, now shows 500 miles left.

Yesterday afternoon I put 10l of AdBlue fluid into the car and then started it up to see if, as expected, the messages had gone, only to find that there was no difference. I also took the car for a short, fast journey, but this made no difference and all of the error messages continued to show, along with the 500 miles left before the car won't start. That's when I started searching and reading and discovered that I have probably got a problem!

Unlike the treads above, the information I initially found, on the French Car Forum site, gave some comfort to find that Citroen have apparently extended the warranty for this known fault to 5 years/93,000 miles, but owners on that site were only offered the replacement parts for free, not the labour, or associated investigative work. That they appear to have accepted full responsibility for the costs associated with repairing the vehicles on this site is very encouraging and, I hope, will also apply to me. Budgen, the Citroen dealer in my town, Telford, has told me that they have never heard of any problems with the AdBlue tank fitted to PSA cars and told me that they will charge me a non-refundable charge of £130 for a diagnostic test. I did suggest that in the event of the tank being the problem this should be refunded, but they were not keen! I now intend to phone Citroen tomorrow and try to open a case for my car and I will also print off and take in evidence from this site and others, to back up my case, if necessary.

Thanks, once again, for all of your really useful threads, Paul.