Citroen C4 Cactus Crossover Forum banner

Shuddering/Loss of Power

63K views 67 replies 27 participants last post by  peterpoultney1951 
#1 ·
Evening,

I am a long time lurker after buying a Flair 110 Petrol in November 2015, and been very appreciative of the helpful tips from this friendly community. I have been thoroughly enjoying my Cactus since then without any problems at all (apart from needing to replace the wipers!).

However tonight I was accelerating fairly hard from a 40mph zone to 70mph and the car wasn't having it: it shuddered a few times and there was a distinct loss of power. My wife was in the car and said that had started happening to her fairly recently but occurred quite regularly. It feels like the turbo is struggling to add any boost or that the engine is being throttled in some way; its difficult to describe. The car otherwise functions completely normally.

I found a post here that seems similar (http://www.cactusforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1103) but there seemed to be no resolution, and most folk were referring to their diesel car. Has anyone else experienced this in the petrol 110, or have any theories as to whats going on? It was just serviced about a month ago with an oil and oil filter change, could it be something to do with that given that the oil cools the turbo?

Thanks again for all the helpful info!
 
See less See more
#2 ·
Hi There,

Even before I got to the 2nd paragraph where you mentioned the turbo I had the same in mind.. Some sort of turbo fault. But today cars have so many electronics and sensors it could be something to do with that as well.

Is the fault intermittent, or every time you accelerate hard?
 
#3 ·
The post you linked to was my post and we had the loss of power a couple of times that I recall. Once on a hill and another on the motorway within a few weeks of each other but nothing since - its never happened again and I just put it down to dirt being pulled through
 
#4 ·
Good morning,

Thanks for the replies. It does seem to be intermittent, I have only ever experienced it once but my wife says it happens once almost every time she drives it to work (100 mile round trip). I did some hard accelerations this morning and boost seemed normal so I might just keep an eye on it and book it in to the garage if it keeps happening. Ill let you know if anything changes!
 
#5 ·
Hi there,

I've also experienced this juddering a couple of times in my 110 petrol, once today and twice in quick succession when on holiday in France in the summer. Both times I was accelerating quite hard on boost up a slip road in 2nd or 3rd gear. When this happened in the summer I actually put it down to having hit the rev limiter by accident due being distracted by the unfamiliar driving conditions and not changing gear soon enough. The lack of rev counter combined with the free-revving nature of this engine makes it quite hard to know where you are in the rev range at times. However today I couldn't have been doing more than 40 mph in 3rd gear when it suddenly shuddered and lost power so I'm now wondering if it's something more complex.
 
#8 ·
Hi

Sorry to start up an old thread, Did you ever find the Solution?

I'm in South Africa with the same issue!

I had a Similar Problem with my previous Ds3 1.6THP, That ended up being carbon build up on the Valves due to our Bad Fuel.

I explained this to the dealer but it seamed to fall on deaf ears and they did a Flash of Car Computer a month back, But its still has the same issue, its going in for a service next week and to try find the problem.

:)
 
#9 ·
Sounds like a split or leaking boost hose which is only leaking on full boost or high pressure conditions.

A split might not visually be imedietly obvious unless the hose is under pressure.
 
#10 ·
MadMax said:
Hi

Sorry to start up an old thread, Did you ever find the Solution?

I'm in South Africa with the same issue!

I had a Similar Problem with my previous Ds3 1.6THP, That ended up being carbon build up on the Valves due to our Bad Fuel.

I explained this to the dealer but it seamed to fall on deaf ears and they did a Flash of Car Computer a month back, But its still has the same issue, its going in for a service next week and to try find the problem.

:)
Try this similar thread...
http://www.cactusforums.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=2477
 
#11 ·
Good Morning,
.
Another South African long time lurker and first post. I have been experiencing a similar problem with my 110 petrol. Had the fault checked at the second service at 28000km and a new engine and turbo is being fitted under warranty. Oil in the turbo and loss of compression on one cylinder! The car has been off the road for 2 months now. Not impressed.

Kevcab.
 
#64 ·
Good Morning,
.
Another South African long time lurker and first post. I have been experiencing a similar problem with my 110 petrol. Had the fault checked at the second service at 28000km and a new engine and turbo is being fitted under warranty. Oil in the turbo and loss of compression on one cylinder! The car has been off the road for 2 months now. Not impressed.

Kevcab.
Another frustrated South African. We have the C4 Cactus 1.2 Puretech, what a lovely car, but does the same. We initially had a bad oil usage problem (1.5L during 1000kms trip). Car only had 95,000kms on the clock. Thank goodness the extended warranty covered everything but had to have the engine overhauled, but even after the overhaul the loss of power/missing continues on and off, no real indicator as sometimes when in 4th at 110 kmph trying to overtake, other time in 3rd doing 70 kmph and the engine light comes on regularly. We are being told it needs a software update as that may be causing it. The car was in for 2 months, then 1 week and dropped it off again today. #gatvol
 
#15 ·
kevcab said:
Good Morning,
.
Another South African long time lurker and first post. I have been experiencing a similar problem with my 110 petrol. Had the fault checked at the second service at 28000km and a new engine and turbo is being fitted under warranty. Oil in the turbo and loss of compression on one cylinder! The car has been off the road for 2 months now. Not impressed.

Kevcab.
I'm wondering if there is any update on this?
 
#16 ·
I am collecting the car today - at long last! Will let you know. I had a look at the old engine - there was a lot of carbon build up in the intake ports. I had the same problem with my C5 with the 1.6 THP motor. Last Citroen for me. No choice anyway, Citroen have pulled out of the South African market so the deprecation on this Cactus is going to be epic. Pity as I really like the car.

Kev.
 
#17 ·
kevcab said:
I am collecting the car today - at long last! Will let you know. I had a look at the old engine - there was a lot of carbon build up in the intake ports. I had the same problem with my C5 with the 1.6 THP motor. Last Citroen for me. No choice anyway, Citroen have pulled out of the South African market so the deprecation on this Cactus is going to be epic. Pity as I really like the car.

Kev.
What fuels are available to you? - some of the more expensive ones in the UK, such as Shell V power, claim to have additives to assist with lower carbon build up and also claim to have octane rating of about 98.
In the "old" days a couple of shots of Redex was a common additive for drivers to add to the petrol tank each time the tank was refilled, with the claim that it reduced carbon build up. Maybe you should consider something similar...
 
#18 ·
Hi Dave,

Therein lies the problem. All these petrol motors with direct injection squirt fuel directly into the combustin chamber, bypassing the intake manifold. All the oil rich fumes from the crankcase breather system etc are still directed to the combustion chambers via the intake manifold, only now there is no raw fuel to sluice away the carbon. Dumd design. It is a problem across the board - just ask Audi!

Kev.
 
#19 ·
kevcab said:
Hi Dave,

Therein lies the problem. All these petrol motors with direct injection squirt fuel directly into the combustin chamber, bypassing the intake manifold. All the oil rich fumes from the crankcase breather system etc are still directed to the combustion chambers via the intake manifold, only now there is no raw fuel to sluice away the carbon. Dumd design. It is a problem across the board - just ask Audi!

Kev.
I get the point you are making, but in your own case with oil in the turbo, it seems more likely to me that the intake manifold carbon is owing to that, rather than carbon in the intake causing the turbo issue ....
And possibly the turbo oil issue was caused by turbo seal/ bearing failure...
 
#20 ·
Hi all,

Sorry for the long silence on this. It seemed like the issue wasnt occuring any more but after it happened 3 times within an hour, all of which occured during acceleration or overtake starting around 40-50 mph, I have booked it in to the garage for a check. Apparently they have to hold it for 2 days and are going to take it on longer drives, but hopefully they get to the bottom of it.

Booked in at the start of September so I'll post an update after the garage visit. Theyve got me driving a Fiat Panda as a courtesy car! :eek:
 
#21 ·
Quick update: had it in to the first garage and they couldn't find anything wrong, but admitted that their citroen technician wasn't maybe as experienced as required to diagnose. The fault kept occurring so I put it in to another garage with a citroen "master tech", they decided it was related to spark plugs and/or a software TSB and should now be fixed.

I got 15 mins drive away and it shuddered massively, engine warning lights came on and the car limped to a stop. I'm currently stranded in a lay by on an A road waiting for the garage to come pick me up, though I would use this time industriously! I'll update the saga when I know more...
 
#22 ·
Got picked up and given a courtesy car, good service from Arnold Clark. The fault code coming out of the system was P1339 94 (from memory), which was an engine misfire which can affect the catalytic converter apparently. According to the tech the car switched in to a safety mode when it happened, after a little while he was able to drive it away again, we shall see what comes back.

In the meantime I'll be winging around in a grey C3, which is alright actually.
 
#23 ·
curriemaster said:
Got picked up and given a courtesy car, good service from Arnold Clark. The fault code coming out of the system was P1339 94 (from memory), which was an engine misfire which can affect the catalytic converter apparently. According to the tech the car switched in to a safety mode when it happened, after a little while he was able to drive it away again, we shall see what comes back.

In the meantime I'll be winging around in a grey C3, which is alright actually.
I'm curious to know if the engine appeared to be running ok when the tech drove the car away after its rest.
And btw, roughly what mileage has the car covered?
 
#24 ·
It looked like it pulled away from the lay by without a problem, so perhaps it recovered after a few minutes. Certainly when I pulled over it was not able to power itself very effectively.

It's done 26k miles now and had a service and change of spark plugs earlier today.
 
#25 ·
I've had a very similar sounding problem that I've noticed only in the last few weeks. I have a 1.2 petrol 110. My usual commute is within 20-30-40 zones so I don't usually notice the issue however whenever I take it onto dual carriage way or motorway especially when pulling on from slip road or attempting 40-60/70 mph it hits the same limit that others have described. Feels like the turbo gives up after too long at full boost? I'm not especially technically minded but that is what it feels like. If it continues to happen I shall be taking it to the dealership for a check up. 2016 reg with 20k miles, last serviced just before I bought in April 2017
 
#26 ·
Hi Thom, that does sound like it could be the same issue unfortunately.

I just spoke with the garage and they said it appears to be fixed based on consultation with Citroen in France and road tests they have been doing, Im going to pick it up on Monday. They weren't too specific about what they had done to it (drained and replaced the fuel seemed to be the reason - although that makes little sense to me), so hopefully I will find out more on Monday and report back.
 
Top