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FB's DS4 1.6HDi 115 DStyle

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FrankBullitt   
Mon May 04 2015, 06:35am

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
A minor update

The DS4 was last serviced on 20th May 2014 at 10,700 miles which means the service is due at 23,200 miles or the same date this year; in mid March the service indicator came on at about 19,500 miles telling us it was due in 1,850 miles so having already booked be service in for the 19th May I spoke to Duxford. It seems that it only identified mileage but works on time to, so the car assumed it would be another 1,850 miles until mid May and once it starts the countdown nothing can change that.

We went to Cornwall at Easter so a long trip (900 miles in a week) and the countdown continues to the point where it is now saying we are 500 miles from service despite their being 2,000 miles to go!

The indicator on my A2 is intelligent so if you do a few big journeys it takes account of this. Duxford just told me to ignore it and work on the date the car was last serviced and 23,200 miles, it's playing havoc with my OCD though.



FrankBullitt   
Thu May 21 2015, 02:10pm

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
Had the 2nd annual service undertaken by Duxford Motor Group on Tuesday, £358 which included brake fluid change (£49), front and rear wipers (£40) and courtesy car charge (£10), the second service includes fuel and air filters unlike previously on our Picasso which was at 37,500 miles or 6 years!

The old wipers were shot but Hell-frauds wanted £45 for the front pair alone, Citroen's prices include fitting (okay, it's not much cheaper but includes the rear wiper) so we waited for the service; the brake fluid they offered to check rather than replace but I asked them to replace anyway as I prefer to alternate brake fluid and air conditioning services to balance the price out.

No faults to note during the service and the service indicator counter down to '0' on the day I took it in, I'm glad they've reset the indicator though as the spanner has been getting to my OCD! We got to 21,600 miles (10,900 in 12 months). They've taken some pictures of two of my wheels which they are hoping can be replaced under warranty as the diamond-cut finish corrodes, hopefully the other two will 'go' before the warranty runs out in June 2016.

Service at Duxford was, as always, superb and I can't fault them - only the awful Mitsubishi Mirage courtesy car lets the side down (they also sell Mitsubishi's), it's like a reheated 1998 Nissan Micra and despite being tiny it had front and rear parking sensors - I really like doing business with them and they had a stunning 13-plate DS5 2.0HDi DSport auto out the front, very tempting but at £17k a bit rich for me!

Still thoroughly enjoying the DS4, I suspect we will need a bigger car as FB Junior gets older and in a few years time we are going to semi-retire my A2, get another smart and then I will use the family car...I do like the DS5...
FrankBullitt   
Wed Jul 29 2015, 04:40am

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
Pants, pants, pants

Mrs FB rang a short while ago to tell me the car has a flat - handy as we are due to go on our family holiday to France at the crack of dawn Friday - they wanted to fit an unfathombable tyre as it's not repairable but I've asked for them to fit a Michelin which is on order to arrive today or tomorrow; thankfully they've fitted the space saver. However, I've just had another call to tell me the 'Service' light is on along with the ABS, ESP as 'auto handbrake not operational' lights which I am deerly hoping is down to the car being confused over a slightly different rotation/ tyre size otherwise I'm going to have to drive to France with the whole shooting match not operational... When the proper tyre is fitted I have everything crossed this will reset...

Edit; just spoken to Duxford Citroen as i needed to anyway as the replacement wheels still haven't arrived and they have confirmed that this is perfectly normal and it should reset with the proper tyre fitted - if it doesn't they suggest clearing the codes with a generic reader at the tyre fitting place as they don't need to diagnose with Lexia.

Hopefully this is useful information for anyone who uses a space saver!
FrankBullitt   
Sat Aug 01 2015, 02:06pm

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
Tyre arrived as promised and after a much better nights sleep we set off at 3.30am for The Vendee yesterday; arrived after a faultless journey getting 46mpg which is not bad at 130 clicks with the roof box on - it was empty on the way out but with my preferred tipple €9.30 a box (4 bottles) it will come into its own on the way home. Needless to say the DS4 performed superbly - only regaining speed loaded at north of 120 clicks had it feeling a touch undernourished but that's fine.

Not seen many out here but C4 Picasso 's are as common as 3wr BMW's in blighty.

FrankBullitt   
Sun Aug 16 2015, 03:34pm

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
Overall we had a great trip to the Vendee, 12 days of beach, pool, eating well and generally biffing about.

The car proved to be utterly faultless on the trip, comfort on both the autoroutes and local roads was superb and I still struggle to see how the press criticise the cars driving characteristics in quite they way they have, the ride is well damped and suitably judged; the driving position is faultless and again the massage seats made the trip home a pleasure. We set off from just outside St Jean de Monts at 07.00 sharp on Wednesday and hit the Eurotunnel at 13:25 some 420 miles later.

The engine was definitely being pushed by the amount of stuff we had on-board; the empty roof box on the way out was filled on the way back so that we could do our annual stock-up on plonk; 45 boxes at €9-10 plus some other bottles of champers meant a bill of €420 which at the exchange rate Nationwide offer, was a smidge under £300. On a few of the hills between Rouen and Calais the car did struggle, requiring a trip down to 4th on a few occasions and this was borne by the economy - after travelling in l/km to give us the km/h digital speedo I did some maths and came to the sobering conclusion of 37.7mpg, lousy for a diesel perhaps but representative of being fully loaded with a roof box on and cruising at 130km/h for hours on end; it doesn't worry me too much as the supermarket fuel we put in it was €1.089, about 75p per litre... Even filling up outside of Abbevile on the autoroute at €1.209 didn't feel too painful.

On Thursday we took the car to Duxford for two of the wheels to be replaced under warranty due to the diamond-cut corroding; it's a known issue and although they took a while to be delivered there was no issue at all over the claim; sadly, upon opening one of the new ones they noted it had a chunk out of it so one was fitted and the other will be done later, not a drama and FB junior and I were happy to spend a few hours at IWM Duxford - if it arrives before the Duxford Battle of Britain Airshow they were happy we could drop the car with them that day, leave it there and collect at the end of the show, avoiding much of the parking/ traffic chaos. They will be busy, mind, as I washed the car yesterday and noticed it has the commonly found issue of the underside of the leading edge of the bonnet starting to corrode - another warranty claim.

Overall, since it was serviced in mid May we have done 3500 miles and 42.2mpg in that time, which is fine - the use will settle down for the rest of the year now as that lot included the Vendee (1500 miles), it will do about 10,000 miles per annum; it went through 25,000 miles yesterday.

Still enjoying the car a great deal, slightly yearn for an Estate (DS4 estate sounds perfect) which it's a shame Citroen seem to have turned away from in recent years with only the C5 still standing. Perhaps a DS5 would be a nice compromise...
routemaster1   
Mon Aug 17 2015, 02:17am
Member No: #574
Joined: Jul 08 2007
Location: Dorset
I hope you didn't have all of the wine and champers in the roof box, as I recon the wine boxes weigh 150kg alone (assuming 3L each). Also maximum load is only about 400kg. Apparently, one of the problems in Kent at one time was caused by people going to the French wine outlets, overfilling their boot, overloading the rear tyres and them blowing out ay 70mph on the M20!!
FrankBullitt   
Mon Aug 17 2015, 01:36pm

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
Eye, the plonk was in the boot and the clothes etc in the roof box - the three of us weigh about 165kg, the holiday stuff no more than 50kg plus the plonk - we weren't overloaded but I made sure to keep it safe! The back tyres were at 2.7 bar, 2.4 at the front (normally 2.2 all around)
FrankBullitt   
Tue Nov 24 2015, 03:47pm

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
You'll notice the DS4 has some rather prominent 'swage' lines down the side, well the near side now has an extra one courtesy of Mrs FB dragging it down the side of of a post this afternoon - front and rear doors have both taken a beating and whilst the paint isn't broken at the rear of the front door there is a defined crease where the fold of metal behind wouldn't 'give' so I'm not sure if it needs a new door. Just dug out the paperwork and realised the excess is £300 (wish I'd spotted that before...) and the renewal is due in a few weeks so if it costs less than £450-500 to sort I'll just pay for it, any more an it will be through the insurance.

Ah well, it's only metal...

It's getting a new bonnet shortly too under warranty.

I think she needs a smart car again!
FrankBullitt   
Sun Nov 29 2015, 01:25am

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
It's going in on Tuesday to a local body shop - £540 and it'll be done by Thursday. They can push the dent out and will then paint the two doors and the front wing.
FrankBullitt   
Sat Apr 30 2016, 08:10am

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
Annual service booked for a week Thursday, being brought forward slightly due to an intermittent fault. Twice now when I've started the car on a morning it sounds like it isn't firing on all cylinders, it sounds like a bag of bolts and wants to stall (but doesn't) - revving the engine has it stumbling and rather oddly, the handbrake automatically released on both occasions despite not being in gear - it then has a rough idle. Our drive is on an incline and the car faces downwards (towards the road, I.e. it is reversed in) so it rolls forward fine but needs a slight manoeuvre to straighten up and again is hesitant when going into reverse - then it settles down fine and there are no signs of anything untoward. When it's idling at this point even a light application of throttle has it hesitate before then revving quite cleanly. No warning lights of the service light. I'm taking it on Wednesday night so there is a chance it will do this Thursday morning when started from cold. It's almost like it thinks it's having a hot start rather than cold start.

Thankfully this morning the paperwork arrived through for the extension to the Citroen Warranty, 12 months for 10 Direct Debit payments of just over £23 - bargain! Warranty runs out at the end of June anyway.

Otherwise it performs faultlessly!
routemaster1   
Sat Apr 30 2016, 08:38am
Member No: #574
Joined: Jul 08 2007
Location: Dorset
Slightly confused as I can't quote the above post!!

In my previous C4GP, the 2.0HDi manual, you didn't have to be in gear to release the parking brake; just blipping the accelerator in neutral with the clutch part-way up was sufficient to release.

EDIT. Have come out of site and opened again, and the quote is working!
FrankBullitt   
Sat Apr 30 2016, 08:42am

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
I'll have to check to see if that's what I am doing next time it happens - I've tried to replicate it but it wouldn't release!
FrankBullitt   
Sun May 22 2016, 04:12pm

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
Service all completed with no issues - the courtesy car wasn't available so we ended up with a Mitsubishi ASX (still a bucket of warm sick).

An ECU TSB is available for the 1.6HDi 115 for those who cite a rough start and occasional hesitant acceleration which Mrs FB had noted but I hadn't - no issues since it has been serviced and as a nice little benefit one of those OCD things which annoyed is was that you needed to have the cruise set to '73mph' in order for ten speedo to quote '72mph', they now read the same figure.

I used the car for a trip to National Conference in Telford this week, very relaxing and accomplished at the motoway limit both there and back, achieving 54.3mpg on the way home.

Also, Citroën have agreed to replace the last two clouded wheels under warranty. One irritation is that at an indicated mid 70's the wheel vibrates, I've had the front wheels rebalanced and the tracking done, once the new two wheels are put on I will take it to The TT Shop for a proper 4-wheel Hunter alignment.

Still doing well but one of my team has got a rare DS5 DSport 1.6THP, and it is simply lovely... Perhaps a Hybrid is the way to go.
FrankBullitt   
Fri Jul 08 2016, 07:05am

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
FrankBullitt wrote ...
Also, Citroën have agreed to replace the last two clouded wheels under warranty. One irritation is that at an indicated mid 70's the wheel vibrates, I've had the front wheels rebalanced and the tracking done, once the new two wheels are put on I will take it to The TT Shop for a proper 4-wheel Hunter alignment.


So, new wheels all fitted and the vibration was still there - I had a full 4-wheel alignment undertaken which showed some issues but it didn't really sort the vibration. Mulling it over I remember having a similar issue with the Picasso after some new tyres were fitted and the wheels were balanced, the solution then was to swap left to right and vice-versa which sorted it. Sure enough this fixed it on the DS4 too - I suspect the rotation of the tyres on the back wheels for 10k creates a slight distortion in some way which if put the opposite way on the front manifests as trembling.

Onwards and upwards. Also had to replace the black trim around the front near side fog light as it had mysteriously disappeared - £48...ouch.

Car still has a slight hesitancy though despite having the update applied - I have narrowed it down to a specific set of circumstances - stone-cold start when OAT is in the late teen's, if it's colder or there is any warmth in the engine it's no problem at all; it only lasts for 3-400 metres but it makes it look like the clutch doubles as a pogo-stick; the key seems to be changing-up late and being ultra-soft on the pedal. A pain but I can live with it.
FrankBullitt   
Sun Aug 28 2016, 03:18am

Member No: #19238
Joined: Apr 12 2011
Location: Cambridgeshire
Final Report Time.

So, the DS4 was part exchanged yesterday and in many ways I was sorry to see it go; despite being a marmite car for many people we have always been a fan of the looks, it drives very well with a nice balance between a firm, controlled ride that has very good bump absorption and balanced handling which is good, if not perhaps exciting.

Despite being concerned over the ride on the 18" wheels before buying it, we had nothing to worry about with it never feeling crashes or poor, perhaps the only negative to level at it would be that on poor surfaces road noise that was otherwise absent would transfer in to the car. The handling is a little benign and the steering quite remote although you can learn to trust it and where the front wheels are as the responses are consistent - it never once felt unstable or anything other than properly planted on the road.

The engine always impressed never feeling as small as a 1.6 and always smooth and refined, odd cold-start on warm days issues aside, it would pull very cleanly from idle and the turbo would always mask the small capacity in a big, heavy car. Cruising at 130km/h through France for hours on end with the car fully loaded it came into its own, taking the journey in ease.

The interior is a mix of excellent and some slight oddities - first the obvious oddity, on cars without the satellite navigation the centre console display always looked crude, which is a massive shame because otherwise the materials, fit and finish were generally top-drawer until you looked well out of the line of site. The dials seemed a little poorly thought through (the right hand one always has 'distance left' even though this is an option you can select on the trip computer). The massage part leather part cloth seats have always been comfortable, never giving any of us an ounce of trouble, only a squeaking from the front passengers seat base would disturb the ambiance - again the interior mood lighting made the space feel modern, sophisticated and relaxing. I really like the black headlining and the cocooned feel this gives you, and the non-opening back windows which were much maligned in the press were never an issue for us - it has climate and the way the windows are shaped rear visibility is excellent.

Boot space is sufficient although the seats not folding fully is a bit of a pain, the car came with a can of tyre-gunk but I bought the space saver kit to fit under the boot floor.

Visibility is good with big, easily adjusted mirrors and faithful parking sensors. Economy could be a little disappointing, only really cruising at 70mph without a roof box on would give 54mpg, mostly we would get about 43mpg from each tank once local driving was taken in to account.

Costs wise, insurance is cheap, servicing good value and the tyres not too bad (£130 a corner on black circles), buying the car at a supermarket has meant depreciation has been reasonably small (the same as our old Picasso which was older when we bought and sold it and owned for a similar amount of time).

Overall an excellent car that I'd have been happy keeping longer - however, we have decided to buy a caravan which we collect in a few weeks time and although it should have been fine to use our car, especially when travelling through France we would likely find the power limited.

So, if you really like your car on every level and decide you need more power...what do you do...
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