Saxo automatic has broken down.

7th August 2012, 19:01

Dear All.
My daughters Saxo, has unfortunately broken-down and had to be recov-
ered by a breakdown company, to my house.
The Saxo has suffered a broken crankcase breather pipe which fits onto
the top of the air filter and then onto the rocker cover, with a small black
hose with a jubilee clip on the end. We rang a local dealer to order a new
part on Friday last week. I picked up the new part today only to find that it
isn,t " exactly " the same as the original pipe. The original part only took 2
seconds to remove, however the new one has fitted onto the rocker cover
ok, but it appears to be a bit loose and the end which fits onto the air filter
will not fit at all, the new part is too small to fit onto the air filter.
The part no we have been given is C1192Q5 vapor hose. The cars reg no
is V95 FGK.
I also noticed that the circular rubber seal that fits inside the air filter,
where it fits on to the SPI housing is also snapped, not allowing a good air
tight seal around the air filter housing jubilee clip. I was wondering if anyone
could kindly supply us with the correct part nos. so that I can get the car
running again ?
Many thanks any help advice would be really great.
Vince.

7th August 2012, 19:10

Mine's not in either i used ptfe tape and then tightened it right up with the Jubilee its all good.

7th August 2012, 20:06

I'm not sure... but I would be surprised if this has caused the car to break down?

unless it lost all of its oil through this and then has caused catastrophic damage due to being run without oil?

It only allows oil gasses to be burnt in the engine to reduce emissions and isn't massively important? Many people fit pipes from these and leave them loose in an empty drinks bottle to catch the oil and let the vapour out.

I would be very surprised if, other than mentioned - which sounds impossible, this is the reason for it breaking down.

More information would help.

7th August 2012, 20:45

Can we have some more details please?A broken breather for the oil would surely just cause oil everywhere?

8th August 2012, 17:36

Dear All.
Firstly thank-you all so very very much for your really very kind and very
helpful advice

Dany, I didn,t realise until today that the rubber seal is the same width as
a roll of insulation tape, but we had to go back to the Citroen dealer again
today, so I ordered a new one anyway

Ryan, I was surprised aswell Ryan, so when the recovery chap had left, I
disconnected the breather from the air-filter housing and the rocker cover
and blocked them off with kitchen towel and used my mole grips to clamp off
the small black hose with the phillips head jubilee clip, to ensure that there
was no air leaking into the SPi unit, and she started first turn of the key
and idled correctly too

so hopefully fingers crossed when we get the cor-
ect part/s she will be ok. Thank-you so much Ryan, is it really nice to have
someone who understands what I am on about.

Stevo, as far as I know, on Friday she was driving to our house when she
noticed the oil warning lamp came on and then the car seemed to die. she
called her breakdown company, he got lost and took quite a while to find her
aswell. He did a temporary rerpair on the breather pipe with some wide duck
tape, but he refused to put any more engine oil in the engine, so she dem-
anded that he should top up the low engine oil. He did that and the car star-
ted ok, so he left her at this point, but unfortunately a couple of miles later
she broke down again so rang us again, so we told her to call him back out
again, he wasn,t happy, because he only had a recovery van, no trailer to
put an auto onto, so he towed her back about 7 miles on a rigid-bar, which
she was really frightened as she hadn,t ever had to do that before, and when
they turned up at our house her brakes were really hot ! We didn,t complain
to him as he was so miserable.
I think in my opinion, if he had removed the small black pipe with the small
phillips jubillee clip on and blocked it off with a screw, the car would have
driven back fine under it,s own steam, but I think because he didn,t so the
car was trying to run far too weak, that is my thoughts anyway Stevo

Today we had to take the old pipe, new pipe and the top off the air-filter
to the dealer, he agreed that the new pipe won,t fit as it too small, so he has
taken photos of them and is sending them to Citroen to try and get the
correct part, on his picture it shows the same fitting on the ends as our old
one, not like the new one, so he thinks it may have been mis binned possibly.
So thanks again so very very much Stevo, I will keep you all posted on
how things turn out

Vince.

9th August 2012, 20:09

interesting, keep us updated.

If the car died after the oil warning light came on I would fear that more damage has been done internally. Is there much oil in the engine bay, indicating it has lost a lot through the broken breather pipe?

It all sounds suspicious to me. The car wouldn't run weak as you say, I don't think... It would be able to suck more air in where the pipe had been removed and spray a small amount of oil out of where the rocker cover hole is. It wouldn't have affected performance.

I think there must be something else wrong with it. Are you 100% sure it was the oil light that came on before it died? And wasn't the battery light?

13th August 2012, 17:32

Dear All.
Just to update on the Saxo, I renewed the crankcase breather pipe and topped up the engine oil level, I think in all the engine had only lost about one
litre in total and I cleaned all the excess oil from around the breather area.
The black " rubber " seal that fits between the air filter top and the SPi hous-
ing was only available with a new top air filter housing, so I had to use insul-
ating tape in the end, which has done the job just as well. afterwards the car
was starting first turn of the key and idling correctly aswell. I also checked all
of my work with carb cleaner to check for any air leaks of which there were
none.
The Saxo has also been suffering from an intermittent, non selection of
reverse gear.
However, today the Saxo wouldn,t start this morning so she called her bre-
akdown company again who cleaned out the throttle housing with carb clea-
ner, to get the car started. They then road tested it to check it for the inter-
mitttant lack of power, but could find nothing else wrong with the car. But
my daughter is still complaining that the car is still losing power intermittently.
She brought the car over to me today and we both road tested the car but
the faults were not showing themselves and the car was starting, idling and
driving without fault at the time, I sprayed carb cleaner on the faces where
the inlet manifold mates to the cylinder head, but no fault was found.
The Saxo is due for her M.O.T at the end of this month, so I need to try
and sort these problems out before she goes in for her test.
Anyway thats me done for today, but any suggestions would be very gra-
tefully received thank-you.
Vince.

13th August 2012, 17:59

Loosing reverse gear intermittently is a sign the gearbox is on its way out(sorry)You`ll loose it for good 1 day.Check the gearbox fluid it should be a nice pinky/red colour.

14th August 2012, 00:04

Yea my auto has never missed a beat the gear selection means your box is mullered

16th August 2012, 12:35

Dear All.
It is with deep regret that we have decided that the Saxo is far too dan-
erous for my daughter to drive, in it,s present condition. So we decided that
the car is staying here at our home until such time that she can have the
Saxo back again.
I have noticed that the gearlever is a litlle " stiffer " through all of the gears, than my BX auto, witch has done half the mileage that the Saxo has
done. Yesterday I removed the centre console on the Saxo whilst leaving the
gearlever all still together in one piece. What I wanted to do was to lubricate
( with the correct silicone grease ) the underneath of the gearlever where
it makes it,s selections, but unfortunately I can,t seem to get any further
than this really large black " rubber " gaitor thing, the one that is held onto
to the transmission tunnel floor with four 10 mm nuts. I have undone these
four nuts but I can,t seem to remove it anyway, to access the selector mec-
hanism. I am wondering if it possible to do this, without it bieng too much of
a " rave ". Your very very kind help indeed would be very gratefully received.
I just wanted to add that as yet I havn,t personally experienced the cars
two faults, the " lack of power and breaking down " or the intermittent " non
selection " of reverse gear myself, at all. so I am going on my daughters
words at the moment.
I have decided that the gearbox problem is taking precedent over the cars
intermittent lack of power.
Once again, many-thanks indeed for all of your kind help and assistance.
Vince.

17th August 2012, 22:46

If it's anything like a manual then you will need to access the selection mechanisms from underneath the car.

The best thing you could go and buy now is a haynes manual which will detail how to take everything apart and should also have some basic fault finding section for the automatic gears. You can then try and use this to diagnose the similar fault and what haynes suggests to try.

They sell them in halfords and most motor factors so you should be able to pick one up easily. Invaluable for a diy mechanic (i always use mine when tackling new areas). They're not always perfect but do help out.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Haynes-Man...ht_1898wt_1186