[paulsander]

Hi all,
would appreciate a quick straw pole of how you all feel your gear changes are. I bought my wife a DSport 2.0 HDI and my wife, who has no idea about cars, said that she thought the gear change was a bit 'funny'.
On testing I found that the gear change from 1st-2nd is very clunky through the gate and actually makes a noise that can be heard by people in the back. Our DS3 before this had a perfectly normal gearchange with no noise or fuss (as should be)
Has anyone else suffered from this or is it just our car? I have the car in with our local Citroen garage (Bollingmores Ashford) who said they cannot find anything wrong at all!
This means I have to go down after work to road test it with an engineer so would appreciate any feedback asap.

Cheers guy/girls,
Paul

 

[Saeagle]

Hi Paul,
I have the same car as yourself, and I have to say the gears are quite Clunky, especially 1st to 2nd (and seems to be worse if cold or changing at low revs).

I can't say if anyone has heard a noisein the back as very seldom have anyone in the back, nor have I been aware of any obvious crunching when changing. It is justnot necessarily the smoothest I have found.

I have found that it doesn't always go into reverse as easily as I would like, but just pop my foot off the clutch and trying again seems to work.

I'm sure there was a conversation going on recently about something similar, and would appear that the gearboxes are just not as smooth as we would like.

I'm sure someone more technical than me, will be along soon, but from my experience of owning it the last couple of weeks, mine seems similar to yours.

 

[deresim]

Yep 1st to 2nd when cold is a bit clunky find once its warmed up it is ok

 

[andrew2106]

1st to 2nd also clunky when cold on my 1.6HDI DStyle. Would rather it wasn't like this, but certainly not the worst fault I've ever had on a new car and certainly not spoiling my experience.

 

[malc]

1st to 2nd on my 160 hdi is quite clunky too and worst when cold. Probably the most irritating bit of the driving experience which is superb otherwise

 

[GazDs]

Deffo worse when cold, am going to look at the linkage and possible lube points when the weather improves.

 

[paulsander]

Citroen spoke to me and said that generally nothing gets done (i.e fix/recall) until a certain amount of owners have reported the fault via their local dealer...from how they were talking I am sure they are aware of the issue but will only respond once enough complaints have come through to them....so its up to us really....

 

[SBK61]

Got the same problem , took it back the dealers and was told they all do that . I think it might be best to part ex the car before the warranty runs out .

 

[Rev G]

Seems to be a general "fault" as its the same on my 2.0hdi D Style but ok when warmed up. I had a C4 VTS before and that has similar problem but pleased to say it didnt get worse with age. In fact I recall my ZX some years ago also had it!

 

[dug]

yep same here
I have reported it on this forum before
mine feels like no sincro between 1st and 2nd it's that bad
as said it is a little better when warm but not by much.

I took mine back to dealer, he said there all the same
he oiled and greased all the linkages up for me but it made no difference at all

 

[paulsander]

Guys,
The only way anything like this gets sorted out is to keep taking it back to the dealer or reporting it direct to Citroen. I've taken the car into my local dealer (Bollingmores) and they say they've contacted Citroen but they never do. It's only when you call direct that things start to get sorted.

The number for Citroen UK is 0844 463 3500. I have a active case which is 15199663. You could all call and quote it and ask for the same symptom to be added to against your vehicle.

We need to use this forum as a tool as it can be very powerful if everyone comes together.

They are going to call me back either tomorrow or Wednesday with an update. Would be good to be able to say that other DS4 owners are also going to contact them...

Cheers,
Paul

 

[Rev G]

Will do Paul. Keep us posted !

 

[SBK61]

Done mine today, got a reference number . Wait and see now.

 

[richcy]

Hi Paul,
I have the same car as yourself, and I have to say the gears are quite Clunky, especially 1st to 2nd (and seems to be worse if cold or changing at low revs).

I can't say if anyone has heard a noisein the back as very seldom have anyone in the back, nor have I been aware of any obvious crunching when changing. It is justnot necessarily the smoothest I have found.

I have found that it doesn't always go into reverse as easily as I would like, but just pop my foot off the clutch and trying again seems to work.

I'm sure there was a conversation going on recently about something similar, and would appear that the gearboxes are just not as smooth as we would like.

I'm sure someone more technical than me, will be along soon, but from my experience of owning it the last couple of weeks, mine seems similar to yours.

I quite often get gear crunching from 2, 3 or 4 to 6 - even with the clutch all the way down. Anyone else experienced this?


Richcy

 

[SBK61]

PAULSANDER
Have you heard anything yet ?

 

[paulsander]

UPDATE:
Right..spoke to Citroen UK and explained the issue. My issue was referred to UK DS4 Product Manager who said that this was the first they had heard of an issue with a clunky gear change.
I commented that maybe it is because other, if other main dealers are like my local one, then they do not report it but just tell the customer 'that's the way all DS4's are'.
They acknowledged that receiving feedback was an important part of product improvement and so any feedback good or bad on the DS4 was important.

They have booked me in next Monday with Citroen London West in Brentford, who I didn't realise are not a franchise but Citroen themselves, to look at the issue.
They have arranged a hire car from Enterprise which we will pick up for the week whilst the car is in.

So...I'd recommend more owners raise a case with Citroen direct quoting my ref if they want (posted earlier) as otherwise Citroen will just think it's a one off and deal with it accordingly...

Will provide another update next week...

Apart from that, and as I said to Citroen, I think the car is superb and am very pleased with it.

 

[SBK61]

I have reported mine and I quoted your ref number , they havegiven me a ref number as well .

I told them that my dealer had said all Ds4 do that and they seemed interested in who my dealer was . They have told me to ring them first when I take my car to the dealer and said they would be in touch . I agree that more people should raise the issue with Citroenor they could end up loosing out .

 

[paulsander]

Thanks SBK61...are you able to provide your ref so I can refer to it as Citroen had said they had no other reports? Brgds, Paul

 

[SBK61]

Thanks SBK61...are you able to provide your ref so I can refer to it as Citroen had said they had no other reports? Brgds, Paul

No problem mate . My ref is 15208274 .

 

[SBK61]

paulsander

Have you got your car back yet?
Did they fix it or was it a "they all do that" situation ?