My X7 in for warranty work

[Paul-R]

My X7 is in for some warranty work again before the three year period is up. This is the second time and both items were at fault the last time about two months ago.

The first complaint was that when I turn the "ignition" on I get a message "Oil level invalid measurement" (or similar). Last time I was told that it had been cured by updating the BSI and, indeed, it went away for about six weeks. But it came back a week or so ago. When I phoned up today I was told that this is a known fault and is cured by taking a bit off the dipstick tube.

I was curious how this worked and asked where the sensor was (at the rear of the engine). I couldn't see how this was affected by the dipstick tube and the service manager thought hat it was something to do with capillary action. I still can't see how this would affect the sensor but I'm reporting it here in case it's good enough to go in the wiki.

The second complaint was the radio again. The LW reception of Radio 4 is diabolical when I get out of FM reception in France. I would expect to be able to get well beyond Paris and in fact it's difficult in Calais! Effectively as soon as the FM disappears I turn to CDs. The FM reception of R4 round here (Wirral) is also poor with lots of "shushing" as though the RDS is about to switch to a stronger signal but there isn't one. Also, when I was in France and just tried LW for the hell of it while we stopped for lunch I got a very faint signal which, when I started the engine was obscured by interference. This could possibly be from the engine or hash from one or more of the on-board computers.

They fitted a new aerial/amplifier last time and as soon as I got into the car then I didn't think it had made any difference. And after giving it some time, and another trip through France, this was confirmed. So far they've checked the aerial (again) and the connections to the radio but haven't found a solution. They're waiting for a reply from Citroen tech to see whether they can fit a replacement radio. I'm so glad I'm not having to pay for this replace and hope it fixes the problem routine, They did manage to reproduce the interference when starting the engine which a positive. It's ridiculous that I had a better radio reception 35 years ago in the MGB!

[Stickyfinger]

just a thought, do you have any plug in power adaptors ?....one of the ones (in a bank of 3) I was using totally @@@@d up my FM radio reception

[Paul-R]

Good thought. I have an in car camera plugged into the cigar lighter. I'll have a look when I get the car back.

Oops on me if that's the problem!

[Hell Razor5543]

Sometimes equipment that is not up to approved standards can cause issues. I recently got an external drive case for a large (data wise) HDD. As soon as I used it, it knocked out my WiFi signal. Turned it off, clean access to the Internet. That went back the same day.

[Paul-R]

Did the decent thing and phoned the dealer up suggesting it might be an installed fault. They'll pull the power supply out of the cigar lighter and see.

Not sure whether I want it to be the source of the fault or not...

[Harlequin]

I get awful interference when I plug my dash cam in the power socket , it needs a suppressor somewhere

[Gibbo2286]

Wasn't there a topic earlier about cutting a bit off the dipstick tube?

[chinkostu]

I get awful interference when I plug my dash cam in the power socket , it needs a suppressor somewhere

Heres a funny one, if i have the usb power plugged into the cig lighter at a certain point and try to use the washer it makes a god awful noise! almost like the motors going 20 times faster but inside the dash

[GiveMeABreak]

I agree it can have a lot to do with the quality of accessories - I needed an iPhone charger in a hurry for a long journey and couldn't wait for a 'proper' one to be delivered from the web. I ended up buying one from the local market and within 5 minutes of being plugged in to the cigarette lighter was cooking! Shortly afterwards, there followed a report regarding all the cheap Chinese chargers that were potentially lethal, having been blamed for house fires and the like. Needless to say this one was destroyed with a few words to the market seller.

I never usually buy cheap accessories as it's generally a false economy - certification (especially Apple) costs, but at least you know they are built properly and have the proper safety features built in. I bought an approved Anker charger from the web shortly after my return and this is so well made and 'solid' - never heats up and I at least I know my £700 phone is protected.

[Paul-R]

When I get the car back I'll look at putting some ferrite rings on the lead. As the 12v power socketry is so poor on the X7 I've been thinking of wiring in some extra sockets anyway and I'll see about putting one inside a metal can expressly for the PSU.

Assuming it is at fault of course.

[Paul-R]

Wasn't there a topic earlier about cutting a bit off the dipstick tube?

I don't recall it but possibly it was before I bought my X7 and I missed it.

[Stickyfinger]

When I get the car back I'll look at putting some ferrite rings on the lead. As the 12v power socketry is so poor on the X7 I've been thinking of wiring in some extra sockets anyway and I'll see about putting one inside a metal can expressly for the PSU.

Assuming it is at fault of course.

Tried that on the cheap USB charger plug that was causing the problem, made no difference......it is in the bin.
After 6 months of crap reception (i know I know) I dumped it after stamping on the bloody thing.

[Paul-R]

Well it wasn't the power supply. I've just had a phone call to let me know that they've had permission to replace the radio. It doesn't come through the normal parts chain but comes direct from the manufacturer so I'll have to wait until it arrives. In the meantime I'll collect the car; glad to have it back as the buzzbox C1 courtesy car is a bit small for my needs.

[GiveMeABreak]

It will be interesting to see if they ship it with the latest firmware AND 2016 -1 Navigation maps Paul (I think you have the Nav on yours IIRC).

[Paul-R]

I do indeed have the nav but the maps are dated 2012 IIRC. An update would certainly be nice. Where is the map data stored?

I've collected the car and the power supply was unplugged showing they'd tested the radio with that out. As an experiment I pushed it back in and on LW there was an immediate increase in the background noise so it's certainly kicking out some RF crap at that wavelength. But it had no effect on the R4 FM reception; there's still the wavery signal and shushing noise.

The new radio is being shipped direct from Magnetti Marelli and they hope it'll arrive towards the end of next week so perhaps in seven days all will be perfect. Well I can hope...

The service manager had my file there, gosh there's a lot in such a short time. He showed me the paperwork for the dipstick tube and there is certainly a service bulletin about it. Apparently the fault occurs randomly and you have to clear the fault code, cut the bottom of the tube by 5cm (or was it 6cm - the photocopy was awful) and then regularise the oil level.

They say that's fixed the problem but that's what they said after updating the BSI and it certainly did for a while. Now here's the bit I really don't understand: if the BSI update made the fault go away for a while then why does shortening the tube also fix the problem when the level of oil has remained exactly the same since the service last year? Can anyone explain that to me?