Life without the Yeti

[ejstubbs]

Currently on holiday in southern Italy, driving a hired Citroen C4 Picasso. First major impression was how wallowy the ride was. Second was how gutless the 1.6 diesel is below about 1,200rpm, requiring much box-stirring to negotiate the twisty roads of the Costa Amalfitana and in the mountains of Northern Calabria.

The biggest problem, though, is that the damn thing seems to wilt in the heat. It's hitting 40C during the day here at the moment. Twice I've had the car fail to start, with no fault showing, until left to cool down in the shade for an hour or so. My first guess is some kind of vapour lock in the fuel system. I've also twice had a sort of creeping paralysis in the electronics, with the engine fault light coming on together with the ESP fault light. Again, the symptoms appear to recede if the car is left to cool down for a while: first the ESP light goes out, then the engine fault disappears. I noticed today that the cruise control became unresponsive as well.

I've never had the Yeti in such hot conditions, but I'm pretty sure it would do better than this dodgy bit of French "engineering".

Later this week I'll be back home, but driving a "courtesy" car while the Yeti is fixed up after I inconsiderately reversed it in to stealth lamp-post shortly before we left for our holiday. I will certainly be looking forward to getting it back as soon as possible, 'cos my current experience is that there just ain't nothing like a Yeti...

[gumdrop]

It sounds like the electronics don't like the heat, I fitted a computer fan to my brothers car

under the  and that seemed to help cool it by drawing warm air out.

[oriki]

Hello ejstubbs,

Let me put your mind at ease.Where I live it is 38 degs and up every single day  all of July and August,sometimes reaching 45 degs (!!)

My Yeti has the exact same engine yours has.

My Yeti runs flawlessly regardless of the temp, I am happy to report

Stay away from French cars.......ha ha ha.

Edited 20 July, 2015 by oriki

[awfabia]

ejstubbs, it's a French car! 'Nuff said!

Seriously, though, it's a shame about French car reliability ( see AutoExpress Driver Power survey ) because they have great style and innovative ideas. I've had Espace and Scenics as family cars which are versatile, comfortable and economical but when they go wrong.......,.. Don't mention the Renault 5 which I got shot of in a year, regularly spending my Saturdays fixing it.

[Urrell]

The cruise control becoming unresponsive is associated with a lot of faults, I had a cracked brake vacuum hose on my Fabia and that knocked out the cruise control as it was losing vacuum for the MAP sensor and bringing up a fault that caused the car to go into limp mode until restarted but the cruise control took a day or two to reset until I found the fault.

[ejstubbs]

Rest assured that the Citroen was not my original choice! I booked a Polo but they didn't have one available on the day. The choice was between the Cit, and a Cinquecento. Cute as the Fiat is (a) it's a Fiat, and ( with a couple of 5+ hour journeys ahead of us, the bigger car was the only sensible option.

Still, it only has to get us back to Naples tomorrow and then it's the hire company's problem, not mine. The engine light is still on but it did 100km today without faltering so I think it is just 'being French'!

[The Plumber]

Our V40 is one of the last with a Ford/PSA derived 1.6 TDI (115PS) engine and while it has a good level of torque at 270Nm, the band is both fairly high up the rpm scale and narrow too (1750-2500). So as the OP suggests it needs a few gear changes to get the best out of it, if your not cruising along; find it's happiest between 1500 and 2500 rpm depending on gear. 

 

Mind its reasonably economical for a fairly heavy 2wd car with a smallish cc engine and in the Volvo at least its pretty quite for a diesel.

 

 

 

TP

[ejstubbs]

OK, back in the UK now.  Yeti's battery was a bit low yesterday after being left alone for two weeks, so I trickle-charged it overnight before taking it to the car hospital this morning to get its hurty backside seen to.  In return for a bent Yeti they gave me a four-door Peugeot 208 with sunroof.  The electrics are almost identical to the Citroen's (no big surprise there) but there's no climate control, only manual temperature, fan and A/C  :(   One thing it does have in common with the Cit is the dratted "convenience indicator" which seems to be impossible to turn off   It feels a lot less substantial than the Yeti (and the Cit, in fact) and is somewhat skittish to drive - although somewaht sluggish until it hits about 3,000rpm when it suddenly gets all enthusiastic (a bit like an old 2-stroke motorcycle).  The clutch appears to have about 0.5mm of operational travel, just before your foot comes off the pedal.  The rest of its motion is presumably provided so as to allow you to exercise your weary left ankle when stuck in stop-start traffic.  The gear stick seems to have an unexpectedly long throw front to back, which is a bit odd in a smallish car.  The brake pedal seems to do nothing for about the first 2/3rds of its travel, then suddenly you find your nose glued to the windscreen (OK, I exaggerate a bit, but the brakes don't feel at all 'progressive').

 

Funny how you get attuned to a car's controls, and what will seem fine for most owners feels so wrong coming from a different model/manufacturer.

 

Overall: s'OK, but I'll be counting the days until I get the Yeti back (some time next week, they reckon).

Edited 23 July, 2015 by ejstubbs

[Spaldi01]

OK, back in the UK now.  Yeti's battery was a bit low yesterday after being left alone for two weeks, so I trickle-charged it overnight before taking it to the car hospital this morning to get its hurty backside seen to.  In return for a bent Yeti they gave me a four-door Peugeot 208 with sunroof.  The electrics are almost identical to the Citroen's (no big surprise there) but there's no climate control, only manual temperature, fan and A/C  :(   One thing it does have in common with the Cit is the dratted "convenience indicator" which seems to be impossible to turn off   It feels a lot less substantial than the Yeti (and the Cit, in fact) and is somewhat skittish to drive - although somewaht sluggish until it hits about 3,000rpm when it suddenly gets all enthusiastic (a bit like an old 2-stroke motorcycle).  The clutch appears to have about 0.5mm of operational travel, just before your foot comes off the pedal.  The rest of its motion is presumably provided so as to allow you to exercise your weary left ankle when stuck in stop-start traffic.  The gear stick seems to have an unexpectedly long throw front to back, which is a bit odd in a smallish car.  The brake pedal seems to do nothing for about the first 2/3rds of its travel, then suddenly you find your nose glued to the windscreen (OK, I exaggerate a bit, but the brakes don't feel at all 'progressive').

 

Funny how you get attuned to a car's controls, and what will seem fine for most owners feels so wrong coming from a different model/manufacturer.

 

Overall: s'OK, but I'll be counting the days until I get the Yeti back (some time next week, they reckon).

You have made me start worrying. I have installed a wired phone supply  (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Supply-Converter-Module-Output-Adapter/dp/B00E5VH1OI) which will probably use current when a phone is not connected. The question is will the battery be flat when I come back to the airport 10 days later at midnight

[The Plumber]

Had Skoda Assist out with our second Yeti, as I couldn't get it to start due to low volts on the battery; because of where it was parked at the time, I couldn't get our other car close enough to jump start it myself.

 

Skoda Assist didn't find any fault with the car or battery, nor the cause of the low volts and it didn't happen again, so a strange one.

 

 

 

TP

[longedge]

Yeti's battery was a bit low yesterday after being left alone for two weeks, so I trickle-charged it overnight

A couple of months ago we had 10 nights away and when I got back the battery was flat as a pancake. I put it on trickle charge overnight and it's been perfectly OK since then. I put it down to the fact that although my dashcam was switched off, I left the power adapter plugged into the socket (which is always live - don't like this at all). Obviously there must also be a small continuous drain on the battery to the car itself for such as the clock.

[ejstubbs]

My dashcam power supply is piggy-backed from the rear wiper fuse which is "ignition live", therefore the 12v to 5v converter is only on power when the key is in.  Everything is hidden away in and around the fuse panel, with the cable to the top of the windscreen tucked in behind the interior trim around the 'screen.  So I know it's not my dashcam that drained the battery.

 

As for the 208: still not getting on with it, and will be relieved to be able to hand it back!