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(Very) intermittent engine stutter

Posted: Mon May 20, 2019 2:16 pm
by Cwba1
Hi all,

Just wondering if anyone else is having this issue or am I incredibly unlucky. First 10 months of driving (about 12k) absolutely no issues. Then in December whilst mildly accelerating in top gear I got a stutter, lasted only a second or two but the car lost power and juddered through the pedals.

We were away on holiday and the car was fine after so put it down to an anomaly and carried on (no warning lights or anything flashing up on the dash). All was well until about a couple of months later and it happened again. The car was due its service in a few weeks so reported it and waited until it went in.

In the meantime, one day the car lost the coding for the remote control keys. Very weird, just suddenly wouldn't recognise them and had to do the whole holding the keyfob on the steering column to start etc. Worst was, I couldn't lock the car even with the emergency key so had to be very careful how I left it until I could get it into the garage for them to re-programme (some 4 days later). I called the Citroen Assist out at first and they sent along an RAC van who couldn't help but did plug his computer in to have a look for any error codes and found a "Super knock" code (which he helpfully deleted!?!!)

Anyway, long story short, I mentioned it when the car went in for its 1st service, they checked their info and found the code and also some info from Citroen on this super knock and some remedies. The remedies havent worked and even though still very intermittent the stutters seem worse. The dealer said there are other things they can do to cure but initially said the super knock is due to oil pressure????

Has anyone else had this and has it been resolved and how?

FYI, it has happened in various gears, either during hard acceleration, gentle acceleration or just driving along. Has happened full tank of fuel, 1/4 tank etc, engine is always warmed up. There doesnt seem to be any pattern to it. Engine is the 110hp S&S 1.2 petrol.

It doesn't exactly inspire confidence when driving and is tainting what is essentially a lovely car to own.

Thanks all, :D

Re: (Very) intermittent engine stutter

Posted: Tue May 21, 2019 12:06 pm
by Jay R
Not had anything like that. Covered 12k miles so far.

Re: (Very) intermittent engine stutter

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 9:11 am
by Berapotter
On the Cactus forum this has been covered a fair bit.
It seems to be a known but still not sorted issue.
Changing the spark plugs specification was supposed to be a cure. I remain to be convinced. Mine does it occasionally but no codes show.
Personally I think it's ECU related all the sensors get a bit crossed up and with typical garlic charm it just shrugs it's shoulders.
Have had similar problems with motorcycles, when you twist the grip on a bike and nothing happens that's scarey

Re: (Very) intermittent engine stutter

Posted: Wed Jul 24, 2019 3:34 pm
by Jay R
12k miles and I think I had this once on the motorway. Only lasted 1 second at most. Thought it was a bit strange at the time but it didn't happen before or since so not an issue for me. I wondered if perhaps I'd backed off on the throttle pedel and then on again hard which may have upset it but couldn't remember and it passed out of my mind within seconds.

Re: (Very) intermittent engine stutter

Posted: Fri May 13, 2022 6:32 am
by PaulGilbert
Hello
Did this issue ever get resolved? I have the same issue and was wondering what the cause may be.
Thanks
Paul

Re: (Very) intermittent engine stutter

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2022 4:34 pm
by donleon
Hey everyone

I have a c3 spark shine 2018 with 44k on the odometer
I suffer from the exact same issues as the original author.

changed plugs, reset the "computer"
no error is shown on the computer

still encounter this, and it seems to worsen with time.

Re: (Very) intermittent engine stutter

Posted: Tue Oct 11, 2022 6:16 pm
by Beanee687
Coil pack each cylinder had own one.

Re: (Very) intermittent engine stutter

Posted: Wed Oct 12, 2022 8:06 am
by donleon
Beanee687 wrote: Tue Oct 11, 2022 6:16 pm Coil pack each cylinder had own one.
Can you please explain it in layman's terms?

I'm at a loss, and the 2 Citroen garages I went to, couldn't identify\fix this issue.
They even mentioned it's due the asymmetrical cont of cylinders (3)...

Re: (Very) intermittent engine stutter

Posted: Thu Oct 13, 2022 6:47 am
by Beanee687
In the old days a car had one coil, a distributor and the rotor arm directed the power to each spark plug in turn.
These days C3 etc have 3 coils and they feed individual spark plugs under the control of the ECU. If you open your bonnet and look at the spark plus you will see the coil packs mounted next to them.