Recalls on Citroen Relays (current version)

[sid b]

Hi Ant,

I wonder if you can shed any light on this? I had a recall notice recently for my 2007 Dimension II / Citroen Relay van - R/2008/037. It says it's to grease the steering rack and make modifications to the windscreen wiper motor cover. I dutifully took it along last week to a main, long established Citroen dealer having previously phoned them and being told that it would only take about 1-2 hours. When I got there the service manager went away to look it up on their computers and then told me that there isn't 1 recall job to do on my vehicle but 6! According to them, one of the jobs involves accessing the gear box and will take about 6 hours. He said he couldn't understand why I hadn't received any other notifications apart from the one I had. It's booked in now for all of the alleged recall the work to be done over 2 days.

Any idea what's going on here? When I got home I looked at the VOSA web site and it only shows the 1 recall notice that I know about. Surely a main dealer can't be THAT wrong..... can they?

Sid

[ant]

Hi Sid.
Don't panic! All relay 2 vans have been recalled for the wiper motor cover and rack lubrication. Manufacturers often put out one recall and use the time to look at other areas that might potentially be a problem in the future. Most of the work you discribe will be just a look see and will probably require no action, if however they spot a problem that has been noted on another vehicle inspection they'll need the time quoted to you to get it sorted.
My advice is let them do what they need to do and keep the evidence that the inspection has been done.
Ant

[mike and heather]

Hi Sid

Thanks for reporting this here. I was booked to take my 2007 Relay in on Friday for just one day so the alarm bells immediately started to ring.

I rang up the dealer this morning, and they looked up my chassis number and sure enough I too need a 6 hour operation to do something about a gearbox deferential(?) screw, as well as the two jobs you mentioned. On my particular model they are also doing something to the ABS unit, a software download to improve engine performance and an alternator protection screen!

So we have now arranged to take the van in on Thursday, use a courtesy car and pick the van up again on Friday. otherwise we would have had to arrange another session in the future.

It seems some of the items are VOSA safety recalls and others are modifications and improvements which are not technically recalls. Puzzled? So am I!

Mike

[sid b]

Ant: thanks for your reassurance. I will go ahead and let them do what they say needs doing.

Mike - I'm not so much puzzled as annoyed. Are Citroen trying to hush-up problems with the new Relay? I think it's a bit rich to get the punters to go back to their dealers over an apparently fairly minor bit of work, only to be told on arrival that there are really three times as many things to do than those listed.

[mike and heather]

It seems to be the way with vans - let the punters help in developmental work after the launch - and have to put up with the inconvenience. I think you're right, Sid. there must be an element of keeping it quiet - they wouldn't want everyone to know about the big list, would they?

Cars seem to be ready these days with few or no recalls - well our Skoda is anyway!

Mike

[glenw]

thanks sid, I never knew about the VOSA rexall website, just checked and my Daihatsu has 3 recalls on it, so another job to add to the list!!!!

[sid b]

May 14, 2008 8:34:07 GMT glenw said:

thanks sid, I never knew about the VOSA rexall website, just checked and my Daihatsu has 3 recalls on it, so another job to add to the list!!!!

Glad it helped. Amazing what you can find on the internet!