Ownership Verified: Berlingo is dead, long live Berlingo! Good bye

samulis

Active Member
Joined
May 10, 2014
Messages
409
Location
Helsinki, Finland
Our new family wagon.
Mother in law's summer place is good 5-6h away from Helsinki in Joensuu (used to be 3-4h, but camera's and kid's make life slower), few kilometers from the track where FG winter trashing, drifting and banging has happened few times. Two kid's, a dog, a cat, few chicken's and a lot stuff for whole summer (a lot!) in public transportation was so much fun that I did not look forward to do it again.
I had strong urge to buy joint summer car for mother in law's and my family's use. I went all out and bought 2004 Citro?n Berlingo 1.6.
It fit's all the criteria's, it's cheap, it works, lot's of space and easy to tilt the seats for van moments, there's tow hook, 5 doors, no opening rear windows for kids to play, A/C and it has MOT almost till the end of the year.

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Last family car I had was same year facelift Berlingo so it was easy to jump back. I kind of knew what to expect and what it might need. Previous was grey/silver/boring and I had wanted to have black after I saw those on the road and specially with extra moonlight windows. So this one is black, has those 5 roof windows and lots of extra room for small stuff in ceiling. Nice find was that there is two extra 12v outlets, one in both upper boxes (on top of two 12v outlets in front and one in trunk), handy for powering iPad. Extra fan in ceiling for rear seat passenger's will also be nice for those two mildly hot days in the summer.
Do like French family cars, they really seem to know what matters when you have kids. Keeping it simple and user friendly, like having plastic tablets for kids with groove on sides to catch spilled milk, rubber mat in trunk to make cleaning easy, rear door's that are so hard to open that even our 8 years old struggles so no need for kid locks, I don't have to worry about them opening doors while moving or having to jump out for adults who are lock'd in the back.
Instead of VAG tax, there is French car depreciation that suits for me and my wallet very well. In my past life I used to drive bus for living so my ego can take driving around in ice cream van. And it isn't even ugliest of them all, I think it looks rather nice, facelift was really well done. Upright sit position and view over Miata's is nice too. 2.0 HDI would have been nice, but diesel tax is too much for the few driven miles a year, 1.6 in it is more suited for sporty SAXO or 106 than the box, there isn't a much of torque low down but it has some power in upper rev range.

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(that folding shopping basket is so French)

It's been driven almost all the way to moon, but it drives quite well. No extra noises or wonkiness. But it needs service in 5tkm and it's cam belt needs replacing last year, so I have my first "to-do" for next weekend.

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On the way to school this morning I arrived early, sat in car to wait the doors to open when I saw could of smoke from left rear wheel well. That would have been great start for ownership to stand back and watch it burn, luckily it was hand brake that had stuck a bit and steel wheel was only hot. One more thing for "to-do" list, open rear drum brakes and service them too.
Don't think I will give it any more love than what it needs, no "posaism" to this, there is a bump in rear door all ready and it is missing interior parts so I will let it slide and not go OCD on it.

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Ps. I have slight dyslexia and English isn't my first language so I am sorry for missing articles or mis spells, please be kind.
 
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Awesome, in a very sensible way. Those windows on the roof are a nice touch. The way French people design cars is a strange one. They can do really weird and unreasonable (but awesome) things like the Renault Avantime, but on the next day they make Kangoos and Berlingos for real families. I guess that's why they totally missed the SUV trend: they saw those as family cars, and they couldn't make family cars less sensible by making them taller outside and smaller inside.

Anyway, should we bolt on a turbo? :D
 
Somehow this is really cool, by not really being that cool.
It?s french but super practical and simple.
 
It's nice to see you put up a PYC thread but I was hoping it would have been about a mint condition Miata :lol: :p
 
Thanks guys!

Lastsoul I have heard about French V6 that is looking mid engine life, there is plenty of room in the rear of this one. Think about it, straight pipes out from where rear window should be or from the roof.
Polkky I think that after 4 Miata's it is time to be sensible or at least that's the lie I keep repeating to myself.

Problem with handbrake is the wire, it just freezes.
 
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Changed cambelt and water pump today, good 9 hours of fun. Haven't owned car for 5 years and haven't serviced one either. All went well except normal "first time takes for ever".
I could not lock the crank as there is engine block heater installed and it blocks the locking pin hole, it took good hour to figure out that it is that small hole is where the pin should go. So ink marker work'd as well, found that there was old ink marks all ready from previous change.
Someone had broken the threads from original, 16mm flush mounting oil pan drain plug and there was 20mm bolt with all kind of magic keeping it from leaking. Next oil change I will do by sucking the oil out, that will happen in few weeks as local parts store sold wrong oil filter and I had to re use extremely dirty filter.

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How do you like my jacks? After removing the engine mount I realized that I had park'd bigger jack too close to that barely noticeable "drain plug" bolt, so I used second one to lift engine just enough and I could change the bigger jack in better position. There is real jack stand in pic that you can barely see that is carrying all the weight.

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It works, what is always nice and got few horses back, it feels crispier and happier, but I think that is down to black, thick and really dirty oil that got change'd.
 
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Next oil change I will do by sucking the oil out, that will happen in few weeks as local parts store sold wrong oil filter and I had to re use extremely dirty filter.

Let me guess. The old filter had a plastic dick on it, while the new filter didn't? Or the other way around, perhaps.

Been there, done that. Same fucking problem on all engines from this family.
 
Please explain? As far as I know this is also TU-engine, so it uses the same oil filter as my 106. Strangely, I found few Purflux filters which were identical but had different part numbers.
 
So the summer is gone and summer car's first tour of duty is over. It did it well, even suprised us with great highway mileage (6.8l to 100km or 42 mpg, had to double check it as I did not believe it) and by having an working AC. Sadly we didn't have that many hot days but at least it helped with moisture. MOT time is looming behind the corner for the lovely screaming shit box. ToDo list includes small leak in exhaust and drivers side wheel bearing that is howling, but those I will pay someone to take care. Front lamps need sanding and waxing as their quite bad. Oh and MXM found out that drivers side window lift has had it, but he used his magic and it now works, well at least as long as you dont use the automatic lifting, cos that will ruin the day.

I started today with help of a friend, by changing clutch assembly, clutch releasing bearing, drive shaft lip seals and gearbox oil. Clutch had started to slip in early July, but drove it gently for the rest of the summer as at the cottage there is no place or tools for any bigger service.

It took way more time to figure out small things, like how to remove gear linkage than actually just poping them out etc. (I'm ofcourse blaming it's origins).
We got the gearbox out.
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Clutch releasing bearing was dead and clutch pressure plate did not look any better. No wonder it felt harsh in use.
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All went really well, gearbox just slid in and we got it back together in decent time.
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Well, actually too well. We were ready to tighten the drive shaft nuts and pour in cooler when I found this... Oh bollocks.
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That is a spacer from behind the thrust bearing...

We had a long quiet moment with hot brew. It was my first timer mistake. Well, on positive side it took only 45 minutes to drop the gearbox for second time, ofcourse gearbox didn't slide in this time, starter motor gave shed loads of hard time and track arm bolt lost its threads.
But now it works and it works very well indeed. First press of clutch pedal was so light that it felt like there isnt pedal at all.

Also learned how much better and easier this makes life.
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Let me guess. The old filter had a plastic dick on it, while the new filter didn't? Or the other way around, perhaps.

Been there, done that. Same fucking problem on all engines from this family.

Correctomundo!
Please explain? As far as I know this is also TU-engine, so it uses the same oil filter as my 106. Strangely, I found few Purflux filters which were identical but had different part numbers.

It seems that there's few different sizes of oil filters.

Edit. Oh almost forgot, it got new spark plugs same time when I changed the correct oil filter and oil (this time using pump to suck oil from oil stick pipe) few weeks after the first service. All those new (well at least for me) style connectors that, amazingly, work. I love them.
 
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Winter hibernation is over, has been for month or so. Before winter hibernation car got fresh MOT, it needed new exhaust to pass and there was three advisories, tow hitch needs welding, front lamp (housing) has to be changed as mirror has failed, and reg light was dead.
Changed oil and filter week ago and then I went crazy and gave it a wash inside out and it got really out of the hand when I found myself from waxing it. It looks suprisingly nice clean and shiny. Going to pick the front lamp today and should buy the window lift tomorrow/next week. Yesterday I drop'd it to Turkish owned service for bearing change, avarage price for the job, including the bearing is 270€'ish, this was 70€ without the bearing. They called to tell that the bearing was wrong and they would have to order new for 70€, I double check'd it from French car specialist where I had bought it with clutch kit and it was correct. Send SMS after they failed to answer and then they got back, apologied with explanation that varied until they desided that fault was in previously installed bearing that was newer model bearing with ABS sensor (good thing that the newer bearing is different size). I got the same explanation in morning when they called that car is ready and again now that I pick'd it up, plus in the end it cost only 50€.
 
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After installing the clutch I had forgotten to buy new clutch cable. Well I wasn't in a hurry, wire itself was in ok condition and still work'd, but barely. Thanks to worn clutch the biting point was on last 6th of pedal movement with the new one and it really had to be pressed to the floor to make it engage. So yesterday, while on local parts store buying something else I remember'd the cable. Today I started to work with it, I've done it before, but it's been 5-6 years and Haynes was as helpful as ever telling what to do but not how to do it.
Got the old wire out and found out that there is two J shape'd buttons on (well one that goes through it) the auto tensioner, switch it to off and I found that I can re arm it. Used zipties to lock it un used/short/please stay there position, installed it, released it too early, repeat and I won. All it needed was few pushes for tensioner to get to correct tension. Inner macgyver had a dance of joy and I could return the un opened part.
 
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Sister's oldest kid has 18th birthday party and to get to behind the border of wolfs, we need a car. So summer car got early start this year. Nothing major, someone had pulled the plug from battery tender and battery didnt take any juice, it was dead, so that needed changing and had to swap winter tyres. As you can see they have hold air well for last 2 years under the porch. Lets see how far the frozen cigarette butt travels. At first start plug 1# didn't join the band, but on second try it found the groove. Silica kitty litter works wonderfully, 5kg of it in a moving box and interior has been dry like sahara, well spent 6€.
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Check'd from service book, I did last year service 27.10 and this year 28.10. Now I have to say I feel shame, our yard and whole neighbourhood is under massive renevation so I could not use our yard, so I drove to nearby cold station to swap winter tyres and changed oils in same time with suction pump. Didn't feel all that comfortable doing it there so while I was multitasking, I forgot to change filter ? So, need to do it again soon.
It had used oil 2/5 of the stick in 14k km, I think I will have to bite the bullet and do new oil change by opeing the oil sump 30mm bolt.
Public found me (thank you!) almost new 14" summer tyres (few thousand km driven) at start of summer with almost new steel wheels and I ended paying 100€, seller had crashed their car and these were left from it.
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Since last update I washed the interior, black shitty water and almost an inch of sludge in bottom of wet vacumcleaners bucket.
Serviced the engine and installed new multi rib belt and bearings, but...

Berlingo had started the final leg.

Engine had started to have hickups, clutch started to slip, even tho it was changed while ago, rear axles bearings were dying and it had started to use some oil. So we had decided to drive until it runs out of MOT and then scrap it. That was before I was going to store with my son and BMW driver didn't see me or from he's words "Why didn't you get out of the way?", he was just a dick. I tried to give away as much as I could while braking. Called cops, waited 1,5h, BMW driver got away with ticket as I didn't want to take it to the court.

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He's insurance wrote it off, bumber, driving light and wing would have been over 2100€ and steering rack had taken hit and made steering nudge weirdly. Tow truck picked it up yesterday.
After pay out, old buses depreciation was 60€ for 4 years of use, which was nice.

Good bye!



And



Welcome!

It is time for new next Berlingo! This time we shall go from black to white.
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Looked for Peugeot 807, Mondeo STW, Grand Scenic only to find that you can't (sadly) beat Berlingo for what it is and specially when staying in 1 grand price bracket and it is the devil I know. Fun, still big no, but I wont buy anything fancy as long as wife and specially mother in law are co owners (who spun my S210 in to ditch, but we do not speak of it)

This time around it is only 212tkm driven, still 2004 (every facelift Berlingo seems to be 2004, they must have had a good sales year) with AC and same 5 moonlight windows, but this still has lids for those upper "glove" boxes for kids.

Needs cambelt, basic service and rear shocks, good bargin points. Also needs a wash, inside and outside, previous owner had 6 dogs and you can smell it and they lived at the end of a loooong and dusty gravel road.
Will start tomorrow with the service and interior wash with ozonization, outside will get basic wash and wax. Will see how the paint is.
It feels like new car compared to old black one. Pulls well, even in 5th gear, brakes have proper bite and steering doesnt nudge,whole car feels more solid. Let's see how many years we get out of this one.


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Washed and serviced the car today, partly.
I have never had as dirty car, ever. First round I flushed dust and gravel from every possible place, it took multiple times until CITROËN and BERLINGO signs in trunk were clean, door plastic bumb covers took 5 minutes, sand and dust just kept coming. Paint is really dull and covered with tar and dirt, need to wash it with solvent, shampoo and then cut and polish. Washed the interior with wet vacumcleaner couple times, smell's less dog. Sliding doors rails needed good wash and oil, now they work better.
Changed spark plugs, oil, oil filter, fuel filter and fresh air filter. Got cam belt set with waterpump but that, multi rib belt and cam cover gasget will be done later.
First owner has been SOL, local cleaning company, removed stickers can be seen on less dull spots on paint.
 
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Yesterday I changed the valve cover gaskets, cambelt and waterpump, also found that right hand side engine mount was in two pieces, so that banging sound found cure.
I think I found what's wrong with rear axle, too short shocks. So it it needs new shocks and alternator belt.
 
First MOT for White Knight, did not pass. Left front lower track arm and track rod joint were properly dead, which had been waiting for motivation. Handbrake didn't work on leftside. Got front suspension done today, will re new whole rear brakes tomorrow and change engine oil. Drives great, tracks straight and has no noises from front suspension.
We did cut and polish it at march, when we had the first round of servicing, it turned out great, old SOL text's disapeared.

Edit
Two days later..

Second day started with removing old rear brakes and handbrake cables. While banging the rear drums rear axle rear suspension rear mounts fell in part, slight wtf moments and wondering rear stance that had gone sky high, fixed brakes and today bought new mounts and shocks.
Problem had been too short shocks, as at up position shocks were fully extended. That made handling weird as it didn't have any movement upwards, stiff on turns but on bumbs it bob'd and on way up shocks stoped the movement violently. So new everything and now it's like a new car.
 
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Not a sad day. Berlingo didn't pass its MOT, OBD2 port was dead, so dead that nothing known outside of fixing the cars wiring would not help. Tried all the tricks in the book or internet I meant. Tried 3 different OBD2 readers, hey ho.
Some small, one man car dealer offered 2500€ for any car you could drive to yard as part exchange to their 2010 Prius. Deal.
So road trip from eastern Finland to south east aka Raisio.

Bye Berlingo, you did well. Black one cost 1k€, paid back 940€ from write off, new one was 1k€. Five years, two Berlingos with 1060€ (and service, but who counts that?). It work'd as sheep, dog, cat, bee (hive) and chicken carrier. Fully pack'd with spring mattres on roof and trunk filled with summer life. All the way to the moment when my older son said few months ago "sorry dad, don't take this personally, but don't drive me into school yard, I'm a shame of the Berlingo" (it's 4 years older than he is, no wonder the shame). That was the kick that pushed me from loving it or even caring for it, knowing it's days were counted. MOT came and took care of the shame.


So instead of pictures of Berlingo, I'll give you our old kittens, cos who doesn't loves kittens?
 

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