UK C Zero orange car and spanner symbol

We've had the car three months and put 3000 trouble free miles on it. Until now.

Our drive is on a hill and I sometimes coast back down and sometimes put it in R.

Today I coasted back....set off in D.....and an orange car and spanner symbol appeared, and the D symbol flashed. This means a serious electronics failure. I stopped and keyed in and out and it cleared.

We've repeated it and it's done it again, but cleared when then lever was put in Park.

Is it a developing problem or does it just not like coasting backwards ?

I've coasted up to 11 mph in reverse and put the car into D, but nothing happened. There's no throttle response or regen until 5 MPH is reached. At that point, the car regens to 0 MPH, then powers forward with the creep feature. No warning lights or noises. The main thing to absolutely not do while moving is to shift into Park, as a mechanical lock is actuated by a cable attached to the shifter. This lock prevents the car from moving, and engaging Park while moving can cause some serious damage to the gearbox.

You might have older software on your car and it lights this light up to warn the driver of a mis-shift. What model year is your car?

I believe you are talking about the EV warning light, a yellow car with an exclamation (!) mark over it. This light doesn't necessary mean a failure, but usually just malfunctions and errors. For example, if 12 volt power is removed from the car (dead auxiliary battery for instance), this light comes on and requires a MUT-III programmer to clear it, which means a trip to the dealer for nearly all of us.

Yes that's the light...yellow car with exclamation mark.

It's a 2011 model that we bought with a 12 month manufacturers warranty in october from a main citroen dealer.....so we should have some help if it develops further.

The D symbol was flashing on the display too, but it still drove as normal.

How strange.

I think the car had not been used before we got it and the aux battery was low - we had some odd electrical behaviour such as the interior light not working - until we'd used and charged the car a bit and they all went away, but this is the first time the yellow car symbol has appeared.

Btw...we always hear a knocking sound soon after setting off from somewhere on the LHS of the car. I presume it's the ABS calibrating and I'm not overly concerned. ...bbut can anyone confirm what exactly it is ?

montybazbaz said:

Btw...we always hear a knocking sound soon after setting off from somewhere on the LHS of the car. I presume it's the ABS calibrating and I'm not overly concerned. ...bbut can anyone confirm what exactly it is ?

Click to expand...

On my car (2012 US model), my ABS makes a sound at 8 MPH, kind of like a spring release (I'm guessing the valves pulse test), and around 13 MPH I can hear the pump do a check, three knocks in quick succession. The pump check has been louder since the temperature has been 2° F.

Since you have a 2011, I would think it's just a warning to the driver for bad behavior ("Hey, You. Don't do that. I don't like it." :lol: ), especially since it clears when putting into Park. There seems to be a decent portion of "debugging" code in the cars, such as the EV warning light for a depleted 12 volt battery, ASC lights if a brake light burns out or the center lamps changed for LED, and the RBS, EV Warning, ASC, and ASC off lights for CAN bus noise (Opening Torque or OBDLink apps with a dongle attached). Twice my OVMS module crashed and the car rebooted while underway :? . Funny thing was that I still had motive power as if nothing was wrong, but the dash reset and READY dinged as if the car was started. Unfortunately, it happened so quickly, I couldn't record it.

They seemed to have overhauled the i-MiEV for 2012 (probably due to the NA introduction), and removed some of the debugging code, such as your issue with the lights on the dash. Our newer cars don't do that.

montybazbaz said:

Btw...we always hear a knocking sound soon after setting off from somewhere on the LHS of the car. I presume it's the ABS calibrating and I'm not overly concerned. ...bbut can anyone confirm what exactly it is ?

Click to expand...

I get a knocking too shortly after I set off - don't worry about it, it's normal on these things.

Mine is a 2012 and I notice a clunk from the front every mornining when I start off. Sounds like a stuck brake. But it is only first thing when start backing out.
I think it is normal but will ask the dealer next month when I take it in for the annual service.