thanks, good turn of phrase that
do you know if the petrol station add blue has the anticrystallisation additive in too?
Hi David
What you described is probably Eolys Fluid (oil). On some models, the container is located in under the floorpan.
This is a different system to Adblue.
Citroen used iron certain models.
It’s a service requirement every 15000 km, as the container is empty around that period.
Hope this helps.
Well if what you say is true it is way overdue, I have travelled many times over 15,000 kms since that time. Unless of course the garage who serviced it on time each time did it as a matter of course without telling me. 
UPDATE.
Took the van back to the garage I bought it from yesterday. He had agreed to check out the error codes etc first before me simply dumping it there and heading off in the courtesy car.
It wasn’t a simple fix as indicated by the flashing symbols and beeps, but most likely an ADBlue injector. I think they are changing the reservoir because I think the injector lives in there. I’m not sure why if this was done less than a month ago it needs doing again, and of course now i won’t know if there was a new reservoir there in the first place. What looked like the reservoir was the cleanest thing under the van implying it was new.
So what i’d like to know is legally can I ask for the guarantee for this new part? I’m not sure how guarantees/warranties work in France with regards to car parts?
Thanks
Jon
The injector should be mounted somewhere on the exhaust - not that it couldn’t somehow be part of the reservoir assembly but looking at a few YT videos they seem separate.
Those YT videos make it very clear that they are prone to gunking up with urea crystals/soot.
Thanks. I never got round to finding out what gubbins are in the reservoir, the garage secretary said it was there. I mean, the reservoir is detailed at €800 on the service sheet. I’ve another van that broke the same week - easier though, leaking coolant system - i’ve booked that in now locally. I have no garage at home and working on cars outside in the winter is no fun.
They most likely don’t know the exact cause of the error codes yet so they fobbed me off with some vagueness. That’s fine and I understand that.
My question is whether i should get a warranty or guarantee for the new part that was replaced and if so, how does this work in relation to a overall 6 month warranty on the car from the garage?
thanks again
Simplest way is just to ask, but I would expect repairs like that to be guaranteed for at least a year.
1 Like
thanks Mark, but does anyone know if i legally have that right? It’s easy to brush a non French speaker off in the moment. I like to know these things in advance
I don’t know if this is allowed. News Archive: Garage Repairs and Disputes in France | French-Property.com
gah - nothing is simple here, i’ll have to sit down and read that a bit later. thanks for that link through David
it’s not simple because it’s not a yes or no when skim reading the article. as i said, i’ll look later. i’ve got so much on my plate at the moment.
I thank you for your link. from experience I i often find expat websites don’t always give factual or up to date answers. i’m certainly not taking not taking that advice alone. I’ll see if anyone has any actual experience of this.
I am only trying to help. Surely that answers your question.
<moderator-mode>
Gentlemen - stop the sniping please.
@dustyjon please edit post to remove the “no pleasant” comment, thanks.
</moderator-mode>
I’m with @Stella.
This one has always smelled a little. The story of who the garage was selling it for didn’t feel right.
If I were you I’d do everything to revoke the sale. Some of what’s going on could be intended to use up days of a limited period you’ve got, to reject.
I would run, in person, to thr Répression des Fraudes and ask them how to go bout rejecting the vehicle and what are your rights. I’m sure it will involve delivering it back onto the seller’s premises accompanied by sending an LRAR rejecting it if you are within a period you can still reject it. Run. (Check opening hpurs and visitability if you can, first. But don’t delay)
This is not the vehicle for you. Either specifically because there’s something flaky about it the garage has participsted in offloading you with. Or because this finicky AdBlue system etc. always was bad news even before the recentish scandals. Btw supermarkets and some bricos sell much cheaper AdBlue equivalents.
I’m basing my guess about the vehicle on my own experience with Peugeot 207 diesel also wuth AdBlue system.
I think what’s wrong with it is it’s got a DPF that needs cleaning. This is an expensive job. Lots of people would be inclined to get rid of a vehicle shortly before due in many circumstances. The warnings on yours are following the pattern I had on my Peugeot. Until tje DPF was cleaned by my very friendly UK garage who helped me out on the price I was facing the same countdown as you.
There might also, or instead be other things wrong with the AdBlue system but my bet is as above. DPF is viewed, I suspect, as regular mainteance so tread carefully with the Repressiom des Fraudes and say you have lost confidence in the garage and you want to reject the vehicle immediately if atl posdible as the way it drives and excuses that don’t match up to how it was advertised have made you lose confidence in the dealer and you think there may be other issues with it that will apear too.
Now is not the time to say to RdF or anyome that your French is bad (they can think that but don’t say it) or you didn’t understand. Tthat doesn’t get traction in business dealings in France.
If you can, take a French speaking friend with you to the RdF but don’t let finding one cause any delay at all.
Even if other posters here are right and it’s a minor hiccup and I am wrong, and even uf you go on to have another 50,000 happy km in the vehicle without problems, this is what I think and my strong advice now and I’ll eat my words and be happy for you if I’m wrong.
As David M also said get a friend to help check all the sales documents front and back asap. Luckily written should override the spoken word and it might just possibbly turn out in your favour. Take docs to the RdF.
Now Run. And let us know what happens.
PS For some strange reason I think a professional seller has to give a 6 months guarantee on the vehicle unless it is more than x years old in which case it might be only 2-3 monhs. Which a private seller does not hav to give.
The info is somewhere on quechoisir.org and I’m working solely from memory. Don’t waste time loking it up now - just get yourself to the Répression des Fraudes and get a French-competent look at every word on front and back of the sales documents if you’v got time before you go.
1 Like
Well, i didn’t help myself with the ‘smell a rat’ bit. If i hadn’t asked all these questions beforehand, no-one would have thought anything was off. It’s quite feasible that the ADBlue system has a blocked injector, who knows how long it was standing for before i bought it? If it’s only a faulty ADBlue system and they replace it fully then all should be OK. When I get it back, i will book it in at a good mechanics or Peugeot in my local town and ask their opinion of the van - get them to give it a good once over. I have 2 years with the vice cache option, and 6 months with their warranty.
At the moment it has €800 worth of good all terrain tyres on, i bought then the other week. I’m not going to leave the car with those on at their garage. I have another vehicle, which annoyingly needs a repair and won’t be fixed till the 16th December. After that, if the new van is deemed a lemon, or fails again, I can go through the car return process. Remember it’s only been 3 ish weeks since i got it.
Nothing about the people at the garage really gets me suspicious, they are seem pretty warm and friendly. I have my French lesson next week, I’ll make the subject matter my car sale, I’m sure the proff won’t mind, her husband deals with import and export of cars.
I’m trying to stay positive, and really don’t want to go down ‘paranoid’ rabbit holes. I’m hoping that the worst that can happen is it needs a new ADBlue system and the rest of the van is fine.
I really do appreciate your concern though Karen
1 Like
Yes good luck and I’ll be happy to eat my words if this vehicle is not trouble and if DPF is also not the issue.
So long as you’re haopy to lose any rights you might still have to reject the vehicle entirely. Rather than have repairs provided under a guarantee that has an end date whereas a succession of problems might not.
I wil never have a vehicle needing AdBlue again though.
I knew of some ADBlue system issues with cars, specifically Citroen. Someone warned me beforehand, so I can’t claim to be ignorant of this. But looking on the roads, there are 1000’s and 1000’s of ADBlue vehicles driving around, they can’t all be constantly breaking down. If they do, surely we ADBlue victims should block the motorways, block the ports, block the borders and protest like the farmers. I’m joking of course, but I can’t imagine millions of French people allowing this to happen without a fuss. I’m hoping that if this becomes a major Euro-wide issue, something will have to be done. Since ADBlue is not integral to the car, and was added on after the design, maybe manufacturers could be forced to find a new system that doesn’t fleece the customers or make a ‘patch’ to negate the countdown to doom. Or even remove the system altogether and drop the car one place down on emmission categories. I talked to a local garage and they told me that everyone he has dealt with concerning ADBlue around the mountains here has had the system disabled, he winked and said ‘€300 especes’. Now i don’t want to go down that route really.
It’s a pretty bad time to buy cars at the moment. Electric is being forced through and in many countries the infrastructure isn’t really in place. batteries take too long to charge up, there are expensive issues etc. Diesel could be banned, you never know, petrol too. But governments will lose there valuable taxing from that and would find it hard to replace.
I cannot park anywhere near my house in my tiny village, most people here can’t. I’m not sure how i could possibly keep an electric car charged up.
Old cars break down more, in my area people have really old van and cars and we have alot of mechanics for the amount of people and they generally have a 2-3 week wait for repairs, so I have had two cars here for 4 of my 6 years in France.
I joked with my neighbour, who has a truck and a van both with EGR (more emissions technology) issues at the same time both quoted to cost him €1000 a piece, that i was going to buy a couple of donkeys and a chariot. He laughed back and said ’ donkeys have emissions too you know’ 
1 Like