Le pluriel

[autopaul]

Right, I figured I'd do a little write up on the £250 c3 pluriel I purr chased on Wednesday via marshal.

Gotta say, Paul at the tower citroen was a gent.  

Anyway after a 12 hour night shift and a school run, I bundled the copilot into the car and made our was 20 miles to pic of the french soft top, pick up, folding roofed beast.

Quickly handed over some pound notes and taxed it ready for the  off. Paul had already told me the nsf spring has snapped in half. Mainly boring drive due to the radio not working, and me not wanting to press to many switches incase of breaking something.

Along with the snapped spring, the nsf rumbles if cock off. Not checked this yet but I can only assume the wheel bearing.

I'll be swapping the strut and knuckle over the weekend if I get time/space. See above photo on the space situation.

So far on the to do list

Nsf shock, spring, top mount and knuckle/bearing

Radio doesn't work

Central locking doesn't work

Roof opens about a foot before making some rather crunchy coggy noises.

Both rear lights lenses have fucked off somewhere. I did find 1 in the car in 2 bits.

3 different style wheel trims

Boot struts are rather tired

Luckily it has cambelts history, hurrah. Done 25k ago in 2016. So not due for another year.

A couple of quick pics after it had a bath

 

So priorities are the nsf issues then the lack of being able to lock the thing, which I suspect may be linked to the radio fault.

[Matty]

I do like these and I'm not ashamed 😄

[autopaul]

Central locking fixed, but...

Boot now doesn't open 

Radio still doesn't work

Gotta love french cars. But as suspected the radio wiring is the issue for all the above.

[chadders]

Gummi Pflege works wonders on the seals to keep it waterproof.

[barefoot]

At the risk of being called a pendant, I think that 'Le pluriel' should be 'les pluriel'.

I hope this helps.

[autopaul]

3 minutes ago, barefoot said:

At the risk of being called a pendant, I think that 'Le pluriel' should be 'les pluriel'.

I hope this helps.

It could very well be Les and not le. I have no idea. I missed all my french lessons in primary school, as it was a Friday morning and I had the prestigious task of being "milk monitor" so had to collect the empties rather than learning.

My main source of french learning came from watching the lady marmalade music video on the early naughties.

[High Jetter]

11 hours ago, autopaul said:

the nsf rumbles if cock off.

I'd do more than rumble if mine was off! 🤣 

(I guess you mean lock) Looks good, anyway.

[Erebus]

11 hours ago, autopaul said:

 

Digi dash FTW!

Are these the ones with the removable buttresses?

 

[richardmorris]

6 minutes ago, Erebus said:

Digi dash FTW!

Are these the ones with the removable buttresses?

 

Yes, that you annoyingly can't store in the car.

[lesapandre]

4 hours ago, barefoot said:

At the risk of being called a pendant, I think that 'Le pluriel' should be 'les pluriel'.

I hope this helps.

Le Pleurel is perfectly acceptable franglais.

Like le weekend.

But.

Voiture is feminine 'la' - so the equivalent of saying in English 'the Pluriel' would be La Pluriel as it would agree with the noun.

So it's La Pluriel. 😂

Pluriel is a clever French pun - because it is multi-use  = 'pluriel' and also it riffs on rain - it being a soft top car - it rains = 'il pleut'.

Citroen love these puns - DS  pronounced 'déesse'  = goddess - again the car is feminine - 'la déesse'.

So...Le Pluriel is fine franglais but La Pluriel for the brand is better.

So you are driving a Bardot not an Aznavour. 😂

[lesapandre]

3 hours ago, autopaul said:

It could very well be Les and not le. I have no idea. I missed all my french lessons in primary school, as it was a Friday morning and I had the prestigious task of being "milk monitor" so had to collect the empties rather than learning.

My main source of french learning came from watching the lady marmalade music video on the early naughties.

Our French teacher used to smoke in class 😂

[autopaul]

27 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Yes, that you annoyingly can't store in the car.

That's the one.  I do want to try and get the roof off it this weekend, to see it in all it's topless beauty.  Just worries me that it won't go back on and close 🫣

[lesapandre]

Topless Bardot 😅

Great car by the way. They make quite big money in France.

[autopaul]

2 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Topless Bardot 😅

Great car by the way. They make quite big money in France.

Apparently here it's just the rear lights that fetch big money....

[BorniteIdentity]

Oooh! I did wonder if these were firmly filed under “too shit for autoshite” along with the venerable and terrible PT cruiser. It’s nice, weirdly, to see one!

Enjoy!

[Matty]

7 hours ago, barefoot said:

At the risk of being called a pendant, I think that 'Le pluriel' should be 'les pluriel'.

I hope this helps.

Wait till he tells you that he's given it a name @barefoot. You'll be fucking raging 🤣

[mk2_craig]

6 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Le Pluriel is fine franglais but La Pluriel for the brand is better

Wouldn’t that make it La Plurielle? 

Top shiting by the way, OP,  my wife was briefly tempted by an orange one of these until she became convinced that it was impossible to find any that featured dry carpets. 

[Bear]

7 hours ago, Erebus said:

Digi dash FTW!

Are these the ones with the removable buttresses?

 

They're cant rails.

As in, you can't bring 'em with you and you can't put the roof up if you get caught in the rain.

[lesapandre]

7 minutes ago, mk2_craig said:

Wouldn’t that make it La Plurielle? 

Top shiting by the way, OP,  my wife was briefly tempted by an orange one of these until she became convinced that it was impossible to find any that featured dry carpets. 

 

[IronStar]

3 hours ago, autopaul said:

Apparently here it's just the rear lights that fetch big money....

Wow, there’s something more expensive than 307CC tail lights!

[autopaul]

Here's the clunky clunky.

 

Easy enough to get off, the odd nut gave up a bit of a fight.

Feeling smug with the £30 full leg

 

Until I went to fit it and the top mount is slightly different!

Figured while I have to order a new top mount I may as well swap the ball joint

 

While I'm waiting on those turning up I'll get the wire brushes out in preparation of spraying black gooey shit all over the underside.

But 1st a pint or 2 of Stella me thinks

[Bear]

16 hours ago, autopaul said:

preparation of spraying black gooey shit all over the underside.

But 1st a pint or 2 of Stella me thinks

 

Usually that's Guinness

[autopaul]

On 18/05/2025 at 08:15, Bear said:

Usually that's Guinness

Reminds me of my college days, in college for registration, then straight to town for 9am for pre opening drinks at the local heroes, followed by a mooch on down to slug n fiddle, Yates, golden fleece, the sun, back up to Gardner's, county hotel then back to the heros.

 

Anyway as you said the spring was a ball ache to change, hence me buying the leg. But the top mount was slightly different. 

All fitted now though, along with the ball joint. Noticed a bit of oil from driveshaft, so whipped that out and swapped the seal. Suspect it was from a previous repair though.

It's all back together and sitting right. Just needs a drop link and should be ready for the  MOT hopefully.

[autopaul]

Drop link swapped, boot latch stopped working, as the roof doesn't know where it is, so I've wanted a relay in there to bypass that for now.

It's pissing id down, the roof does leak, as expected, right on to the drivers seat.

Gonna Wang it in for a MOT and see where we stand. Hopefully it ain't too bad. The tyres are nearly shot though.

[Marshall2810]

19 minutes ago, autopaul said:

Drop link swapped, boot latch stopped working, as the roof doesn't know where it is, so I've wanted a relay in there to bypass that for now.

It's pissing id down, the roof does leak, as expected, right on to the drivers seat.

Gonna Wang it in for a MOT and see where we stand. Hopefully it ain't too bad. The tyres are nearly shot though.

Just seen this tread and really pleased to see your well on the case getting this c3 back on the road. Great work

[autopaul]

Cheers mate, it's not a bad thing for 20 years old.  Got the remote locking working again. Still no radio but I think that's the only electrical gremlin left to sort.

I do fear the oil cooler is leaking, but I'll get a coolant flush done at the weekend and investigate that as long as the MOT doesn't kill it off 

I'll get it in for MOT in the next couple of hours and see what it's like.

[autopaul]

 

Well it passed, not with flying colours (12 advisories) but a pass is a pass.

 

[grogee]

On 16/05/2025 at 11:58, lesapandre said:

Our French teacher used to smoke in class 😂

Ours might as well have. There was a permanent cloud of Gauloise fog following her around. 

Well done on the improvements l' @autopaul, fine work and you've eked out some more life from the old pram. Don't get sunburn. 

[Bear]

12 advisories is like, one a month to deal with during the year

[autopaul]

4 hours ago, Bear said:

12 advisories is like, one a month to deal with during the year

Well 4 of them are tyres, .  Looking for some wheels so those 4 will be sorted quickly. 2 are Headlights need polishing again a quick easy fix, so that should give me 6 months without having to sort any other out 🤣