I was talking to a neighbour today and she had a citroen car that 'juddered'. After loads of fannying about with it, she was told that the 'judder' was a characteristic of the engine and that there was nowt wrong with it.
Hi Tosh,
I was just going to say something similar.
We have a 110hp Citroen Xsara Desire as our family car and that judders at low speed. My son has the 110 LX as did my nephew and they all did the same thing. The 90hp engine was very smooth to drive though.
When I worked for Citroen years back, the 110hp engines were quick but the 90hp engines, albeit slower in acceleration, where nicer to drive.
Never did get an explanation as to why the difference was. The 110 was an intercooled engine (the 90 wasn't), but that in itself doesn't give 20hp. It is probably more to do with the ecu engine management electronic programming, turbo boost and/or slightly higher gear ratios.
We have a rule when driving this car, 20mph = 2nd, 30 mph = 3rd, 40mph = 4th and above 50mph = 5th.
My 90hp Citroen Relay Hdi van's engine is very smooth.
I also had experience with a 1.9 diesel Vectra and my feelings were that the gear ratios where all wrong for the engine's power curve (although I am sure Vauxhall know more about this than I do), so this could be a similar thing. I would try to use a lower gear than the one you use now at the speed when you experience the judder.
When I drive the Xsara I'm also inclined to kick the car into neutral and coast, usually when come to a set of traffic lights.
Spruce