2014 Citroen C1 23k miles. Goes out of drive in neutral by its self, normal?

[nope09191]

Hi everyone,

I recently got my first car, a semi-automatic citroen c1. I've had two incidents where the car has come out of drive and I dont understand why

The first instance was when I was at a long set of lights on an even road so I put the handbrake on, kept the car in drive and then took my foot off the brake. When the light changed I took the hand brake off and the car naturally rolled forward slightly, as I put my foot on the accelerator I realised the car wasnt in gear. I recovered quickly and thought that I subconsciously put the car in neutral.

Today was the second instance of the car going into neutral. I was stopped at lights on a hill so put on my handbrake and left the car in drive again. When the lights were changing I took the handbrake off a bit prematurely so the car rolled slightly and I pressed the accelerator and realised that the car was in neutral without my input.

I learnt in an automatic hybrid so many aspects of driving is already different so now I'm feeling quite anxious about driving. Can someone please explain if this is normal and/or why this happens? I have left the car in drive with the handbrake for other hill starts and have not had an issue so I am really confused.

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[voyager]

hello nope09191 :-)

what happened in the first instance (and possibly the second instance) is communicated by your clue that the traffic lights were of a long duration.

the car goes from Drive to Neutral, without communicating this to the driver.

this is to protect the clutch, which would otherwise be held open (de-clutched) for a long period, straining the springs that are trying to bring the clutch plates together.

if you can anticipate a long traffic light, put in to neutral, and then get ready to engage Drive (at the appropriate time), just as you would in a manual car :-)

the car has a regular manual gearbox, it's just that there is no physical clutch pedal (there is a clutch, it is controlled by the car, which tries to anticipate when to clutch and de-clutch).

if i am confusing you, just let me know :-)