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1.9 TD all mechanical (no sensors)..
Now it seems to have trouble starting from cold. Cranks for ages, sputters once or twice, loads of white unburned fuel.. Now when it finally starts it seems to run fine with a very slight wobble on idle but it drives fine. Apart from the oil smoke.... Also starts instantly when hot.
Could the rings have worn SO much after being driven 20 miles on oil that was possibly very low (not by me) that the compression is now completely shot?
Not the glow plugs then?
Glow Plugs.
Does the wobble on idle clear up after a few minutes? If so, its probably not firing on that cylinder until it warms up.
Have I missed an ealier post about running out of oil though?
I thought unburnt fuel was black. Do a compression check if you think the compressions are down, check the glowplugs older psa engines had problems with them burning away and dropping compression. How does it go when running? if the compressions are well down then surely the power would be down too. If the smoke is white is it not coolant. I don't think low oil level would cause ring wear straight away and was the oil light on? The bottom end would get damaged first.
Another idea would be to pump the primer before you start the car when cold to make sure you have fuel available, those hand pumps can fail and let air into the fuel, this causes bad starting.
sounds just like a prob i had on my diesel espace.turned out to be diesel pump letting in air and weaping out diesel when standing.once it was full of fuel and running it was fine.starting after a long stand still was a sod.
unburnt fuel is white ( as my neighbours found out last time I changed the fuel filter - when the engine finally caught they disappeared in a big white cloud :# )
Had similar problem (with a petrol car), and as odannyboy says, turned out to be air leaking into the fuel line (probably at the lift pump). It would have to be cranked for ages when cold and left to idle until the revs stopped hunting from 800-2000 rpm and then it would drive all day happy-as-larry and start easily from warm.
I've worked on the car tons and tons over the time I've had it, so I pretty much know the state of most of it. It was perfect until I lent it to a neigbour long term and he let it run pretty low on oil (although not enough to put the oil pressure light on). The turbo failed - maybe not related - and he had to drive it home spewing tons of smoke; the shaft had snapped and it was dumping loads of oil into the air intake. It may have run seriously low on oil at that point but he said he was topping it up as he drove - so I dunno.
Fuel lines have not been disturbed although I do remember seeing some bubbles in there... although it's normally driveable like that. It is a bit down on power but that could be just the new turbo - it's registering a mere 10psi of boost instead of the 14psi I had before.
Its worth checking fuel lines back to the tank and sender. Even a pinhole can draw enough air to compromise the starting. I've had seen it happen on my Discovery and Shogun. Its worth checking the o ring seal on the fuel filter too.
Seems strange that it'd suddenly go tho, when I am fixing something else.
9 times out of 10 its the glow plugs or fuel filter.
How much of the engine did you have to strip to get to the turbo? Are you [i]SURE[/i] you didn't touch any of the fuel system? Testing the glow plugs is easy, as is changing the fuel filter and at least checking all the jubilee (sp?) clips on the low pressure fuel line and a visual of the hoses while your there. <shrugs shoulders> It's a place to start at least? ...but I feel your pain </shrugs shoulders>
Turbo right on top, didn't touch any fuel lines. Like I say there were some bubbles in the line but to be honest it's run with more than that before. Glow plugs are also pretty new, and even when they weren't working properly the starting wasn't this bad.
I will check the fuel lines of course when get the chance 🙂 But I think it's something else.. I fear the compression. Checking compression will require the purchase of a tester and some new injector hard lines cos they're corroded on...
Like I say I've worked on pretty much everything on the car apart from the insides. It's not the fuel filter either since it was perfect before the incident.
Actually, come to think of it... It started fine when I moved it from outside the neighbour's house to outside mine... hmm..
Shouldn't be any air in the fuel lines, that would cause problems in the injection system as it wont be able to compress the fuel to the right pressure and cause late/poor opening of the injectors and therefore a rubbish injector spray pattern and poor fuel burn. would also explain why it spins over prior to starting as the injection system is trying to build enough pressure to open the injectors.
Hand primer/lift pump would be a good place to start, the problem is that the fuel system finds it easier to suck air rather than leak fuel which tends to make it a little harder to find.
White smoke could be a symptom of poor compression as the engine is not burning all the fuel the injection system is delivering. Would expect quite poor engine performance if there was a problem with compression though.
Hmm, how about I sit on the fence a little more??
If the turbo was gone and putting a lot of oil in to the engine while it was running I would check the compression first because oil is very dense and if there was enough in the bores while it was running the piston wouldn't be able to travel it's full stroke and it could have caused some damage. If all is ok with the compression take the injectors out and have them tested, if they are not working correctly the car will run like s**t and they will more than likely be causing your problems.
I know having the compression and injectors tested is expensive but until you know they are correct you could just be going around in circles making things worse. Trouble is with diesels when they go wrong they are expensive to fix. Been down the same road with older diesels myself and I won't buy another one just not worth it.
Just re-read the thread again, am I correct in saying that the problems have started not long after you replaced the turbo? You said that the turbo pressure was down from 14psi to 10psi, if thats the case the first place I would look is the turbo, sounds like you might have had a pipe come loose or it's leaking i.e. drawing in air somewhere. If the turbos ok then do the above.
Glow plugs are fine, fuel lines should not leak since they didn't a few days ago.. injectors are new and prob aren't the issue since it runs fine when it's got started. I'm thinking either oil in the engine has damaged it somehow (valves maybe) or it's just low enough on fuel that there's too much air in the system.
Did you prime the fuel system like I mentioned last time. It will at least rule out/confirm the lines arn't draining back. Peugoets/Citreons used to do this regularly as did izuzu's
I am presuming you have checked the battery? if the car has not been run in a while with the damn cold weater we have had over the past few months it could be done. Loads of places will check the battery voltage for free so it may be worth a free check up.
Hope it helps
Rusty
No fuel system priming pump. You just have to crank it.
Battery was fine, although it apparently ran down when my neighbour was trying to start it the other day when I wasn't there. I advised him to put more fuel in it, we'll see how that goes.
Fixed it...
The probem was that I'd unscrewed the idle screw too much, and it'd come out of its hole. What I didn't realise is that the idle screw is actually the linkage between the cold start handle and the injector pump.. so basically the cold start handle wasn't working. Car works perfectly now 🙂
Bugger just wasted 15 minutes reading this thread 😆