Injector Seals Leaking?

[Nathan Bailey]

I have had a problem with my BXE engine for a couple of months now with the following problems;

Takes a while to start hot or cold
Blows A LOT of white smoke out of the exhaust (Smells like unburnt diesel)
Engine Lumpy when it eventually starts
Engine cuts out randomly whilst driving
Loss of power

I have changed the coolant temperature sensor as advised before in a thread but no luck there, the car sounds like it is only running on 3 cylinders.

Could this just be the injector seals leaking or could this be something more fatal? I have a feeling the problem is something to do with the injectors.

Can someone please help me, thanks in advance

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Here is a video of the start up problem.

 

[phil miller]

Camshaft sensor, a code read will prob should Camshaft sensor implausible signal, could even be the belt timing is out, disconnect the cam sensor and see if it starts quicker, if it does fit a genuine sensor and it will be bang on again

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Camshaft sensor, a code read will prob should Camshaft sensor implausible signal, could even be the belt timing is out, disconnect the cam sensor and see if it starts quicker, if it does fit a genuine sensor and it will be bang on again

Hi thanks for the reply!

I dont have any codes and the engine seems to be running on only 3 cylinders, I will still try disconnecting the sensor and see if that cures it.

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Tried unplugging the camshaft sensor and there is no difference, I am going tomorrow to get VCDS plugged in to see if they can find anything wrong with the injectors, if there is a problem does anyone know if you can refurbish PD injectors and how to set them up when refitting?
Thanks in advance

 

[hollows wife]

check the fuel filter housing more than likely if the seals are leaking there will be oil in the diesel you will know as the fuel will be black in colour

 

[Nathan Bailey]

No oil in the fuel filter.
Took it to a garage to get them to plug it into the computer to test the injectors, they said the 2nd and 3rd injectors need replacing so I will do that and update the thread.

 

[Nathan Bailey]

replaced the 2 injectors that where faulty and it started up fine straight away everytime! drove it 20 miles then i noticed a tapping noise and it got louder when the revs went up, a fault code appeared (P0203 Injector Circuit Malfunction - Cylinder 3). I then tried to drive it down the road and the engine just completed turned off and it now wont start at all.

Could anyone please help me or have any idea what could be causing this??

 

[hollows wife]

probably not tightened the injector down correctly on cylinder 3,hopefully it isnt that but seen it done and it ovalled out the bore for the injector causing head replacement as well

 

[Nathan Bailey]

The third injector didn't have the correct bolt in like so i had to try my best to tighten it, hopefully it hasn't done too much damage as i only traveled 10 miles

 

[hollows wife]

hopefully not and where is the correct bolt or did they snap it ? would have replaced the bolts anyway it is advised

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Im not sure I think someone done a quick repair on it before I bought it as I got it for quite a bargain, will replace the bolts tomorrow and check electrical connections to the injectors and see if that solves the issue.

If not do you think the fuel pump (tandem pump) could be on its way out? Hence the tapping noise?

 

[hollows wife]

it was probably the injector bouncing up and down in its port that was causing the knock that combined with diesel knock and it probably sounded like an 80's transit van . when hpfp usually goes you just struggle to start car then it gets worse to point of non running or sheared tabs on the hpfp where it mates up with the cam .

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Yep it was the dodgy bolt that had been put in before, took the rocker cover off and it was pretty much fully unscrewed from the injector clamp.

Looked everywhere for a new bolt and a new clamp as the old one had been damaged from the injector bouncing up and down in the port, tightened everything up started it and it was fine! But because of the injector bouncing up and down it caused fuel to go into the oil so I had to drive it up the road to my house to change the oil managed to get parked up okay then went back into my car to move it started it up then all of this white smoke came out of the exhaust and now it wont start at all.

The oil has leaked from somewhere but I cant pin point exactly where, I think it has just been too full and overflowed from the dipstick pipe but now it doesnt even attempt to turn over.

I have drained the oil and put some fresh oil in.

Please help thanks in advance.

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Also no fault codes are coming up.

 

[hollows wife]

when you say doesn't even attempt to turn over do you mean as in the engine doesn't crank over at all .

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Yep doesnt crank over at all, if I hold the key sometimes it seems asif the engine tries to rotate just half a turn./

I have just tried to bump it off there got it running and that loud tapping noise was back and the revs stuck on with A LOT of white smoke (It filled the street) so I am thinking maybe the thread in the cylinder head has stripped as the non genuine bolt which was used before had stripped, but the new bolt went in fine, causing the injector to be loose again.

Any ideas?

 

[hollows wife]

sounds like oil in the cylinder your lucky then engine didnt blow . never heard of diesel run on ? where too much oil gets sucked back through the inlet and then engine runs on its own oil ? usually a turbo problem that causes it when the turbo collapses you get the same symptoms .
i would be pulling injector no 3 out . looking into the bore and checking for scoring etc as it sounds like the engine oil is seeping down the side of the injector into the bore and locking the engine . it will bend a rod if it cant compress the oil .

sounds like the injector has damaged the bore or the mating surface where the injector brass sealing washer is .i would be checking the injector seals on that one in particular.
when you take the rocker cover off again see if you notice around the injectors the there is no oil . i.e area around sucked clean of oil . if it is its pulling oil down the bore .

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Funny you should say that as it does have a turbo problem which happened just before the injector problem started, it goes into a limp mode and comes up with a fault code saying turbocharger over boost condition. Could this of caused my injector failure?

 

[hollows wife]

no not related but you might now have a turbo problem as well , i would make sure the turbo is ok ,could have snapped the shaft .

 

[Nathan Bailey]

So today ive been working on my car all day, I found where the oil leak has came from, it has came up from the turbo and into the air filter housing and all over the air filter. Also the injector seals had split and came off, this must of been from the loose clamp before causing it to jump in and out of the cylinder head, my own fault really I should of checked the seals where okay.

I replaced the seals on this injector.


Next I cleaned out the air filter housing which had filled with oil.

This air filter had only been put in 4 weeks ago!

I then cleaned all of the pipes from the turbo and the intercooler as these had some oil in them, put everything back together put fresh oil in and tried to start it but still nothing at all.

I took all the glow plugs out and turned the engine over by the camshaft pulley to see if any fluid came out but nothing, I also decided to check the fuel filter housing and that was pretty much empty so I have filled that up.

I cant think of anything else which can be causing the non start issue, the turbo can spin freely with my finger, should I try bump the car off and see if that works?

Thanks in advance

 

[hollows wife]

turbo is dead by the look of it its sucked the oil out of the sump . check the oil level .
few things can stop it starting .check the wiring for the injectors .either the wiring or a now dead injector will stop it running .
did you reset the injector stop screw as well as there's a specific clearance needed on them

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Managed to get it bump started down a hill and it ran stop on I didnt even relise I bumped it off the engine was quiet! There was SOOOO much smoke I drove it down the bypass and back to my house and there was just a trail of smoke filling the streets.

I think I have burnt the starter motor out trying to start it as it started to turn the engine very very slowly then stopped and now nothing at all, it runs fine once bumped off tho!

Tomorrow I am going to fit a new starter motor and hopefully that will cure it! Will keep posted

 

[hollows wife]

so if turbo is ok how much oil is in the engine ? have you checked the level yet ?
should clear up after a good drive if it was oil bypassing the injector seal . be careful though if it is the turbo .
exhaust will be soaked in oil

 

[Nathan Bailey]

Yeah the level is fine now after the drive, smoked a lot from everything in the turbo and what not but you can still hear the turbo spooling up.
What do you think about it not starting? am I correct in saying its the starter motor?

 

[hollows wife]

if the starter isnt turning over you could have fried it . had a seat leon with same problem but it was more hit and miss , stripped starter and cleaned all old grease and crap out of it ,re-assembled it with new grease and was spot on .
check see if there's power to the soleniod wire on the starter when ignition is on starter position , if you have a 12v feed to there then i would assume bad starter or if your lucky a bad connection on the 12v feed from the battery to the main starter wire .

 

[Nathan Bailey]

I tested the starter by putting a direct feed from the battery to the starter and there wasnt anything there at all completely dead.
Managed to get a second hand one from a local scrapyard for £30 so I fitted it and it started straight away!

 

[hollows wife]

great result in the end ,next time i think you might as well do the job yourself