Xantia HDi - Dipstick has developed a mind of it's own

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deeb174
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Xantia HDi - Dipstick has developed a mind of it's own

Post by deeb174 »

I've recently acquired a nicely worn-in HDi, which has been in our family since January, and so far has been faultess considering it's high mileage.

I have regularly checked the fluids over the past few months and it hasn't needed anything topping up, I assumed it was safe to say it didn't use any oil, which seems to be in accordance with other people's experience of these engines, and the previous owner (although adding a few parking scrapes), kept the car to a tight service schedule at an independant specialist.

However when checking the oil recently I noticed the dipstick had popped itself out by an inch or so, and also that the oil level had lowered about half way between min+max.

I can't find any signs of oil on the road where i park, and the level doesn't seem to have gone down further after a series of shortish journeys, however the dipstick has again popped up out of it's tube, which seems worrying as it is fairly stiff to pull out....

Is there any obvious reason for the dipstick being pushed out, as if it's under pressure? Could the oil loss be related to the stick not having a seal on it's tube?
99 Xantia HDi LX - 192,000 miles
jeremy
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Post by jeremy »

Sounds as though the crankcase is pressurising - a rather old fashioned problem for a very modern engine!


Being someone accustomed to running cars that are near their crushing date my instincts are to say doom! - broken piston rings!

However you may be lucky - and it might be a blockage in the crankcase breather system - in which case take it all apart and make sure all the pipes are clear. The breather system will come from somewhere on the crankcase - on an XUD its on the back of the oil filler and another pipe comes from the valve cover on the top of the engine and it goes via an oil separator to the air filter.

Pressurisation is usually accompanied by an engine that leaks oil everywhere - and when you remove the oil filler with the engine running and hot you will have to run away to avoid choking. A few fumes are normal.
jeremy
wheeler
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Post by wheeler »

are all 4 rubber mountings on the engine cover in tact ? if they are sheared it vibrates & pops the dipstick out & can also pull off the oil cap so be careful. remove the engine cover & i bet it doesent happen. the mounts cost pennies from citroen.
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reblack68
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Post by reblack68 »

The true mileage on my HDi is close to the 183k of yours and it's displaying virtually no signs of wear, so the cover mount theory seems likely.

If you can't easily get to a dealer there are people selling genuine cover clips and mounts on eBay.

http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search. ... mit=Search
Richard

No French cars of my own at present.
Care of a 1994 205 D.
deeb174
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Post by deeb174 »

I actually came accross the engine cover mount theory on another site after a bit of googleage yesterday, I knew there had only ever been 2 mounts remaining, one of which i disturbed when i last removed the oil filler, and wasn't sure it was back on securely, and even before that, I had noted the cover vibrating when I had it running with the bonnet up.

Anyway I removed the cover prior to a 50 mile journey last night, noting the dipstick came straight out as I knocked it when removing it...

Thankfully, it seems you guys/the theory is correct, after i arrived, lifted the bonnet, dipstick firmly in place, and even better/more bizarre, when checking the oil level this morning, it appears to be back up to the maximum mark! (Don't quite understand that but still, more happy that it is indeed not using any oil!)

So thanks for the advice guys, seems the old barge will continue on racking up the miles!

On another note, I recently bought a couple of sump plug washers which according to GSF are HDi specific, but looking at the sump plug before I take it off for the due oil change, it seems the inside diameter of the supplied washer (10mm) could be a little narrow? (the sump plug has a hex type inner slot which seems barely 1mm narrower than the inside diameter of the sump washer? Anyone had experience of this?
99 Xantia HDi LX - 192,000 miles
jeremy
Posts: 3959
Joined: 20 Oct 2002, 16:00
Location: Hampshire, UK
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x 2

Post by jeremy »

If your HDi engine is the same as an XUD the dipstick is in the middle of the bonnet - ie right at the clutch end of the engine. This means that if you park it at the kerb of a cambered road in UK it will read high. The difference is quite significant - and so really you should not let the level drop below about 1/2 way between the marks unless you are checking it on level ground.
jeremy
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