C5 HDi, exhaust puffing from injector

RustyUK · Post by **RustyUK** » 02 Nov 2008, 19:45

A slightly unusual fault, or seems so to me. My 2.2HDi C5 is puffing exhaust from somewhere around an injector. It's been this way for several hundred miles, I've only just had time to locate where it's coming from. By now there's crap all caked up around the injector.

http://foxhosts.co.uk/misc/exhaust_leak.jpg

It's been suggested this could be as simple as an injector seal - does anyone concur? It doesn't feel like it's down on compression, there's no fuel escaping either. Performance is as great as it always was - it just sounds like a steam engine and slowly suffocates me! Not sure when I can get into a garage, but dreading the news. I've got horrible visions of being told I have a cracked head

Anyone had this before?

marsalek · Post by **marsalek** » 02 Nov 2008, 20:30

Hi,
have heard about injector seals, that may cause this. Keep finger crossed when cleaning the injector saddle in the head.

Karel

nick · Post by **nick** » 02 Nov 2008, 20:36

Its very likely to be the injector seal yes.

wheeler · Post by **wheeler** » 02 Nov 2008, 21:43

sorry to be the bearer of potentially bad news but i reckon you will be lucky to get that injector out of the cylinder head without destroying at least the injector. Its a common problem on this engine & sometimes the only option is to take the head off, even then they may not budge.
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/in ... 226AAIhTy4

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 02 Nov 2008, 21:59

That is scary reading on your link Wheeler, is this problem specific to the 2.2 HDi or does the 2.0 suffer the same problem?

red_dwarfers · Post by **red_dwarfers** » 02 Nov 2008, 22:02

Just been reading your link wheeler....oh dear....I really don't know what to say

Do we know which other engines are like this?

nick · Post by **nick** » 02 Nov 2008, 22:05

From what I've heard it seems to be more of a problem on the 16 valve HDi's, like the 2.2

RustyUK · Post by **RustyUK** » 02 Nov 2008, 22:29

Well now I'm frightened, just when I thought things might be simple, thanks!

I can't believe this problem would be as wide-spread as suggested. I've never heard of it before while reading hundreds of posts, and after 7 years (age of my engine) surely it'd been fixed - yet the (rather new?) C8 suffers from it too? Strange.

If this ends up being true, then I'd be forced to join the moaning masses who belittle French cars, and never touch a Citroen or Peugeot ever again. I hope to hell this isn't the case... I can't see myself getting a replacement engine out of Citroen though after this time, even if it's a ridiculous design fault.

Post by **myglaren** » 02 Nov 2008, 22:36

I have had this problem on mine.

The mech that I use replaced the washer and fire seal on the injector at it's first service in my ownership, then replaced all of them at it's last one a couple of months ago.

First time some of the washers had been burned away completely and there were nuggets of what appeared to be coal but was in fact highly compressed unburned diesel and soot.

He seemed to think it was a fairly common problem and didn't report any problems in doing the replacements.

Car had done 114,000 at the first service, 123,000 at the last one.

RustyUK · Post by **RustyUK** » 02 Nov 2008, 22:43

I note yours is a 2.0... mine's the 2.2

Hopefully I'll get it in this week. I'm going to be mortified if what in principle is a simple, easily remedied problem in practice reduces my otherwise pristine engine to a lump of scrap

wheeler · Post by **wheeler** » 03 Nov 2008, 06:37

All the HDi engines can suffer from leaking injector seals including the 1.4 & 1.6 but the 2.2 injectors are more of a problem to remove from the head (even when the innjector seals are not leaking).
On the other engines they will usually come out with not too much trouble.

den169 · Post by **den169** » 03 Nov 2008, 19:21

Had one go on my c5 hdi 2.L cost about £2 for the set of washers took out the injector cleaned it up and its been fine since.It started with a noise a bit like a tapping.Next time i here it i'll know what it is.

RustyUK · Post by **RustyUK** » 04 Nov 2008, 14:15

Well, don't I have egg on my face. Apparently, that injector was simply a bit loose! It seemed firmly fixed to me, guess I should have tried harder.

Presumably there'd be no issue removing it then should the need arise. Maybe a method for removing stuck injectors, if that horror-story is true, is to loosen them only very slightly and run the engine for a while?

Oh well. I am happy, but wish I'd have double-checked that first!

KevMayer · Post by **KevMayer** » 05 Nov 2008, 20:49

It sounds like you're quite relieved to find it was just loose.

Did you have to remove much stuff to access the injector to tighten it ?

I wonder if it would be worth removing the injectors and fitting new seals and washers plus some thread lubricant to try to ensure that the sticking injector problem is kept at bay, on the basis that it appears to be a known problem within the trade.

I'm not sure what could be used as a lubricant. I'm not sure that Copper Slip would cope with the high temperatures in that area.

steelcityuk · Post by **steelcityuk** » 05 Nov 2008, 20:51

There's a website here of a company that sells all sorts of products for diesel servicing -

http://www.uniteddiesel.co.uk/united-diesel-shop.php

Also see this link for the removal of stuck injectors -

http://www.uniteddiesel.co.uk/tips_docs ... low-by.pdf

General tips and tricks here -

http://www.uniteddiesel.co.uk/tips-troubles.php

Terrifying is all I can say. And I say that as someone who's done the head on a 2.5 XM.

Steve.