car stalling at 3000rpm

candy · Post by **candy** » 27 Mar 2011, 19:29

ok guys bit of a prob with my car 1997 td xud.... put svo in last week did over 800 miles at weekend car ran fine .... b/f went shopping on wednesday evening car stalled on him twice it will start again but struggle ... managed to get it back home started it today idles fine but as soon as you rev it to 3000rpm the revs drop and it stalls.... checked filters they are as clean as a whistle ... there is some fuel around the 2 of the injectors so not sure whether blocked injectors not really got much time to look at it as very busy with work...any suggestions
thanks teresa

Post by **CitroJim** » 27 Mar 2011, 19:45

Hi Teresa,

That'll be fuel starvation for sure. Did you replace the fuel filter (rather than just check it) and check the tank strainer?

When running SVO for the first time, it will scour the tank of diesel varnish and this'll clog the filters badly and quite possibly invisibly on casual inspection. Flakes will cause reduced flow past the strainer.

I've also known the fuel return line back to the tank become blocked when running SVO. Blow down it with an air-line.

Also, the SVO may have cause air ingress around the filter housing and particularly the fuel thermostat (white thing on the side of the filter housing). Air ingress can give the same symptoms as starvation. If you have a translucent pipe between the filter and pump look for air bubbles in it as you rev and approach the speed at which the engine begins to falter...

Have a look at Rothegar's thread in a similar vein a few posts down... See what happened to his filter!!

P616VKX · Post by **P616VKX** » 27 Mar 2011, 23:40

This happened to my Mum's XUD 405 when using poorly conditioned diesel from the farm... Used to pull like a train, then die, usually backing off the pedal would allow it to calm down, but sometimes, you needed to turn the key off and on to get it going.

Using good condition diesel does the trick, a full tank of stupid price stuff and it was away.

candy · Post by **candy** » 28 Mar 2011, 07:02

CitroJim wrote:Hi Teresa,

That'll be fuel starvation for sure. Did you replace the fuel filter (rather than just check it) and check the tank strainer?

When running SVO for the first time, it will scour the tank of diesel varnish and this'll clog the filters badly and quite possibly invisibly on casual inspection. Flakes will cause reduced flow past the strainer.

I've also known the fuel return line back to the tank become blocked when running SVO. Blow down it with an air-line.

Also, the SVO may have cause air ingress around the filter housing and particularly the fuel thermostat (white thing on the side of the filter housing). Air ingress can give the same symptoms as starvation. If you have a translucent pipe between the filter and pump look for air bubbles in it as you rev and approach the speed at which the engine begins to falter...

Have a look at Rothegar's thread in a similar vein a few posts down... See what happened to his filter!!

hi Jim...
its not the 1st time we have ran it on SVO used it quite a bit last summer .. going to replace filter today to see if it makes any difference ... ive checked the strainer that was spotless 1st thing i did as suspected it may be starvation... ill check everything else and let you know how it goes... good job ive got my motorbike...

MikeT · Post by **MikeT** » 28 Mar 2011, 08:42

There's probably air getting in the fuel which can cause stalling, as you say there's fuel around 2 of the injectors - I would therefore check the leak off pipes. Nice cheap fix if that is the cause and worth doing anyway if it's not.

You say you checked filters, did that include the pickup strainer in the tank?

candy · Post by **candy** » 28 Mar 2011, 09:45

yes mike pick up strainer was 1st thing i checked ... just going to have a look around it whilst i have a few hrs spare

jgra1 · Post by **jgra1** » 28 Mar 2011, 09:57

Teresa a distant possibilty.. my TD now misreads the fuel guage so badly its laughable..

once upon a time I used to get a yellow low fuel light.. now the car runs empty when there is at least a 1/4 of a tank.. caught me out often.. symtpoms, car stalls and is hard to restart..

I cannot work out if the guage is correct but for some reason I am unable to use the last 10-15 Litres, or the gauge and it's sender have both become dodgy after years of WVO..

anyway, unlikely to be your problem but worth bearing in mind..

John

candy · Post by **candy** » 28 Mar 2011, 19:19

well ive replaced the fuel filter, given the strainer a clean even though it did not need it .... replaced the leak off pipes (they did need doing as they were hard) ... also primed the fuel system ....same as before takes a bit to start it...idles fine had it running for 30 mins..... upto 2000 rpm still runs fine.... get over 2k hesitates and revs drop and it stalls

Thermonuclear · Post by **Thermonuclear** » 29 Mar 2011, 00:40

A simple thing to try:-

Back off the fuel tank filler cap.

Had a blocked fuel tank vent on a 1.9TD Xant years ago which use to behave like yous. Use to leave the cap loose, worked a treat.

xmexclusive · Post by **xmexclusive** » 29 Mar 2011, 09:22

Citroen fuel pick up/senders can be miss fitted so the float catches and does not read below a quarter full. Can also be caused by distortion (bending upwards) of the two fuel tank base supports. The float has to be positioned to avoid the internal ribs in the tank. As with all good Citroen design virtually impossible to check as you reassemble.

John

candy · Post by **candy** » 29 Mar 2011, 12:06

well car is still the same we have put new jubilee clips on the pipes on fuel sender... no leaks.. bled system again by removing injector pipes (was a bit of air in there) replaced filter still the same beginning to think it might be fuel pump (hope not)

MikeT · Post by **MikeT** » 29 Mar 2011, 18:19

You can isolate the pump and filter housing by running the feed and return hoses to/from a can of diesel.

But are there air bubbles seen in the clear hose? A few tiny ones shouldn't affect the running noticeably but larger more frequent bubbles would need fixing.

candy · Post by **candy** » 01 Apr 2011, 12:21

MikeT wrote:You can isolate the pump and filter housing by running the feed and return hoses to/from a can of diesel.

But are there air bubbles seen in the clear hose? A few tiny ones shouldn't affect the running noticeably but larger more frequent bubbles would need fixing.

we have not got a clear hose on ours mike .. but we did what you suggested and isolated the pump today lots of air bubbles from the return pipe then after a few minutes was running fine no bubbles whatsoever had it up over 4k didn't stall at all......so connected it all back up and started to run like s**t again... (at least the pump is ok phew) looks like culprit is from primer bulb back to the tank.... Is there anyway to bypass the bulb to see if that is the culprit before going back any further?

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 01 Apr 2011, 13:09

Yes, pop to halfrauds etc and get a suitable size straight pipe union and fit that instead.
Make sure your jubilee clips are really tight.
The filter side of cassy's primer needed its clip replacing.

MikeT · Post by **MikeT** » 01 Apr 2011, 19:26

Excellent work!

I wonder if wrapping suspect joints with clingfilm might prove a useful diagnosis?

The primer is a prime suspect though (excuse the pun) and again is a cheap enough part worth replacing anyway. £5 on ebay I think.