806D with new cylinder head+ECU now with lots of black smoke

[mgoodlad]

Car is a 1998 Peugeot 806 1.9 SLDT with 110,000 miles. The car in the last few days has been losing power and there is quite a lot of black smoke coming out the exhaust.

There is a history, in that a lot of work has been done on the car during last year – (some of it detailed in my previous posts) – to summarise - it has had a new (not reconditioned) cylinder head, timing belt and all the bits that goes with that and exhaust (£1600), and also a new ECU and throttle potentiometer and couple of sensors (£1000).

I had a dispute with the garage who did the cylinder head as the car did not run correctly afterwards, and another garage diagnosed the failed ECU. But after all the work was done the car’s cold starting continued to be poor – quite a lot of smoke- more a white/grey colour, and this has continued to date. But once it has warmed up it was fine.

It had a pressure test by the first garage which seemed okay - the second garage still wondered if it could be a slightly worn cylinder which sealed after warming up, but it started perfectly before the work started. They checked the resistance on the glow plugs and they seemed fine. You can see air bubbles in the clear pipe to the injection pump on start up, so I was thinking it could be air being sucked into the system overnight. I had spent enough money on the car so had left it.

However this seems to be a new problem, I have just done the school run this morning – about 4 miles in total. Going up hills I can see the smoke in the rear view mirror, and power is down. I parked the car in the drive when I got back and revved it up – a big plume of very black smoke appeared and it made a black mark on the drive behind the exhaust – so looks to me like a fuelling problem?

I was intending to change the fuel filter anyway, and clean out the air filter – (a K&N) – anything else I can check or do, or is it destined to go into the garage again??

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks
Michael

1998 806 1.9 SLDT 110,000 miles
1996 106 1.5d 136,000 miles

[mgoodlad]

I changed the fuel filter last night - it was about 30,000 miles since the last one so a bit overdue, it was a bit black looking but not too bad. I also took out the K&N filter and gave it a good shake and turned it round, again it didn't look bad and they are meant to last for ages before they need a proper clean.

But it doesn't seem to have made any difference at all.

I am starting to think is this the turbo charger coming to the end of its life?

Michael

[AndersDK]

Hi Michael -

1) the coldstart problems witk grey/whit4e snoke is because of air leaks in thew fuel lines. No doubt on that - at all. PERIOD. Dont try to talk away this fact as there is no other sensible explanation.

2) the black smoke is an overfuelled condition. The engine gets too much fuel in relation to air - or has restrictions in the air intake. First call would be the engine air intake filter.
If the problem arised very suddenly - then suspect a blocked exhaust by any debries internally in the damper boxes. A quite common problem.

3) if you suspect the turbo - then unclip the airduct coming from turbo into the engine intake. Its very easy to feel if any air is blown up from the turbo, as thil will feel like a hairdryer.
Also the faint turbo whine should clearly be heard this way.
The turbo is not a wear part in common sense. It will happily outlast at least 200K miles - even more. They are VERY reliable.

This time - will you please find an independent reputated diesel specialist garage ?
As I think you have spent enough meals at the other garages you have already tested out