My C3 1.4hdi 16V has become a smoker!

[C3Blue]

Hi. I am new to this, so please go gentle.

I have a C3 which the other day got me to work no problems at all.
When I tried to leave to go home, it refused to start first time. Took probably 6/7 tries before it finally got going, but ran like a farm tractor and was smokey too. It was definetly down on power and was holding back. I could still get it to 60mph but it took ages building up to that speed.
Has the freezing conditions killed my car?

I have changed the oil/oil filter/air filter/fuel filter and cleaned the EGR pipe and EGR valve. But the car continues to smoke on start up. But it does stop smoking when the car finally gets warm, but still drives very hessitantly.

I have noticed a funny high pitched noise when you stop the engine too and if you disconnect the vacumm pipe at the waste gate valve it gets louder and then fades away. Not sure if this is related.

Any ideas really appreciated as it's doing my head in!

[myglaren]

Welcome C3Blue.
My guess would be air ingress in the fuel lines.

The usual trick is to fit a length of transparent fuel hose between the filter and injection pump and check for air bubbles.

There have been several threads recently on just this topic that may guide you.

One fairly common fault is the leakoff pipes leaking.

[C3Blue]

Thank you, that's a couple of ideas I can investigate.

[Citroenmad]

Have a good search around on here for 1.4HDi 16v problems, as they are far from unknown, similar issues have been reported on here by many.

[JamesQB]

The high-pitched noise is something I noticed on my C3 HDi. Don't know why it does it, or if it did it before I had the same fault you've got, but it responds the same when removing the vacuum pipe from the variable-vane turbo connection.

I'd check the turbo is spinning freely by removing intake pipe and spinning with your finger (ours seized) and do a leak-off test on the injectors because that's the prime cause of this trouble...

I'm guessing you have a 2002-2004 model C3?