Bad running getting worse, xant 1.9td fixed !

[stupidxantia]

Hi all, I have trawled through the forum and can't seem to find an answer to this so I have to ask if anyone else has experienced this and can help diagnose.

I have decided to buy my old xantia 1.9td desire estate back from my brother after I let him take it just over a year ago and it seems that the car wants to give me hell

The first day I got the car we had an impromptu drive to Whitby (nice being only 35 miles away) and that is when we noticed that there maybe something amiss, after driving for around 20 miles at a steady pace there was a very subtle *pop* noise and a smell of burning electrics in the car (since this point the fans have not worked). Shortly after this the engine check light came on (the engine with a cross through it) and it felt like someone had turned off the diesel shortly ... then it was fine.

Yesterday I went on a steady drive to town and the Aux belt decided to let go (thank god I was near a friends place of work), we promptly got the car to his unit and fixed it straight away! The biggest issue I have now is this ... Since the belt let go the rev gauge has just danced around merrily wherever it feels like most of the time and the check engine light AND glowplug light intermittently illuminate while driving along with a huge loss of power like the diesel supply has been cut for a moment! This makes driving out of town situations impossible, if not even dangerous .... I am having it code read when I post this up so I will post any findings then ... But for the mean time this has me baffled!

Please someone shed some light on this for me as I am stumped big time
*to note it has very recently had a brand new glowplug relay as old one broke down and a new diesel filter this morning running 100% derv from the pump
Huge thanks in advance

[stupidxantia]

been to all the locals for getting his car read ... no one has the correct adapter to connect the reader :/

Just thought could the throttle position sensor thingy be in the wrong position or something as it has been off recently???? Really clutching at straws here though

[xantia_v6]

Are you sure that your car is a 1.9TD? That engine has a purely mechanical injection system, so there is no throttle sensor, and no electronic diagnostics (and no fault lamp) for the engine.

[stupidxantia]

yep car is a 1997 1.9td desire estate and has a semi electronic bosch AS3 pump fitted ... there is a light that looks like an engine with a sort of K on it and the glow light that come on together when the fault occurs ... fault getting worse now cuts out and behaves like someone is turning the fuel on and off really quickly

Did have new glow relay recently after it ate 2 ... can bad glows cause poor running???? didn't think you needed them once you were running

[Peter.N.]

Has the fuel filter been changed lately?

Peter

[chinkostu]

When was the last time you cleaned the EGR?

[stupidxantia]

When was the last time you cleaned the EGR?

I think the answer to that is Never lol ... can that cause these symptoms ?

Also have considered maybe it has a blocked up dpf (diesel cat thingy) ... as stated in first post diesel filter was done this morning, if anything that has made it worse than ever

[chinkostu]

Wont have a DPF thankfully

[stupidxantia]

Wont have a DPF thankfully

that's very nice to know!

So will a blocked EGR valve really cause all this hasstle ? Could I blank it off without too much hassle as I don't need exhaust gas getting recirculated back into the manifold really.

[chinkostu]

My 206 runs like a dog with the egr connected. Needs a good clean. Best thing to do is plug/clamp the vaccuum line to the valve so the ecu still thinks its connected.


As far as code reading goes, look for someone with a lexia

[stupidxantia]

I will have a look tomorrow at disabling the egr from the system then ... not spotted a vacuum line on there only the one from the turdblower to the lda unit on the pump, mind you it is very tight on space at the back there on the xantia! makes me happy that I don't have the Hdi as I hear they are worse on access!

If taking the egr out of the frame doesn't fix it then it's back to the drawing board

[chinkostu]

The blower breaking wont be related either btw

[Harlequin]

you need someone with a lexia or PP2000 and correct adapter to read the code - a generic ODM2 wont even know its there sadly.

[stupidxantia]

Okay I back tracked through things a little, covered in my mind everything I had done to the car in the last week of having owned it!
The turbo is running around 1.5bar boost now (instead of the miserable 0.8bar from standard) And though we turned up the turbo I thought that I had turned up the derv to compensate ... I did no such thing it turns out, What I had inadvertently done was to turn down the fuel intake to the pump *dumbass*

Now I have the LDA set to the steepest angle and have removed the plastic washer that sits under the spring in there .... also the AFC star wheel adjuster is turned clockwise (thus lessening the pressure needed to operate the lda) by 2 complete turns and the Smoke adjustment screw on top of the Ld housing is turned almost all the way in!

Result is a Xantia 1.9Td estate that is a whole lot better than it was when it left the factory in terms of the power delivery .... next jobs on the list are to renew the timing belt and at the same time convert to a manual pump immobiliser and remove the rear anti tamper jacket so as I can get to the max fuel screw! Possibly will be looking into fitting the 11mm pump head out of the transit pump to assist with greater fuel delivery!

I checked out the EGR system as suggested and it looks like there is no vacuum hose to or for it present ... it looked like too much of a swine to do anything with so I have left that can of worms for another day !

Thanks for all the help guys!

[chinkostu]

You'll want the smoke screw out otherwise you'll end up rolling coal off-boost