XUD con rod failures

lolingram · Post by **lolingram** » 06 Jul 2007, 17:30

I have seen posted on a couple of forums, info to the effect that a batch of XUD 1.9s threw rods... anyone throw light at all?

MikeT · Post by **MikeT** » 06 Jul 2007, 18:06

Tell me how it's done and I'll see if I can make mine do it

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 06 Jul 2007, 18:37

Think it was a load put in 306's if memory serves.
There was a recall I believe.

JohnD · Post by **JohnD** » 06 Jul 2007, 18:39

You're refering to the conrod failures on 1997/1998 XUDturbo engines. Seem to recall there was a spate of them at the time and that it was only engines with DHY serial numbers. Far too many for it to be put down to lack of maintenance, but I don't think PSA wanted to know,

lolingram · Post by **lolingram** » 06 Jul 2007, 19:31

Easy!

Drain the oil, start the engine, place a brick on the throttle and walk away..............

Tell me how it's done and I'll see if I can make mine do it.

MikeT · Post by **MikeT** » 06 Jul 2007, 19:46

Like that bloke does in the advert for a certain oil additive?

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 06 Jul 2007, 20:17

The problem was that some TD engines got non-turbo con rods. The wrong rods mean that the engine is good for about 60-70k miles, then it spits out the con rods.

The 306 was worst affected but other cars got engines from the dodgy batch too, perhaps not as many.

David W · Post by **David W** » 06 Jul 2007, 22:36

Interesting as we have twp Citroen TDs from this era.

The good lady has a 1998 Xsara with a DHY engine. It's covered 110,00mls plus and I think (hope!) it has passed the critical point. Funny thing I have never bothered with full breakdown recovery cover for our cars but upgraded to it the moment we added a DHY engine to the fleet!

The 1999 Xantia TD Estate I bought earlier this year turned up an unexpected tale post purchase. It had a history to support a genuine mileage just over 70,000 and looked very smart and genuine.

When I did a service a few days after getting it home I was puzzled to see loads of orange sump sealer on the join and also just above the oil drain plug a big patch of sealer smeared over the back of the sump. On removing this I found the sump had been alloy welded over a 1.5" dia hole. Furthermore I could see the engine itself was absolutely oil tight and looked very new. Looked for the engine code to see it was not the Citroen one but that of an exchange engine.

So it seems the original engine had suffered a con rod failure just over 70,000 and an exchange engine had been fitted. Of course you often don't get a sump on an exchange engine so someone had used an enterprising method of saving the cost.

I sourced a used sump (from a Pug 405 with aircon) and replaced that to avoid the possibility the original sump repair could fail a long way from home and dump the oil.

Cheers,

David

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 07 Jul 2007, 08:15

There was a thread about these engines a few years ago - seems many ended up in Majorca!

Its a nice example of quality control working - realise you've made a mistake - so rather than correcting it you send the engines where it'll probably take many years before the fault appears - by which time you've left the company.