Just bought a Xantia, seems to be a fuel problem, i think??

[p3dro]

Hi all,
I just bought a T reg (99?) Xantia Estate 1.8 petrol with 152K miles. The seller said there was an 'intermittent fuel starvation problem' and that 'cleaning one of the jets' would resolve it - simple he said.
...I then stumbled across this entry in the Xantia Wikipwedia page and got worried...
The engines were very reliable, some pre 1997 models could do up to 300,000 miles (480,000 km),[citation needed] however in 1997 because of the new european law they had to put anti pollution systems on the XUD type Engine , it then suffered from failing conrods ( the 3rd conrod goes through the casing ) and the precombustion chambers crack and fall into to the cylinders ( when this is about to happen , the car does not start very well , chokes a lot )
The car actually does choke a lot when starting up and it's nit untl ytou have driven a bit that it won;t just die on you. Sometimes when idling, the revs do jump about a bit around the 10K mark and applying a bit of pedal clears the issue....

Has anyone experienced this before or might have any idea what the best thing I can do is? ....have I just been stiched up??

Thanks in advance
Pete

[pete_wood_uk]

Welcome to the forum!

Can't answer your question but the Wikipedia excerpt that you posted isn't relevant to you. I don't even know if it's true or not but it's talking about precombustion chambers on the XUD engine - that's the old-style (and much-beloved on this forum) indirect-injection diesel engine. Yours, you say, is petrol, so it ain't got that problem....

Cheers
Pete

[myglaren]

Welcome p3dro,

Conrods? There are AFAIK, only americans that have conrods in car engines still. All Xantias (and everything else as far as I know) have OHCs

A Wikipedia article in serious need of editing IMO.

[CitroJim]

The conrod exiting stage left was indeed a problem on some 1997 XUD (Diesel) engines but never affected any petrol XU engines and as yours is a petrol, you can rest easy. All but that one faulty batch of XUD engines, I think mainy fitted to 306s, are extremely tough and long-lived.

The idling problem will be down to your idle control valve being a bit dirty and sticky. The garage was nearly right as it might well respond to a clean with carb cleaner. Remove it completely and see how it goes. If it does not fix then a replacement surely will.

let us know the exact engine you have fitted for a bit more guidance on this Pete...

Conrods? There are AFAIK, only americans that have conrods in car engines still. All Xantias (and everything else as far as I know) have OHCs

No, engines still have conrods Steve, otherwise there would be nothing to link the piston to the crank Were you thinking of pushrods? The rods that linked the camshaft to the rocker gear and then the valves in OHV engines. In that case, you're right, only those across the pond still hold on to them in their V8s but then, they still think cast iron is a good material for making cylinder heads

[myglaren]

:slap:

Yes of course - senior moment there Jim

[p3dro]

phew, thanks guys.

I'll ask a garage to clean the idle control valve, might even look in the manual to see if it's something I can do!!

Thanks again

Pete

[red_dwarfers]

Which batch of XUD9 engines had the conrod problem?
I'm sure mine is fine, its done such a high milage anyway and would have gone by now but you know, just for piece of mind 8)

[C.J.]

..... the revs do jump about a bit around the 10K mark and applying a bit of pedal clears the issue....


Pete

GULP, WOW!!!!

[CitroJim]

Which batch of XUD9 engines had the conrod problem?

Found this on a search..

...Spate of conrod failures on 1997 -1998 R and S reg 1.9 XUTD diesels: too many to attribute merely to running with low oil levels. Seems only to affect cars built from April 1997 with DHY (not DHX) serial number engines...

If yours has done a lot of miles then no worries Most of the duff batch will either have blown up or sorted out under a recall by now. I have a feeling these engines were accidentially fitted with non-turbo conrods.

Note that DHX (or DHY) is the engine code and found on a little aluminium plate on the block, it's not part of the serial number.

[red_dwarfers]

Cheers Jim
Thats going down in my notebook for future ref. 8)
Mine's got neither engine code, mine has X18E which I reckon must be the revision with all the electronic sensor gizmos!

[p3dro]

Hello again, I checked the manual but couldn't find anything on cleaning the Idle Control Valve....can anyone please tell me if it's explained anywhere? Am I better off just getting a garage to do it or how do i do it, if at all possible?
Thanks again,
Pete

[_kid_]

if you look at the big flexible black plastic pipe (coming fromt the air filter box) then above it is a little black device (probably with magnetti marrelli written on it), this is the icv/stepper motor.

to clean it take off the air filter box and pipe and take of the icv and clean with carb cleaner, also clean the throttle body whislt your there.

[p3dro]

will do, thanks very much _kid_