Engine Oil Smoking, Something Squeeking!

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mattpc
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Engine Oil Smoking, Something Squeeking!

Post by mattpc »

Really didn't need this month to get any worse due to loads of personal crap but anyway.....

Serviced the Xantia HDI today. Discovered that the old engine oil was smoking. Decided to replace anyway and see what happened. New engine oil is also smoking....

There is also a squeek from the engine bay when the car is cold but this disappears. My first thoughts are that the water pump is broken. Anyone got any better ideas please?

Mileage is 175k. It's a catch 22 cos I'm reckoning it could get expensive real quick if take it to the garage and ask them to find out whats wrong but on the other hand I don't have any money to buy a new car either. Oooops! Oil temp and coolant temps appear to be normal but then again those gauges seem to lie for fun anyway. Final point is that last time I was fiddling with the car months ago I did notice it was spitting a bit of oil out of the exhaust. I've done thousends of miles in it since then.
Xantia number three is..
HDI Exclusive Estate Cat C
jmd
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Post by jmd »

Get the pulleys (lower pulley) checked, that's the most likely cause of your "squeeking" as many of these pulleys expire at much lower mileage. At your mileage it is probably coming up to the time to have a timing belt replaced, I'm wondering was your water pump changed at the time of the previous timing belt replacement. It is good practice to renew the pump when renewing the timing belt. Since your water & oil temp guages seem to be reading o.k I wouldn't be too worried.
Xantidote
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Post by Xantidote »

Regarding the "oil spitting", if your engine were petrol, then I'd ask if it could be just very carbony black water from condensation on start-up, whilst engine & exhaust are cold. Don't see any liquid discharge from my 1995 1.9TD's exhaust on the occassions I'm not in the car. Is the engine using oil?

I'd second the suggestion to investigate the timing belt & pulleys. Need to stick your head under bonnect on start-up, but not too close, and listen. Maybe try listening by placing head of long large screwdriver against your ear, with slotted end firmly against none rotating items, to try and trace noise source. I've used a hammer if no screwdriver to hand.

Cheers - Martin
Martin

1995 Xantia TDLX (deceased :( )
mattpc
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Post by mattpc »

Out of necessity I've travelled another 1000 miles or so in the car since my original post. There is still smoke coming out of the oil filler cap when you remove it and the cap itself smells like an oily barbaque! Car drives fine most of the time. Very occasionally the turbo doesn't seem to want to pick up but then suddenly kicks in.

Timing belt, aux belt and bottom pulley done about a year ago (maybe 35k miles ago). Not sure if they did the waterpump or not. Perhaps not. What is confusing about the squeek is that it only seems to be when the car is cold that it's heard which makes me think maybe its just the tension of the aux belt rather than the waterpump?

The burning oil etc... Not sure what I can do about that. The car has pretty average bodywork. It's not a minter by any means and is previously Cat C so the value of the car is rather limited which make expensive things like new turbos pretty hard to justify. I'm in two minds whether to take it in to Paris Autos in Stockport or just keep driving it until it dies horribly!
Xantia number three is..
HDI Exclusive Estate Cat C
Xantidote
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Post by Xantidote »

Yr original post mentioned a squeek, and you say you've replaced the belts. Am not familiar with the HDI, but whilst sitting beside the front o/s wheel of my Xantia TD last year (as one does!), I realised the engine was a bit noisy, more so just after start up, and traced it to the auxillary belt tensioner pulley - found the bearing had a bit of play, and it also sounded dry, probably due to failing seal allowing water ingress. Fitted new tensioner pulley, and much quieter, once I'd got the manual tension setting sorted.

Martin
Martin

1995 Xantia TDLX (deceased :( )
jmd
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Post by jmd »

Also check the Air breather pipes, in case of any blockages. Blockages in those pipes could cause the blowback that you are experiencing.
Xantidote
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Post by Xantidote »

Another thought - there'll be greater load on auxillary belt immediately after start up, whilst alternator puts charge back into battery. This would increase load on idler/tensioner pulley bearings. So query condition of bearings. Could the auxillary belt's tensioning system be wrong. Is it auto-tensioning? IMHO, auto-tensioning wouldn't necessarily mean the system is working correctly.

Cheers - Martin
Martin

1995 Xantia TDLX (deceased :( )
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