Bought a C8, smoke and rattle under load

[paulcornwall]

Well have I made a mistake and bought a C8?. On the surface of things its seems a great car and made sense when moving from our reliable C5HDI to a C8HDI. We bought the C8 but shortly after, read the horror stories of cam belt failure so we decided to get it changed. Managed to get a reasonable price including service with all fluids and filters changed for £390. However I can't stop noticing the more than i would like black smoke when taking off at junctions. Also while accelerating under load (up a gradient for example) I can hear a rapid ticking noise. After a bit of googling ive come to conclude its the injectors??? MPG seems a little down also.
I have lexia (packed away in a box somewhere, as we've just moved) would this tell if the problem is the injectors? if so, how?
If the problem is the injectors, whats the most cost effective way in getting this fixed? could this be causing the excessive smoke at lower speeds? Alot of questions I know but would appreciate any help you can give.

[Hell Razor5543]

I wonder how old the air filer is? A dirty, clogged filter can cause black smoke as you will get poor combustion. That might also explain the MPG.

[KP]

Could be a boost leak if it's a little down on power as well.

[miked]

Well have I made a mistake and bought a C8?. On the surface of things its seems a great car

Welcome to the club. What year is it, and is it a 2.0 or a 2.2? We have an 04 2.0, but with a recon engine after the previos owner learned about the cambelt failure problem the hard way. If it's an early one, have you fitted the 'drip tray' under the coolent bottle? If not see here, http://www.frenchcarforum.co.uk/forum/v ... =3&t=39622 .. another thread I took off topic.

I have lexia (packed away in a box somewhere, as we've just moved) would this tell if the problem is the injectors? if so, how?

I've never had any fueling problems with our C8, but I do recall seeing a page using the lexia which showed all four numbers matching up.

[paulcornwall]

Miked - Its a 53 plate, so yes a early one and heard something about a tray citroen brought out to stop water getting on the cam belt, was on my list of things to do, no doubt its difficult to do and expensive (i haven't checked out the link so far). Whats the best thing do with the injectors then, injector cleaner? (or is that just snake oil), replace all injectors at a cost I cant really afford? i.e £500 +, DIY injector change?, get them sonic cleaned? or just leave it go?

[miked]

Don't worry about the injectors. You need to dig out your lexia.

If your cambelt has been changed then that was good money well spent. The 'preventative measure' which peugeot and citroen came up with costs about £20. Don't worry if the person at the parts desk hasn't heard about it http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j& ... 0DzPrRYkgg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

However, I don't think your black smoke issue is anything to do with 'drip trays', and I have a habbit of rambling on when you should read the advice of the others above/

[Lighty]

Lexia session is good advice, the engines on C8 get changed after belt failure simply because the injectors "won't come out"
99%of the time they need to be pulled by a specialist hydraulic tool! this involves dropping the engine down and about £300 charge, usually scraps the injectors a the same time.
Let's hope it's something else.