Another fine mess

[xantiagreen]

I just can't seem to get the car working without fault, I get one thing fixed and 5 other faults pop up.

Just this morning I was hoping to fit the door card and parts back on after fixing the driver side window regulator. I opened the window to adjust the mirror and closed it, as it reached the top I heard a crack and the window fell to the bottom (luckily not smashed, turn out the slider block must have been a crappy reject I ordered it from Turkey, so now I'm waiting for a refund and placing order with UK seller or there's one in Poland.

Just before the car was Mot'd and serviced last week, for some reason I decided to take the MAF sensor apart and clean it with Halfords electrical contact cleaner gave it a good clean, let it dry overnight and fitted it the day of MOT and service, initially on start up it was ok, but I kept stalling a few time and once I got the car back everything seemed ok until I noticed that there was a very very slight delay in the engine responding to speeding up (never happened before I poked around) today I could see more greyish than white smoke from the exhaust 2nd gear 1200 revs and smoke changed to third 20mph and smoke visible from car behind's headlights once up to 30-35ish everything clear.

Still got the track rod ends, bushes on wishbone, lower ball joint, drop links to be fitted both sides and vibration damper.

What am I doing wrong I've treated the car like a newborn, have I damaged the MAF I'm 90% sure it's that (could it be EGR) because everything worked perfectly before I donned the "I know what I'm doing" act, what a tool Is there a specific type of MAF sensor (if it is the faulty part) that I need, Euro Have these on offer not sure if ones better than other:



Or do I have to take the car for a good run on the motorway to get the newly cleaned MAF sensor working at the new correct rate of air coming in and fuel mix with the ECU.

Cheers

[Hell Razor5543]

It is not unheard of for some contact cleaners to leave a residue, to protect the contacts and act as a lubricant for sliding contacts. There are cleaners specifically for MAF units;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CRC-AIR-SENSO ... 1c46f5e61f" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[xantiagreen]

It is not unheard of for some contact cleaners to leave a residue, to protect the contacts and act as a lubricant for sliding contacts. There are cleaners specifically for MAF units;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CRC-AIR-SENSO ... 1c46f5e61f" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Would this the CRC cleaner get rid of the contact cleaner and further clean the sensor where the contact cleaner couldn't, I 'll have to rder it and pray it works. If I need a MAF which would you recommend from the 3 above.
Just checked Halfords website F&Q's and people who bought it used it on MAF sensors and some reviews say it doesn't leave a lubricant residue.
Why the excess smoke from the rear.

Cheers James.

[waynedance]

Killed my maf by cleaning it or should I say a colleague did. VDO is the better option I tried the cheap ones and got a VDO from Euros.

[Hell Razor5543]

I have not (yet) had to use any; I just remembered reading about it somewhere here on the forum. As it is designed to get years of accumulated road crud off the MAF it probably could shift the contact cleaner.

[xantiagreen]

Killed my man by cleaning it should I say a colleague did. VDO is the better option I tried the cheap ones and got a VDO from Euros.

Did you experience the smoky haze from the rear even at low to mid speeds after the clean, did you (colleague) spray MAF cleaner or something else.

Cheers Waynedance.

[myglaren]

The VDO unit is OEM.
Used to be Siemens but they spun that part of the business off as VDO.

[waynedance]

Never got chance to drive it when the maf went as the eml light came straight on so I replaced it.

[CitroJim]

Sorry to hear of your woes Faz

In my experience these thing happen and they certainly have with me on both mine recently. It goes in spates and after a period of lots of things all breaking it's followed by a time of comparative peace and freedom for a few years.

Just ride through this current wave and you'll be fine

[citronut]

best thing to clean the MAF is carb cleaner, as you need to clean/clear the oil/carbon from the sensor,

i use this one from GSF

http://www.carplan.co.uk/index.cfm?product=241" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[xantiagreen]

Sorry to hear of your woes Faz

In my experience these thing happen and they certainly have with me on both mine recently. It goes in spates and after a period of lots of things all breaking it's followed by a time of comparative peace and freedom for a few years.

Just ride through this current wave and you'll be fine

I'm going to plod on and hope to get her well again before Christmas, will be hard to stop poking around but I'm going to check the forum before something else goes wrong.

Thanks for that Jim

[xantiagreen]

best thing to clean the MAF is carb cleaner, as you need to clean/clear the oil/carbon from the sensor,

i use this one from GSF

http://www.carplan.co.uk/index.cfm?product=241" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Will look at cleaning it again with the carb cleaner if it doesn't settle by end of today, taking it to Citroen mechanic for him to make sure it's nothing else.

Cheers Malcolm.

[xantiagreen]

Is there any place I can get hold of new Hoses for the car as intercooler pipe may be split (not sure) also the other hoses intake and so on from turbo. What other vehicles are a match for the xantia is it any year 406 hdi 110.

Thanks

[CitroJim]

I think the hoses may be unique Faz, I think they're different between the 90 and 110 too..

They do go and certainly were available from Citroen not that long ago but very expensive...

They can suffer from very small splits that do allow boost to leak and that will upset the MAF sensor and potentially cause smoke and poor running. Sometimes you can hear the leak as a windy whoosh when accelerating hard...

One to check is the little stub hose between the end of the plastic pipe that runs under the engine and the turbo...

A temporary repair can be carried out using a bicycle puncture repair kit...

[Northern_Mike]

They are different between the 90 and 110. Mine had split on the underside of the top hose. Repaired with a drink can of the correct diameter stuff down inside the hose and a bicycle puncture kit, superglue and duck tape around the outside.