I have a 2007 Partner with a 9HX 1.6 HDi engine, 148000 km (92k miles). It has a tendency to idle slightly uneven when cold, but apart from that seems to be pretty solid. I bought it 6 months ago and at that point it needed a new EGR valve and glow plugs, which I have done. Also it developed a leak on one injector, so I pulled that one to clean it up and replace the seals. Occasionally it has a hesitation, like a momentary shutdown of the engine, and I think this is associated with an intermittent P1639 fault (ECU supply relay open circuit). Anyway that is a separate issue I think. There are no other fault codes in Planet, and the continuous readings look OK to me e.g. no big injector trim values.
I recently drove it from Spain up to Scotland and on the way it developed a ticking noise from the top end, which came and went. Some journeys it would be bad, then it would sort itself out. I added a can of hydraulic lifter treatment in Portsmouth and hoped for the best. Once I got home, I drained the oil and dropped the sump to look for debris - didn't find anything and the strainer is clean and intact. I refilled with new oil and initially it was very rough and smoky, which improved with running. Basically the rough idle when cold seems to be worse. I removed the oil separator and found pitting/spalling on one of the exhaust cam lobes (actually the one under the filler cap). I talked to the mechanic at my local garage who we have known for 30 odd years and he said that he had seen worse cams, but if I was to give it to them then he would replace the whole head with a recon one. I was planning to do the timing belt anyway, so I removed the cam carrier to see how bad it was. All the other cam lobes seem in good condition, apart from the one adjacent to the bad one which has minute pitting (this is both exhaust cams on cyl 1, timing belt end of the engine).
I also found a foreign object in the cam case, a small spring which I pulled out intact and apparently undamaged. It was a retaining ball spring from the injector seat reaming tool I had used when replacing the injector seal and which popped out when I was using it. Oops.
The engine seems to be basically sound and is not burning oil. I changed the oil 5 months / 8000 km ago when I bought the car and have not had to top up at all since. Mostly motorway miles, with a bit of local use too.
At this point I'm not sure whether to just replace the exhaust camshaft along with the two hydraulic lifters and rockers/followers for cyl 1, plus probably the cam chain and tensioner ...or to replace the whole head. All of the cam followers seem to be in good condition and there is nothing obviously wrong with either of the lifters for the cyl 1 exhaust valves.
Any suggestions?
