1.6 HDI's - Fix & Preventative Maintenance - INFO RICH

[Andle]

So - it's all been leading up to this...

July - £20 petrol accidentally put in 1.6 HDi. Drove 10 miles - topped up £40 shell (premium) diesel. Kept it topped for a long time. Recently - white smoke & foul smell from exhaust periodically. (No mayo under oil filler).

Upon starting - she doesn't idle well. Have to idle her 3 mins - before driving - she is better then (warmer). Foul exhaust smell.

Guessing - full service necessary:

Oil + Filter, EGR Clean + extras (Cabin filter, transmission oil, Air filter).

I'm asking for your guidance & wisdom here. This is the only car this family of five have - it's our only lifeboat.
It's getting me from interview to interview - there are no alternatives for us - if it suffers severe damage (economically).

A) I want to ask the mechanic to do preventative maintenance & anything that you all think prudent.

80k - need car till 160k at least. She's only ever received basic services for the last 60k (oil / oil Filter / air / fuel Filter).

Oil is in bad shape.

B) Ask sump be removed & cleaned?
C) Oil pickup + strainer be inspected cleaned/replaced?
D) Banjo bolt + filter upgraded/updated. Will be changing oil again within 500miles - new filter again?
E) I want the injectors checked for blow pass?
F) Vacuum pump check for debris/condition?
G) EGR cleaned - (replace the fuel filter on refitting).
H) Front brake pads changed + transmision oil replaced.
I) Tracking done.

Please give me hints and tips on any of the above items - things I should make sure are done.

Each of the above - come from my limited understanding from the forum. What have I missed or failed to include?

Any tasks you'd suggest in addition?

Any Hints & Tips?

Goal - this thread is intended to be a discussion - exploring the issues mentioned here - to open up the topic to uncover and share ideas/thoughts/knowledge.

For anybody willing to contribute & help - Warm and Sincerest thanks from this family,

Andle

DETAILS:

Picasso Xsara
1.6 HDI VTX
92 bhp
9HXC
DV6TED4
2007
80,000k
Manual Transmission

VIN: VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff]

Location: Near Heathrow Airport UK.

[GiveMeABreak]

For the purposes of the post Andle, I'll just repeat what we discussed in the PM regarding the fuel issue:

I also (years ago) added petrol to my Xantia HDi and it crippled it. This was despite a fuel tank drain and clean. Spluttering and cutting out to difficulty starting. The only cure was to have the diesel fuel pump replaced with a new one - as once these are contaminated the petrol affects the seals and it's pretty useless. I changed this and thank goodness no more issues. The last time I ever went to Tesco for fuel (they changed the pipe colours)!

[xantia_v6]

If the mis fuelling was the root cause, which components on this engine need changing to be confident of eliminating the damage (and any dwarf in the system)?

HP pump? Fuel rail? Injectors?

[GiveMeABreak]

The circumstances for each vehicle and level of contamination / distance driven / engine type will no doubt make a difference - I only needed to change the fuel pump thank goodness.

[Andle]

Was the fuel pump expensive?

[GiveMeABreak]

£149.20 inc. VAT for your Picasso original from Citroen. Part no 1525 HJ, so you might be able to find a second hand one if you think this is proving to be the issue.

One from Germany here for £118 no delivery charges.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Fuel-Pump-Ber ... 2548.l4275

[bobins]

I know little about the 1.6HDi - anyone know for sure if this is one of the 1.6 diesels that suffer the turbo failure and/or loose injectors and/or blocked turbo lube etc, etc ?

[Paul-R]

Andle, as per my PM, could you let us know how much diesel was in when you added the petrol, preferably in litres but just the gauge reading before if not available. Then we will know what the percentage mix of fuels is.

The other thing I would like to know is how is how many miles you've done since then and how recent "recently" is when the white smoke & foul smell started.

[Andle]

There was one bar in the tank - maybe 50 miles of diesel left showing on the display.

[Eddie Nuff]

How much white smoke is coming from the exhaust - is it thin and whispy or thick and billowing? Is it using coolant?

Is the foul smell one of rotten eggs? Does the car have a cat?

If the cat is blocked then, coupled with any fuel system problems, the engine will run rough.

[Eddie Nuff]

anyone know for sure if this is one of the 1.6 diesels that suffer the turbo failure and/or loose injectors and/or blocked turbo lube?

Yes this will be one of the 16v engines, the 8v didn't come into service until 2011.

Low mileage, thick black oil and egr problems would suggest it's led its life tootling around town.

[Paul-R]

Ouch. £20 petrol is probably about 17 litres. One bar on the gauge - difficult but say let's guess about 5 litres. That's not a good percentage mix to run on for 10 miles. That's a relatively long time to run with such reduced lubrication. Then add, say, 33 litres of diesel. You won't have used much for 10 miles (about 1 litre and we'll ignore that for ease of working out) so it's still 38 litres of diesel with 17 litres of petrol until the next time that you filled up with fuel.

I accidentally filled up the old Xsara with 40 litres of petrol (there was about 5 litres of diesel in there) a couple of years ago. Fortunately I didn't start the engine before I realised and I was able to phone my brother and we sucked the tank nearly dry. I then completely filled the tank with diesel (about 50 litres) diluting it considerably. As a result I belive I "got away with it".

Strangely enough this also happened at a Tescos and I completely blame them as they had replaced the pumps and some numbnut had decided to change the order of the hoses on the pumps. I mean, who in their right minds puts the diesel hose in the middle of the two petrol hoses?

You still haven't said how many miles you covered until the problems started. It's possible that it's a coincidence and nothing to do with the misfuelling.

[Paul-R]

Just had another thought. 80k miles - it's possible that the DPF needs cleaning if it hasn't been regenerating properly. Maybe the petrol has poisoned it in some way? In fact, could the cat have been poisoned by the petrol?

[GiveMeABreak]

Just had another thought. 80k miles - it's possible that the DPF needs cleaning

I think we established on another thread of Andle’s that there is no DPF on his Picasso Paul.

[Paul-R]

Ah, right. But the cat might still be damaged I suppose. I really don't know if running petrol combustion products through a diesel cat would cause a problem or not.