engine blow up

quig · Post by **quig** » 15 May 2004, 22:22

Hi everyone, I live in Mallorca in spain and this is my very first post. A few months ago I bought a Citroen xantia 1.9 turbo diesal estate, 1996. There were a few niggley things not working, like the heater blower and heater switch and also the cooler fan came on when I started the engine. Last week I decided to take it for a good run, I had been on the road for about 45 minutes and just turned on to the motorway when there was an almighty bang from the frontend. I pulled to a juddering stop and got out and there was oil and parts of my engine block all over the motorway. The guy who was driving the transporter that took me home, phoned a friend off his who owened 2 scrap yards to see if he had an engine and this guy said that that he knew of several citreons of this model that the same thing had happened to and it was always the third cylinder, have any of you guys heard anything like this. Someone else told me that on this model the air intake was to low and that in bad weather it could allow water to be sucked into the cylinder and it was raining very hard that day. I have not come across anything like this in reading your posts so I would be very gratfull for some help and advice.

jeremy · Post by **jeremy** » 16 May 2004, 03:07

I think that I can honestly say that there are no reports of these engines just blowing up on this board. there are a few cases of damage when the cambelt snaps etc, and also cylinder head gaskets and cracked heads on 1,7 BX TD's but thats about it for mechanical problems. Search carefully and you will find details of Jon's customer with his BX that had done 900,000 miles with only a head gasket at 450,000 miles but no tales of sudden disintegration.
jeremy

quig · Post by **quig** » 16 May 2004, 17:41

Thanks for that Jeremy.
The cambelt was new, the oil level was perfect and it was not overheating so it looks like there must have been a crack somewere.

rossd · Post by **rossd** » 16 May 2004, 18:02

There are quite a few of the XUD9TE reported with that problem, although they all seem to be concentrated in the Pug 306. They put a con-rod straight through the block. I *think* its the ones with the engine code DHY, although they all seem to be 1998 cars, not 1996 as yours is.

paranoid · Post by **paranoid** » 16 May 2004, 18:05

In my previous job, I saw 2 xud engines let go big time, But I agree its very very rare, And both times could be traced to previous owners not topping up oil, when engine was young.

oilyspanner · Post by **oilyspanner** » 16 May 2004, 19:55

My mate has just had a 1.9 let go in the same way, though the thing was knocking for a long time before it went, probably poor lubrication servicing at some time.
Stewart

aido · Post by **aido** » 17 May 2004, 02:18

if you look on honest johns web site you will find there have been a few reported cases of the xud engines throwing in the towel,but only i think on engines manufactured since 1997. the web site gives the engine code/numbers of cars which could be affected. i first read about these occurences in diesel car magazine, owners saying they had thrown a con rod or sumat.

quig · Post by **quig** » 17 May 2004, 03:12

Thanks to everyone for your comments. I think my only choice is to try and find an engine from a scrap yard and try again

Kowalski · Post by **Kowalski** » 17 May 2004, 14:47

Apparently the problem with XUD9TEs blowing up was due to a batch of them being fitted with non-turbo connecting rods, the turbo connecting rods were/are much heavier than the non-turbo ones. Apparently this happened around 1997, so if thats when yours was made its possible that was the cause.