Van broken down

[Peter Palmer]

This is the reason for my other thread on buying a van with a broken windscreen demister.

This morning our van broke down on the way to a job. Dispatch 1.6HDI 2015. firstly for a while there has been a bit of smoke out from under the bonnet, especially if you clog it on the motorway, it looks like there is an oil leak from somewhere at the front of the engine and its dripping onto the exhaust. It has otherwise been driving fine though, but today it got very strange indeed. Firstly as we slowed in motorway traffic the smoke started wafting from the bonnet as it normally does, then however the engine light came on, then excessive smoke started coming from the back of the van (exhaust) and also most bizarrely the clutch pedal stuck down so we lost the clutch.

I've not looked at it yet but I'm guessing the source of the original oil leak might have been from the turbo and now the excessive smoke is because the oil seals are knackered on the turbo and its burning all the oil up, (lucky not to have a runaway) but why would the clutch pedal fail as well, these are hydraulic aren't they, the fluid reservoir is still full but no pressure in the clutch pedal at all although you can lift it back up yourself.

Now bearing in mind the van has done 225K, the clutch is juddery anyway, the windscreen has a big crack in it and it has a weird steering issue I cant fix what should we do with it. We have had it over 5 years and only paid £5.5k for it so its more than paid for itself.

[Hell Razor5543]

The most likely problem is that the turbo has been starved of oil, and died. There are a couple of design faults with one design of the 1.6l HDi engines, in that the sump plug is recessed (so not all of the oil can be drained when serviced), so sludge can build up in the sump, the oil pickup for the turbo may be low down in the sump (so might pick up some sludge), and there is a fine filter in the banjo bolt (in the oil line to the turbo) that then can get blocked by the sludge. I hope (for your sake) that this is not the problem.

I do not know why the clutch has failed.

[Peter Palmer]

The most likely problem is that the turbo has been starved of oil, and died. There are a couple of design faults with one design of the 1.6l HDi engines, in that the sump plug is recessed (so not all of the oil can be drained when serviced), so sludge can build up in the sump, the oil pickup for the turbo may be low down in the sump (so might pick up some sludge), and there is a fine filter in the banjo bolt (in the oil line to the turbo) that then can get blocked by the sludge. I hope (for your sake) that this is not the problem.

I do not know why the clutch has failed.

did they not resolve the banjo issue on the later vehicles? The "smoking engine" only happened after I gave it a service, I've serviced this van a few times in the past without any issues afterwards but this time my mate was with me and when filling up with oil I said I'm sure it only takes about 3.5 litres but he said no way that's no where near enough and put all 5 litres in it. It was raining and I just said whatever and closed the bonnet. I initially thought it was just burning off the excess and it would calm down eventually.

[Peter Palmer]

Ok, I've had a quick look at this today and removed the turbo.

Plenty of oil in the exhaust.


Turbo feels fine though, no play in the shaft or anything, oil seals must be knackered though to let that much into the exhaust. Oil looks like its still getting to the turbo no problem though.


It also seems that its only the exhaust side that has leaked so no chance of a runaway luckilly.


So next question, I've found plenty of turbo cassettes on ebay but most of them list compatibility for almost all the HDI's ours is the slightly later 8 valve unit, maybe a DV6C I think, are the cassetted different from the 16 valve or are they all the same? I don't understand all the different part numbers.

Here's one such example.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/195431429211 ... BMwqCC1_1i

The VIN of our vehicle is VF7**************[VIN obfuscated, can be read by forum staff] and is a 2016 1.6 HDI Dispatch 90BHP (for clarity this is our old broken down vehicle, not the new one I've mentioned in other posts).

If I can get it running right I will tackle the clutch next.