Faulty diesel injector?

forgotmyname

I didnt say poor plugs will cause injectors problems. Bent conrods would be more of an issue if it was so cold that the fuel started to wax.

Compressing freezing cold diesel is hard work on the engine.

Richard53

Oh well, I have spent £4.99 in Halfords for some injector cleaner and chucked half the bottle in a 3/4 full tank. We shall see.

forgotmyname

Waste of time. Do a leakoff test...

Iceweasel

The concept that glow-plugs only operate before the engine is started is rather old school and out of date now.

Most modern engines have glow plugs that can be needed to operate at several points in the engine's daily use.

Does this ticking/tapping sound at idle occur only when the engine is warming up?

I'm not saying that it is glow-plug problem and not an injector one that you have - but all the glow-plugs need to be properly operative in order for the engine to run correctly - not just to start it.

Older tradional diesels used glow plugs that were never in use again after the engine started.

See page 7 of this link about post-heating glow-plugs:

http://www.beru.com/download/produkte/TI04_en.pdf

Richard53

Thanks for that. I did read in the manual that the glowplugs continue to operate after starting, dependent on conditions. I've got the car booked in for next week and I will ask him to check the plugs along with the injectors.


Having said that, I am wondering if it might be better to get an OBDII reader and see what that shows up. The cost would be about the same as a one-off diagnostic session at the garage.

forgotmyname

Got a laptop? Get an F-Super off ebay for £13?

Cheaper handheld readers will work but cheap cheap ones might not show all the codes properly.

Richard53

forgotmyname wrote: »

Got a laptop? Get an F-Super off ebay for £13?

Thanks - will look into that.


I used to have a Triumph Sprint. With a VAG OBD cable and some free software on the laptop it was possible not only to read codes but to adjust the fuelling, idle speed and all sorts, and download tuning data for various configurations of exhaust, air filter etc. That was a heap of fun for a while.


I was a bit concerned that the cheap hand-held readers for the Ford would not show all the fault codes, though.

forgotmyname

I dont think its just Fords. I think its a limit of teh cheaper units only being able to read so many codes.

So a simple misfire on a petrol engine may trigger several codes for the misfire, Air, Fuel and lambda sensors also.

You may only get some of the codes in that instance.

Richard53

As advised I got some injector cleaner and put half a bottle in, and I have since driven about 200 miles. This has improved matters, to the point where the rattle at idle is no longer frighteningly loud but probably within the normal range for a car of this age (8 years, 60k miles).

I took the car into my repairers this morning and have just got it back. He has checked for fault codes (none), done a leak test (normal) and checked the glow plugs (all OK). He suspects that the injectors are worn with a deterioration in spray pattern, giving some 'knock' when cold, but recommends no further action beyond throwing in some cleaner occasionally until the problem gets too bad to ignore. As the car is running fine otherwise, I'm going to take his advice. He's reckoning around £600-800 for reconditioned injectors, which is probably a third of the value of the car, so probably better to just see how it goes at this stage.

Great advice here, many thanks to all who gave an input.

dumfriesdave

Richard I ran 2 Tdci Mondeos as private hire vehicles (250,000 miles) and occasionally had a noisy injector. I found the best way to quieten them down was a fuel additive from Halfords called Diesel Magic. A tankful of BP Ultimate Diesel and bottle of Diesel Magic made a massive difference.