HDi Woes

[will_berry70]

Hi All,
I picked up an HDi a year or so ago. I liked the MPG and the fact they were supposed to be bullet proof engines. Got one for a reasonable price and had it's 60k service done, timing belt and HPPump, but they did notice a small oil leak.

So now it failed it's emission test albeit only just. After driving it hard on my mechanic's advice it failed twice as badly on re-test.

On top of that it has a small oil leak that appears to be coming from somewhere near the fuel pump.

My current deisel specialist reckons it's going to be expensive to guess at fixes for either problem. Obviously that's disappoiting.

So are there any known issues like this with the HDi?

All help appreciated.

Will.

 

[lfe]

It would be necessary to know on what the emissions test failed, particulate matter? NOx? unburned hydrocarbons?

The engine may be very dirty with soot, or like so many diesels there may be a problem with the DPF or EGR.

Does it smoke sometimes? Does it consume oil?

The small oil leak has nothing to do with emissions, it is not an oil that goes into the exhaust.

The idea of a bomb-proof diesel is more legend than reality, even more so when they started adding anti-pollution devices.

 

[will_berry70]

Thanks for the feedback.
In theory the DPF should have been cleaned up with some DPF Cleaner in the fuel and the hard driving. Instead it was over twice as bad after the driving and measuring hot
It's never been smoky thank goodness and the oil has also appeared fine. I think it's the NOx (or whatever that big number on the label under the bonnet is for, 0.51 something).

The oil leak is mostly just disappointing and I didn't think it was emmissions related. I just wondered if there was an obvious source for these engines in that general location

Thanks again.

 

[Pedro]

On my old van I used to put in red X & the DPF cleaner then get the engine roasting passed every time the mileage was 135.000 before I sold it but if the car has not been looked after soot build up must be sorted

 

[will_berry70]

The deisel specialists have done a DPF regen and they hope if it's an EGR fault it'll throw a code before thenext MoT. Who knows. They recommended deisel additives by Forte to clean it up before the next MoT. I dunno. I'll just enjoy it as long as I can. Shame she's not a keeper but maybe I'll try and pick up a better one eventually. These cars are too beautiful to abandon completely

 

[lfe]

If the car has been driven mostly on short journeys at low power, it will probably have a lot of soot in the engine and this will not be solved with magic additives. Parts will have to be disassembled and cleaned.