Arrived at work this morning and my engine bay was smoking. I opened up the bonnet and removed the plastic cover and there was smoking diesel on top of the engine, mainly around injector/glow plug 4. Any ideas? I've got no warning lights or anything! I've taken a picture but can't upload at mo!

Arrived at work this morning and my engine bay was smoking. I opened up the bonnet and removed the plastic cover and there was smoking diesel on top of the engine, mainly around injector/glow plug 4. Any ideas? I've got no warning lights or anything! I've taken a picture but can't upload at mo!

What engine is it?

Sorry. Its a Ford 2.0 tdci 140bhp.

Sorry. Its a Ford 2.0 tdci 140bhp.

IIRC, those injectors are screw in (with an o-ring), so the most likely source are the fuel pipes than run between the injectors. If that is the source and the leak is relatively small, the engine will be running normally.

Wipe away any existing diesel and wrap kitchen towel around the pipes and injectors. Run the engine and look for diesel on the kitchen towel.

Called the RAC. Came out and diagnosed a split pipe. Replaced in the pooring rain and all sorted. Can't rate them highly enough. He suggested that I should still take to dealer and get genuine pipe fitter but looks the same..

Injector leak off pipes or the plastic connections onto the injectors, they usually come as a complete set of pipes for all the injectors from the dealers, to do it properly means taking off the manifold, but each pipe can be changed with the manifold insitu, just don't loose the connector clips that lock them into the injectors

Glad it was a easy fix for you,i had a friend with a 1.4tdci fiesta come round complaining of a smell & saying it was using lots of diesel since a garage had changed the injector seals,when i had a look one of the retaining clips had come off the top of a injector & it was pumping out diesel when running,a new 15p injector clip sorted it. 

Well its interesting you say that. The dealer had it back about 3 weeks aagoto replace 2 diesel vacuum solenoids. No idea what they are but I wonder if they had to touch anything around those pipes.

The leak off pipes tend to do that over a few years, have on many cars as they get hot and don't get much in the way of protection. In the end one of them usually splits and makes a right mess.

Luckily for you (and me and many others) derv isn't flammable enough to go up on a warm engine.

 

Often as you've seen the pipes get a bit hard/brittle and then when disturbed by fixing something else, they start to leak.

Not fixed. Happened again this morning. Now on its way to dealer on the back of a tow truck. I'm very unhappy.

Could it be that yours was never recalled?:

 

http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/apps/recalls/searches/expand.asp?uniqueID=40129A62585DF97380257BDD002A46CA&freeText=Blank&tx=

 

Phil

As it appears you have the panoramic roof... you better check out this one too!

 

http://www.dft.gov.uk/vosa/apps/recalls/searches/expand.asp?uniqueID=249970698AC0C610802577EA003AB021&freeText=Blank&tx=

I had a hire car from Enterprise a brand new Mondeo diesel with only 135 miles on the clock, doing a trip from kent to Liverpool & got a horrible smell of diesel at the M6 toll at 10:30 at night.

Stopped at 1st services on the M6  was by then 11 pm( not toll) called out the breakdown who saw the same thing diesel leaked across the head into all the dips it could.

He soaked it all up with paper towels then we run the engine for 5 mins to see where it was coming from, leaking return pipe.  He plugged the leak as a temp fix & i was left to drive to the nearest open Enterprise car hire desk, which was at Manchester airport where i swapped for a renault grand scenic diesel for the rest of my hire contract.

 

Last Ford i owned was back around 1987, and said i wouldnt have another, i was starting to soften my stand given how Skoda have improved over the years, but this incident did not convince me that any improvements made by FMC are worth the risk.

 

Hope you get it sorted 

It's definitely looking like the fault as described in that recall then.

 

Hopefully it's been missed and Ford will repair it FOC.

 

Phil

Its exactly as described in that recall but according to ETIS (fords service gateway) there are no outstanding recalls for my car.

Its with the dealer now who have so far been pretty good. I've even been given a decent focus diesel courtesy car.

It gets worse. Dealer have called..warranty will cover a new injector but not seals, gasgets and pipes required. Dealer will contribute but still expect me to pay £318 odd. I've had the car 3 months and I'm really unimpressed. Not really sure where to go from here. Sales manager is off today so I need to call tomorrow but it seems like I'm having to resolve it myself rather than them just sorting it.

£318 for a gasket, seal and pipe?

 

If the warranty is covering the injector and labour then £318 sounds steep, even from a main dealer...

Thats a bummer, I can't believe all the trouble your having :(

I hope it gets resolved quickly for you

£318 for a gasket, seal and pipe?

 

If the warranty is covering the injector and labour then £318 sounds steep, even from a main dealer...

Im not 100% sure but i think the high pressure pipes (qty x 4) are one use only & if your changing one injector seal you should change the other 3 cylinders as well,maybe the labour on the other 3 are not included under the warrenty hence the extra cost?

Apparently the warranty only covers the injector. Even though all the other bumfph has to be removed/replaced. If I'd had the car 6 months I'd be miffed but would understand a bit more..but 3 months!! I'm going to call trading standards and then failing that Ford Credit as its on HP.

Trading standards/CAB were helpful. They advised that because the vehicle is on HP that the finance company are responsible as they own the car. As such they are breaking my contract with them as they are providing a car that is not fit for purpose. I've called the finance co who need it in writing. As such I'm going to hold fire until I've spoken to the sales manager tomorrow. If the answer is still that I need to foot the bill then I will be persuing rejecting the vehicle as its not fit for purpose. I'm happy to accept a repair but if they are going to refuse then I'll reject and go elsewhere.

Stand your ground!

 

You definitely have the right to reject.

 

So it's up to them... take the car back, loose money and probably have to repair to sell on again anyway... or just fix it FOC!

 

Phil

All resolved. I think! Called the sales manager this morning. Before I'd even started he apologised for the confusion and confirmed that they would be paying for the repairs in full. He was a nice guy, we had a bit of a joke about the warranty covering the injector but not the pipework that has been damaged by the faulty injector and that he was sorry again that I had been advised I would have to pay.

Just waiting for a call about when it will be done. Once again my faith has kinda been restored in dealers.

Result!!!

 

Nice that they have been reasonable in the end...

 

Rubbish that you have to fight for it though.

 

Phil

If there was an award for incompetence then I think my dealer might win it. Car is fixed and returned to me. Get to work and park but the parking sensors are going mad. A quick check shows that the front left one in the grill is hanging behind the grill and the clips to hold it in are broken.