I have a 2004 Ford Fusion 2 with the 1.4 TDCi (Peugeot/Citroen PSA) engine. It's under warranty until October 2008. I've got a problem with black smoke. It makes a lot of smoke under acceleration. It doesn't have any effect on economy or performance. I always get about 450 miles on a tank of diesel (about £35 worth). The dealership have changed the EGR valve twice now.
When they replace the EGR valve the problem goes away for about 7-8 weeks then it starts again. When the valve is replaced, there is absolutley no visible smoke at all, even under acceleration.
I use Millers fully synthetic XFD 5w40 in the car. I spoke to the dealership this morning and they have told me the problem is being caused by the oil. They said fully synthetic oil is causing the EGR valve to stick. I believe this to be complete rubbish, and I think I am being fobbed off.
I've spoken to Millers Oils this morning and Ford approve Millers XSS 5w30 (semi-synth), so I am going to change onto this in the next couple of weeks. Then if the problem reoccurs (as I suspect it will) I can then say I am using Ford approved oil in the engine.
Has any one seen this problem, or can offer me any suggestions? I emailed Honest John and he suggested taking it to a Peugeot/Citroen dealership, but as it's under Ford warranty still, I'd rather try to get to the bottom of it under the existing warranty.
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What sort of diesel do you run it on, and what sort of driving do you do? Has the dealer also cleaned out the inlet manifold and exhaust inlets to the EGR valve when replacing?
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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Richard,
I run it on BP standard diesel (i.e. not BP Ultimate), using Millers Diesel Power Plus on each refill. I do mainly motorway driving, longer journeys. I cover between 25000 to 30000 per year.
Not sure if the dealership cleaned the inlets, but I can check that.
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Some questions.
1/ A 2004 car warranty till 2008? does it not have the standard three year warranty?
2/ You do 25k-30k miles a year. Thats obviously a lot of motorway miles. How hard do you drive it ( ie do you take it near to ther rev limit)
3/ How do you know its making a lot of smoke? whats a lot of smoke? Can you describe the smoke and when it appears
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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In response to your questions;
1. It's got a Ford Protect warranty 'til October 2008 from the dealership, altho' it can be taken to any dealership as it's a Ford extended warranty
2 I always keep it to 65-70mph on the motorway, never drive it at elevated revs.
3. When the EGR valve has been replaced there is no visible smoke (as viewed from the rear view mirror). When the problem occurs it tends to billow at the back when the car is accelerating, it's black and can easily be seen in headlamps at night and also during the day. When it is sitting a tick-over you can see blue/black smoke from the exhaust.
Any other queries do post another reply.
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2 I always keep it to 65-70mph on the motorway never drive it at elevated revs.
This is not good behaviour for a diesel, and is probably the main cause of your problems (if indeed its a problem - more later)
Modern diesels need to work hard. Becuase the torque and pulling power comes in so low, people do not drive them around the rev band. Subsequently they good sooted up. You need ot rev the car more enthusiastically.
Try this. Next time you join a motorway drop it donw a gear and accelearate hard from low gear to nearly the rev limit, and in the next gear and the next.
A load of smoke will come out, then not so much and then less. This will clear it and I bet the smoke will be much less. Basically you are not working the car hard enough.
problem occurs it tends to billow at the back when the car is accelerating it's black and can easily be seen in headlamps at night
Every diesel does this. The lights behind shine through and looks alarming, - its normal though.
sitting a tick-over you can see blue/black smoke from the exhaust.
This is not so normal, tho it happens. If your car has lost no power, and fuel consumption is good then i think basically you dont have a problem. It all sounds perfectly normal diesel like.
Whats the oil consumption like?
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TourVanMan TM < Ex RF >
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I was going to say about the same thing TVM - I asked about the diesel and driving because poor quality diesel may cause problems as will pottering about town. When I saw m-way work and BP diesel I thought OK, but "never drive at elevated revs" may well be the cause. As you said - drive it like you stole it occasionally! The French must have thousands of (mostly French) CR diesels, and they don't appear to be suffering too much trouble - they would be vocal about it no doubt! But then they all drive like they are posessed, so maybe there's a clue there....!
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RichardW
Is it illogical? It must be Citroen....
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If you've been using oil that is not approved then could Ford turn around and say it's stuck again but not replace on warranty as you've used the wrong oil. And now Ford know you have put in oil that is not approved. You say yourself the other oil is approved therefore the fully-synthetic sounds like it is now.
I hope they don't throw this back at you but maybe you should be prepared in case they do? I know lots of people with failures of VAG PD engines when they used the wrong oil type.
As for EGR valves sticking, if it's like the one on mine that stuck on a Mondeo 2.0 TDCi, when I was accelerating there was a big cloud of black smoke behind (easily visible especially in headlights) and there was some hesitation in accelerating with revs 1800-2000rpm. Another time the EGR failed it rev'd strangely for a few minutes and then just died on me.
Hope you get this sorted.
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Why waste money on Millers?;buy Formula E(5w/30 semi-synthetic) at your Ford dealer-that is what the handbook says.
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Interestingly I had a peugeot 206 1.4 hdi same engine & in the hand book it specified one type of oil only just for the 206 & did say no other oil must be used!. I spoke to mobil to find out if I could use Mobil 1 and they said no!. Only use the oil recommended as applies to so many cars now. It is partly to do with aromatic hydrocarbons
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My Mondeo TDCi used to give out quite a bit of black smoke under hard acceleration and I do a short 3 mile commute to work every day, which doesn't help I know. I switched to Shell Extra Diesel and put a dose of Millers Diesel power plus additive in every tankful and now there's hardly any smoke at all. You can check that your EGR valve is working ok by giving it WOT (wide open throttle), the EGR valve closes at WOT. If you get a bit of smoke as you open the throttle but it clears at WOT then the EGR is closing ok.
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Sorry I mean't to add that at the time Peugeot or the dealers could not explain why the hand book specified specific oil & that no other must be used & some peugeot dealers said they where not aware of the notice specific to the 1.4hdi engine. The other fact that the helpfull guy from mobil tec told me that although he would like me to buy Mobil 1 I must use what the book say's. One of the facts that he did ring me back with was particle matter contamination & the recommended oil had a certain addative in it to deal with the byproduct of this engine.
My wife presently has a 1.4tdci ford fiesta which we also run strictly on BP & in fact every time she used supermarket fuel the consumption dropped from 53av to 46-47 every time.
There is a company that sells a product called DAE which you can find on the internet & when I put two cans in a tank full of fuel reduced the smoke considerably, much improved over some other brands.
Has your's been chipped? that does increase the smoke & does it get a regular blast? if it gets used round town for a week & then has a blast you can't see behind you! handy if you have a tailgater!
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