The 306 is playing up again. The last few days has seen it getting harder and harder to start. On cold starts it would fire on 3 cylinders, belching out white smoke from the tailpipe. I changed the glow plugs today but this seems to have made the problem worse. Now it will fire and stall, several times until it will eventually run.
Once started, it runs fine, plenty of power and it is not using any coolant or oil (Headgasket was done 6K ago).
I thought it could be air getting into the fuel system somewhere, so I pumped the priming bulb several times. There is a slight weep from the top of the fuel filter housing, obviously if fuel gets out here air will get in. SO, my question is.... If air is getting into the system this will obviously affect the starting. Why though, does it smoke like a good'un when it eventually fires? Is there likely to be an underlying problem?
Cheers
Ross
1.9 XUD9TE in a 1995 306
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try putting sylicone over the leak, air will cause you bad starting problems...
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>>Why though, does it smoke likea good'un when it eventually fires? Is there likely to be an underlying problem? Cheers Ross 1.9 XUD9TE in a 1995 306
Because of the leak the air/fuel balance is upset and unburned fuel accumulates. It then burns either as excess fuel or in the tailpipe when the engine fires.
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****UPDATE****
The car is now stuck in Sainsburys carpark. I changed the fuel filter and seal in my this morning and it ran ok. Came out to go home, and it wouldn't even fire. Fuel IS getting through as whilst cranking it smokes well. My guess is the glowplug relay could be cream-crackered. I tried bypassing the relay but the jump lead I had on me was too big to fit onto the glowplugs, cos its obscured by hoses and fuel pipes. I could scream I really could.
Any ideas anybody??? Im getting pretty desperate now its stranded.
Cheers
Ross
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Ross, When it "ran OK", how long was this for? If it was only for a few minutes, it might be worth reading on ...>
What do the seals look like? Is one a flat washer and the other conical? If so, you will probably find that the flat one should go on top of the filter element and the conical one at the bottom with the small end facing upwards so that the element sits on it.
If the filter seals were put in incorrectly, especially if the conical one has been fitted at the top, they are likely to block the flow so that the engine runs for three or four minutes on the residual fuel and then stops. When a bit more fuel seeps through as the engine is cranked, this might burn incorrectly and cause smoking but not be enough to allow the engine to start up and run.
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Dizzy,
The filter only has 1 large seal at the top (it is not the filter with the integral pump). It ran OK, meaning it ran fine!! It is a 15 minute drive to the supermarket and that involves some 3 miles or so at 70mph on the dual carrigeway....
Well I have narrowed it down to a preheater problem. Changing the glowplugs made no difference so maybe the control unit is fried. I will investigate tommorrow.
Ross
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Ross,
I agree that the filter should be OK if the engine ran fine for 15 minutes. I was just following advice given to me when I first started meddling with cars: "Always check the last thing you touched first".
When you check the control unit, no doubt you will check the feed to the glowplugs as well. I remember a friend changing glowplugs and relay on a different make of car only to find that the fault was corroded electrical (bus-bar) connections.
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