tomkranz

Thanks for the reply, Paul - for the oil change, did the usual process: drain everything out, replace the filter, refill with oil. Engine was running fine before the oil and filter were changed, used standard 10W40 diesel stuff (Shell Helix). Someone previously had either overfilled it or spilt lots as there was oil spilled and pooled around the head and the glow plugs - I'd had a clean and a poke around and it wasn't leaking out of the engine. Garage had worked out there was no compression via diagnostics and then doing a compression test on each cylinder with a gauge. Thanks! TOM

So having replaced the fuel lifter, replaced the MAF, replaced the filters and given the barge an oil change, it started running very roughly, stalling, very difficult to start, and enough blue smoke out the back to cause the US to invade it. Limped down to my local garage who have identified zero compression on cylinder 1. I've got two real options: - pay the garage 4 hours labour to strip the engine down to identify root cause - get a recon engine My experience is with pre-common rail diesels and petrol engines, so I'm not sure how terminal this is? What are the more common reasons for total loss of compression on these engines? If it's likely to be something straightforward then it's probably worth stripping the engine and fixing it - however it could be terminal that would be wasted money that could instead go towards a recon engine with a 12 month warranty. For reference the engine has done 230k miles: I do a lot of high speed driving down to the south of France fully laden. Thanks, TOM

Thanks for the replies chaps. I've got a replacement fuel filter arriving next week as, with no history, I wanted to do a service on the car anyway. I'm also hunting down a new bleed screw - in the meantime will give the rubber bung idea a go. Will let you know how things progress - thanks again!

Hi everyone, I've recently acquired an 03 plate C5 2.0 HDi with 235k on the clock. We were coming back from a long motorway run on Boxing Day when the car lost all power and stalled, then refused to start. Belts all looked fine so assumed it was a fuelling issue. I've just replaced the lifter pump in the fuel tank, and the car will now start - however, it's very lumpy at idle, and after 5 mins or so will stall. It then refuses to start again for 10-15 minutes, cranking but failing to fire. There's no manual fuel pump primer, but doing the trick of turning the ignition on/off several times seems to help getting it started. Is there anything else that needs doing that I've forgotten/missed out? Looking at the fuel filter housing, where the bleed screw should be (on the front, pointing to the radiator) there's just an empty threaded hole. I've not touched that so I'm assuming it was always missing, but wouldn't that be introducing air into the system and causing these symptoms? I'm thrown because although a bit rough from cold it's been running smoothly since I got the car a few months ago - all that I've done apart from topping up the oil is to replace the fuel tank lifter. I have a diagnostics kit and software but my laptop battery is dead and so I can't do anything more involved until a new battery for it arrives next week. Thanks, TOM