Another diesel starting thread.

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themildbunch
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by themildbunch »

Lucas Boost Diaphragm replacement...

The seller has seal kits too, is a diesel specialist and generous with advice...

I think the waxy diesel depends on the additives used by your diesel supplier... I doubt around here it gets cold enough for it to be a big problem.
I tend to use B100 from a trusted local supplier who's careful about using additive in the colder months.
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by mat_fenwick »

BX Bandit wrote:These Can let air in too on the thermostat type valve on the lower left hand hand side of the filter housing, toward the back. I really need to put up a piccy.
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by KevR »

themildbunch wrote:Lucas Boost Diaphragm replacement...

The seller has seal kits too, is a diesel specialist and generous with advice...

I think the waxy diesel depends on the additives used by your diesel supplier... I doubt around here it gets cold enough for it to be a big problem.
I tend to use B100 from a trusted local supplier who's careful about using additive in the colder months.
Excellent, thanks - pretty sure I've bought from that seller before and as you say, very helpful and knowledgable. I'll get one for the grey one.

I think you're right about the additives/temperatures. It's not usually that cold round here and AFAIK so long as you buy from stations with a high turnover and don't leave it sitting about it shouldn't be a problem as after a certain point in the year it's all got additives in for cold weather. Removing the pre-heater gives two fewer joints to leak, and makes hose replacement a bit easier as well.
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by BX Bandit »

saintjamesy89 wrote:She does use water, and oil, and LHM. But fairly sure nothing is being burnt, as the engine is always black underneath (subframe will never rot on this one!) and it drips onto peoples drives/the road.

Had a pretty good look at the expansion tank a couple of months ago, had to replace the stat housing-to-front-pipe sealant ring, ran it until the fan came on to remove air from the system, had very few bubbles even then. Usually check fluids weekly, and top water up every other week or so and oil similarly. Had the radiator warning light on on the dash twice now, when I forgot to check the water for a while :oops:

The oil I put down to slightly worn piston rings, i've never seen blue smoke when the engines warm.
Shouldn't be using water really mate. The expansion tank can be almost empty when cold, but not enough to bring the warning lights on!
So it's going somewhere, which could be something as simple as a weeping joint (e.e. rad to hose), a leaking heater matrix or a headgasket/porous head. You said some of the pipe work was furred up, is it white and mayonaisey?
Remove the header tank cap and run engine, look for bubbles in the water, but dont get too close at first...
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by themildbunch »

BX Bandit wrote:
saintjamesy89 wrote:She does use water, and oil, and LHM. But fairly sure nothing is being burnt, as the engine is always black underneath (subframe will never rot on this one!) and it drips onto peoples drives/the road.

Had a pretty good look at the expansion tank a couple of months ago, had to replace the stat housing-to-front-pipe sealant ring, ran it until the fan came on to remove air from the system, had very few bubbles even then. Usually check fluids weekly, and top water up every other week or so and oil similarly. Had the radiator warning light on on the dash twice now, when I forgot to check the water for a while :oops:

The oil I put down to slightly worn piston rings, i've never seen blue smoke when the engines warm.
Shouldn't be using water really mate. The expansion tank can be almost empty when cold, but not enough to bring the warning lights on!
So it's going somewhere, which could be something as simple as a weeping joint (e.e. rad to hose), a leaking heater matrix or a headgasket/porous head. You said some of the pipe work was furred up, is it white and mayonaisey?
Remove the header tank cap and run engine, look for bubbles in the water, but dont get too close at first...
When I got my TD it seemed to run fine, had a few bubbles but the definitive HG test was that from a cold start, after 30 secs of running stopped and after opening expansion tank there was a psst of pressure... would have probably run fine for a lot longer though and didn't use much water or have milky oil...
They also leak oil from the back of the block down the cam belt side from the HG too - my other BX diesel does that a little..
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by KevR »

Just ordered a couple of BCV diaphragms and some other stuff from the seller mentioned above, including a new top cover for a Lucas pump ( to cure the leak round the spindle that's so common). Worth knowing that if you contact him in advance he's happy to group stuff together for postage, and give a discount if you're buying several things. He gave me 20% which was a significant saving.
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by saintjamesy89 »

Pretty sure she leaks water, I think there were three water leaks/weeps, one i've fixed, the other two are behind the engine and i've never been able to see anything behind here, there's little access and it's very dark!

Pretty sure i've done the bubble test before, but i'll do it again anyway. Pipework is gunked up, but with definitely black oily gunk rather than the creamy alternative.

Edit: Worth a note, HG done by previous previous owner roughly two years ago or more.
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by BX Bandit »

mat_fenwick wrote:
BX Bandit wrote:These Can let air in too on the thermostat type valve on the lower left hand hand side of the filter housing, toward the back. I really need to put up a piccy.
This do ya?

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That's the fella, thanks Matt.
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by citsncycles »

If it's leaking oil down the back of the engine, chances are the heater hoses have soaked the oil up and have gone soft. If the hose availability for Timex is anything to go by, chances are that little if anything in the way of hoses are available from Citroen - I just bought some lengths of silicone hose and used that, which I gather has the bonus of being more oil resistant too.
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by themildbunch »

citsncycles wrote: I just bought some lengths of silicone hose and used that, which I gather has the bonus of being more oil resistant too.
Yes, I should probably do this too, but what about the hoses which have a different ID at each end? Custom made hoses get pricey unless a batch of say bottom hoses was made - I think silicone would stretch a little, maybe up / down 1mm or so.
It could get messy with different joiners, etc and more areas to leak!
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by saintjamesy89 »

citsncycles wrote:If it's leaking oil down the back of the engine, chances are the heater hoses have soaked the oil up and have gone soft. If the hose availability for Timex is anything to go by, chances are that little if anything in the way of hoses are available from Citroen - I just bought some lengths of silicone hose and used that, which I gather has the bonus of being more oil resistant too.
I think the leak is lower down, with the intercooler off I had a good feel around behind the top bit. Rocker gasket is dry, so I expect the leak to be more in the turbo area.

Not had any starting issues since last week. How very odd!
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by DavidRutherford »

themildbunch wrote:
citsncycles wrote: I just bought some lengths of silicone hose and used that, which I gather has the bonus of being more oil resistant too.
Yes, I should probably do this too, but what about the hoses which have a different ID at each end? Custom made hoses get pricey unless a batch of say bottom hoses was made - I think silicone would stretch a little, maybe up / down 1mm or so.
It could get messy with different joiners, etc and more areas to leak!
I've come across this issue on many vehicles in the past, and there are a couple of ways of attacking it.

Rubber hoses (even silicone ones) will stretch a reasonable amount, probably more than 1mm. The trick is to fit them warm, with a very small smear of detergent on the coupling surface. They will also compress down quite a bit under hose-clip force, so you may be able to get away with one size hose if the difference isn't very much from one end to the other.

The other way is to use a hose that fits at the large end, and then use a "slice" of the old hose on the small end stub. The larger hose then fits over this, leaving you with a largeish hose fitted to what looks like something too small. This is ok if you have plenty of space at the small end.

Worst case scenario is to have to make up an adaptor. Yorkshire fittings on copper pipe work remarkably well, as the solder ring on the fitting makes an excellent ridge for the pipe to sit over and prevent the joint coming apart. Never had a failure on one of these either, and the range of copper pipe is usually close-enough to standard automotive sizes.
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by citsncycles »

When I was playing with Timex's hoses I changed the following:

Short hose between the manifold on the back of the engine (where the bottom hose goes) and the steel pipe that runs across the back of the engine - different diameters but I bought to match the smaller one and it stretched to fit ok.

Hose from the manifold mentioned above to the heater - This has a bend in but I managed to use a straight piece of silicone and by trial fitting and careful trimming ofthe length managed to get it to fit without kinking the hose.

I also changed the blanking cap that's fitted to the same manifold but this was about the only part I got from Citroen.

I bought my silicone hoses from Forge Motorsport up in Gloucester, although they said they didn't usually supply over the counter. Another firm I've used in the past is Merlin Motorsport at Castle Combe, who are even happy to help with the most obscure of requests, such as finding a spring that I could fit inside the original one in a 2CV spring can to up the load capacity!
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by Pete the Pointer »

My TXD Turbo starts on the key but but won't stop - I have to stall it. Where should I start looking?
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Re: Another diesel starting thread.

Post by Dave_16v »

Quite possibly a stuck stop solenoid, it open and closes with on /off as power goes to it. Sometimes giving it a tap may free it.

Edit

After a bit of searching using the word solenoid, I found the thread below. It may help.👍

viewtopic.php?p=227961&hilit=Solenoid+Txd#p227961
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