1.5dci no start issues

[Rystar]

Hi All, realise I’ve been absent on here for a while but everything has been ticking over well and life taken over until recently. Having some issues with my daily and I’m stuck on it now scratching my head. It’s a long one so apologies in advance…

Mk2 DCI 80, had it for about two years and it’s been running fine etc, couple weekends ago went for a drive and it seemed like it was hesistant to go above 3000rpm in 4th/5th and was generally sluggish, felt like fuel starvation. The car would either go into a ‘limp mode’ (generally low power) with no codes or would cut out entirely giving misfire codes on every cylinder. Quick dip of the key and it was back running, albeit with the 3000rpm issue still present.

Fuel filter changed, no change, cut filter open to check for metal and nothing. Fuel sender unit removed and checked for metal, nothing.

Parked it up that night, came back the next day to start it and it was really hesitant to fire up, long cranking times and numerous attempts normally followed by a ‘rail pressure at maximum limit’ fault code, glow plug light and blinking red engine stop light. It seemed to help pumping the primer bulb to get it going. IMV and Rail Sensor both changed, same issues persisted.

Ran the car neat on Diesel Purge from a bottle, car ran on this stuff for about 30mins. After this and switching back to tank diesel and priming to make it start, the car had a cylinder 3 misfire. The misfire seemed to go so performed a leak-off test at this point into coke bottles and injectors 1 and 3 had high leakage. Whole set of refurbished injectors (part number matched) ordered from PF Jones

Non return type primer bulb fitted at this stage

Injectors fitted, lines primed by cracking the nuts loose at the top with injectors unplugged. Fuel seen at the injector so tightened back up, still no start. Injectors then coded by me via DDT2000 and ‘motor adaptions’ reset just incase, still no start. Sometimes ‘rail pressure at maximum limit’ code appears after long cranking attempts.

Crank sensor removed and cleaned, no change.

Checked in DDT2000, I can send signals to each injector via output tests, all four injectors can be heard buzzing. Checking the status screen, on crank I am getting low rpm in the low 200’s and between 300-400bar rail pressure detected. Common Leak-off also checked into coke bottles with about 30s of cranking, probably about 5 drops of diesel made it to the bottle

Rail sensor plug checked, with key on I am getting 5v on the outer two pins, centre appears to be ground. IMV Plug checked, 12v on one pin with key on, other is ground.

I managed with the help of a mate to get it started off some new diesel in a bottle with lots of easy start and it would barely run, cylinder 4 would always misfire and unplugging the injector makes no change to the operation of the engine.

I gave the timing a quick eye up as I didn’t have the pins to hand, and the top half at least looked in time (hole in cam sprocket seemed to line up with hole in head visually, at an angle. Fuel pump diamond on sprocket lined up with bolt)

And that’s as far as I’ve gotten, I am still stuck up to this point. The car will ’run’ off easy start and compression ‘seems’ good. Is there anything glaringly obvious to anyone that I haven’t tried? Or even any mistakes I’ve made? I have exhausted all my knowledge on this now and I’m debating what to do with it

thanks in advance!

 

[Brigsy]

In for replys. Rail pressure when cranking sounds somewhere near so it must be firing the injectors.

Might be comp test time and pin it up to check timing is right. Ive heard of a similar issue and pistons were a bit melty so comp was right down. The engine in my kangoo was the same, apparently just stopped and 3x pistons were melted.

 

[Rystar]

In for replys. Rail pressure when cranking sounds somewhere near so it must be firing the injectors.

Might be comp test time and pin it up to check timing is right. Ive heard of a similar issue and pistons were a bit melty so comp was right down. The engine in my kangoo was the same, apparently just stopped and 3x pistons were melted.

Well that sounds like deep joy 😅 is it possible to do a compression test through the injector ports? The previous owner snapped two glow plugs in the head so I can’t just whip them out unfortunately.
I’m going to try and find the motivation to pin it up tomorrow and see what the score is, I’ve seen online people talking about these shearing keyways and such, I’ve never come across that with a car so will it be obvious to spot if that’s the case?

 

[Brigsy]

If cambelt has gone or jumped for whatever reason it usually shears the keyway off the cam pulley. Does it crank over ok? Ive no experience on comp testing these but prob can be done via injector hole.

Easy engine to strip if you need to get in deep.

 

[Rystar]

If cambelt has gone or jumped for whatever reason it usually shears the keyway off the cam pulley. Does it crank over ok? Ive no experience on comp testing these but prob can be done via injector hole.

Easy engine to strip if you need to get in deep.

Ahh okay gotcha that makes sense to me. It seems to crank over fairly normal, not too fast not too slow and doesn’t sound like someone’s dropped a bag of 2p’s down the oil filler neither. I shall look into the comp test route and see what I can find. It does look a simple lump from the diagrams but I don’t know if I have the time or space to rebuild it if required so it would probably be sent away if that was the case

 

[Brigsy]

Keep us updated on findings

 

[Rystar]

Been a while since I looked at this…

Couple months back I ordered up a set of timing pins, had a go at checking the timing and everything slotted in nicely and I’m satisfied it’s still in time. A mate of mine who’s done a fair bit of work on 1.9dci vans said to check if the turbo was seized as he’s seen that cause a no start, took the intake side pipe work off and it still spins freely and such.

It’s been sat dead for months as I’ve ran out of ideas, I couldn’t find any info about compression testing through the injector ports and the kit I ordered to do the test doesn’t seem to have a friendly way of doing this via anything but the glow plug holes.

I’m half tempted to parts cannon it and replace the fuel pump as they can be had for £300ish new now, but I’m not convinced from the diagnostics figures that it’s at fault?

Probably flogging a dead horse, but any suggestions bar stripping the engine?

 

[Trojanhawrs]

This might seem obvious but have you checked the battery is ok?

 

[Rystar]

This might seem obvious but have you checked the battery is ok?

Nothing wrong with going for the obvious!
But yeah battery had been replaced in the last year previous to this happening after a total failure. Fully charged multiple times during all this and multiple attempts with jump leads attached to another car too and still no luck unfortunately

 

[Trojanhawrs]

Is it possible there's air being drawn in the suction line? Assuming if you were running off a bottle you were using a small bit of good hose, so maybe unlikely.

Could the rail be choked?

 

[vtec-e]

Have you tried asking on the Independent Renault Forums ? A couple of knowledgeable diesel posters on there who may be able to help. Plus lots of related threads. Have you got some fault codes ? And a bit left field, have you checked the wiring loom for any cracked / broken wires going to sensors, and tested the engine fuses ? Some people on there have found this to be the cause of non-running.

My daily Mk3 is a petrol, so I cant help you much ....

 

[Brigsy]

Did you ever check timing and compression? My old kangoo engine had a melted piston, similar misfire apparantly then just stopped.