Astra Van 1.7TDI - "a bit smokey"

HI,
Just wanted to run this by you guys that have experience on VX Astra Vans ( 1.7 TDI ) 54 plate / Diesels

Seems to run OK, done 125K. Starts OK but "seems to be a bit smokey".
Has had a diesel cleaner run through and service, no change.

I dont know much about Diesels at the moment, what would you suggest? Is it likely to need head check/rings?

Are they easy engines to remove - out the bonnet or drop from underneath?

Whats the procedure to bleed the fuel lines when re-fitting?

Cheers

what colour is the smoke ?

Hi.
Black smoke.
I believe it was struggling at the last MOT on emissions. They were advised to "put some diesel / fuel cleaner in & to rev the nuts off it" :roll:

Cheers.

I assume on that year its the later 16 valve CDTi 1.7 as opposed to the old 8 valve Isuzu 1.7 TD (one has the usual Vauxhall cam cover on the Isuzu has Izusu on the rocker cover)

I would say your first port of call would be a good service including airfilter. I assume it runs and drives alright?

If its the old Isuzu engine then its not unheard of for the fuel pump to be tweaked. That and there is a white ring mod on the pump which again lets more fuel in. This is done as an esy way to get more grunt out of the engine. Much the same as tweaking the pumps on the 2.8 Trooper/Frontera engine. Like the 2.8 if its done too much then you will get black smoke out the back when booting it.

If its the later CDTi engine then I would say your looking at a poor air/fuel mixture. Could be a number of things but black from memory means it is unburnt fuel and its running too rich. I do have an op-com system you can borrow to plug in and you can look at live data.

Try a new fuel filter n air filter, a bottle of stop smoke n another of diesel additive and take it for a good blast up a couple of junctions on the Mway bud, get it hot. If that does nothing, take the intercooler pipes off n see if n how much gunk is in there as it could be the oil seals on the turbo seeping???????

black smoke is unburnt fuel. so id be looking at full service and check the pump hasnt been messed with

Hi all thanks for your replies.

What's involved in a diesel service,? I gather there would be some fuel line Bleeding?

Oil & filter,
Air & fuel / ( particlate ) Filter?
Glow plugs
Clean out EGR valve / exhaust Manifold?

Is there anything else or specific to this Engine?

Thanks.

Might be worth checking the MAF sensor? If its on its way out the ECU might not see it as buggered (ie no eml). So try swapping it with a known good one?

is there a specific way to swap the fuel filter?

I don't know anything about Diesels.. and dont want to knacker the fuel pump..

If you know what to do/How to change would be great.. Do you need to bleed these?

On preliminary check there was:
1. About 1 litre too much oil
2. 3 litre's of coolant missing
3. Alternator Outputting 12.75v
4. Battery @ 11.75v
5. Missing clips from the air intake - turbo
6. a few other missing bolts etc..

:roll:

As there are a load of these pumps on ebay for around £150 I think we can safely assume it hasn't got the vp44 pump (thank gawd for that!)
It would still make sense to clamp pipe fore and aft of the filter housing then unclamp the supply once you have fitted the new filter then once the bowl is full unclamp the pipe between filter and pump. Crack an injector or two and see what happens

It may be worth checking to see if there's a shraeder valver on the pump before you dive in :thumbup:

As boxy says. These engines are used everywhere and I would of thought that many of them have run out of fuel by the everyday driver. Just clamp fore and aft and fill the filter before attaching. Crank and go.

This truck was "serviced" very recently..
So I could not understand how the heck they missed this... :shock:

Replaced the leaky pipe and added 3L of coolant, there was 1l too much oil and that didn't look new either!

With a bit of digging, the running rough could be attributed to a VAC valve with a pipe that had snapped off..

Ordered a new one, hopefully this will resolve the problem, will fit it Friday..

There's a few pipe clips missing from other coolant pipes and from the Air intake on the turbo... I really don't know how some people stay in business.

:crazy:

@RobFog

True!

It has been reported to be running much better since the above issues were fixed.
Was feeling quite pleased with myself :dance:

.... until this afternoon when this arrived

Then a call shortly after saying "it wont start, whats wrong??"

Knowing the alternator was only putting out 12.75v I thought that the battery might not have enough juice to make everything work so went over to check it out jump leads in hand.. only to find that it had been filled with unleaded fuel :roll:

disconnected the fuel line and attached it to one of these: ( probably the best £3.99 I ever spent ) !!

The next few minutes involved pumping unleaded fuel out of the tank and into 20L jerry can's.

blew through the diesel lines, cleaned out the filter housing, replaced the diesel filter & seals, re-filled with 10L of fresh diesel and 2 fuel line cleaners from VX..

Bled the system and fired her up.

[smug mode] -Resumed.

Doh

Well done for fixing it ... again.