I bought a 53 plate Citroen C3 1.4HDi SX diesel on saturday from a car dealers. Everything has been going great until last night, I was just about to reverse and the engine just cut off on me with no warning, It took a while for the engine to start up again and while doing so it was jumping with lots of smoke coming from the exhaust. I left it overnight to see if it was a one off thing but its doing it constantly this morning.
I've just come back from a friend who knows a bit about cars and he thinks its one of the injections (i think that's what he said anyway) he told me to ring the dealers i got it from and told me to tell them the symptoms are: Cutting out, smoking at exhaust, miss fire and heavy diesel knock.
When I rang them they said that its probably air in the fuel valve and to keep it running for 5 minutes, but doing that it hasn't made a difference!
Im going to ring them back but does anyone have any advice in case they fob me off,its not safe to drive and i have a funny feeling they wont come down to pick it up as the garage is a 40 minute drive away.
I got a
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Sorry you bought a French car. These diesel powered Citroens always very balky when they have to work hard, just like the French people that made them. The French also belch smoke, and knock a lot. They have instilled that feature into their cars. Good luck with your new lemon, homey!
I've run HDI's in various forms for over 10 years and they are probably the best on the market. Ford use them predominantly in all their range now.
The dealer must sort this for you but most likely air is entering the fuel feed system somewhere. There are very few things that will stop a diesel but that is one of them.
Also the HDI along with most modern motors has an EGR valve. This allows exhaust gas recycled into the inlet cycle and do give problems from time to time.
You are protected under the Sale of Goods Act (SOGA).
It is the dealer's responsibility to ensure that the vehicle is in proper working order for a reasonable amount of time after selling it to you.
There's far too much to go into here, but I strongly recommend you read a few posts over on the Consumer Action Group website (http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/forumdi...
The forum is frequented by professionals in the legal industry, automotive industry and insiders from various organisations. Should the dealer give you any hassle they will advise you on the appropriate steps to take to keep yourself in the right.
It's worth noting that the Consumer Action Group is very highly regarded, even by very large organisations. The AA and Vauxhall UK both have representatives who regularly post on the site in response to customer issues.
Sounds like a fuel problem. Could be something easy like the injectors need cleaning or the fuel filter needs replacing.
There is nothing wrong with these engines - mine has done 124000 miles.