engine wont run transit mk 6 54 plate

[pepepluisje]

hi guys;

firstly im in france and the problem has been looked at in france,

i have a dead van, and will try to explain in as short a description as i can but wont be easy;

i have had the van for 13 years from new, and has been a great workhorse, never using any water, oil stays on the mark between yearly servicing !! changed the front wheel bearings, heater motor, and one power steering issue, and thats it; fantastic example of how a van looks after you if you look after it;;

HOWEVER, the story, i was driving home, all running fine, when i felt a blip in the throttle pedal, just as if it moved a half inch under my foot without me doing anything !! no other sign of anything untoward; it happened twice;

i got home, later that evening i went to drive the van and it sounded louder on tick over than normal ? to the point that i looked at the floor expecting to see a whole where the noise was coming through but of coarse there was not one; but it jut sounded louder , as i let it idle, i revved it slowly and it felt a bit hesitant, and running a little rough and you could feel it through the pedal also;

the more i revved it the more hesitant it sounded along with some unfriendly tapping noises which were intermitant but from where i have no idea;

then i started running rougher with white smoke from the exhaust and under the bonnet !! so switched off with the idea to get it to the garage in the morning

come morning i tried to start it but it would not fire, just white smoke everywhere, the garage came and it did start and still the smoke but it was running an they were revving it quite hard but apart from the smoke, and being lumpy, it ran, they said it might be the egr valve or something like that, and tried to see if it was drivable to get to the garage, but it had no power to pull up the slope of the drive and just chucked loads of white out the back o they collected it on transport

was not a dealer but they done some basic checks, changed the filter took the EGR valve or whatever it called off, but made no difference, checked the injectors and said they were fine !! but didn't really know what it was and suggested it may be the main pump; and shipped the van to a ford dealer,

they had it for two and half weeks, there report was that they did not know the fault, but it may be the main pump and it may not so they dont want to commit to saying one way or another; they also said they wanted to do a compression test but in order to do that, they needed to remove the glow plugs, but one was ok but the other was tight and they were worried about taking it out in case it broke, and if it did they would need to change also the cylinder head; so again they refused to continue any more investigation and asked me to remove the van from their premises !!

i now have the van back at my place, but whatever ford have done during their diagnostic, for want of another word, it will not start at all; it tries to fire now and again but refuses; the same puff of white comes out the exhaust and from a pipe on the right side of the engine, its just a wisp but can clearly be seen

this is a uk bought van not french by the way;

im not up to speed on this type of thing so i cant really check anything, but i am thinking perhaps they have already broken or snapped the glow plug and are trying to cover up, but i dont even know where they are and how to check etc;

i cant imagine at 13 years old and 280.000km on the clock that this van as good as it has been , warrents spending thousands on it ??? but does anyone have an idea what t could be and if i could carry out any simple checks ??

the van was working perfect before the sudden failure

bob

[ned]

Firstly is it a,

Tdci or tddi?
2.0l or 2.4l?
Has any of the garages read any fault codes?

[andz327]

Sounds like the timing chain has jumped a tooth or two, when this happens it can damage the cylinder head /cam carrier, if you take the oil filler spout off and look in, if you get a 10mm spanner and see if any of the bolts you can see look slack, if yes then you have problems as it's a sign of timing chain jumped and caused damage

andZ3 Sony Z3

[dka]

Id agree with andz327, but without any DTC's it would be a lot harder to diagnose
It could be a number of things including fuel pump failure(depending on model)
Tapping from the front/top of engine would indicate that the valves are just bouncing around as the cam carrier bolts have taken the impact of a slipped chain(if that's whats happened) and busted out of the head
If there's a rattle from underneath the vehicle get under there and give the CAT a good couple of hits and see if the rattle is there , if so the CATS gone and that will also cause you to have power loss as the gasses are to restricted to exit
White smoke would normally be associated with unburnt fuel, which would be happening if the chain has jumped and busted the bolts and the valves cant seal so fuel is injected in and straight back out without combustion occurring or water in the fuel and as you said the filter has been changed then I guess that rules out water

[pepepluisje]

Firstly is it a,

Tdci or tddi?
2.0l or 2.4l?
Has any of the garages read any fault codes?

hi guys thanks for the replies; although not sounding good, it is a tdci 2.0, i have had no report on if there are any fault codes that have been reading i have been unable to communicate with the ford garage, they wont discuss in english with me and i ant discuss in french, they were not interested in anything;

i have not tried to look at anything as i dont know what im looking at really but from what you say it sounds rather a terminal problem, but as it wont start now after coming out of fords,i am wondering if they have made matters worse, ?
is there any way of checking the timing without the engine being able to start ?

[pepepluisje]

just to add to the last; if it is the chain that has slipped; would it just be a case of re timing it and tightening the bolts again or is life not that simple ?, ans i assume if any on the bolts are loose, that i cant just tighten them up either ?? please excuse my ignorance

bob

[ned]

2.0l fwd 125 tdci, if the pump was going you would have been having problems with it cutting out and limp mode for some time, so its looking more like what Andz said.

The van should still run without glow plugs, mine does, the tdci pumps break up inside over time but the van should still run, drain a bit of fuel out of the filter into a clean jar and check for metal filings/swarf, if none presents the pump should be ok.

As for checking the timing Andz is your best man for that advice as he just changed his chain. N

[pepepluisje]

2.0l fwd 125 tdci, if the pump was going you would have been having problems with it cutting out and limp mode for some time, so its looking more like what Andz said.

The van should still run without glow plugs, mine does, the tdci pumps break up inside over time but the van should still run, drain a bit of fuel out of the filter into a clean jar and check for metal filings/swarf, if none presents the pump should be ok.

As for checking the timing Andz is your best man for that advice as he just changed his chain. N

hi guys

actually the van is a 85 t260 not 125ps so dont know if that makes nay difference to your suggestions ? it is a duratorq di on the air filter box !!

the van was running perfect before it had this problem as i mentioned if was fine during the day, but what ever happened , happened when i turned it off, and when i started it that evening, i had the problem!! the glow plugs have not been working for about A year due to the link burning through twice and ford again not able to trace the fault (sounds a crap garage dont you think )

i will look in the filler cap first before i do any more then check the fuel , by the way the van has never gone into limp mode, ( did that model have that ? )

bob

[Altransit]

85ps is a Tddi, and is better news from a fuel system point of view, as they are less flakey than a Tdci, but makes it more likely that Andz is spot-on about the timing chain
These don't need glow plugs to start, and burnt out link wires will be caused by shorted plugs. Changing these can be hazardous, and possibly expensive so most garages won't get involved

[ned]

Disregard what I said about the fuel filter, that's for the tdci pump not tddi N

[pepepluisje]

hi guys

well i did check the fuel and it was clear anyway

i did look down the OIL FILLER cap but i cant see a thing s it is about 8in long with a kink, ( sounds familiar haha ), but impossible to see any bolts etc and perhaps was thinking of different engine layout

the cam belt was changed two year ago and have only done about 15000KM since then;

it looks awkward to get at and expect not a job for me to tackle, but what would be needed to be done to check if any damage has been done else where ? and would it need to go into the workshop or is it job that could be done by a mechanic sitting in my driveway ??

i dont like the idea of lifting the cover off the top of the head to check anything as looks a bit awkward and best left to more expierenced hands but is there anything obvious that may give away that more serious damage has already been caused; ??

[Altransit]

the cam belt was changed two year ago

Who did this for you .............................because it doesn't have a cam belt

[pepepluisje]

well it was the local garage where i live; i was having a service and i called in and they had the van on the ramp and he called me over and showed me the belt had a couple of cracks in it and although not bad, said it might make sense to change it sooner than later; it definately was the drive belt and i have just looked just now and its still there are you perhaps tinking of another model ? mine is 85 t260 DURATORQ DI engine

?? bob

[Altransit]

If you check my signature, you'll see that I have the same van with the same engine, and no, there are no diesel transits with cam belts, not since the Mk5 was replaced in 2000

[bambi mk 1]

well it was the local garage where i live; i was having a service and i called in and they had the van on the ramp and he called me over and showed me the belt had a couple of cracks in it and although not bad, said it might make sense to change it sooner than later; it definately was the drive belt and i have just looked just now and its still there are you perhaps tinking of another model ? mine is 85 t260 DURATORQ DI engine

?? bob

You are looking at the power steering belt me thinks or the alt belt if your mixing the crank with the cam