Identifying a 'chuffing' sound from the engine bay. Diesel

A chuffing sound from the engine bay of a Diesel powered citroen C3 may be caused by a leaky injector seal.

It may be a ticking sound or a clicking sound from the engine top.

This video clip may help you identify the sound:







There may be evidence of diesel coating the surrounding injector pipe work and inlet manifold. See the discoloured injector pipe (second from the left).

According to Haynes, you need to remove the inlet manifold from the Citroen C3 1.4Hdi 16V (2002) to renew the leaking injector seal.

In a Citroen design oversight, there is just not quite enough room to remove the injector clamp nuts and clamp without removing the inlet manifold. A slight modification of the inlet manifold in situ allows removal of no.2 (and possibly other) injectors without removing the inlet manifold.

A Quick step by step guide to replacing the Injector fire seal (special copper washer available on eBay) on a Citroen C3 1.4HDi 16v (2002).

Disconnect the Battery and remove the sound shield to reveal the injectors.
Remove all the injector connector and leak-off pipes

(The injector connectors need a squeeze and pull, the leak-offs are clipped on and need a pull to remove)
Use a 17mm Crows foot spanner (click here to get one) to slacken the injector pipe nut (use it again later to tighten the nut to the correct torque).

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Use a 7mm Ball End Socket to slacken the injector clamp mounting nuts.

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Remove the injector pipe clamp that clamps the injectors pipes in pairs.


A problem you may encounter is that the injector clamp nut cannot be removed because it is restricted by the plastic inlet manifold. To avoid having to remove the inlet manifold it is possible to grind away a small amount of excess plastic that makes up the inlet manifold. Take off enough plastic that is required to remove the clamp nut and clamp, but no more.

bakersvill has some extra information which can be used in place of grinding any plastic away. The post can be seen in full in his reply to this post and in part in this quote below.

bakersvill wrote:A few notes that might help, you can undo the nuts holding the air intake down and lift it back just enough
to get full access to the hidden nuts.

Try to remove the 'hidden' injector clamp nut, this will reveal how much material needs to be removed from the inlet manifold to remove the nut. (More will be required to be removed to free the clamp.) If you are happy with the quantity to be removed, start up the Dremel tool (from Amazon - click here).

Both clamp nuts can now be removed, the injector nut freed, the injector connection capped off and the injector pipe sealed from dirt ingress with the fingers of rubber gloves

Try to remove the injector clamp, if it won't come off, Dremel a little more away - be sensible and take ONLY what you need. The clamp can be angled to allow removal with less plastic (inlet manifold) material removal.

Remove the injector clamp nut and withdraw the injector! (unless its stuck, then use penetrating fluid and wiggle the injector using a spanner and the flats on the side of the injector).

With the injector removed, now is the best time to have your injector tested - send away service (here). The service includes an ultrasonic clean, fuel delivery measurement, coil resistance measurement, injector response time measurement, back-leak flow (leakoff) and temperature measurement, backed up with a printout of the results. If you are removing more than one injector, carefully mark each injector so they go back in the correct cylinders when refitting them because each injector is coded by the number on the injector to injection ECU to obtain the best performance from each injector.

The picture above shows a diagnostic screen with the 4 injectors performance attribute coding matched to the ECU positions 1 to 4, get each injector back into the cylinder it came from and you won't need to even think about this.


Very delicate and very expensive - be very careful!

Look here for a Replacement C3 HDi 16v Injector (rare, click here)

and here for a for a possible C3 HDi 16v Injector (1.4 Diesel)

Pull out the injector and check for the copper - fire seal- washer. If its not there, its down the hole. Hook it out, you will need a new one, available cheaply from here (click)
The tool is a length of scrap acrylic, with a taper filed on the end. The picture shows the tool with the copper fire seal washer attached (covered with black gunk) after removal.

There is a proper tool designed for removing and installing the copper seals (click here). to find out more.

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Clean everything that is covered with the black substance.
A Socket Set extension bar is used to stop the gunk getting into the cylinder.


Refit is reverse of removal, with a new copper washer, injector clamp ring and injector clamp nuts. Check for leaks, road test, smile.


Parts cost less than £20, took me half a day. Cleaning the gunk took ages. The engine now sounds like it used to and has more power. (back to normal).

I added 1 measure of redex diesel treatment (amazon) to a half tank of fuel considering how dirty the injector looked.

If you don't have some of the less common tools, you can get a 17mm Crows Foot 3/8" Adaptor from here (Amazon.com)

and a long 7mm Ball End Hex 3/8" Socket Adaptor from here (Amazon)

If you need a Torque Wrench (Used to tighten the Injector Clamp Nuts and Injector Pipe Nuts correctly), have a look here - on Amazon.

Thanks for the excellent post, I've just had new injectors fitted and I have, this noise now, looks like another job to do

nobby66 wrote:Thanks for the excellent post, I've just had new injectors fitted and I have, this noise now, looks like another job to do

Hi Nobby66 I'm thinking of changing my Injector on my c3 with the help of this post but what do you mean when you said you had new injectors fitted and THEN you had the noise

ive just followed this step by step.thankyou.
A few notes that might help, you can undo the nuts holding the air intake down and lift it back just enough
to get full acsess to the hidden nuts.
i cleaned the injector and put a little copper grease on.
i cleaned out the hole were injector sits with a garden hose connected to a hoover,Worked a treat.
When it was all back together it sounded like a truck and in eco and em light was on and off after
a quick drive giving it a booting the ecu then adapted and its been running sweet .thanks

I have had a fuel injector leaking on No 2 cylinder on 1.4 HDI 8 valve rather than strip it down decided to tighten the bolt hold the clamp easier said than done. I tried a box key 13mm then 1/4 socket the socket was to large in length out came the angle grinder ground a small amount of the ends several goes later bolt tightened now running no leaks and chuffing. Just to share this tip with you all.

i have attempted this and found after removing the bracket nuts the bracket itself wouldnt move.

lots of dried gunk all over it and around it.

i removed as much as i could hoovered the dried scraped out bits but the bracket is either wedged with the gunk against the injector itself [a 3mm gap with 1cm drop around injector to clamp is filled with gunk]
or
its underneath the bracket against the engine block

anyone have an idea how to loosen it, obviously brute force may damage the injector and as you know the area to work around is very very tight

thanks

paulg wrote:i removed as much as i could hoovered the dried scraped out bits but the bracket is either wedged with the gunk against the injector itself [a 3mm gap with 1cm drop around injector to clamp is filled with gunk]
or
its underneath the bracket against the engine block

Hi paulg, I would think the bracket is stuck to the injector with gunk and the injector is stuck in the head with the gunk too. Try soaking them with lots of plusgas. As you mention, be careful with any force, some small, slight taps with a hammer on the bracket would be better then heavy levering or hammering on the injector. The plusgas can take a while to work and tapping and more spraying can all help.

There is also a pouring/brushing/squirting version of plusgas which may be easier to manage.

c3car

thanks very much. will grab a bottle of that stuff and give it a whirl