My 98 Citroen Synergie 1.9TD has been giving me grief since it had it clutch changed in December.
I got a bloke to do the clutch and I couldn't grumble considering the little amount he wanted (£60, but I ended up paying another £20 as a sweetener ). He made one little mistake which surfaced the day later, the earth strap on the gearbox was loose so it obviously wouldn't start. I traced and fixed this but noticed the engine noise/smoke had gone up and the performance has dropped.
I chose to post in the andyspares forum to see what I could up with. My post is backed up with pics of the engine bay :-
I've since done a bit more research which brings me to this fresh post.
My 1.9TD was one of the last produced since the car is a November 98, i.e prior to the HDI engine. The car does have an ECU with an EOBD 16-pin connector under the dash. Its not just for things like airbags because when I unplugged the TDC sensor and the cold start advance solenoid plugs, the ECU light comes on. ( incidentally the light isn't on during this problem )
I've got two scenarios in mind at the moment and I'd appreciate any feedback on these plus any other suggestions as to the cause.
1) Could the loose earth strap problem (after the clutch change) have bugged the ECU and its sending an out-of-synch signal to the pump ? Is it possible to manually reset the ECU like by disconnecting the battery,,,,or does that sound too easy...2) As I did with my Audi80 TDI, I change the oil every 10k on this car and use Millers XFE full synthetic oil. Its now got 120K miles and due a service, but I've noticed this winter that the dipstick chamber is very sludgy/watery. Some people tell me that the 1.9TD should have an oil change every 6K but my Citroen service book definately says 10k intervals. Anyway, I'm wondering whether a sludge/crap build up has somehow effected the needle lift sensor on no3? injector that feeds the ECU. This crazy sounding theory came from something I read about overfilling oil in VW TDI engines creating a lift sensor failure.
I'd like to venture into connecting cars to computers. I saw one of these cables on Ebay which is an EOBD - RS232 unit. Can anyone advise whether this would work with Citroen/Renault/GM/Ford cars ?
Thx