Citroen C3 EGR/turbo problem

Most car shops sell fuel system cleaners , i found the best to be a tank of biofuel ,the amount of shit that got flushed out of my tank was unbelievable and the van was only twelve months old

Yup.

If it's not in the pipes then it's in your fuel filter & that clogs a lot faster than pipes.

Hi. When you say "fuel cleaner" do you mean a fuel additive? I have seen Redex, Wynne's, etc in the shops; I just wondered if one was any better than the rest?

Did you buy your biofuel from a pump or was it home made?

Thanks.

Thanks. Do you suggest I change the fuel filter? According to Haynes IIRC it should be changed by now (at 60000 miles?). When I tried to buy one I could find anyone selling the 1.4L 16v HDI version, other than the dealer and the price put me off. When the car was serviced professionally, they never changed the filter, saying it didn't need doing; how they knew that, I don't know.

Thanks.

PS. the engine light has just come back on with the same fault codes, so I guess there's more to it than just a leaky pipe! ;(

Check the EGR valve isn't sticking, & you could test if the filters clogged by measuring the pressure drop across it, but I've never seen or heard of it being done outside of the R&D phase, they're about £30 from a Bosch agent.

Sainsburies B30 , 30% biofuel

I have seen that at the pumps but it also says to check with the car manufacturer before using. Since I've had enough trouble with the car already, I wasn't brave enough to try it. Would it work with my car; which cars can't use it? What advantages/disadvantages are there over "traditional" diesel. The prices were the same when I saw it. TIA.

Most citroens can use it , call the dealership if your worried

You get slightly better mpg , lower emissions , it as a cleaning effect on the fuel system , they recomend you change the fuel filter after you run a tankful through the engine

My filter was black with sludge and crap after i run a tankful through on a vehicle that had only covered 24000 miles and was eighteen months old

Downside biofuel causes africans to starve as we nick all the crops for fuel

Also it tends to clog your fuel filter faster even on its own, other effects depend on the engine & fuel system, everybody who makes engines publishs the recommendations.

It only clogs the fuel filter if you havent run on bio before , thats because it has a cleaning action on the fuel system .

If you stick to bio then you wont have any filter issues

Infact most advise that you change your filter after you first run on bio

It tends to relocate crap that's already stuck to the inside of the fuel system to the fuel filter, yes

Yes. & almost all diesel manufacturers advise you to carry on changing it more often.

Thats a bit like how longs a piece of string though ,as filter changes vary between manufacturers , if your change is every 12000 shouldnt be a problem , any more than that then it may be sensible if your running on pure bio

On the b30 there shouldnt be to much of a problem

Yes & you can measure how long the piece of string is, e.g. for B30 Iveco drop the service change for the fuel filter by a 1/3.

Yes but citroen on the relays dont ( or they didnt 3 months ago ) and they run at 24000 mile intervals

It all depends on service intervals

Citroen , vaxuall and several other manufacturers also recomend shortened filter changes if you drive in dusty conditions or you cant be sure of the quality of fuel , they also offer different intervals for high milage low milage and stop start drivers

The ops best option is to talk to citroen technical

I think we're both in agreement about that :-) Citroen technical probably aren't though.

Thanks for the replies. I can understand why poor fuel might require more frequent fuel filter changes but why dusty conditions, or did you mean air filter change? How does stop start driving affect filters?

Who are they? The service dept. at my local garage or Citroen's head office?

Re. changing fuel filters when running on biofuel, why is it such an effective cleaner? Wouldn't there be a point after which it will have shifted all the dirt and you could revert to less frequent changes? What if the car was driven on bio from day one, there wouldn't be any dirt to shift, would that require frequent filter changes?

TIA

Both , in dusty conditions your fuel can get contaminated

The citroen garage to start with although they have a tech department in slough if you struggle with the dealer

It shifts most of the crap after a couple of tanks

What if the car was driven on bio from day one, there

It depends on sevice intervals and the quality of biofuel what mix it is b30 or b100

Bio b100 is not made on the same scale as nrmal desiel with the same checks

googles your freind here thier are plenty of sites that will give you all the details

Filters oly care how much fluid has passed through them, they're only specified as per 1000m as it's easy to measure, when you're testing them you work out how many 100s litres fluid will clog them, back guess that as a mileage & stick it in the service schedule, if you spend your life on the motorway then the estimate will be very conservative, drive it solely round town & it will have been optimistic.

Well they both ought to know. If your local garage doesn't know the difference between b5,b30,b100 & neat rapeseed oil then you need to talk to head office

It comes with its own dirt as well, in general slightly more of it than crude diesel. B30 gives about 3-5% less peak power on a gen set than real diesel in the summer. In the winter it's much more sensitive to temperature. (Winter diesel gives you 3-8% less power)

Many new vehicles can alter thier ignition mapping to suit B30 so you dont suffer any loss