Smoking / Misfiring / Bad Fuel

[bgrey]

Hope this will help someone, somewhere, someday:

Nearly out of juice so filled up with Super at Sainsburys.
2 miles later, misfire and smoking developed, got home but that was it, very bad misfire.. lots and lots of grey / black smoke

Call out rescue company - refused to touch engine, he told me I had double Turbo failure (after 17k - don't think so). Said he'd lose his job if he messed anything up so off he went
Visit Ford dealer who advised Injectors are £285 a piece!!

THE SOLUTION
1 - Drained fuel tank (syphoned with a pipe, mouth = gagging)
2 - Filled with BP premium fuel
3 - Removed all 6 injectors - used an old battery, crocodile clips and a high pressure air jet from a small garage to 'blow' through each injector one by one. When you put power across the injectors you hear a small click = injector open, time to blast air through (helps if there are 2 of you!!)
4 - Car still slightly lumpy
5 - Change spark plugs (£25 eBay)
6 - THE INTERESTING BIT, under the inlet manifold, rear nearside tyre side you'll see a large vacuum hose, above the main fuel line to the injectors.. I accidently pushed it on TOO FAR (manual says push on & pull back 3mm)
When I removed the pipe the engine came back to life... then on pushing back it calmed down.. smoke disappeared after 10 seconds or so, the ECU sorted the rest out and she was fixed...

TOTAL COST - £25 for plugs, £3 on new o-rings for the injectors (Only halfords sell the o-rings), £10 to the old boy in the small garage... and 4 hrs trying to work out why the damn thing won't work!

Heres to a sunny weekend of shiny 'Smoke free' Nobs!

[Gadgeroonie]

good stuff

how low did the tank get ?

[bgrey]

I reckon with <5 miles to empty.. I put the old fuel in my Audi and she ran fine...
Always put the best fuel you can get, and don't run out

[Blu3R]

I think you'll probably find it was the fact you were very low anyway rather than the actual fuel you filled with but well done for sorting it out. Many would have had it recovered to a garage where their pants would have been removed.

[Jim O.]

Congrats on sorting out your problem!

bgrey said:

1 - Drained fuel tank (syphoned with a pipe, mouth = gagging)

Blech - that's a taste that won't go away! I usually just pop the fuel line from the injector rail, jam the fuel rail connector into a piece of rubber hose, stick the hose in a fuel container (or another car...), and power up the fuel pump by hooking it straight to the battery using some test leads, or by jumping the fuel pump relay. Easy to do with very little mess, and you don't get the "Why do you taste like gasoline?" question when you kiss the SO...

bgrey said:

6 - THE INTERESTING BIT, under the inlet manifold, rear nearside tyre side you'll see a large vacuum hose, above the main fuel line to the injectors.. I accidently pushed it on TOO FAR (manual says push on & pull back 3mm)
When I removed the pipe the engine came back to life... then on pushing back it calmed down.. smoke disappeared after 10 seconds or so, the ECU sorted the rest out and she was fixed...

Get a short piece of rubber hose (I think 10mm is the right inside diameter), cut it a little shorter than the nipple on the manifold, and slide it onto the nipple so that stupid 90 degree elbow won't slide on too far ever again...