Fiesta 1.4 TDCi Zetec 'Misfiring' - Possible Injector Seal Failure?

[rxylab]

Hi folks,

First time posting here but have been lurking for a while.

We have had the Fiesta for around 5 years from about 55k miles from my wife's sister. It'd been running quite well but it was going through that age of money being sunk into it for replacing things. Anyway, over the past year to year and a half the car has had a very intermittent fault. So from the top:

The first time the problem arose was when my wife was doing her usual commute to work (7 miles one way) and the car had lost all power and the engine malfunction warning came on. This was the first time anything like this happened, I hadn't noticed anything unusual previous to this. It was taken to the garage that we've always taken it to and they couldn't find anything wrong with it as the problem seemed to have gone away. They brought in a specialist to diagnose the problem and performed an ecu update. Then the problem seemed to have happened a lot less if at all. The problem came back probably a few months later but not as aggressively. I had noticed that there was loss of power largely only on the motorway at higher speeds, 70mph+, it felt like misfiring. This was still very intermittent and I never pushed for a diagnosis since over the past year the car had been in for a service and MOT, and the garage never found a fault.

Fast forwarding to today. The fault came back in full force. Last night the car lost all power and we broke down on the motorway, the engine malfunction warning came on. The RAC guy came to have a look (he was great btw) and he got it running so we could go back home. His report showed two faults:

Diagnostic Codes
RAC DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM
System Type: ENGINE SYSTEM TEST/VALUES
Name: F6JB - TDCI - 1.4L - 50 (68)
DTC: P0380,Glowplug, control circuit
DTC: P1203,Cylinder #3 Injector Circuit Open/Shorted

He cleared the P1203 error by disconnecting and reconnecting the connector to the injectors. We drove back for an hour and a half home, doing around 70mph, and the car misfired (best I can describe it) very lightly around 3-4 times. We went out today also, just around town never going over 30mph and there was a couple of points where the car would misfire. I decided to have a little look around the engine and tried to get to the injectors, but I'm too much of a novice to get to it, I noticed a sound much like squirting every revolution. I had noticed this sound before but dismissed it but my wife insisted that she noticed it since the first time the problem arose since a year and a half ago. I sent a sound recording to my brother, who's quite a dab hand at cars, and he seemed to think that it could be a faulty seal for an injector.

I have a booking for the same garage on Monday but apprehensive because I don't think they will know what it will be since they never diagnosed it previously. So, could somebody give some advice and possible a specialist in Bristol?

I appreciate the time anybody takes to reply and I'll try to give more info if they request it. Thanks!

[isetta]

on my old 1.6tdci all of the injector seals began leaking at different times. I fixed them each time by doing the injector retaining nuts up tighter, they definitely were looser then they should have been. When the injector seals are leaking people usually describe it as a chuffing sound on tickover. This can be accompanied by a puddle of diesel fuel around the injector that cooks from the heat turning into a tar like black goo and smelling when the engine is hot.  I am not saying just doing them up tighter will always fix it. If it's been doing it a while it is less likely as the blow by past the seal may have eroded the (copper washer) seal and seating a bit. But I don't think a leaking seal would cause an error code relating to the injector circuit. 

Warning , if doing up tighter don't do it too much , if you snap a stud, strip a thread in that position it is a real problem

[isetta]

don't know if you searched and read this old post

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/88119-fault-p1203-injector-intermittent-cough/

[zain611]

Here's a video of an faulty injector seal on a 1.6 hdi engine just to help if your engine might be making that chuffing sound. 

1.6 hdi faulty injector seals

I also forgot an easy way to check like isetta said is to check around the injectors or on the cover which covers the injectors for any black tar like glue as this is diesel which has baked on there. 

[james_60]

the 1.4 is notorious for wearing out injector seals. but get it done soon or Block damage will occur and that is permanent.

 

Jamie