Ford Fiesta Zetec 1.4 Tdci Injectors Issue 56 Shape Onwards

[MrT]

Ford Fiesta Zetec 1.4 TDCI Injectors Issue 56 shape onwards

Hello to all and before I start I know how much of a pain this job is without the correct guidance so I will try my best to give you a step by step procedure through the entire process of Identifying, removing and refitting the Injectors system on the Ford Fiesta.

Identification: If you have began to notice the smell of diesel from the car whether you are idling or on the move and the smell gets stronger and stronger in the cabin of the car, this is also regardless of the fans being on or not, obviously if you turn on your fan the smell most likely get worse. Also if you start to notice the car running irregularly and not its smooth self (whilst driving you may notice the engine holding back on and off), or if the car is beginning chuck out darker exhaust fumes which haven't occurred before then you may mostly likely have this issue with your car. Nine times out of Ten though this whole problem will indicating itself to you by the smell of diesel in your cabin while the car is on.

If you can take off the entire Air Filter holder off when the car is turned off then this will allow you access to see the area around your injectors and see if there is any leakages or cooked on black plastic around the injectors.

If you find the above then proceed to the following steps Only if you feel confident enough to disassemble your vehicle and the reassemble it correctly.

I would recommend getting the Haynes manual for the vehicle as a backup if you are going to attempt this job as backup as im sure certain details will make more sense when looking at certain illustrations etc. The manual is approx £20 when I purchased it anyway.

Parts Needed: If you do decide to carry out this job you will need to replace 4 Copper Seals that the Injectors sit on, 4 Plastic Brushes, and the Air Release hose that you will end up removing.

Removal: Firstly remove the Air Filter Holder, you Wont need to open up the actual air filter though. Disconnect pipes and connecting plugs to the Air Filter Holder then with slighty tugg upwards the holder will lift off from its two guide holes.

Once you are at this stage you should be able to access the state of the top of the injectors any leakage etc. Then remove the side plastic cambelt cover, its very fiddly so if you unscrew the Water bottle's one bolt then that should make access to the camblet covers screws much easier.

Then after you have these off you want to disconnect the Air release rubber hose. This is the Black rubber hose that links to every injector, follow it round till you get to the longest length of the pipe and disconnect it from the end that is the nearest to the Bleeding Blub (The Black Round looking pump) then bung it up with some newspaper or rag being careful not to get Diesel Everywhere! and also not to over stretch that pipes end, although this pipe is going to be replaced anyway so don’t worry too much about it.

After this has been done loosen the 2 bolts and 1 star screw from around the left side of the Fuel Filter then disconnect all the plugs at the top of the injectors. Then slip the main round connector from the back of the Injector sockets….this will be the wiring in like a mould following back to the large round socket. You will need to lift up the grey coloured clip on the socket directly upwards then only can the connection be disconnected. (I know this part maybe is hard to follow without illustrations)

Now you need to remove the 2 bolts that are directly below the 2 rubber mounts when there Air Filter Holder slots into. These two bolts hold down part of the cam cover.

Then move to part that has the large DURATORQ TDCI writing on it. This done by one bolt on the front of that part which connects onto the Turbo, you wont need to touch the turbo though other than this one bolt. Then loosen the star screw at the top of this part, then finally loosen the pipe from the left of the part and twist it gently off.

Now there will be one thick metal pipe with two star type screws into the Cam Cover based around the Bleeding Blub. Unscrew these two star screws and then slip the metal pipe out of the Cam Cover, its pretty stiff and awkward so be careful.

At this point you should be ready to take the remaining Cam Cover bolts out ready for you to slip the entire cam cover off. You will need to pull it up quite hard as it will be stuck on tight with the seals etc.

Once the entire Cam Cover is off you will need to firstly clean up the holes at the rear that had the large O-Ring sitting in them if they are dirt, just a wipe with some WD40 on a cloth should do the trick.

Now Very Important: get some tape and stick it onto the top of the cam where the Cam Cover rubber gasket sits, then wrap some tape around all the injector heads too. Make a straight line on the injector and over to the cam so you have 2 marks showing you the position of the injector and also mark the number of injector it is 1 being the very left and 4 being the very right.

Then using a pair of Pliers push the metal clip off the injector where the rubber Air Release pipes are located, make sure you do it with pliers so that the clip does not flick off somewhere as they have a tendency to do that. Then pull each pipe out from each injector. Loosen every single injectors clamp gently then loosen the injector fuel pipes making sure you hold the side that is connected to the injector with a 13 mm spanner and the pipe bolt with a 14 mm crows foot, then one by one you should be able to take each injector out making sure their tips are not touched and that the plastic brushes are removed very very carefully.

Inside the injector chamber there will no doubt be some debris inside them so firstly plug up them up with newspaper or rags then clean all the surrounding areas. Once you are happy they are as clean as possible then working on each chamber remove the paper/rag from you inserted into the chamber then scrape off any burnt on plastic, black thick dirt but don’t be too harsh with the chamber that you scratch it inside. Then get a Vacuum cleaner and suck up any loose debris to make sure all it nice and clean and will allow a firm tight seal when reseating the injectors.

Very important! Make sure there is no pure copper colour showing down the bottom of the injector chamber as this could be another copper seal that has been left down there. You should see a pure silver colour at the bottom of every single chamber. I had this problem you see, so the way I removed the one in mine was with a screwdriver.

Reinstallation: Once you are happy all injectors and chambers are clean as can be then insert the new plastic brushes into the injector holes. Do not slip them around the injector and then try to push it down into the hole. Make sure you do this first and they are properly seated into the grooves.

Then slip the old copper seals from around the injector then replace with the new copper seal making sure it is properly flush with the bottom of the injector. Now you can reinsert the injector into the correct chamber you removed it from originally. Then tap it a few times with a rubber mallet making sure its seated properly. Then start to go through the entire process of reassembly as in the removal but in reverse.

If you haven’t done this before it will take you a couple of hours, but just take your time step by step and don’t rush or else you may cause more damage than good.

After all the parts are reassembled you need to give the Bleeding Ball about 10 or more squashes. Then start your vehicle and give the Ball a further 10 pumps and then that should be your bleeding of the diesel fuel system done. Its surprising how many people talking about “just do the bleeding” but don’t tell you how.

My Story:

I thought I would post this on here because of the nightmare I have had with mine and don’t want anyone else to go through the struggle of cost time and effort I did.

It all started with the dreaded diesel smell in the cabin, and so after alittle asking around I found out it was injector related. Now mine was in abit of a state as some clever chap prior to me purchasing the vehicle had obviously already had a go at sorting this problem.

I got the brushes and copper seals then replaced them all but my car then started smoking very very badly and not running smoothly at all. On top of all that there appeared to be diesel leaking out from the top of the injector chambers so after numerous opening closing opening etc of the injectors I found out that the 4th chamber was not seated properly.

Therefore after numerous attempts and not making any headway I took the car to Ford who put the car through their Diagnostic checks which bottom line were useless as they charged me £88 and said ALL MY INJECTORS NEEDED REPLACING and costs for that with labour all in came to around £1500 to get it repaired at which point I nearly had a heartattack. After having another go at reseating the injectors in which I removed the old copper seal so in my case there were 2 copper seals down one hole which was the culprit for causing the leaking of the pressure etc so rectified it and made sure all bolts were properly tightened not crazy tight mind you (use the torque settings in the Haynes manual to get the correct tightness settings), and that was it….it worked after all the headache, was soooo happy otherwise would have had a 1K hole in my poket.

WARNING: The above are purely advisory hints and tips and do not take any responsibility for any damage that occurs to your vehicle as a result of following them.

If you wish to have any of the above work done by myself then drop me a line we can go on from there, im based in the Warwickshire area.

All the best of luck and I hope you found this helpful!!!

[skeef unit]

Thanks for that in-depth guide. My '04 TDCi needs new injector seals and I'm thinking about doing it myself. I had the diesel smeell in the cabin a while back but it turned out to be the return pipes assembly which needed replacing so I did that. The clips holding it in are a nightmare to get in though! I'm in Warwick too so might have to give you a shout if I get stuck doing the injector seals!

[pikestones]

I had the same diesel smell in mine and it turned out to be the return pipe ,same as Skeef.

Mine was fixed under warranty as it was within the 3 years

Dave

[MrT]

Thanks for that in-depth guide. My '04 TDCi needs new injector seals and I'm thinking about doing it myself. I had the diesel smeell in the cabin a while back but it turned out to be the return pipes assembly which needed replacing so I did that. The clips holding it in are a nightmare to get in though! I'm in Warwick too so might have to give you a shout if I get stuck doing the injector seals!

Yeah no worries feel free to give me a shout thats if you already haven't been down! lol I hope you've sorted the prob out though mate.

[earwig]

Thanks Mr T et al. You seem to have found out why my car stinks. I was just about to sell it on account of the smell. Now I just need to find someone competent enough to carry out all the work you identified!!??!! How long did all that take and how much were the parts?

Thanks again - no one seemed to be able to tell what the problem was, or how to fix it.

[MrT]

Thanks Mr T et al. You seem to have found out why my car stinks. I was just about to sell it on account of the smell. Now I just need to find someone competent enough to carry out all the work you identified!!??!! How long did all that take and how much were the parts?

Thanks again - no one seemed to be able to tell what the problem was, or how to fix it.

Sorry about the delayed replying Earwig, I hope you have managed to get the prob sorted but if you haven't the job can take about 3-4 hours if you know exactly how to pull disassemble and reassemble the required bits. I did have to open up the engine about 3 times though but trust me it was definately a learning curve for me and saved me over 1K in possible charges from Ford Dealership. Hopefully you won't need to buy the Haynes manual if you do attempt to do the job yourself as i've tried to put as much detail as possible for you guys.

The parts can only be bought as far as i've been led to believe are from Ford Dealer, Parts Dept. The copper seals were I think £1 each and the pipe was £11 the plastic seals were about 50p each but don't quote me on that to the Tee.

All in all they shouldn't cost more than £30 for all the parts, you may need to get the Crow feet Spanners in order to tighten and open the injectors and pipes.

If you need any more advice don't hesitate to give me a shout.

[skb123]

Hi I am skb123 and new to this forum.I own a fiesta tdci 08 plate,which after 30 miles from new diesel jets had gone,but repaired under warranty,again now at 79000 there is a diesel smell comming into car,how much would I pay to get this repaired.(dont want to go to dealers).

[TJD]

Hi, my husband is in the middle of changing the injectors in my ford fiesta zetec, I don't suppose you could tell me the torque settings please? Tracey