Hey guys!

Im new around here, had my focus 1.8tdci for just over a year now, and starting to fault me already

I was on the motorway the other day going airport, all was fine. On my way back i realised the pull on the car got weak. If i rev high, normally the turbo would kick in and accelerate straight away, but this now seems very lazy.

Then today, as i was parking up I realised a chuffing air noise coming from the engine, so i popped up the bonnet and realised there was noise coming from the right side of the engine, right where injector #1 is. Even when i put my hand there i can feel the air pulsating. When the engine is revved the pulse speeds up with it, but im not exactly sure if it is the injector as i couldnt pinpoint exactly where the air is coming from, but its defo very close to the injector.

Ive come across two videos of the exact same noise im hearing;

Was wondering whether anybody here has encountered something like this? and how did you resolve it? Does the power loss in acceleration/turbo have anything to do with this?

Any light shed on this would be greatly appreciated.

Blessings

Ahmet

At a brief listen and guess, it sounds like an air leak? have you checked for any damaged hoses or pipes?

Yes, I just now sprayed some wd40 near the injector/gasket area, and the chuffing seems to be coming from the gasket as it spits it along with the chuffing noise... and its only that 10cm area of the gasket on the right.

Does it mean the head gasket is gone?

I am no pro when it comes to head gaskets by any stretch, but to me it sounds like it might be!

I believe that Jaguar do a head gasket for about £6 that fits the Focus perfectly (or it may be the mondeo I cant say 110% certainty!) but in all honesty, its entirely possible that this is the issue.

have a look for any black gunk/gue around the injectors, have a sniff for fumes, put the heaters on inside the car see if you can smell anything un-ordinary before thinking its the head gasket

There are some fumes coming with the pulsing air sound. Around the injectors it looks clean, however just below injector #1 there is some black gunk.

Now whats stuck in my head is, when i sprayed the wd40 onto where the cylinder head meets the bottom cylinder of the engine, the little gap in between seems to be spitting the air out. But its only a 10cm area on the right hand side of the engine that seems to be doing it. When i sprayed onto the injector and its surrounding it didnt seem to be spitting anything out. Im going to take a closer look when i get home, and possibly upload a video.

Regarding fume smell coming into the car, there isnt much to note... but i do occasionaly get a whiff of some fume smell leaking through but nothing too heavy or consistent

Right, so Ive changed the washer in injector#1, and thats absolutely solved the chuffing problem I was having. Was a bugger to get the injector out, so was forced to lift the cylinder head up abit.

What happened earlier was that i got fooled by the air being blown out from the injector, which was hitting that specific point of the cylinder head which in turn made me assume that the cylinder head was the issue. A simple £1.50 washer from eurocarparts along with a light to work in the dark and some patience solved the issue Thanks for the input guys

A few days prior to this issue though, on my journey back from stansted - london, i realised that the car was revving up, but without any power or acceleration to backup the rev noise. The rev needle would shoot up and then come back down slowly (slower than it shot up anyway). Then when the above issue occurred i thought it would be related and hence solved, but it doesn't seem to be the case. Could this be an injector problem? Im also thinking it may be the clutch saying its last goodbyes? there doesnt seem to be any cracked or loose pipes. A mate got in the car awhile ago and said the biting point is way too high and it could be the clutch. Has anyone had any experience of this?

the chuffing noise was the air getting past the seal between the injector and the head, as the piston moves up and down, going through its 4 strokes - it is seperate from/ nothing to do with/ the head gasket, and does not nessisarily mean the injector is faulty (just the seal between the injector and head)

The loss of power is due to the loss of compression on that cylinder, so 1 of the 4 cylinders was not "pulling its weight" less heat energy would have been available to energise the turbine, as well - compounding the loss in power

It sounds like your clutch is slipping - it is only related to the loose injector because it would have been down on power - once that was fixed the power returned so the clutch was more liable to slip - highly tuned cars often have to have uprated clutches because the stock ones slip with the extra power - this is analogous to your situation

Thanks FOCA! :)

Since the repair of the seal last night, it doesnt actually feel like the power has 'returned'. But I only drove it a 15 minute journey to bring the car home when i discovered that there was chuffing noise, and didnt drive it untill last night when the seal was replaced.

The situation now is even though the seals fixed, it still kind of even feels like the turbos not kicking in properly or something. The cars not pulling up hills almost at all too, it revs high and comes back down etc. All the pointers are possibly leading to a slipped clutch diagnosis you think? Is it normal not to pull up hills?

Thanks FOCA! :)

Since the repair of the seal last night, it doesnt actually feel like the power has 'returned'. But I only drove it a 15 minute journey to bring the car home when i discovered that there was chuffing noise, and didnt drive it untill last night when the seal was replaced.

The situation now is even though the seals fixed, it still kind of even feels like the turbos not kicking in properly or something. The cars not pulling up hills almost at all too, it revs high and comes back down etc. All the pointers are possibly leading to a slipped clutch diagnosis you think? Is it normal not to pull up hills?

If the revs keep rising and you are "going nowhere" (not accelerating) especially uphills, its liable to be the clutch, if the engine "bogs down" without the revs ruising/ rising slowkly its lack of power

See if you can get an experienced mechanic/ someone knowlegable to drive the car/ be in the car when you are driving - to check it