New to the forum guys but hopefully someone can help.

I bought a mk2 1.6 TDCi zetec about 1 month ago and all was great (had a mk1 1.8 petrol before it)

then a few days ago I noticed a 'tapping' noise coming from the engine. opened the bonnet and it sounds like its coming from the top of the engine (around where the injectors are).

Yesterday on the motorway I put my foot down to overtake and the car lost power and went into limp home mode. It also came up with 'engine system fault' and a red light. I managed to get to the services about 2 miles down the road and turned off the engine. Left it for a minute while trying to work out how I was getting home then started it up and fault had cleared itself. plugged in the hand held when I got home and no faults were logged.

Still have this annoying tapping noise and just cant track it down.

Any ideas of things to look at would be much appreciated.

I am new to diesels so still learning lol

is it a tapping or chuffing sound and is there a nasty smell, if so could be an injector leaking combustion gases, if tapping then could be timimg chain internal slapping, what end of engine it coming from?

Just jumped in for the ride on this one...

now that you mention it there is a smell coming into the car. It seems to be from the middle of the engine (maybe slightly to the left of centre)

also I have just had another look and noticed some sort of liquid on top of the engine (not sure if there should be a cover but never had 1). It looks like a dark liquid but cant really make it out in the dark.

Thanks for the quick reply

now that you mention it there is a smell coming into the car. It seems to be from the middle of the engine (maybe slightly to the left of centre)

also I have just had another look and noticed some sort of liquid on top of the engine (not sure if there should be a cover but never had 1). It looks like a dark liquid but cant really make it out in the dark.

Thanks for the quick reply

No covers on the 1.6tdci's I'm afraid, at least not on the Mk2's, not unless they were custom fitted....

..something I think is pretty ridiculous myself, but hey, Ford does what Ford does...

custom fitted? I may have to look into this as the engine looks half dressed as it is lol

The dark liquid will probably the oily combustion gases building up, normaly if left long enough it turns in to brittle carbon deposits that need chipping off before removing injector, lets hope its that and not internal timing chain noise

Thanks for that Ian.

Any idea how I could confirm that and also is this something I can tackle or is it a garage job? im not bad at tackle most jobs that can be done with basic tools. Services, clutch replacement, that sort of thing just never worked on a diesel before.

In daylight you will need to have closer look and smell with engine running to see if injector leaking, if you can indentify an injector try tightening the nuts slightly that hold injector down to see if that changes tone of noise

as for working on common rail diels sytem the key is cleanlines at all times, the slightest bit of dirt in fuel system and injector scrap, there are special tools to help with cleaning where injector sits etc, ford specify changing injector pipes when disturbed also to keep dirt from getting in,

all depends how confident you are.

Id be more than happy to give it a go if I can find some sort of guide online (what the worst that can happen lol)

Does sound like that could be the problem though. I will have a look in day light and post back up if I find/fix the problem.

Thanks again guys

Mk2.5 Got an engine cover... :D Common rail systems are pretty easy to work with tbh. As above cleanliness is key.

I don't see how a slightly loose injector would cause the limp mode though?

Dont assume you only have 1 problem, as above, limp mode can be something else wrong.

well had a look today and it seems that 2 are leaking. Had the engine at around 2k revs and a small amount of smoke from 2 of the injectors. dont have time until the weekend to do anything about it. will it be ok to still use the car just now? (short runs to work and back) or will this cause more damage?