The boss was on her way home on a 200 mile run and around 50 miles away, the engine started rattling and so she called me. We got the car recovered back to the house. I did a compression test this morning and got: Cyl. 1 = 610 PSI, Cyl. 2 = 415 PSI, Cyls'. 3 & 4 around 300 PSI. Any idea what the compression should be?

I will take the head off in the next day or so (weather depending) and see what the story is. The car has around 150K miles on it, the timing belts were done at 120K miles and up until this happened, was running well. The alternator, water pump, idlers' and aux. belt have all been replaced in the past 12 months, the only thing not changed was the oil pump (do these fail without warning?). There are/were no warning lights and no MIL codes.  

 

what engine?

 "the only thing not changed was the oil pump "  does the engine start? does the oil pressure light behave as it should?  ie. when you turn the key (without starting engine) the light is on, when you start the engine the light goes off.

"(do these fail without warning?". No idea, I don't know what drives the pump on these modern engiines.  I had a Granada Mk1 V6 where the oil pump stopped working as the hexagon oil pump drive shaft was worn and became circular and stopped spinning the pump. Also had a TR7 where the oil pump stopped working as the pressure relif valve spring broker (on on TR7 the pressure relief valve is built into the pump- unusual in that era).

I assume oil level has been checked

 

 

On 10/16/2017 at 8:29 AM, isetta said:

what engine?

 

Op has put the engine in the title (1.8 TDCi) Lynx engine, I'm no expert on compression figures but there seems to be a massive difference between the cylinders.  Other more knowledgeable folk will no doubt be along shortly to advise further.

It starts, but rattles like mad, the oil light goes out when running. The oil pump is behind the crank pulley. I wouldn't expect there to be more than around a 10% difference in the compression results between cylinders. I have an oil pressure test kit, once this storm passes over, I will see what the results are.

On ‎16‎/‎10‎/‎2017 at 8:29 AM, isetta said:

I assume oil level has been checked

Oil and coolant levels were correct, first things I checked when I got the car home. I put my oil pressure gauge on this morning and it reads 40PSI at tick over and increases with additional revs. Before I put the glow plugs back to check the oil pressure, I did another compression test (cold) and got: 1: 460psi, 2: 320psi, 3: 320 psi, 4: 300 psi.

Took the rocker cover off and everything looks ok there, will remove the head tomorrow, got too cold today and I'm getting too old for this sort of thing now....

what should the compression be? (I know that has been asked at the start, I don't know answer, have you found out)  if one was a lot lower than others then it would point to a problem on one cylinder (eg. valve/piston rings/piston perhaps) but it would seem unlikely for same problem to occur to three cylinders at the same time. 

I took the head off, pot 4 was a different colour to the other 3. I had the head skimmed and tested and the valve seats/valves done (load of carbon on them probably causing the compression issues). Found one of the exhaust manifold bolts had sheered (loads of soot around that area). Gave the EGR a good clean. Put the head back on and set the timing, then changed the injector for pot 4, runs better, but still not right, very much down on power. Did an injector leak test and then replaced the injectors for pots 1 & 4, runs the same, so put the injectors from 1 & 4 into 2 & 3, still the same. No MIL codes are being posted. FORscan shows a decent fuel rail pressure (the high pressure pump should be putting to 200 - 1600 bar (mine was around 350 bar at idle)). Will do another leak test tomorrow and a further compression test (weather permitting). On compression, Autodata just says that the compression should be higher than 18 bar (270PSI), but then has a figure of 19.2 (I guess that is bar).

At this point, I would appreciate any pointers..........

I was talking to a Ford mechanic today, he tells me that you need to update the injector correction factors. I had been told that you didn't need to do that on the Mk. 4, my new Ford friend told me that you can get away with it on the vans, but not Mondeo's. My FORscan doesn't give me the option to enter the factors, it just tries to update them from the ECU. I have just downloaded the Ford Touchscan module and will try again in the morning.

On 11/29/2017 at 6:15 PM, Ancient Mariner said:

I was talking to a Ford mechanic today, he tells me that you need to update the injector correction factors. I had been told that you didn't need to do that on the Mk. 4, my new Ford friend told me that you can get away with it on the vans, but not Mondeo's. My FORscan doesn't give me the option to enter the factors, it just tries to update them from the ECU. I have just downloaded the Ford Touchscan module and will try again in the morning.

Just wondering was this sorted having a similar issue

So what about Ford Touchscan? Did you updated injector correction?

Sadly we'll probably never know as Ancient Mariner stopped visiting the forum the following month. 

On 2/14/2020 at 7:57 PM, nicam49 said:

Sadly we'll probably never know as Ancient Mariner stopped visiting the forum the following month. 

I suspect that speaks for itself 😢

2 hours ago, 1979Damian said:

I suspect that speaks for itself 😢

Look on the bright side tho'.... more breakers yard spare parts for mk3 owners!  👍