2010 308 2.0 lt HDi engine issue.

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kelpiebat

Active member
Fellow Frogger
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Jan 13, 2014
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417
Location
Coffs Harbour, NSW Australia
After 7 mins of driving on a heavy frost morning my wife rang to advise that her auto had died. Whilst stationary it began to vibrate and then died. A restart was effective enough for her to make 75 mts till it did the same again. She recalled that whilst waiting at lights the day before she had noticed a strongish vibration. After waiting for the frost to vapourise I could see nothing untoward in the engine bay so the fuel primer was used to pressurise the system - it took a fair bit of pumping. The engine started for say 5 secs of idle then quit. A restart followed by fast idling resulted in being able to let it idle happily and then drive it home without any concern whatsoever. Have checked the priming bulb a few times and found that fewer squeezes are needed than the first time on the day it quit. The car shows about 185k and we are very cautious re the fuel supplier.
I'm thinking a tank to pump fuel flow issue such as filter or tank not breathing and creating a vacuum, or the unlikely possibility of a wax in the diesel issue brought on by the cold morning.

Thanks for your thoughts; no point in reinventing the wheel.
 
How could was it?
Although I am no expert, I have heard of cold cold weather (alpine type cold) needing "winter blend" diesel to stop it waxing up in the fuel lines.
If it is ok since then it may just be that????
It could of course be a combo of a weak fuel pump not being able to cope with cold thicker fuel....
 
Alpine fuel is sold in the high country in southern NSW. Coff's is a long way from being that cold.

The RHH motor sucks it up, but I think the RHR relies on the tank pump. There is a transparent piece in the fuel line to check.
 
Thanks for the thoughts. Just been on service box to check on in tank pump, but for part #2 which is where I'd expect to find a lift pump it says 'Gauge without pump' #1525KZ. Can't see any sign of a pump, other than the main one, in the system and no other filter besides the big one after the priming bulb. Did recently use the tank to filter piping to siphon 50 + lts of diesel/petrol (30%) and it worked well without any indication of impediment to fuel flow. My RHR '07 407 is also 'Gauge without pump' and so is the '06 RHR 307 stat write off.
Perhaps there is a one way, air in only, opening to the tank which if blocked/malfunctioning could create a vacuum that affects how well the pump can suck. And on that day with air temp of say -2 (Coffs was 0) it became a case of fuel starvation.
 
A week ago my wife in the 308 HDi had an early start from a very frosty Harden and after about 2 minutes driving experienced 2 power hesitations within seconds of each other on the gentle climb out of the town. From then on all went well except for a constant engine icon display that eventually succumbed to 3-4 hrs of driving and, say, 5 restarts after fuel and coffee.
Back on the nth coast and no problems at all. The issue seems to be related to colder than usual conditions for us, but no way as cold as that to which many other RHR engines would be exposed I'm sure. The fuel at the time was BP from Tamworth.
 
kelpiebat said:
A week ago my wife in the 308 HDi had an early start from a very frosty Harden and after about 2 minutes driving experienced 2 power hesitations within seconds of each other on the gentle climb out of the town. From then on all went well except for a constant engine icon display that eventually succumbed to 3-4 hrs of driving and, say, 5 restarts after fuel and coffee.
Back on the nth coast and no problems at all. The issue seems to be related to colder than usual conditions for us, but no way as cold as that to which many other RHR engines would be exposed I'm sure. The fuel at the time was BP from Tamworth.
Click to expand...
If it was the couple of days of heavy frost temperatures in the area dropped to -3 or lower, that is just beyond what most winter blends are set for:
https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp-c...el-news/diesel-cars-alpine-regions-winter.pdf
It can make a big difference being parked in the open when compared to under cover or next to a building. If there is going to be a frost and the vehicle will be parked for more than a hour you'll need to have filled up locally, and not with the coastal blends. It might just be the marginal conditions are showing up an underlying problem with the fuel pump, but that it all disappears in the warmth suggests that its fine and the fuel is the problem.

It used to be possible to put a few litres of Kerosene into the mostly full tank a few 100km out from the destination and let the return line mix it up, but that might not be compatible with modern DPF systems.
 
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