Help, having a problem with a 2.0tdci mk2 focus. When starting from cold the idling is very lumpy for a couple of minutes accompanied by a fair bit of white smoke, plus there appears to be a very slight ?diesel/?oil leak on the top of the cylinder head next to the big plastic manifold thing (I've no idea what it is). Once the engine is warmed up a bit more it is mostly fine (tiny bit of idling lumpiness detectable occaisonally)

I've seen various references to suggest this might be injector issue/glow plug issue but can't imagine this would account for the slight leak or that it seems ok when warmed up. Alternatively I've seen a suggestion of the head gasket, would this be right on a car with 72,000 miles on it??

Any advice appreciated, having only had the car two weeks I'm already not happy with the main dealer service and now the car itself isn't right http://images.ibsrv.net/ibsrv/res/sr...cons/icon9.gif

thanks

 

From experience these are quite good engines , the cold start lumpiness could well be the engine temp sensor going , I had one that did the same thing , the management was seeing -32 at about +5 but as the temp built up it then started to act correctly , first thing to do is do a quick resistance check accross the temp sensor terminals , the -32 figure is default open circuit so should not change anything if you try and start it disconnected . The oil leak could be the cam carrier seal between head and carrier , or could be the injector pipes themselves , if it was the injector seal at its base you would hear a fluffing noise and carbon deposits around the top of the injector , you need to have a look closely and see exactly where the oil/diesel is coming from

 

Thanks for that, I don't know one end of this engine from the other end yet though and doesn't seem to be a Haynes manual for it yet! Where is the temp sensor going to be? I've already had a peer round the top of the engine (and done the injector clamp bolts up a bit as they were pretty lose), the oil or diesel leak appears to be round the base of the left hand side of the big plastic manifold type thing (is that an air intake or the exhaust manifold, made of plastic??). I would attach a pic but it seems I'm not allowed to.