Hi, I have a fuel leak that no one seems to be able to sort, yet it's staring me in the face so to speak!! I have an X-Type 2005 litre Diesel SE and following its last MOT, the examiner said there was a bad Diesel leak somewhere as the smell was so strong. However there was no sign of any diesel spillage anywhere around the engine, lower engine cover etc. You could only smell the fuel when you were at traffic lights or just setting off from being idle / stationary for some time. It passed its MOT as the examiner told me he couldn't see the leak or remnants, so couldn't fail it. Sooo,,,, I took the top engine cover off to investigate and low and behold, the top of the rocker cover was swimming in diesel. ' Phew ' I went and easy fix. So i bought a set of drain off clips and replaced them all having mopped up the spillage. The next day the diesel pool was back again. OK,,,, so I took it to my local garage who told me there were different sizes for different injectors on these diesels, so he ordered me a 'proper set'. They fitted a new set and new drain off pipes. 'Great' I thought it was a cheap repair after all.

Nope,,,, the next day it was leaking again,, (must state that I don't know for sure that it is leaking from this clip, although the local garage told me they tried to tighten the high pressure line, but it was tight.) I played around with it for a bit,, soaked all the diesel up around the rocker cover and drove it for a few miles and had a look again. Turns out the diesel had collected in the rocker cover seal of no. 2 cylinder. so it was this injector or whatever was leaking. As you drove it further, the diesel would slosh around and fill the other cylinders rocker cover seals.

Now the daft part,, there are no fault codes, it doesn't go into limp mode, the car pulls like a train and drives absolutely fantastic.(except for a banging occasionally from the rear passenger side,, another thread I think,) Can't fault it,, but for the smell of this diesel leak. The people I have spoken to about it all seem to suggest that it isn't the injector at fault as the performance is too good. (mpg is down a bit but only by a couple of miles or so, but I do have the AC on lately)

Anyone any ideas or has anyone else suffered from such a problem. Do i continue to look at the drain off or do I change the injector? I can't see where else it would be coming from. I did have the fuel system Terra cleaned about 6 months months ago to cure the 'difficult to start when hot' problem,,which it did.

 

Could it be a blockage on the spill of return line causing back pressure?

 

Any competent garage will find it.

Posting in the right forum would give you more chance of replies...

 

Welcome to the forum howard0611,

I've moved your question from General Tech Help to X-Type forum. Members here with the same model will be able to help.

Please follow this link New Member Area - Intro a MUST - Jaguar Forums - Jaguar Enthusiasts Forum to the New Member Area - Intro a MUST forum and post some info about yourself and your vehicle for all members to see. In return you'll get a proper welcome and some useful advice about posting to the forum.

Graham

 

Actually, it's been to 2 different garages and had the drain off clips and pipes changed twice. Got another set (Jaguar OEM) and I'm going to try it again..

 

As I've just mentioned to JagV8 (thanks very much for your reply by the way) its been done twice before and I've ordered an OEM set. I did notice that the pipe to the diesel pump hadn't been changed though. Maybe a blockage in this part and the back pressure is finding the weakest drain off to excape,,, worth a look, although I've never heard of this before!!!

 

hello Howard,
any update on your story? My S-Type 2.7D is also smelling diesel as you described. In the beginning the diesel filter was leaking (badly fixed on service). But now it still smells sometimes and yesterday it was even smoking for a short time. I assume some of the spillage got onto the exhaust.
But since the engine compartment is pretty stuffed - I can't see what could be the cause and just an idea would be helpful...


cheers
Martin

 

Hi Martin,,, pretty simple really, I'd had my car Technicleaned (to remove carbon in the head etc). Following that it had started to leak diesel onto the head. Had all the horrifying thoughts of new injectors, but it turned out it was just the high pressure pipes onto the top of the diesel injectors. It's metal on metal and they do leak eventually. Problem was they would only leak when the engine was doing about 2500 revs. I borrowed a rolling road and got it up to speed and thats when I noticed the fuel spiralling down the threads and quickly collecting on the head. Hope this helps and that you sort yours,, Regards,
Howard