Whenever you are informed of unusual symptoms on your vehicle, you are right to be intrigued, because a car represents a huge annual budget and surprising malfunctions don’t reduce the expenses. So what if you feel as if you have a leaking injector on your Citroen Xantia? You most likely figured it out thanks to black/oily drips along your engine, or a troubled idle, or strange black smoke. These three manifestations are the main indicators of a leaking injector. As this troubles can lead to more critical engine problems on your car, we decided to prepare this content to help you confirm the failure of a leaking injector and deal with it properly. To do so, we will first check out the case of gasoline injectors and then at those of diesel injectors Citroen Xantia.
Leaking injector on my petrol Citroen Xantia
It is vital to know that the injectors on petrol and diesel engines are distinct, the truth is, the difference in combustion between these two kind of engines makes the injection distinct. The biggest difference lies in the pressure undergone by the injectors, on a petrol engine it will vary between 3.5 bars for indirect injection and 120 bars for indirect injection.
Leaking injector on a petrol Citroen Xantia: The different leaks
It should be known that injector leaks on a Citroen Xantia equipped with a petrol engine are pretty rare. This is because of the much lower pressure in the petrol intake systems. Even so, there are two kind of leaks:
- Leakage from the top of the injector:
It is possible that you have a leak from the top of the injector, this is the part that is linked to the fuel rail, an O-ring will be involved in this. - Leak injector of the lower part:
At last, you may suffer a leak coming from the lower portion of the injector of your car, this one will appear from the junction with the engine and not with the rail as seen before.
Leaking injector on my diesel Citroen Xantia
Unlike petrol engines, which have spark combustion, diesel engines run on compression. This combustion procedure generates very high pressure in the engine, as do the injectors. On these models, the pressure is more than 10 times higher than on the direct injection of car petrol engines, reaching 1800 to 2000 bars.
Leaking injector on diesel Citroen Xantia: The different leaks
In the case of leaking diesel injectors on your Citroen Xantia, there are three several kind of leaks:
- Leakage from the injector inlet:
In this case, it is an inlet pipe that will deform over time, usually the leak will be at the clamping point. - Injector return leakage:
As its name reveals, this leakage relates to the management of the fuel return in the injector, this time the injector that leaks on your Citroen Xantia will be caused by an O-ring or its plastic tip that leaks. - Injector base leak:
This injection leak is one of the most troublesome, it is the junction between the engine and the injector nose that leaks at a copper seal, you should encounter an air noise and a compression loss. - If after checking you have oil leaking but it does not come from your injectors, we recommend you to browse this content on the presence of oil leaking on your Citroen Xantia.
Leaking injector on my Citroen Xantia, how to fix the leak
And at last, we’re going to check out how to fix a leaking injector on your car. Oftentimes a leak is linked, as we have seen sooner, to a worn seal due to the pressures suffered. But think that the pressure in the circuit is tremendous, especially on diesel engines. So you will have to take some safety measures:
- Lower the pressure before any work is carried out…
- Covering you to avoid the risk of fuel spillage
- NEVER work on a running diesel engine injector.
Relating to the repair part of your leak, it will regularly be limited to replacing the seals that have failed:
- Find the source of the leak
- Take apart the injector in question
- Change the corresponding seal kit
- Reassemble the assembly and tighten with a torque wrench in accordance with the manufacturer’s standards.
In all cases, these interventions are not automatically complicated, but if you have the tiniest doubt in the treatment of your injector that leaks on your Citroen Xantia, we recommend you to get closer to your auto technician to avoid any bad handling that could significantly harm the condition of your Citroen Xantia.
To get more tips on the Citroen Xantia, take a look at the Citroen Xantia category.
