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3.0d engine knocking badly. FIXED! Yay

Posted: Mon Aug 26, 2013 11:05 pm
by JamieX5
Any suggestions guys? Driving back from Cornwall. Started to hear noise from engine, so pulled over and heard horrible noise coming from engine. Didn't loose any power that I remember. It isn't misfiring and no warnings on display. Injectors and crankcase breather we changed / serviced under 5k ago. Car is on 120k now. One thing I have noticed is that if you run engine with oil cap off the is a lot of pressure coming out, is this normal? I fear the worst.

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:09 am
by macca
checked oil level??,  checked cracked exhaust manifold??

couple of places to start

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 10:12 am
by stevox5
Before getting too deep into the engine have a very close look at the front crankshaft pulley these can knock like hell when the rubber inner damper fails . If the engine runs sweet I would have a close look here first they make a surprisingly bad noise not unlike a big end knock.
Good luck hope its simple

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:42 am
by JamieX5
Oil level is ok. Had new exhaust manifold so that's ok. Will have a look at the pulley? It does sound broken. Lol

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 11:52 am
by X5Sport
I assume we're talking about this little device?

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 4:09 pm
by stevox5
Yep that's the one.

I know it sounds a long shot but seen this more than once.

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle

Posted: Tue Aug 27, 2013 7:09 pm
by JamieX5
Crank pulley ok. Think it might be timing chain. Oh well need to strip it down and have a look.

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle

Posted: Sat Aug 31, 2013 9:04 pm
by JamieX5
Update. Removed inlet manifold, injectors and rocker cover today. Found number 3 injector soaking wet with diesel compared to others so they are going off to be tested. I'm just hoping its not bent a rod on the process. On the bright side everything else looks fine.

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle UPDATE

Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 6:23 pm
by Steamyrotter
Might be an idea to do a compression test whilst they are out??
Will give you a little more info on the internals??

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle UPDATE

Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 6:36 pm
by JamieX5
I may well do compression check but just going to wait for injector results before next step. Hopefully sometime early this week all being well

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle UPDATE

Posted: Sun Sep 01, 2013 9:11 pm
by squeaky2
Sounds like it could just be an injector fault as they can cause rough running at idle. If you can read fault codes that would help. 

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle UPDATE

Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 12:27 am
by Rusty
Not trying to state the obvious but make sure you put the correct injector back into its corresponding  cylinder as each one is individually coded to the car.

Hope it is a cheap fix for you mate, and yes one faulty injector will cause a rough idle which would be logged as a fault in the ECU.


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Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle UPDATE

Posted: Mon Sep 02, 2013 4:16 pm
by JamieX5
Injectors all marked so will go back in same order. No codes were stored. Just waiting to here from injector place now

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle UPDATE

Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2013 3:15 pm
by JamieX5
Injectors all came back ok so have now removed the cylinder head. Piston number one can be moved up and down by hand at least 4/5mm so that is the problem now just got to remove sump to find the cause. Either big or little end bearings failed i suspect, hopefully crank should be ok. Very pleased to find the problem though.

Re: 3.0d engine knocking badly at idle PROBLEM FOUND!

Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2013 3:51 pm
by IanP
Thats not good news, if you can move the piston that far I would reckon its the bottom end rather than a little end. I have had 2 bottom end failures recently, once on the X5 which damaged the crank, and once on my Ducati which didnt (the bottom end bolts had come loose). Hopefully you will have caught it in time and the crank will be OK