Not sure if they are all related but issue 2 is most probably the injector seals. My 1.3 did the same towards the end of last year. Booked it in at the garage (under warranty) and they changed the seals. Its been OK ever since.

 

I changed the cabin filter on mine which made it smell a lot better! I have however also changed the injector seals about a year ago.

 

Ive contacted my local inpedendant, who have said they think a failed EGR valve could be the cause of it all.

I actually have a new cabin filter that I bought on the off chance its that (ive had leaves come through), but I haven't had chance to try it yet.

Its not especially smelly under the bonnet, although the smell I get in the car is noticeable on the left hand side of the engine.

Thanks guys.

 

Hi All



A little update on this. Last night the hesitation seemed as bad as its been, additional symptom was when at speed (70mph is) lifting off the throttle to slow a little, due to traffic etc, then gently placing my foot back on again to maintain speed/ increase speed, there was a slight hesitation that didn't feel right at all.



so, later last night, I connect multiecuscan to the car. No errors logged anyhere. I went to the EGR section, and watched the values, the requested and actual values coming from the software suggested it was working ok. although I was sat still not driving about, for some reason the software wouldn't let me do the actuator test.



While I was there, I reset the "self learnt functions"



this morning, the hesitation is much improved. Not completely gone, but there was a definite improvement.



The smell was still there though, and possibly worse that is has been, but not by much.



Now I already have the EGR, but I can return it for a refund, if this doesn't seem the likely issue.



I could go for a drive with the software "logging" but I don't know if that would tell me anything or not.



Thoughts? should I proceed with fitting the new EGR valve?



Thanks guys

 

Had a new EGR valve fitted a couple of weeks ago but the engine light still came on last night, suspct the same problem.

 

Another update.

All was well, but i just had the check engine light come on.

Multiecuscan tells me:

P0089 - pressure on injector support

Any ideas?

Thanks

 

could the copper washers for the injectors, that have been suggested could be the cause of the smell, also be the cause of the pressure related error?

Thanks

 

It's been some time, but could you please share the solution especially to issue 1?
It looks very similar to the problem with my MiTo. My garage is still searching for the cause...

Thanx alot!

 

Not sure if this will be any help but had a small issue on my 1.6D which gave similar symptoms - a small diesel leak in the pipe from tank to engine where it met the engine. Resulted in a smell as the diesel leaked close to the hot engine and also could feel and hear a distinct hiccup/stutter - this was air getting into the fuel system via the leak. Garage was able to fix easily by tightening the connection but the problem has recently occurred again - going in to the garage next week.

 

Haven't thought of that (although girlfriend experienced exactly that with a peugeot 206hdi), good suggestion!
thx

 

Couple of weeks ago, my garage added some injector cleaner to the diesel tank. Since then I added Wynn's injector cleaner to every tank whenever I filled her up. I think I noticed a slight improvement. Today I delivered the car at the garage again, for inspection of the injectors.

 

What seems to be the solution, although I haven't had the chance to test it thoroughly: I had the injectors (verstuivers) inspected and everything seems to be working fine again! Apparently they were functioning within margins, but replacing seems to have solved the issue of a hesitating / stuttering engine between 1750-2250 rpm.

 

Hi All

for those that stumble across this, my car started to take an increasingly long time to start. the cause of my issues was injectors. the copper washers had been leaking for some time i think, as there was serious amount of gunk around the injectors, spraying some liquid (IPA in my case) around the top of the injectors showed some serious leaks.

I removed the injectors (was was very hard to do) cleaned them up and replaced the copper washers. i saw no signs of a leak with spraying some IPA around the engine, but the running problem persisted.

I took it to alfa workshop in Royston, they investigated the problem for quite some time, before realising the problem was an injector was leaking. Alfa Workshop did take quite a long time to find the issue, perhaps because the fault code referred to fuel pressure, rather than an injector issue. To be fair to them though, the 1.3 JTDM is probably the least common Mito engine, and isnt used in any other alfas. they have been very helpful in resolving my problems. They replaced the injector and all seemed well.

the issue has kept coming back, and so far ive had 5 injector replacements. Ive been using reconditioned injectors, and 1 was replaced under warranty.

To put this in perspective, my little alfa mito has done almost 122,000 miles now (Ive done 65,000) and (touch wood) this is the only issue ive had with it, other than the odd minor annoyance.

cheers

Andy

 

Diesel Return Pipe





Hi Andy,
Just had the same exact issue with my daughter's MiTo (same engine), and it turned out all four injectors were leaking (there are two seals, one copper and one rubber per injector), and the carbon build up resulted in two broken injectors. The smell in the car will persist for quite some time, if it ever actually goes away. One of the other issues they found in the repair process was a cracked fuel return pipe, which was also causing part of the problem. I would have them check the seals on the rest of the injectors and check the fuel return pipe. Hopefully that helps.

Dave

 

Hi all

I have a 2011 1.3JTDM Mito. I got it 2 years ago at 57,000 miles, it has now just done 100,000 miles.

Other than general poor wiring, all has been well up until now.

Issue 1
Over the last few months, ive noticed a judder/hesitation low down in the rev range. Its between about 1700 and 2200 RPM. Its most noticeable when slowly accelerating in 5th (5 speed box). its not the engine labouring, because its fine up to about 1700 RPM, then starts spluttering a bit, then is usually fine from 2200 RPM onwards, although it will persist further up the rev range if you push the throttle more than you normally would. This issue seems to be getting slowly worse.

Issue 2
Over the last 2 - 3 weeks, the car seems overly smelly. not sure if it is exhaust fumes, or engine fumes, but its worse when sat stationary in traffic. I'm about 85% sure the smell is coming through the vents, but there doesn't seem to be any particular event that makes it better or worse, other than sitting stationary. THIS is the issue that concerns me most. I do a long commute, so I'm in the car for 2+ hours a day. My 1 year old daughter also rides in the car, although, only for very short 5 minute journeys at the moment.

Issue 3
Over the last few days, the engine has taken longer to start than usual. Not alarmingly so, and on its own, I would ignore it, but I thought it might be relevant to the above.

Note. Its just been MOT'd and there were no advisories, and no issues with the emissions test.
Note. in the last couple of years, the oil degradation light has come on around this time, (last year I got it done with the MOT) this has not come on yet, so either its going to happen soon, or whatever determines the oil has degraded, is not working.
Note, ive noticed no unsual activity with the temperature gauge, and the MPG figures are about what I normally get.

Any ideas?

Thanks, and sorry for all the info.

I had the same problem last week when I got my car back from a garage after it had been in there for three weeks except for my check engine light came on. I took mine to a garage they and it said there was a trap in the dpf but there wasn't even anything there the car just went into some weird limp mode over it like a placebo effect. Once he put in the reset codes and the check engine light went the car was back to normal.

 

Thanks Dave. Since the last injector was replaced, it's been fine. Also found the pipe between the airbox where is meets the turbo was split. Eventually led to an air flow meter error. Fixed that and the car runs like a dream now. And touch wood has been fine since. Now at nearly 125,000 miles. It's now gone into semi retirement with the arrival of my new Giulia