Injector seal leak

[OffroadSpike]

Hi all.

So yesterday, after a long trip to see friends and family, checked the engine bay on arrival just to make sure everything was fine, and saw some light smoke coming out of injector 1. Checked around it and saw this dirt liquid splashing and bubbling. Have had the car for 30k km (370k km total) and it's the first time this happens.

So I'm guessing I have an injector seal leak. Been seeing that dry dirt residue around injector 1 for a couple weeks, but I thought it was just dirt water that went through radiator since I've been driving on wet trails.

Easy enough to repair, but got some questions:

1. Can I make it safe back home (600km) before repairing it? It's still not chuffing or making noises.
2. What's that dirt fluid around the injector? Is that normal on leaky injector seals? I'm scared it might be coolant from a previous botched repair (which I don't know of). It doesn't smell like coolant nor diesel, so I'm not really sure.
3. Will injector seal failure eventually happen on all injectors or is it just random if you get it or not? Considering doing 2 and 3 also, just in case.
4. Is there an easier way to access 4 and 5 injectors than droping the engine or cutting the metal plate on top of them?

Thanks

[RTB]

Hi Offroad Spike,

To answer your questions.
1.Yes you can make it safely back home. I have had injector 2,3, and 5 all go on me. I did 2 and 3 quickly within 1000 - 2000k's, but did about 10,000 k's with injector 5 chuffing away. Just meant the clean-up was more, but it is easy to clean.
2. Not sure what it is, but it is hard and chips away easily when cold. Scraps away easily when hot and soft. Acetone just dissolves it right away.
3. Most likely they will all fail. It is not a Jeep thing, happens to lots of diesels. Due to the risk of breaking bolts, I am just waiting until they fail to replace. I bought 6 bolts and washers from Mercedes, so have them here waiting.
4. Nope. I cut a big square hole. If you're going to cut a hole, might as well make it as easy to do as possible. Nothing a dremel, half an hour of time, and some sealant won't fix.

My process for doing it. Take the car for a good drive and get it hot. With the engine running, undo the injector bolt. Depending on how bad it is, the injector will either lift up a bit and you will see the gases coming out, or worst case will need to give it a rev to lift the injector. As soon as the injector lifts, shutdown the engine and immediately remove the bolt, plug, fuel line, and injector. Don't wait. If you get it while the stuff is hot and gooey, they come out easily. If it hardens, you will have a fight on your hand, and it hardens quick.

Edit:- the hardest bit is cleaning out the bolt hole, and is critical you get right. I mean, it isn't hard, just time consuming.

Good luck with it.

[RTB]

This is my number 5 I just did recently. Can't even see the bolt.



Gentle taps with a screw driver got it to this. No hammers or anything, just hitting it with the end of a screw driver broke it up when cold. The stuff is very brittle and just falls away. Just needed to vacuum it up.



With the injector out.


This is what scraped out while still hot. It is still really thick and gooey when hot, but goes hard the moment it cools down.




The hole, I cut.



Provided you don't break a bolt, it is an easy job.

[OffroadSpike]

Thanks for the write-up RTB.

Went to check the car again today after a week of not driving it. Fluid is still there, has not evaporated. Took a sample with papertowel, it feels oily and smells funny. Doesn't smell like raw fuel, nor like coolant or oil. Smells like burnt rubber, maybe? Can't define it. Like burnt something.



Compared it with a sample straight from the oil dipstick, they look similar:



Compared it to a coolant sample which has a salmon color similar to the sample. Once the papertowel is soaked into the coolant, it looks almost like water, so I no longer think that fluid is coolant.



It's most likely oil what's in there. But how did it get around the injector? My understanding is injector seal leak and black death is combustion gases that forms a carbon sludge/paste around the injector, nothing like what's happening on mine.

Can't take the injector out right now cause I'm away from home, so I'm trying to diagnose the issue before I can actually handle repairing it.

[RTB]

The video sure does make it look like an injector seal, but the fluid is way different. Seals and bolts are cheap, job is easy. I say change the seal then see what happens from there. At least you will be taking one potential source away.

[layback40]

Common problem is the copper washer seals are too hard. Even new ones often need to be annealed. Put them in a flame like a gas stove & get them hot. Then cool down slowly. The copper will be very soft & deform to seal properly.

[drover]

That certainly looks like a leaky injector, I'm with RTB and layback40 about replace the seal then see, though the residue seems to be a coolant like stain, does make me wonder if not something else happening in there as well .... header tank not bubbling at all ??

If I remember back to my WG days a couple of holes cut in the panel was the way to go ......................... I always left the engine cover in the shed so i could quickly notice any sign of the Black Death ............................

If yours has an EGR delete done on it that would cut back a lot of the gunge in the residue so just diesel and oil...

[JeanLuke]

I believe there is a Honda seal that fits and is better than the Merc one. Search this section for details.

If you are in Brisbane, I still have an injector slide hammer from my WG days.

[OffroadSpike]

I made the trip back home with no issues, and that fluid seems to have completely dried up. There's just black sludge now.

Took the injector out today, came out really easy, I've been spraying wd40 for about 3 days before it, so it seems to have helped. There's definately no coolant there, anyway I don't know what that fluid and dried white stuff around was.




Will install it tomorrow. This should be clean enough isn't it?



Thanks all!