Td4 cr injectors overhaul

I would like to post my experience overhauling my td4 (m47 engine) common rail injectors. Here in Africa I was quoted nearly 15000 rand to send my injectors away for exchange. To put that in perspective, that is a months salary! I decided to research and try and do them myself. A friend who had a test bench told me that my injectors at 200000km were most likely going to need nozzles. He said that often the shimming was still OK and I could try just a Nozzle change first. I performed a leak back test based on advice found in this forum. The leak back was almost no existent and even over all 4 injectors so I was happy with that. I ordered the Bosch nozzles, part number DLLA145P928+. Cost 2280 rands for 4. (big difference to the 15k I nearly paid!)
To remove the injectors you remove the plastic turbo connector piece, the two black plastic covers and the neccesary turbo hoses. About 45 minutes. Then unscrew the injector loom wire brackets and the diesel pipes from common rail to injectors. Finally lever the injectors out from the front with a large screwdriver. CAUTION! You are levering against a plastic cover. Don't force it. 3 injectors came out easily and number 2 I used a slide hammer connected to the injector by a piece of binding wire. Fortunately I got them all out no damage. I did each injector removal and Nozzle fitment one by one so as not to leave open holes into the engine and so as to not mix the injectors up in case they were programmed individually as I'm told some are. From there, cleaned the injector externally, put the flat part in a vice with the injector facing up and unscrewed the Nozzle retaining cup. At this point I need to emphasize.. TAKE EXTREME CARE NOT TO LOSE COMPONENTS. they are small. Under the retaining cup the old Nozzle stands up on the end of the injector. It is inclined to come away with the cup and there is a tiny tube and a minute steel dowel about 1mm round by 2mm long. This dowel is VERY easily dropped or mis fitted. It is positioned inside the tube and comes between the needle in the Nozzle and the plunger in the injector. Anywayzz.. I carefully lifted off the old nozzles and placed the new in. Everything was scrupulously washed with carburetor cleaner first. The cup was re torqued and the injector replaced with a new copper washer seat. The washer I retained with a tiny smear of grease. Everything was reassembled and I'm happy to say that the engine fired up after 2 or 3 cranks. It's best to let the low pressure pump run a bit and crack off the injector pipes to bleed them. The car now starts easily, runs perfectly, has tons of power and the black smoke has decreased a lot. All in all it was a successful job at a huge saving. I had one unexplained glitch though.. After starting and driving a couple of km I stopped. Then the engine cranked freely but absolutely wouldn't start. I tried a battery disconnect reset but no joy. Eventually in desperation, as the battery was dying, I push started it. It fired up perfectly. However the hill descent light and the timing chain light burned for 5 minutes and then went out. Really weird. No further problems.

Nice little write up but you could of saved your self even more money, form what I read above as your injectors sounded ok, so therefore you just need to clean out the nozzle ends which I did on both my FL1 and my Rover 40 diesel. I also used a metal flat bar placed on the cam cover and prised off that so no damage can occur to the plastic cover, few photo's blow which may also help the members picture what your thread is saying.

Great pics! Thanks Bru. Certainly makes things clearer. Nah two nozzles had quite well defined wear ridges. Our fuel in southern Africa is notoriously shocking. I am forced to change the fuel filter every 10 thou km. They also had been blowing back into the needle points. Also being my only car I had to make a best cost decision to repair the fault. I decided 4 nozzles was affordable and it was advised by my diesel injector tech mate as having an above average chance of solving my problem. It turns out he was right. And hey! Maybe I have a Nozzle or two to trade!