Crankshaft woodruff key failure - Xantia engine fail

[DocBrown]

Damn woodruff key on the crank disintegrated while starting up car at work on wednesday morning after a long shift. Result - a noise like a handful of bolts in a food blender, a snapped camshaft and one trashed cylinder head. The crank pulley was in good condition but damn annoying that this known problem has now written off the car. From an engineering standpoint I've never liked the woodruff key set up on the XU diesels as it maybe strong enough on the lower powered normally aspirated diesels but it's no where near strong enough for the 92 BHP TD's. Much prefer the machined flats as used in other engines lower cambelt toothed drives.
The timing belt stayed intact though but is irrelevent since the damage has been done. Not going to repair as it's a pig with the engine in situ but an engine out job to do it properly and as it's a 14 year old car and a bit dull, it's going to be weighed in as scrap after I remove any useful bits. Having said that after looking on Ebay at Xantia parts there seems to be many sellers with various bits but not many buyers. I've been watching one seller with an engine block with no watchers or bids for the last few months. I guess older Xantias have mostly ended up in the scrappage scheme. The old XU diesels were good in their time but there are now better, cleaner and more economical engines out there. Living in the real world these engines were good for 45 to 47 mpg or 50mpg if driven very carefully. Trouble is the Xantia is a heavy car with big parasitical load on the engine such as the constantly turning hydraulic pump.
But I shouldn't really grumble as the car was bought as a trade in 'sold as seen' back in 2007 with 107,000 miles and history. It's now done 176,500 miles. Also since the front struts were starting to weep LHM at the top seals, and when the car was recovered I noticed the rear wheels were showing signs of radius arm bearing wear, the rear height compensator was damp with LHM I reckon it would have been more expense before next MOT in June. Shame Xantia front struts can't be rebuilt as they're £190 plus vat each side. Oh well, no sentimentality with the Xantia. It's just a car. Plenty more out there but if I go for another Citroen it will be an HDi estate...or an XM 

[donny brook]

oooh, nasty. you mustve felt gutted when that happened. similar point, ive never been keen on Vws method of securing the cam pulley to the cam on the pre PD Tdi engines. Its simply held by the taper on the nose of the camshaft creating an interferense fit with the pulley. alright, its not the same loading as with the crank pulleys, but it worried me.

70k miles in 3 years isn't bad though from a sold a/seen car. most show-off 'scene' cars dont manage anything like that mileage

[DocBrown]

Hi,
yeah - gutted because of the time involved with the engine swap. But there comes a point where it just simply isn't worth investing any more time and money keeping a car on the road. After all it was only a 1997 Xantia - nothing special and it did have a few supermarket battle scars on it.  It didn't really owe us anything either and my wife and I feel we got our money's worth. If it was an XM I may have reconsidered as these are rarer since the scrappage scheme. (I regret ever selling my one back in 2005) If I do buy another Xantia then it will be an HDi estate with full history.
The XU diesels were good in their day but it's last century's technology and there are now far better engines out there. I would trust a high mileage HDi unit over a high mileage conventional diesel simply because the fuelling is far better metered than the old injector pumps could ever hope to achieve. Thus all things being equal, precise fuelling means much reduced or eliminated bore-washing or sump oil dilution with unburnt diesel - which is common on old generation high mileage diesels no matter what the make. Here's a tip. When inspecting a prospective diesel car purchase, dip the sump and sniff the oil. It it smells of diesel then unburnt fuel is making it's way past the pistons and into the sump.

Many manufacturers still use taper lock cam pulleys etc. Not my fave method of camwheel locking but as long as the tightening torque figures are used then it shouldn't be a problem. However I much prefer timing chains. At least they make a sound when they are worn and new technology means huge mileages between swaps - so long as oil changes are regular.