Diesel engines: which blocks break down most often?

French manufacturers have long had difficulty combine solidity with commercial success for their diesels. Particularly during the 2000s, which were often chaotic for HDi and dCi. If they have now chased away their old demons, knowing the pivotal dates for their reliability remains important. These will prevent you from betting on a wrong number, which is subject to costly breakdowns.

Blocks never made reliable:

At Peugeot/Citroën : The 1.4 of 92hp (only offered on the first opus of C3) had injector problems until the end of its career, in 2005. Same story for the blocks 2.0 of 90, 110 and 140 ch : precursors of the HDi family, they have never freed themselves from damage to the Damper pulley for the first and to the flywheel for the next two. The most greedy 2.2 with 130 hp, with its chain and its timing belt, remains subject to breakages of these two elements.

At Renault: The 1.9 of 120 hpwithdrawn from the market at the end of 2005, will have known throughout his career, chronic failures of the variable geometry turbo. The blocks 2.2 and 3.0 V6 of 180 ch, used in particular by the Laguna 2, Vel Satis and Espace, but of Isuzu origin for the V6, accumulate block breakages, turbo failures, HS injectors and EGR valve failures. To flee !

Blocks to avoid

At Peugeot/Citroën:

• 4 HDI 70 ch : turbo failures and injector problems characterized the first years of life of this block. It was made reliable in 2011.
• 6 HDi 90/92 ch : the turbo failures of the first examples were made reliable in 2014.
• 6 HDI 110/112/115 ch : the recurring turbo, flywheel and clutch problems that affected it until 2011 were resolved with the introduction of a new version that year.
• 0 HDI 136/138 ch : If the epidemic affecting turbos weakened in 2009, it was only three years later that it was truly eradicated, including under the hood of Ford and Volvo using this same block.
• 2 HDI 170/173 ch : The inconveniences linked to the turbo (solenoid valve, connecting rod, etc.) have been resolved on engines produced from 2008.
• V6 2.7 HDI 204 ch : This engine, also used by Land Rover and Jaguar, has experienced EGR valve problems and alternator, adjusted in 2008.

At Renault/Nissan/Dacia:

• 5 dCi 60/65/70/75/80/85/ 90/100/105/110 ch : It was mainly the injection pumps (they disintegrated and caused the engine to break) which posed a problem on this family of engines. On the 60, 80 and 90 hp versions prior to 2006, the crankshaft is also fragile. The Nissan Qashqai was the victim of broken connecting rods on the 1.5 dCi 106 hp and on some 2.0 150 hp, until 2008, and engine breakages until 2010 (pulleys and timing belt).
• 0 dCi : The examples left the line during the first year of production (Laguna III only) suffered injector problems, which became more reliable in 2009.

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