I notice my own engine (a replacement with only 120k on the clock) sounds like utter garbage on a cold winter’s morning, but it comes good pretty quickly. The solution here is to always use good quality oil and take it easy for the first 5-10 mins of driving. As the tolerances are finer when cold, and friction levels higher, the injector holds open for longer, introducing potential over-fuelling issues.Īnother theory is the noise is coming from the rockers, which when the engine has just started haven’t had the chance to be properly lubricated. From our investigations, this is usually the main spindle in the centre of the injector sticking to the bore of the injector. This could be a few things, with many reports that the injectors are again the culprit. These motors are famously noisy, especially when cold. They are also responsible for cracking pistons, which is another major issue with this motor (it’s how mine died at 270,000km). Poorly performing injectors have been known to knock loudly, present a poor idle and poor fuel economy.

They will need to be checked every service to see if they are operating within spec, and it is recommended to replace them every 100,000km. It doesn’t end there the injectors themselves, as they are under enormous pressure from the common-rail injection system, are prone to failure. If you are experiencing white smoke and a rattling noise when cold, this is where I’d start looking. This blocks the oil pick-up, starving the motor of oil. When the seats go, excess blow-by gases enter the tappet cover and mixes with the engine oil creating carbon. There was actually a recall announced for this in New Zealand and Europe, but us Aussies seemed to miss the email chain for the recall service bulletin. The original injector seats at the base of the injector were made from copper, which would fail regularly. This is the epicentre of issues for the D4D motor: shithouse injectors and seals that cause a flow-on effect of issues, which you can read about more below.

Image bucket pulley hitting head