LRDave

Mostly I just fill our 200TDI with £15 at a time but this years August hols in Scotland produced a very accurate brim to brim figure over several fills and 1,300 miles. 33.9mpg overall. Really pleased with that as we were loaded with two adults, two kids and a dog... plus full holiday kit filling the loadspace for the 800 miles to and fro (Cambs to Kintyre). Speed kept sensible and never over 80mph, mostly 65-75mph on motorways. Remember this includes many steep/long hills on the route plus lots of gears/hills on the 500 miles touring once there. Road tyres and no roof rack. Pretty good for this size of vehicle at 12yrs old and 145,000 miles! David

Just as a matter of interest my late 1993 200TDI has the button that will stay in when pushed.... and that gives an initial three sweeps of the rear screen then a single sweep every 3 secs or so. Would it not be a case of just changing the switch?? David

Another small point is that with this diesel engine you're not going to find valves stuck wide open anyway... there is such a tiny gap between piston top and valve at TDC any valves that try and stick down are going to get a damn good helping back up by the piston. I've known old 2.25 diesels in running order that would turn over so easily you'd have thought they had no pistons fitted! Hence my feeling (hope) there may not be as much wrong with this as Les thinks. David

Les, Taking the head off straight away is a bit drastic. Why not pop the rocker cover off and check everything is moving as expected and that you have valve clearance throughout. Then pop out the glowplugs (check they all work while out), inject some 10-30 oil into the cylinders, turn over the engine by hand to move it about and expell any excess. Put the glowplugs back, bleed the diesel system, put on a strong battery, and start (or try to!). You may find it goes and after a few minutes the engine settles down to running as well as it ever did. (First post on here... looking forward to seeing the tech posts get back up to previous levels after this... err... whatever's happened thing!!) David