shanel

hi all as above ive bought my wife a 2003 cmax, theres a hesition down low in revs and when it comes back on power theres a big plume of black smoke and seems to be fairly sore of diesel aswell.

any ideas lads???

uruk hai

Could be a few things, whats the mileage ?

It could be injector related or several other things, does it start up O.K ?

The best thing would be to get it plugged into a diagnostic and see if any fault codes come up and I'm not sure what you mean when you say "sore of diesel" ?

shanel

hi, the car has 76000 miles verified by service records, the car starts perfectly fine, idles as should etc, when i say that it is sore on fuel i mean we filled it to the neck on fri eve after buying it and my wife headed on a 100 mile round trip for her work and used 1/4 of the tank but did admitt driving in 4th gear due to poor lights that needed adjusted up again, but has since done approx 50mile driving in town and its down to half now, i thought these things are meant to be great on fuel and being honest so far im not overly impressed, the hesitation is very annoying but didnt notice it on test drive but did notice that it may be in need a thermostat as it never warms up fully, im heading out now to fit a rear drop link and shocks, but may clean the maf and map sensors while out, and thinking seriously about blocking off the egr valve aswell, i did read that the cmax is a sufferer of bursting intercoolers but doesnt sound like its leaking by any means

GVK.

Take off the stepper motor from the top of the EGR valve and check motor and valve, they can seize up. If you plug the motor in and key on/start the car, you should see the motor operate.

Also, check MAF sensor for oil ingress.

shanel

is the egr easy to get at??

dombloke

Does it have an intercooler, if so check pipes for damage, similar thing happened to my mates seat ibiza...

GVK.

Not too bad, a bit fiddly... it is a French engine

No 1 on this pic.



Being in a cmax, you may need to remove the wipers and scuttle panel to access the back of the engine.

I would get codes read to see if any EGR codes in there before raking it all off.

shanel

Just spent a while at the car lads, fitted rear drop link, and started checking everything top to bottom on engine, dipped it for oil and was too much do drained that off and renewed oil and filter with ford parts, I wanted to drop the sump but time wasn't on my side today so I'll do it along with another oil change in a few weeks, I noticed that the inside of the airbox was wet with oil so removed it and replaced filter, cleaned out the maf with electrical cleaner and blew dry with airline, I then saw the steel pipe was a bit wet aswell so cleaned it up to find a crack! I used a bit of steel putty and sealed it up again, cleaned the map sensor and fired it up, seems to have improved the smoke issue need to drive it another bit to see if hesition is gone aswell! Is there any easy way of removing the breather pipe to stop oil getting back on the maf as it will only lead to further issues again

shanel

Just spent a while at the car lads, fitted rear drop link, and started checking everything top to bottom on engine, dipped it for oil and was too much do drained that off and renewed oil and filter with ford parts, I wanted to drop the sump but time wasn't on my side today so I'll do it along with another oil change in a few weeks, I noticed that the inside of the airbox was wet with oil so removed it and replaced filter, cleaned out the maf with electrical cleaner and blew dry with airline, I then saw the steel pipe was a bit wet aswell so cleaned it up to find a crack! I used a bit of steel putty and sealed it up again, cleaned the map sensor and fired it up, seems to have improved the smoke issue need to drive it another bit to see if hesition is gone aswell! Is there any easy way of removing the breather pipe to stop oil getting back on the maf as it will only lead to further issues again

uruk hai

Sounds like good (ish ?) news ? I would see how it goes for a bit, as it was carrying too much oil there is a chance the breather problem may cure itself now the oil is at the normal level.