Dawson Bullock

Hi, My 2002 tddi is suffering from a random drop in power. If I turn engine off then restart it's ok for a while. There is no smoke, no flashing glow plug light, no strange noises. It runs and drives reasonable, just as if there is no turbo.

I've had this before on another focus and was just an air leak on the maf sensor pipe.
I've checked all my pipes on the intercooler circuit, can't find anything.

I have a 'donor' car for spares in the garden so I've swapped the maf sensor & the EGR solenoid & intercooler sensor. Still the same.


Any suggestions?

Regards, Dawson

Dawson Bullock

I've just blanked 'egr' valve off to see if it makes any difference.
I'll try to follow this through to the end incase it helps anyone else as it looks like I'm on my own!

Dawson Bullock

Wife's been driving it today, says it's ok, but I'll give it a few days to make sure.
If it's cured I'm not sure whether to leave it blanked, or remove & clean.

It's a good job I found this forum; I've managed to help & advise myself loads.

Dawson Bullock

Good luck pal, hope it goes ok. If not give me a shout.

Dawson Bullock

I'm back. No, looks like the egr is probably ok.

My next move is.. swap a set of injectors 'cos I have a spare. If no better then I will take off the cat and see if blocked.

botters

iTrader: (2)

lol what a thread!
it may well just be the egr as they do cause your above symptoms

botters

iTrader: (2)

are they electronic injectors on yours? if so the injectors will need programming to your ecu

Dawson Bullock

Hi there, I've blanked the egr so surely that has eliminated egr?

Regarding the injectors there's no wires attached so no programming required I assume. The car is a 2002 tddi, not equipped with MIL light or other engine management lights if that helps.

Suppose I'll have to just swap and see!!

Cheers, Dawson

rsfido_1989

Is the turbo kicking in my tddi fiesta wasn't,




I had the egr, inlet and turbo off. As above they all needed cleaning.
The turbo had oil in the actuator and 'hydrolocked', leaving the pipes of and a pair of grips I pumped it. Squirted oil out and then i made a pressure tester, 2 bar open fully then 1.5 bar afte 5 minutes.

Dawson Bullock

It drives normal, then randomly it loses power and FEELS like no turbo. Then if i switch off ignition and restart all is ok again. Some days it's faultless.
Don't forget, I've blanked the EGR now and it's no different, so It's not the EGR.

rsfido_1989

Clean the inlet, clean the vacume hoses to the actuator, could be crap making it loose boost, move the actuator arm and grease the moving parts. All depends how dirty you want to get.

Dawson Bullock

Not as dirty as the wife, lol. Yes that sounds good advice mate. Will i be able to do this without removing turbo?

rsfido_1989

Not sure on the focus but I did mine by undoing the exhaust and removing the whole turbo/manifold/downpipe. It's a good days work to strip inlet/egr and turbo, strip clean grease and refit. If you want to test the turbo message me and I'll tell you how I did mine.

Dawson Bullock

Ok, gonna strip it Saturday. Cheers.

Dawson Bullock

I've just been reading another thread regarding blanking the EGR which I have done, but I didn't block off the vaccuum pipes that go to egr solonoid valve and re route the one from the valve itself to the left port on the solonoid as stated in the thread. I best try this first.

Dawson Bullock

Anyone following this thread please bear with me, I WILL update when I get to bottom of problem. Thanks.

Dawson Bullock

An update for everyone....
My 2002 tddi is suffering from a random drop in power. If I turn engine off then restart it's ok for a while. There is no smoke, no flashing glow plug light, no strange noises. It runs and drives reasonable, just as if there is no turbo.


So far I have changed:

1, Diesel filter, & injectors
2, Map sensor
3, egr solenoid
4, Inter-cooler sensor and Air box sensor,
5, Accelerator pedal,
6, Turbo
7, Blanked egr valve

I've checked all vacuum hoses there are no air leaks and intercooler is not blocked.

Turbo was changed today, but the old one looked fine, not clogged, spun freely.

Just one thing - I took out the flywheel sensor it was reading approx 400 ohms. Is this value correct?

I'm beginning to think it's electrical, maybe a broken wire as the fault disappears when ignition is turned off then back on.

Dawson Bullock

The flywheel sensor is correct at 400 ohms I have found out. The saga continues.....

black_jack

Hi - even though you've blanked the EGR (its a solid plate? - no holes to let the gasses through?) the inlet manifold could still be "coked up" from 10 years of carbon/ mock + the breather muck adds to this forming an oily sludge

so your engine may be getting "choked" from this carbon/ sludge

an older engine may produce a lot of muck from the breather - you may have to clean out the intercooler too - and fit a catch tank to the breather outlet
You don't mention whether you have changed your air filter/ when was it last changed - again - this can choke/ restrict your engine

the injectors on a TDDI are mechanical and do not need to be coded/ recoded - they have a reputation for being more reliable/ doing higher milages than electronic injectors (TDCIs)

does your car have a fixed vane turbo with wastegate and actuator or a variable vane turbo?, (the variable vanes can coke up/ sieze)

the turbo relies on energy from the engine, if the engine is not producing the heat/ pressure energy to "feed" the turbo, (eg - if it is choked or has a fault) the turbo will not boost up, causing a "knock-on effect"

A fresh air filter is under a tenner and cleaning out the inlet manifold should be cheap too - always best to do the cheaper things 1st, especially if they are "sevice" items too (or should be)

Dawson Bullock

Hi black jack, thanks for the comments. The air filter is fine. My turbo must be fixed vane as it has a waste-gate. Don't forget that all these faults disappear when the ignition is turned off then back on.
Surely if the inlet manifold is so badly clogged the fault would be there all the time.

I can replicate the fault by disconnecting the air temp sensor on the inter cooler. I am going to check the wiring for any breaks. Also next time it faults I'm gonna lift the bonnet and check for +5v on these 2 wires which it should read when working. If no volts then possibly a fault in the wiring.

MAD Ade

iTrader: (1)

There is a tracable fault somewhere as the management is switching to limp home mode. Get it on a diagnostic machine, will tell you the fault pretty much straight away.

Dawson Bullock

The on board diagnostics (pressing the milometer button) says 'dtc - none). Would it still show a code on a proper machine?

black_jack

I think the on board diagnostics could be very basic, and i concur with ade that its probably a (code reader) tracable fault if it is going into limp (home) mode

you can buy a code reader online that will do 99% of what a garage code reader does, and you can use it again and again without additional cost, it is about 20-25 quid, (eg- an F-super) , it requires a laptop, you can also get stand alone/ handheld ones too- a worthwhine investment for you. IMO

it can also give you other information that may be useful

Previously i mis- interpreted your fault/s (oops)

Dawson Bullock

Yeah I get what you are saying mate, but there is no 'limp mode' on my car as it's the older version.
I've got a code reader - Autel Ms509 but it won't work on the Focus (just works on all my mate's)!!
Might have to bite the bullet and take her in.

Dawson Bullock

I've had the car into a garage today to have the fault codes read.
However, £20 later I'm informed there is no fault codes registering.

Cossy Mike

iTrader: (4)

Mines a 2004 Tdci 115ps and mine does this.........no idea what to do.

However the ignition off and back does'nt do anything it still stays limp.

When I put my foot down I don't know if it's going to boot off or be flat.

No smoke or anything on mine either

Will be watching this thread closely as I would like it fixed before winter

Dawson Bullock

Bear with me everyone, it's doing me noggin in now lol.

I've changed the Cylinder Head Temp Sensor (around £14 from Ford). Still no different.

samiharju

Hello from Finland.

I have same kind of problem with -99 TCI Focus. After start, everything is OK for about 0,5-5km, but after that engine loses power, runs like non-turbo engine. When i turn ignition on/off on-the-fly, all will be ok for a while, until it does the same trick again.

When I bought this car 2 weeks ago, it had MAP sensor pressure pipe broken and it didn´t boost at all -> fixed immediately.

Codes readed with AutoCom:

P1564 Pump requesting reduced fueling
P0167 O2 Sensor Heater Circuit Malfunction (Bank 2 Sensor 3)

Things done so far:
-Injection pump´s ECU has been fixed for about 50000km ago.
-New fuel & air filter
-No visible fuel or air leaks
-Wiring looks to be ok
-EGR manually blocked
-Tried another MAP sensor from 100% working car
-Tried another actuator control valve from 100% working car (I don´t know what is it called, near the map sensor fastened to firewall, 3 hoses and electric socket goes in it)
-Manifold air temp sensors cleaned (both 2), I will test them tomorrow when car is in +20c temp.

Car does still the same after all that...

Cossy Mike

iTrader: (4)

Quick update from mine - It's fixed itself! every now and then it'll be a bit sluggish and drop off the power.

Really has the be the EGR valve on mine, does anyone have an idea how to clean it up on the car??

Dawson Bullock

Okay, I've finally sorted mine. I replaced the manifold to egr vacuum pipe!!

Now then... After checking all pipework several times and finding no splits or holes of any kind I replaced this for the pure and simple reason that I had some similar pipe in the garage laying around.

Even now I still can't see anything wrong with the original (I've yet to pressure it up), but there is absolutely no visible fault with this pipe.

The car has been fine for around 8 days now, really can't believe it. You can buy this pipe / metre length on ebay for £1.25 delivered so it's worth eliminating for ther price.

Hope this helps someone.

Daws

Dawson Bullock

Yes you can, might depend on how bad it is though.

1, Remove rubber elbow section pipe on egr. Inspect with mirror/torch - you can see the valve and how bad it is. If it's chokka block then maybe best to remove, but mine wasn't.

2, Remove bottom metal 'concertina' pipe (2 small studs 10mm I think).

3, You can then move pipe to one side.

4, Using a 1/4 drive 'T' bar and extension with a 10mm socket on (or similar - it's just a matter of finding something that fits and you can move easily) you can push this up from under the valve where the concertina pipe was and physically move the valve up and down to free it off. Use EGR spray and a tooth brush, and then keep working it up and down.

Again, it's up to you to determine how badly coked up it is but I wouldn't remove manifold unless absolutely necessary.