Thread: Sudden losss of power going up hill but not down - 2008 Puma

Originally Posted by AlmorWalton

Would any body have any suggestions as to what could be causing a sudden loss of power whilst driving uphill. I'll be tootling along at 90kph quite happily and then I'll start going up a decent sized hill. My 2008 Puma just starts to lose power and within 500m I have to pull over. I turn the car off and everything is back to normal after a few seconds. It used to happen every once in a while but it is now happening regularly. My thoughts are that the fuel filter might be clogging up when under load but I'm no mechanic. Has anyone else had a similar issue? Thanks in advance everyone!

Also, my Puma is a 2008 so am I right in thinking that it doesn't have a pump at the fuel tank but a transfer pump at the HPP before the common rail? If that's the case, then the issue can't be with the tank pump (as there isn't one!).

These 2.4ltr Puma engines have a safety feature built into them that if the Engine Temp reaches 114 degrees that the ECU will shut down power to the engine. I had this happen to me going up Cunninghams Gap in the Summer time. I noticed on my Scan Gauge II that the Coolant temp reached 114 Degrees. Spoke to MR Auto and they confirmed this built in safety feature (its not in the 2.2 apparently)...

MR Auto traced down some issues with mine - A faulty Thermostat and Viscos Fan not working properly... Will have to wait to next summer to confirm if problem fixed or not but to date all good

Originally Posted by AlmorWalton

Would any body have any suggestions as to what could be causing a sudden loss of power whilst driving uphill. I'll be tootling along at 90kph quite happily and then I'll start going up a decent sized hill. My 2008 Puma just starts to lose power and within 500m I have to pull over. I turn the car off and everything is back to normal after a few seconds. It used to happen every once in a while but it is now happening regularly. My thoughts are that the fuel filter might be clogging up when under load but I'm no mechanic. Has anyone else had a similar issue? Thanks in advance everyone!

Also, my Puma is a 2008 so am I right in thinking that it doesn't have a pump at the fuel tank but a transfer pump at the HPP before the common rail? If that's the case, then the issue can't be with the tank pump (as there isn't one!).

It sounds like your Puma is going into limp mode. These are many faults which can trigger this. If you can get someone with an analyser you may be able to narrow down the fault to a particular area or even a sensor. Our Puma does this from time to time and to date I haven't found the exact culprit, although I think ours is boost or EGR related.

I had this happen repeatedly on the last day of an 8-week outback trip several years ago. Vehicle going into limp-home mode, turning off / on again resets it but it will trigger again until the cause is fixed. On mine it was a fractured wire to the turbo wastegate actuator, the loom had no slack in it so the furthest wire was installed under tension and had broken internally. My Nanocom pointed me to the right area (boost problem) then some poking and prodding revealed the issue. I fixed it by grafting in a section of loom from a transit van.

On a 2.4lt TDCi
*FCV Flow control valve.
*Crankshaft position sensor failing.
*Squashed fuel line (accessible from the drivers side rear wheel arch, just after the fuel filter on its way to the engine) the fuel line gets squashed between the body and the chassis. Being as the whole fuel line is a suction line (due to no pump in the fuel tank) once it gets squashed it wants to squash or suction down more, there by starving the engine for fuel. If the issue is left unchecked, injector rattle becomes a issue due to an over pressure situation of the common rail as the high pressure pump tries to compensate for lack of fuel coming in. Well thats my guess anyway. Moving the fuel line out from that pinch point and zip tie away from it moving back, also the line needs to be gently "unsquished".
Once any fuel delivery issues are sorted, the FCV (flow control valve) and the high pressure pump both need to be re-calibrated again.
*Another squish line issue can be if fitted with a long range tank, some brands of tank, the sender/fuel pickup assembly ends up bending the feed line to the engine and it kinks off blocking fuel feed. Sometimes rotating the pickup assembly, putting a small hose clamp on the bend point and moving the line up on an angle fixes this issue.

On a 2.2lt TDCi
*it has 2 stages to limp mode with relation to temperature, the first one limits rpm at round 2K and the second just above idle (i cant remember the exact rpm).
*Causes are likely an internal crack in the heat exchange on the EGR (common on 2.2 and also ford ranger 3.2).

Hi AlmorWalton,

Just wondering what the final diagnosis was.

Cheers

Boots