2003 TD6 no acceleration/torque

[Steinzy]

Hi All,

Was driving the car yesterday perfectly fine and got in it today and immediately noticed that the car had no torque or low end power. I would have my foot flat to the floor and it would take forever to get to 60 km with accelerator fully depressed.

It doesn't appear to be in limp mode as once moving although taking a very long time to get there it will rev to 5000 rpm.

I thought maybe turbo....but it's not blowing smoke, faulty injector....once again I would have thought smoke?

I have disconnected battery to reset computers and gearbox but it has made no difference.

When in neutral it runs through the revs perfectly fine however when there is load...ie weight of the car and in gear it moves at a walking pace. Took it on the highway and although taking forever to reach 100km it still got there, however when going up a very slight incline lost speed to about 80km even with right foot planted firmly on the floor.

Any ideas????

[rar110]

Start with the basics, fuel and air. Probably fuel.

Has fuel filter been changed recently? Then I'd look at either fuel pump.

[CBH25]

This isn't a full solution, since you've already tried a restart, and I know its a different machine, but I had this exact situation yesterday in my P38.

It turned out to be a gearbox issue, as I accidently banged it into D with the revs higher than they should have been.

A quick key off and out restart fixed the gearbox issue for me.

[Steinzy]

I have had a look at everything and believe based on a rough idle it may have dropped a cylinder. So may be injector harness.... The saga continues

[donrover0]

Is your fuel tank full? 1/2? 1/4?
My TD6 did this on a trip to Melbourne when fuel level dropped to 1/4 tank. Turned out to be in-tank fuel pump.
So rest of the trip kept tank above 1/3 so no more problem.
Must fix it one these days when nothing to do!

[Steinzy]

I thought that initially as I read about this happening before as so I filled the tank but no improvement :(

[Defender Mike]

Have you tried the MAF had similar problems with peugots & volvos when the MAF gets dirty of dies.

[Homestar]

Check the vacuum line to the little modulator thingy for the turbo. No vacuum, no boost. The vac lines perish. Simple cheap fix. Seen it more than once now. The car will start and run normally, but drives like a slug. You may be getting a bit more whine from the turbo too.

[Homestar]

Is your fuel tank full? 1/2? 1/4?
My TD6 did this on a trip to Melbourne when fuel level dropped to 1/4 tank. Turned out to be in-tank fuel pump.
So rest of the trip kept tank above 1/3 so no more problem.
Must fix it one these days when nothing to do!

You and me both. :D

I just keep the tank above 1/4 now. If it gets lower than that, it can be hard to start and have low power.

[harlie]

I have had a look at everything and believe based on a rough idle it may have dropped a cylinder. So may be injector harness.... The saga continues

Rough idle sure point to running on 5, and there won't be any smoke. There is a "Wheeler Dealers" episode that showed basic trouble shooting very nicely.

Unplug injectors one by one to see if the engine changes - if it is running on 5 as you go through each injector - unplug a good one and it will be on 4 - unplug the bad one and there's no difference.

Once you have found which one it is, take the injector out, point it into a bottle and start the engine again, there should be no fuel. At this point, unplug another injector and use its plug onto the injector in the bottle - If it still has no fuel its the injector - if it starts squirting its the harness.

[Steinzy]

Looks like it's the harness. Issue is there is none in the country at the moment!!!

[rar110]

Rough idle sure point to running on 5, and there won't be any smoke. There is a "Wheeler Dealers" episode that showed basic trouble shooting very nicely. Unplug injectors one by one to see if the engine changes - if it is running on 5 as you go through each injector - unplug a good one and it will be on 4 - unplug the bad one and there's no difference. Once you have found which one it is, take the injector out, point it into a bottle and start the engine again, there should be no fuel. At this point, unplug another injector and use its plug onto the injector in the bottle - If it still has no fuel its the injector - if it starts squirting its the harness.

I blame that episode for elevating my interest in L322s.

[jsp]

Mine did a harness a few months ago, car was almost undriveable at all, couldn't get over 20 k/hour and ran like a bucket of bolts at idle. It had only dropped one cylinder and the whole car was shaking.

Karcraft had several harnesses when I bought mine...... half what a local so called specialist sold a "low k better than new" harness which also turned out to be faulty.....

I was well impressed with the price - was expecting to pay an arm and a leg.

If you were local I would happily lend you my butchered made out of two spare harness to get you going until a new one shows up

[BRUMMY]

Who was the specialist that you got your harness from ? and what was the cost ?
I have similar problems, one day it runs perfect, the next like a bag of bolts...
Cheers Paul

[Steinzy]

So although I was told by both local dealer and local mechanic that there was no harness in the country British Off-road on the Sunshine Coast procured one for me in 2 days. Cost was about $127 including express postage to my door. Wasn't difficult to fit....took about an hour to remove and replace. Completely resolved the problem!

[Homestar]

Great news. :)

[donrover0]

Replaced the intank pump with a $60 ebay BMW X5 petrol one; ok in diesel but apparently only 3/4 the output volume; of course it was 8mm outlet instead of the diesel 10mm outlet, but replaced that hose with some ubeaut 8mm non-reinforced solid-right-thru hose from hydraulic shop- supposed to be used extensively in Mercedes trucks as standard (?).

All working well now; quick starts; can run tank to empty; no more bubbles in the line under bonnet.

[uteman]

Some problems I had a few years back started in a similar manner and it was bad fuel that damaged injectors.
Did you happen to fill the car somewhere different?
Take a sample of the fuel and just place in a jar and look at it.
That was all I had to do to quickly determine that I had been sold adulterated fuel

Sorry folks I did not see that problem had already been corrected.