Thread: Loss of power on highway

Auto TD5 2003 260k on the speedo - driving down freeway at 95klm, slight vibration starts in engine - starts to slow down with the pedal to the floor, downshift but no power. Pulled over and the vehicle stalls. I had to wait for half an hour and with a bit of cranking the engine fires - headed for home and after five klms I lose power and the engine stalls again. I had previously replaced the crank angle sensor and know that it is working - fuel pressure at regulator on engine is fine at idle.

Had it checked out and it did not "fault" for them, seemed to run better on the way back from the service center in heavy traffic (both engine and gearbox temps are good). Started up crisply and ran well the next day but two days latter I had this problem.

Fuel pump failing at speed?

Originally Posted by discorevy

Injector washers can cause this. with the ignition on does the fuel pump sound normal ( ie: no cavitation noise )?

I can't recall the fuel pump sounding abnormal in any way .. but then again I never really took notice before or afterwards.

My brother has a TD5 D2, and he had same problem. it started off more mild .. just rough running, then smoothed out. This got worse when rough running turned into lack of power, mainly when it was needed for accelerating or uphill.

We changed pump and FPR .. no difference. At this point in TD5 life we were both totally green with them, and had no understanding .. it all felt like lack of fuel. filters changed lines blown through .. etc,
All no no avail and power loss getting worse over time. Power loss then became total stop. Maybe a couple of minutes drive every few minutes.
After every 'shutdown' the quickest way to get it going again was a fuel purge, start .. lots of grey smoke, she'd get up again .. drive a few minutes .. shutdown again.

I had the nanocom connected one day, and whilst watching it I had it on the injector balances screen. about 1 second prior to 'shutdown' .. balance values would go from approx -10 to +10 values to crazy +150 to -150 kind of values.
Then shut down. Didn't have enough time to pull up and switch off from when the balance values went all haywire to self shutdown.

discorevy was one of a few that advised on injector washers back then(about 3 years now), we changed them .. she has driven like a new TD5 ever since

Genuine washer kits are pretty cheap, not hard to do, make sure you have the manual handy and medium torque wrench to set some bolts back right. You don't need special tools to remove injectors, we used one half of a multi grip tool carefully prised out .. easy as.
While you're in there change the injector loom if you haven't already .. and familiarise yourself very well with the procedure bump stop clearance for the cam lobes for the injectors(easy to do).

Took us two total noobs about 2 or 3hrs(with my normal plenty of smoko breaks in between) ..