ronniebiggs

Just been to drop my lass of at a club and noticed that the car has been running very lumppy all day. I know there suppost to sound like this. BUt today fopr no reason what so ever the car sounded lumpy and missing. I thought nothing off it and on the way home put my foot down hard. The boost went up to approx 1bar and no higher. My car runs about 1.2-1.3bar and can hit overboost in 4th and 5th but this time it was nowhere near overboost!!!

I knew I was low on petrol and as soon as I stopped thrashing it I started to stutter. I teasted it all the way to the garage and put £8 worth off optimax in. Started it up and the same lumpy running was there. So I thought I would reset the ecu at the road side on the way home as I have a recurrent ecu fault 21 (engine coolant temp sensor) it comes on and off. So I thought it may be in limp mode. Resest the ecu and went on. Gave it a foot full and practacly no boost. The turbo was making the initial spin up sound but no more than that. May have seen a cloud off smoke. But not sure could have been snow. Got it home and popped the bonnet. NO pipes visibly missing but the oil level was down to the bottom off the dip stick. This is possibly due to a leaking rocker cover guasket that it has had sinse I got it. I havent checked the oil for a month or so!!
I poured 3-4 small gulps off opil ion and the level came back up to nearly full so it carnt have lost that much oil. The gasket seems the most likely thing as it has been smelling more recently.

after topping started up and heard a squeecking noise as the fans where on it sounded like a slipping belt but again Im not sure. Once the fans went off the car ran alittle better. Still not sounding normal and the boost no going anywhere.

Any Sensible ideas most welcome. Can anyone tell me what to look for to try and diagnose my fault. Also I once a month or so ago had the fault code for the boost solenoid. Could tat be it. And on my last run the turbo seemed to whistle but the car felt as if it had bad turbo lag and never felt like it boosted.

Please Help Im desperate!!
Ronnie

ronniebiggs

Forgot to say the car still runs but ticks over as it has all day. More lumpy than usual.

Im in total dispare. Please help someone!!

Sheepsplitter

I had a similar 'performance loss' about 2 weeks ago.
I suspected it was the boost actuator, so gave it a good clean this weekend.
Full power is now restored and I am smiling again.

I've not had to do this before and I was wondering if there is something in Optimax that after a while (over a year of use) 'clogs up' the actuator, but this is pure speculation.

dnb

I found out the other day that the coolant temperature sensor decides when the engine should run in closed loop idle mode. (true at least on the Rover I workeds on last week)

If this is faulty, the car will be running a bit rich on idle when it's warm. This would lead to a rough idle. AFAIK this is not a common problem on the Scoobs.

The ROver one could be tested by disconnecting the sensor and watching if the resistance of the sensor drops as the engine warms up. No idea if it's the same scheme on the Scoob, but I imagine it is...

ronniebiggs

sheepsplitter. How do you clean the solenoid. Was your tick over lumpy and if you put your foot down did you get no/little boost.
Many thanks at least there is alittle hope yet, that I may not have fried the car!

Sheepsplitter

I just took the top tube off the boost solenoid, squirted Wynns Fuel Injection Intake and Carb Cleaner in(available at Halfords), connected the green and black plugs under the steering column and put the ignition on.
This cycled the valve (did it for about 1 minute), then turned off the ignition, disconnected the plugs and left the top tube off the solenoid and the bonnet up, to allow the cleaner to evaporate. After a further hour I took the car up the road(warming it first before giving it a good thrash).
My boost had dropped off so badly I was getting burned off by 'normal' cars, so I knew something was very wrong.
Your problem may not be this of course, but it's worth a shot.

ronniebiggs

Cheers I will try it. Why the 2 cleaners. Why not just carb cleaner?

Did yours tick over shi*e. I think it proverbly is the boost solenoid but cant understand why the massive loss in boost. I litrally went down a by pass at 1.0bar 0.2-0.3 bar less than normal then chugged slowly to the petrol station. Connected the green and black connectors. turned the ignition on pressed the accelerator to the floor then to half and started the engine. Went out the petrol station up the road a few hundred meters the ecu light flashed to say no faults and I stopped at the side off the road disconnected the plugs started driving for another mile or so. Floored it and about 0.2 bar I think was what it read!!! Did yours go off as sudden as this and was your ecu light on when it did it?
Many thanks

Sheepsplitter

It is just one cleaner, but that's what it's labelled.
Tickover on mine was lumpy, but not too bad.
If it's really jumpy on tickover I'd suspect the Lambda or MAF sensors.
Mine declined over a period of weeks I guess, and I'd been using the car just for commuting for a week or so, then one Saturday I realised it just wasn't performing well.
ECU light was not on at any period during the problem.

If I was you I would get the car checked out as the ECU light on means it is trying to tell you there is a problem. If it is the MAF you can do a lot of serious damage by driving it in that state, so I'd not if I was you. I don't think the Lambda sensor failing is so bad, but likely someone will correct this statement if I am wrong.

Sheepsplitter

Here is a link that sounds like your problem, plenty of detail if you read the full thread.....
http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/thread.asp?ThreadID=165229

ronniebiggs

The fault has been there for months the ecu light comes on and off ever so often. Its definatly the engine coolant temperature sensor and the code is 21. No other codes are coming out. I have just read other posts and my tick over could be the MAF been clogged up. I just cant understand why the loss off power that quick.

I would appreciate it if anyone could say that there car lost boost as rappid as mine as I would almost be certain that this is the proble. But Im still cautious that the turbo or piston may have gone. Im told that no.3 is always the one to go. If the turbo had gone surely there would be an excessive amount off smoke from my 3" exhaust when under boost!! but mine only smoke alittle and I think that was just cos of the weather!!
Didnt like the sound that was made while the fans where on. It was a squeecky metal to metal sound (could be parranoya) tjhat went off when the fans stopped. The belts are alittle slippy as well.
I was on all fours sniffing the exhaust trying to detect oil and was doing this in vaine as I could not really tell.

ronniebiggs

The thread sounds similar, and I am running an induction kit so is a possibility. I hope I solve it by cleaning the boost solenid in the morning, but I will check the MAF and test the car with another MAF sensor to see if that is the problem. Provided that, when I start the car it doesnt look like a high tec smoke machine in a disco in the morning.
Any ideas on worst case senarios (cant spell!) and costs (cheepest not most expensive)

Sheepsplitter

I think if it was a piston or engine problem you would have LOTS of noise. I've seen a couple of engines that had 'expired' and they were terrible to listen to, like a bag of nails and metalic sounding. I suppose it could be the turbo, but from what you've said it still sounds MAF related. You can try to clean the MAF with the cleaner I mentioned, but sometimes this can make things worse (apparently).
If it's a new MAF I think you can get them for between £60 and £190, depending on which one you are supplied (i.e full or partial replacement).

Mickle

Just a thought but have you tightened/checked all the pipes for a loose connection, especially under the intercooler and surrounding area.

I'm no techy though

Claudius

How about changing the coolant temp sensor if it's faulty?

Gussie Cup

Ronnie - my symptons were similar to this but without any warning lights. My MAF sensor was dead (I have HKS induction kit)Replaced the MAF and it was back to normal

Dont drive it too long like this

Ben

ronniebiggs

I have spotted a bit off smoke then oil coming out the turbo between the turbo and downpipe. Is this bad news. Also I never replaced the gasket between the turbo and downpipe when I fitted the downpipe just before christmas and have recently noticed (week or so ago) a much increased smell of oil. So this could have been leeking for a while. Not sure someone may no that if oil is coming out there then its nacked!!

There wasent much but you could wet your finger on it just.

Also when I smell the oil through the oil filler cap. It smells gassy, and petrolly.

Claudius

If there's a meak between the turbo exhaust housing and the downpipe, no wonder your turbo doesnt spool up correctly!

If the oil smells like petrol, you run too rich or have blow by.

ronniebiggs

Took the car back to the place I bought it and got the guys opinion. He said that the car is only on 3 cylinders. One of the pistons has fu*ked
I can get another off him second hand for £35 with rings on. Is this a good price?
Would it be worth my while getting a new one or even performance pistons. If so what do they cost to supply?

Does anyone have any experience of a piston going without damageing the block.My worst case senario is that the piston has fuc*ed the block whist I drove it??

dowser

Ronnie - get a 2nd opinion, but buy the piston/rings at 35 quid As mentioned in email, *never* ignore a CEL.

Richard

jonny gav

iTrader: (1)

sorry to hear the bad news, cos it is running on 3 doesn't mean you have a piston problem.
you could have lost the end off a plug or a coil pack could have packed in.
Dowser is right, get a second opinion.

jonny

SiPie

Ronnie

Exactly the same happened to me ....... and you don't want to know the end result . Hopefully it will just be a HT lead or a dodgy plug.

But you could always check here if you are brave enough

http://www.scoobynet.co.uk/bbs/threa...hreadid=174752

Good luck

ronniebiggs

The car smokes, the compression coming out the filler cap is immense, no boost, running on 3 pots. Im pretty sure that it is the piston. I have took the driverside plug leads off and started the car and it runs even worse. So I am quite sure the broken piston is pasenger side. If the plug lead had come off then it wouldnt smoke like a chimley and have massive compression under the oil filler cap. Would it?

I started to take the engine out yesterday and got all the way to the point where I only had to drop the 2 mountings, take the 5 nuts and bolts out the gear box and hey presto. But when in bed and after 7 pints I seemed to remember that I never checked to see which side was nacked

EASY MISTAKE

So today I spend a a while putting everything back toogether and filling up with water etc etc.
Tested the engine found out the pasenger side is goosed and stripped it again. Got the engine jacked up with a hoyst and the blo*dy gearbox wont seperate from the engine. They have steel dowels in the box and they stick.

Any one tackled this problem. Ill have it out tomorrow even if I have to take a sledge hammer and crow bar to it