asp383

Latest update: Was booked into the bosch garage last month, called race for home start & said where I wanted the car to go to if couldn't be started, but because the car is at home, they would only take it 10 miles, despite having roadside, home start & national recovery, they wanted an extra £132 to take it the extra 25 miles to the garage, so after 3 hours on the phone over 2 days, I told them to screw the policy & joined aa. Had to wait for the paperwork, then gave it a week or so & called them out wednesday, having already booked it into the garage. It was recovered without issue, took about 15 minutes to remove the to identify the leak, remove the top cover, replace the seal, refit & bleed... Leak fixed, but still didn't want to start. Started on sniff & ran fine, although some white smoke. They seem to think it's timing related, rather than anything with the pump, so are stripping the front down to check the woodruff key & keyway to see if either is worn or key is broken. Although they spent over 1 hour on it, they only charged £13 for replacing the seal (I settled up for that bit there & then) & if it is the key or keyway, I'll go ahead with the repair & new cambelt while it's apart (also in case diesel leaked onto it), I'll also try claiming the repair costs back from aa as I've got an add on with my cover that pays up to £500 of the repair, I have to pay 1st £35 & anything over the £500, but with an older car, it's worth it

I'm keeping my fingers crossed this will be the fix. If it doesn't fix it, then luckily my brother lives just round the corner from the bosch garage, so I could either crash at his, or get him to tow me home. It's certainly been inconvenient without it... Dread to think how much it's cost in bus & taxi fares on top of what it's cost for parts.

looks like i've got to take it in, as the triangular socket is only available to authorised bosch agents, so got to wait a couple of weeks & get it down to the garage & hope that sorts it ... shouldn't be more than £40 to sort ... but that will be the last i spend on it

possible diagnosis ... suddenly remembered when i worked for jcb, there was a diesel specialist company next door (used them enough for cleaning/testing injectors & rebuilding pumps etc), gave them a call, spoke to the manager (remembered his name after 10 years), described the symptoms, what i've done, what the computer has said etc & what things other than the esos (fuel solenoid on pump) i can check myself. he advised checking the little valve next to the fuel inlet union on the pump (the top has 2 flat sides with slightly rounded ends), use a 10mm open end spanner to undo & check the internals are still in place as these have a tendancy to fall out & reduce internal pump pressure, it just needs knocking back in ... upon checking, the internal locating pin was partially out, so knocked back in & refitted ... sounded better ... as though it was wanting to start, but not quite there. got it started on sniff & kept it running on that, as i sprayed more direclty into the manifold, i noticed diesel squirting from the top cover (the cover the fuel return banjo screws into), looked like it was coming from the gasket between the top cover & body. i suspect the reason i hadn't noticed the leak before is that a) low internal pump pressure caused by the valve internals almost fallen out & b) i've been working by myself & not being able to rev the engine while looking at the fuel system, but by squirting sniff into the engine to increase rpm's & having knocked the valve internals back in (upping the internal fuel pressure), i've finally been able to see a problem at the pump ... even after checking previusly, i suspect that by the time i've got to a position to look at the fuel system, any leaked fuel has evaporated off or just looking like a part of the engine grime. just waiting to hear back from the diesel garage to see if they can supply an overhaul kit inc gaskets & where to get a socket for the triangular bolt head on top of the pump to remove the cover.

further update: checked timing: all timing marks line up/able to get locking kit in place without any problems. Doesn't appear to have any issues with vacuum hoses, intercooler, pipes or hoses. Had a friend "borrow" a genuine part MAF sensor that he had ordered for a customers car which I tried: getting same readings as the lucas unit & fault not rectified while trying to start & drive, refitted lucas MAF sensor Still got to look at injector pump pressure injectors & turbo. Diagnosed & rectified faults so far: battery, MAF sensor & glow plugs.

i've had someone with a disco 3 call breakdown out at 10am on a sunday morning in the summer to change his headlight bulb, because the high beam had blown, he had already driven up to the garage to get the new bulb & gone back to his friends house where he'd spent a few days & then tried for about a hour to change it, before calling breakdown. what really got me was, he'd noticed it was blown on his way down, but left it until he was ready to go home i faffed around for a while to change it & then he said his day has been messed up, because he wanted to be home by 11am (only had to go about 50 miles), so i had to explain that a blown main beam during the day in summer isn't exactly a breakdown that we should have come out to, so our office then sent him an invoice for the call out & labour. 1st car i looked at (diesel series 2 landy), had a push buttton to engage the starter & a pull knob (like choke cable) connected to the diesel pump, had to pull it out to pull the fuel rack across & shut the diesel off, i would have had it if a friend hadn't offered me his petrol 2a for a lot less

i agree, i'm old school ... brought up on carb, points & dizzy for petrol & nice simple basic diesel engines ... much better. had a few snotty kids come along fresh out of college thinking they know it all & when you ask them to go tune "that car over there" ... 2 hrs later, they come over after finally plucking up the courage to ask the question ... "where do i plug the computer in?" my reply "that's a proper car, you've got to be a proper mechanic to diagnose, tune & fix it". go over to it with them, set timing & carb by ear & they don't believe it can be done without putting on a gas analyzer & using a timing light, so you put it on & prove it's spot on ... they don't question you again ... that's when you take advantage with them by sending them off for a long wait, left handed tools etc. i've built plenty of drag cars & none have had fuel injection etc ... all just on carbs & either a dual point or basic electronic dizzy ... competed quite well & into the 9s brackets

couldn't see manufacturer on the old maf sensor, but as part number on body was same & i'm getting radings from it now, i'm happy. never had problems in the past with lucas parts, so have confidence. i know ford like their bosch products, i was brought up on them & did my apprenticeship with mainly ford. i would have been suspicious if it had been some strange chinese unbranded part though. the loss of power only seems to occure when i'm cruising/low throttle & then try to accelorate, or if i lift off (such as coming up to a roundabout) & keeping it in gear, try to acelorate away & it's always accompanied by smoke, as soon as power comes back, the smoke clears very quickly. i know it's not down to rpm's dropping too low for gear, as i've even tried it in 3rd at 3000rpm, letting it drop to 1500-2000rpm & trying to accelorate. beginning to think possibly something mechanical now, as opposed to electrical/sensor as the readings from the live data appear to be doing something & could explain the ecu fault code ... registering a fault, but unable to determin????

MAF sensor is lucas & same part #on body as original. It's only on start up & when it looses power that it smokes, rest of the time, it's fine & runs spot on when it's working... Even better in fact after the new MAF sensor, but will try checking timing Thanks

latest update: car not used for a week (waited for wages), picked up the new maf sensor today & thought while at motor factor, i'll replace the air filter as a precaution. fitted both & connected my computer (snap-on mt2500 scanner) to clear fault codes (00553' mas airflow sensor -g70 short with power - error occurs intermittent & 65535 ecu malfunction). still a struggle to start, with lots of smoke out exhaust. had to give a quick spray of sniff to start. gave it a few minutes & checked for fault codes ... none present. switched to live data & noted it all down, at adle & 2000rpm: injection quantity: engine speed (rpm) ............ 903 ..... 2000 injection qty (mg/s) .............. 4.1 ...... 4.7 slide valve sensor (v) .......... 1.400 .. 1.340 coolant temp (*c) .................. 33 ....... 62 idle speed control: engine speed (rpm) .............. 903 ..... 2000 throttle pedal pos (%) ........... 0.0 ...... 16.0 coolant temp (*c) .................. 36 ....... 63 idle switch closed .................. yes ...... no exhaust gas recirculation: engine speed (rpm) ............... 903 ..... 2000 maf (desired) (mg/s) .............. 280 ..... 300 maf (actual) (mg/s) ................ 450 ..... 300 duty cycle egr valave (%) ...... 4 ......... 68 start of delivery: engine speed ......................... 903 ..... 2000 start of delivery (desired %) ... 1.7 ..... 4.1 start of delivery (actual %) ..... 1.7 ..... 4.6 dc start of delivery valve (%) .. 80 ...... 76 start conditions: engine speed (rpm) ................ 903 .... 2000 start quantity (mg/s) ............... 29.0 ... 29.0 start of delivery (*) ................. 1.9 ...... 4.1 coolant temp (*c) ................... 43 ....... 65 temperatures: fuel temp (*c) ......................... 16 ....... 30 intake temp (*c) ...................... 9 ......... 13 coolant temp(*c) ..................... 45 ....... 65 injected quantity limitation: engine speed (rpm) ................ 903 ..... 2000 inj. qty (driver) (mg/s) ............. 0.0 ...... 4.3 inj. qty (torque) (mg/s) ............ 23.1 .... 34.7 inj. qty (smoke) mg/s) ............. 25.5 .... 12.9 air quantities: maf (mg/s) .............................. 455 ..... 290 barometric preesure (mbar) ... 1009 ... 1020 boost pressure (mbar) ............ 989 .... 1030 throttle position (%) ................. 0.0 ...... 14.0 control turbo pressure: engine speed (rpm) .................. 903 ..... 2000 boost pressure (desired mbar) . 958 ..... 1020 boost pressure (actrual mbar) .. 989 ..... 1030 duty cycle waste gate valve (%) 91 ....... 90 glow system: glow time (s) ............................. 2.44 .... 2.44 batteruy (v) ............................... 14.4 .... 14.4 coolant temp (*c) ...................... 51 ....... 66 idling smooth running control: inj. diff cyl 1 to average (mg/s) .. 0.37 ... 0.37 inj. diff cyl 2 to average (mg/s) .. 0.14 ... 0.00 inj. diff cyl 3 to average (mg/s) .. 0.40 ... 0.42 inj. diff cyl 4 to average (mg/s) .. 0.11 ... 0.02 fuel consumption: engine speed (rpm) .................... 903 .... 2000 injection qty (actual) (mg/s) ........ 3.3 ..... 4.3 fuel consumption (l/h) ................. 0.39 ... 1.17 injection qty (driver) (mg/s) ......... 0.0 ..... 4.3 auxillary heating: alternator load (%) ...................... 0 ......... 0 battery (v) .................................... 14.4 .... 14.4 relay heater high .......................... off ....... off relay heater low ........................... off ....... off aux heating witch off due to: coolant air temp sns defect .. no engine cranked in last 10s .... no engine speed <750rpm ......... no battery below 9v .................... no alternator defect .................... no coolant temp>70*c ................ no air temp >5*c ......................... no vehicle speed: speed (mph) ................................. 0 injection control: slide valve sensor (min v) ............. 0.720 .... 0.720 slide valve sensor (max v) ............ 0.000 .... 0.000 turned engine off, waited approx 1 minute & attempted to restart ... turned over ok, but struggled to fire up, eventually fired up (with smoke) & took round block. acceloration felt better & maf readings are better ... actual is moving, so old maf sensor was defective. tried to replicate loss of power by lifting off throttle for 50 yards & reapplying, all ok until i got to a roundabout, where i lost power (didn't stall), dropped from 4th to 3rd, still not picking up, dropped to 2nd, still no response, eventually picked up, but lots of smokle out exhaust, soon cleared as i got up to speed, was fine last 1/2 mile home. rechecked for fault codes ... 65535 - ecu defective. i'm presuming the loss of power was dropping into limp mode? but i don't think that would explain the smoke? i couldn't communicate with the fuel pump, so don't know if there's a problem there, ecu or something else. once it starts with just a quick spray of sniff, it's idling fine, picks up throttle fine, no sign of air in system. it's just starting it struggles with, even when warmed up. i'm now thinking ecu, fuel pump related or injectors, which means that as far as i'm concerned, it's a non economical repair ... unless there's anything else to check? any further tips or hints guys would be much appreciated. thanks

i've bought things like exhaust systems, headlights & other sugh items, but they weren't urgent ... knew they'd be needed for mot, so didn't mind waiting for them to come through the post. unfortunately, there's too many fakes on ebay & usually from the far east. there was a big thing about msd ignition units from china, claimed to be produced under licence in the same factory, but all had same serial number with inferior electronics inside (msd produce their own products in their only factory based un usa), a number of rifle scopes are fakes, with some pretty obvious differences & same with car parts. i've been using this particular motor factor for 20 years (the company i did my apprenticeship with used them & would only use reliable sources), over that time, the longest i've had to wait for a part is 24hrs & that was special order. if in stock at another depot, they'll have it ready for afternoon collerction if ordered before midday, or following morning if ordered after midday & they'll always call to let you know it's arrived. on the rare occasion they've supplied the wrong part, they'll exchange without question, if correct part is cheaper, they'll refund the difference & if correct part is more expensive, they won't add the difference. it's not very often i'll go to breakers yards either, they've got smart over the years & some parts are nearly as expensive as motor factors, but why pay 10% less for a used part without any warranty or gaurantee, when for the extra 10%, you can buy new with warranty/gaurantee. i'd never buy anything related to brakes, steering, suspension or sensors from them, but it's more like what i'd buy from ebay if i do.

I'm getting it from my preferred motor factor when I get paid for £54+vat ... £70 cheaper than main dealer & usually price match or better. Very rarely buy parts via ebay, you don't always know where the cheap parts are from (often poor quality far eastern copy) & can cost more to return if faulty.

Had to use the car today, needed quick shirt of sniff & fired up immediately, bit of whit smoke. Seemed to run ok. dropped our eldest at school, then to a couple of places in town... All ok. Had to go to the next town for some bits, main road has roadworks & just to add to things, an accident, so we went the scenic route. All ok at 1st, probably done about 5 miles (1 of motorway, 1 of 30mph through a village, rest 40, 50, 60mph a/bashful roads), then it suffered the loss of power, even dropping a gear, didn't work. Luckily, I was able to pull into a bus stop, engine revved fine, but smoked, pulled away ok, but with smoke when accelerating. This happened several times in the next few miles. In the town, power dropped off again, but dipping clutch & stabbing throttle or dropping gear sorted it, but smoked when on throttle for a while. Was fine on the dual carriageway back, even at 50-60. I'm guessing loss of power is it going into limp mode? But it then clears itself without having to restart. It's not burning oil, at least no worse than for the last 3 years. I may unplug the MAF sensor & see how it drives tomorrow, can take it on a loop with 30, 40, 70, 50 40, 30 limits.

Cheers for that, I think I'll try the MAF sensor then, just got to wait until next week to get it & hope that's it. Don't think I'll be able to justify spending too much more on it though. It takes ages to get to 60! I know it's not the most high performance diesel, but you wouldn't expect it to take best part of a mile! Unplugging the MAF sensor made no difference with starting, not tried driving it disconnected though, may try that tomorrow if I get the chance. The new filter had new "o"rings with it, but it was being awkward to start before changing the filter.

'98/r galaxy 1.9tdi. the car haas been fine up until last few weeks ago. car had been unused for 2 months due to not beinag able to drive after breaking my arm. removed battery, checked electrolyte & put on charge for just over 24hrs, started & drove fine over christmas/new year, even when not used for about 3/4 days. then a few weeks ago, it gradually went from starting almost instantly, to really struggling, almost as though 1 cylinder at a time was catching, some white smoke (not normal), but once running, drove fine & would restart fine if warm. checked glow plugs, 3x tested open circuit, so replaced all 4 (kept good 1 back for testing), 10v supply. battery was starting to struggle, so replaced with new & changed the fuel filter. still struggling to start,but would restart ok. car was running a good hour on errands before popping into town for 2/3 hours satuday, wouldn't start when wanting to come home. didn't want to risk flattening the battery, so called out breakdown, he disconnected the inlet pipe & sprayed a little brake cleaner into manifold as i turned it over ... fired up straight away & ran fine. he seemed to think possible low fuel pressure (this was 1st time it hadn't started after turning over). plugged my computer in (snap-on scanner) to see what fault codes it threw up: 65535 - ecu defective 553 - maf sensor - g70 short with power cleared faults started engine & ran about 5 minutes, turned off & rechecked fault codes: 553 - maf sensor - g70 short with power. cleared faults. didn't want to start up, so squirted some brake cleaner into manifold & it fired up. left scanner connected & showing live data. all readings appeared ok, accept for maf sensor: idle (903rpm), maf required 280mg/s maf actual 550mg/s 2100rpm, maf required 320mg/s maf actual 550mg/s spoke to a technician at my local ford main dealer, who said the maf sensor would make starting hard, hot or cold. i'd also checked on here for starting problems & looked like maf sensor was likely culprit. having to use sniff to start the car (i know they can get addicted to it, but not this quick). got my autodata books out of my garage resterday, so i knew which pins to check, as i wanted to be sure whether a fault was with the wiring or maf sensor. i also noticed for the 1st time, if cruising, sometimes when i applied gentle throttle, i had no response, even when going to the floor, then after a while, it would jerk into life & pick up, dropping a gear was fine, as was stabbing at the throttle. now got slight white smoke when on throttle ... new this weekend had another look this morning: all 4x glow plugs ok & 10v feed. discnnected maf sensor to check pins (autodata book only lists under vw sharan & on my ford, pin 1 isn't used) pin 1-earth - not used pin 2-earth - 12.5v pin 3-earth - 0v pin 4-earth - 5v pin 5-earth - 0v pins 2-3 - 12.5v pins 2-4 - 7.5v pins 2-5 - 12.5v pins 3-4 - 5v pins 3-5 - 0v pins 4-5 - 12v book says (for vw) pin 3/earth - batt. v, pin 1/earth - 5v, pins 3/5 - batt.eart, pins 1/5 - 5v. rechecked fault codes: 65535 - ecu defective 553 - maf sensor - g70 short with power - error intermittent cleared faults, tried starting, no fault codes showing yet. have to do some running around tomorrow, so will plug my scanner in, keep an eyer on live dater & fault codes. i don't want to spend uneccissary money on the car & looks like the maf sensor needs replacing, but if the ecu is on it's way out, then car will be a scrapper ... hoping the 65535 code is just due to it not running properly. i hate all this modern electronics on engines & i'm more of an old school (non ecu) mechanic, so any other pointers would be very much appreciated.

i believe the o/s (longer) drive shaft is the more common for failing. i've had to do a few. the gearbox is on the n/s, with the cv joint of the o/s shaft roughly in the middle. jack the car up & sit on axle stands. get underneath & holding the shaft either side of the joint, try twisting to feel for play within the joint itself. it can make a similar noise to wheel bearings, so also check them.

i work for a certain nationwide breakdown service & i can't tell you how frustrating it is when cars don't have a spare wheel ... either because the driver hasn't bothered having the last puncture repaired or just hasn't got 1, the manufacturer only supplies a can of snott or it's got pressure sensors in the wheels. pretty much the same when you go to get the spare out & the bolt/winch/whatever just spins or is siezed. if we're lucky, the puncture is on the wheel that will go into the recovery gear, otherwise it's a case of swapping wheels round before loading & towing to the garage. snott is ok if the puncture is across the tread, but if it's on the shoulder or sidewall, then it can't be used. tyre shops hate it, especially on alloys, because it takes a while to clean off the rim. if fitted with sensors, then the manufacturer doesn't fit a spare. sometimes, we can use our discretion, remove the wheel, run down to a local tyre shop with the customer, wait for it to get changed, return & fit to car. very often, siezed bolts for the wheel carrier is down to poor maintenance ... a quick smear of copper grease on the threads when the car is serviced, or spray with wd40 usually keeps things moving. a good servicable spare is essential, as is knowing how to change the wheel & actually doing it!!!! you'd be amazed how many people would rather wait up to an hour for us to come out, especially if they've got an appointment or meeting & risk being late, rather than change the wheel themselves.

hi everyone, i'm currently running a '98/r plate galaxy 1.9tdi in green,with 125k on the clock. it's affectionately known as the slug ... more for it's colour & the fact that my roadside patrol van accelorates quicker when towing a car ... not because of any slime it leaves in it's trail. previously, i was running a '97/n plate 2.0 sharan. overall, i'm quite happy with the models, they've been quite reliable & offered plenty of room for the family. despite the low (for age) mileage, the galaxy has had a hard life, as it belonged to a bishop & was used as a pool car amongst the congregation when they needed a bigger car or theirs was in the garage, despite this, mot time, it's flown through, with only service parts requiring attention 2010: track rods & suspension bushes. 2011: rear fog light (broken wire). 2012: n/s/f wheel bearing, wiper blades, 2x tyres. more recently, it's had a service, 4x glow plugs & battery. i'm currently having an issue, but looks like it's related to the maf sensor. i'm a qualified mechanic, been in the industry for 20 years, i spent my apprenticeship working for a motorsport specialist, mainly in the engine shop building anything from stock mini up to ex-f1 engines, although the main bulk of the work was the company's own 16v twin cam cylininder head conversuion for the pinto (we were effectively in direct competition with cosworth, but where all cosworths are turbo, all warrior engines are n/a), i'd also work in the race shop building race cars for all different classes & formula, when the boss decided to sell up & emmigrate, i left & spent some time as an engineer for jcb. since then, i've spent time working in accident & breakdown or plant, currently working as a roadside patrol for a certain nationwide breakdown organisation. in my spare time, i've looked after a private rally team as their cheif mechanic & been involved in the building of their cars, while working for them, they won 2 national championships in 2001. i owned & ran my own drag racing team, where i carried out all the work myself, i also looked after my brother's drag cars. i prefer to work on my own cars & very rarely let others do the work, as i know then it will be done right. since other commitments have pulled me away from motorsport, i'm slowly rebuilding my fishing kit after my last lot was stolen & i'm enjoying shooting my air rifles. i'm very much an old school mechanic, i'd rather rebuild than just replace, i hate modern electronics on newer cars ... it's just more to go wrong & more expensive when it does ... in my personal opinion, you can't beat a carb & points dizzy for petrol, or std rotary pump with manual fuel shut off ... very little to go wrong & if it does, you can often bodge to get home. with modern stuff, if it's more than a wheel change, jump start or doesn't start on easy start, it's generally a recovery.