Diesel Alhambra No Power

[willywagga]

Hi,

I've been here with this ongoing problem before, and I still have it. 2001 tdi pd engine, main dealers checked all sensors, ended up suggesting the turbo, replaced that €1400 no improvement, they may as well have washed the car, they wanted to replace the injectors, I just can't afford that, they seemed to be guessing and I've given up on them.

I brought the car to a small nearby auto electrician who did some tests of his own (keep in mind at this stage the car has been to 5 others who couldn't find any fault including maindealer with all the gear) he found that firstly the car is using 35mg of fuel per second when it should be using 14mg. He suspects either the fuel pump is at fault or the ECU. At around 2000rpm diesel is pumped into the car at an awful rate. The car is brutally sluggish to drive particularly from a standing position. At this stage I've spent over €3000 trying to get this sorted, at this stage it's not worth replacing the Ecu or the fuel pump. Anybody got any ideas what I should do.

Edited August 12, 2010 by willywagga

[Mirez]

I assume someones checked the MAF? The most common reason for sluggish and poor performance! If not then you'll find it in the pipe work from the airbox (drivers side of engine) its the first electrical item - disconnect it then go for a drive, if there is no improvement then its quite possibly defective which won't normally show up on any sort of diagnostic machines but its so common I can't believe its not been checked already.

 

I've never heard of an ECU failure causing this type of problems, the fueling maps are ROM stored so it would need to be seriosuly broken to cause the issue. Again injector faults might cause this issue but you would need multiple ones to fail to be pumping fuel in at the rates you say, and thats unlikely - you havn't said what mileage you are on though?

[seatkid]

Disconnect the MAF sensor and see if it runs OK - it'll have little power, but shouldn't use much fuel. You should also disconnect the battery for a couple of minutes or so, so that the ECU is reset to initial factory defaults. (You will lose your radio code if you do this).

 

Definitely not fuel pump - this has nothing to do with the metering rate - its just a low pressure lift pump to supply the injectors. Not ECU either.....

 

Other possiblity that comes to mind is an EGR valve that is stuck open.

[chrispb123456]

Hi,

I've been here with this ongoing problem before, and I still have it. 2001 tdi pd engine, main dealers checked all sensors, ended up suggesting the turbo, replaced that

[willywagga]

Thanks for the input guys, the Maf has been checked many times, with no fault there, nor the n75 sensor. The local chap here suspects the EGR valve, he's carried out tests on the injectors and said they have uniform expected readings. Here's hoping the EGR is the culprit, is this a difficult/expensive problem to solve.

 

Thanks again

[seatkid]

May be worth checking needle lift sensor wiring attached to no.3 injector, this does cause low power but does usually leave a fault code.

 

PD engines don't have a needle lift sensor - they're on older (pre 2000) Tdi engines

[gudgeon]

Hi,did you ever sort this problem out because I've got a seat Alhambra with the same symptoms and nobody can find out what is wrong with it ?

[zorgman]

not egr valve just blank it off with a bit tin, get your car on vag com and get a measure test done to check out maf/turbo and fuel rates whilst car being driven. sorry cant give much more help