Lack Of Power When Accelerating

[CM2007]

Hello people, I hope someone can shed some light on a power issue I seem to be having when accelerating.

 

I have a 2002 1.9 tdi (115 bhp) 6 speed manual.

I first noticed the problem when I was doing around 45mph behind a slow coach in a 60mph, when he turned off I floored it and it took an age just to reach 60 and I changed down into 5th then 4th and I still got hardly any acceleration.

My wife said she tried overtaking something on the motorway last week and she got the same response but assumed it was just a characteristic of diesels (we only bought it a few weeks ago and it's her first diesel)

 

I was sure it should have more poke but she suggested its because we were already doing a reasonable speed and it just felt slow.

I left it at that until today when I was doing around 30mph approaching a long, steep hill. I started to accelerate up the hill in 4th and was maintaining around 30mph with the accelerator pressed about 2/3 of the way down. Realising I would maybe run out of power half way up I dropped it into 3rd and it took off, accelerating really well up the hill until I got to about 38ish then it was like I had taken my foot off the power for a second and then put it back on but not quite as much. In reality my foot didn't move, it was still pressed about 2/3 and it started to drop to about 35mph then even with my foot flat down in 3rd it would only sit at 35mph and not budge above.

 

There was a definite sudden dip in power. I know some of the older Mercedes vans used to have an issue with a vacuum actuator solenoid which would intermittently fail causing a loss of partial or total boost and the symptoms were very similar.

 

The car is driveable and is quite a dream compared to my old mk1 galaxy and the more recent 3.3 V6 Voyager I had but this is niggling me now and I'd like to get it sorted.

 

Any ideas?

 

Cheers

Mike

[chrispb123456]

Sounds like you have a boost issue and is going into limp mode.

Lots of info on here about it, use the search box for limp mode and boost issues.

Also check for fault codes this will help with diagnosis.