Help!

[Guest RS_pete]

Found this site this morning and thought great now I'll find out if anyone else has those niggling little problems that I seem to have to live with.

Litle did I know what the day was to bring!!!

My wife was coming home in the Sharan (yes I know its not a Galaxy) 1.9 TDI115 Auto when literally about 50 yards from home the battery light and oil warning light came on simultaneously, the engine had stopped, she just managed to cruise into our drive with no power steering !

Tried to restart but nothing, engine turns over fine but wont fire, fuel gauge reads 1/4.

Haven't been able to check anything else due to failing light and thunderstorm

but was hoping that maybe someone on this forum could offer some advice?

Thanks in advance

Pete

[Guest Pete C]

It takes a lot to kill a diesel like that,hopefully it's not the cam dive belt?

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Sounds like an odd one! If engine really turns over OK sounds like cambelt will be OK, but best to check just to make sure. Next thing is that fuel cannot be getting through. Oil warning light was presumably triggered because of low oil pressure as engine had stopped. Is the fuel pump working (any whirring noise when you turn the key, before engaging starter)?

Then we may be down to engine management computer....

Do you have breakdown cover?

[Guest RS_pete]

Ok day 2 of the dead Sharan, pulled the front engine mount and checked cambelt, full complement of teeth and suitably tensioned (overdue for replacement though).

Did an oil and filter change for the hell of it! Also overdue.

Appears to be getting fuel but not quite convinced that its spitting it out the injector pipe quite as vigorously as it should.

Cut off valve is being energised. Must check that it actually is working. No air or water appears to be in system, at least no water whern I drained the filter.

Appears to have compression.

Oil and ignition light both came on as a result of engine having cut out. Being an auto the engine just stops and the car carries on rolling.

Now when cranking the oil light goes out then starts flashing at the rate of about 1 flash a second, the Glow Plug light can also do this.

Battery is now too drained and I have put it on charge so I am not sure of its condition but engine seemed to turn over Ok initially so I am assuming its all right. I am also presuming that diesel ECM's are not as voltage sensitive as some petrol engines but thats probably presuming a lot!

Did find the cause of my clunking though! Anti roll bar tie rod.

Cheers

for now

Pete

[Guest Gray]

My petrol GLX did the same about 2 years ago, (but was intermitant) - Garage replaced imobiliser relay - no more problems (apart from door lock,plastic hinges on vanity mirror breaking, engin stabiliser breaking twice, etc, etc...)

[Guest RS_pete]

Day 3 of the saga.......(Sorry about the length)

Charged the battery (thinking this might be cause of all my problems) replaced in the morning and car fires up after a few seconds cranking.

Glow plug flashes....oops!

Stop and restart, no flashing symbols. Deep joy! Everything appears to be running OK. Reassemble rest of front end and take the car for a test drive secure in the knowledge that my genius had overcome the might of VAG!

And so pride becomes before a.... well you get the picture!

Half way round my village loss of power and I crawled home in what I thought was limp home mode, no reaction to the throttle and speed down to 10mph. Crawled into my drive and removed the "ignition" key. Engine still running sounding like a washing machine full of spanners.

How do you stop a diesel when you've turned the bloody thing off. On these there is no lever that you can use to cut the fuel supply, the stop solenoid obviously wasn't, and how do you stall an auto!

So grabbed the mole grips and clamped the fuel supply line, that taught the bugger!

Engine is radiating heat like Chernobyl!

Pulled stop solenoid and found a tiny bit of dirt under the plunger!

Flush and replace after checking function is OK

Starts and stops!

Start and leave running (sounding good for a diesel)

Leave running for a couple of hours, no flashing symbols and all appears OK..again. Check cooolant hoses and start to come up with my latest theory, top hose hot bottom hose and rad cold. after 2 hours!!

So we enter day 4 with me thinking a stuck t/stat could be the cause of all my woes. Expect I'll be wrong though!

Anybody got any ideas, or know of a good dealer in Norwich / South Norfolk area (Not Robinsons :( )

Cheers

Pete

[Dodger]

My tdi 110 had a sticky thermostat when it was brand new. Symptons were hot top hose, cold rad and bottom hose, temp gauge at high end but not into red. The coolant never actually boiled and ford garage informed me that all this was normal. After 600 miles from new the engine got so hot that the oil pressure went and a warning buzzer sounded (but coolant still did not boil). Car was towed back to Ford garage who were eventually pursauded to replace the thermostat and the car has been fine for 4 years since.

 

At no time did the car refuse to start or go into limp home mode.

 

I think you need to get the engine's fault memory read before you jump to any more conclusions. I think it may be normal for the rad not to get hot if you just leave the engine at idle but certainly the tdi engine should not be radiating heat that you feel it in your face when you open the bonnet.

[Ivor_E_Tower]

Yup, and the worrying thing is, from other postings we've had, that if the engine continued to run after you'd taken the key out, it could be turbo problems with the engine running on oil that it's sucking into the pistons from the sump (via a strange route).

Definitely needs checking out.

Have you checked your oil level now, RS Pete?

(I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it isn't the turbo on the way out...)

Ivor

[Guest RS_pete]

Definitely not running on sump oil! Though thanks for the suggestion.

I have every intention of having the fault codes read and will see if one of the engine management guys were I work can interrogate it. Anything to avoid paying the garage a penny! Alternatively I spoke to a guy at Euro diesel in Norwich and he said they can do it. They specialise in diesel and I feel are more likely to know what they are doing than someone who lives on bonus rates.

Main thing that I was/ am hoping for is to drive the thing in rather than have it on the back of a low loader!

Any way back to todays saga, replaced t/stat and coolant started her up and warmed through no probs though still took a long time to warm up and bottom hose did eventually start to get warm when the temp gauge reached the half way mark (it always has been a low temp reader on the gauge and I can't remember ever seeing it over half) took it for a brief drive and it felt a bit subdued but didn't cut out. Believe it has to relearn its values in the ECM so that could account for the lack lustre performance.

However the temp gauge had gone over half, bottom hose was hot so we have circulation. While running and driving it seemed to be running very rich, white smoke on revving up or accelerating and very strong smell of unburnt fuel from exhaust. This could I suppose be normal when relearning but I am not convinced.

Getting very low on fuel and postpone any further driving until tomorrow.

I am beginning to feel just a little bit cursed though as yesterday withe the Sharan out of action my wife took my Seat Ibiza (

[Ivor_E_Tower]

The forum welcomes Sharan and Alhambra drivers, so don't think that you're trespassing! We also try to help each other out, so feel free to ramble on at length; we can always switch off if we get fed up!

Oh, and keep us informed of developments with the cars; it's all useful info that may help one or more of us out in the future.

Ivor.

[bushm]

Ditto Ivor's sentiments.

I'll be interested to know how you get on with Euro Diesel in Norwich as that's my home town. Good luck with all your cars!