edmondsj Posted September 24, 2005 Report Posted September 24, 2005 It all started on the return leg from Venice this August, half way through France and it was sh...ting down with rain.... In convoy with my brother-in-law in a petrol voyager. Both cars were fully laden with suitcases, mountain bikes, wives and teenagers. My Galaxy seemed to perform considerably better than the voyager on the hills and seemed to have plenty of power to spare, whereas the voyager would struggle on the hills... Then suddenly it happened, without any warning, power loss and some fairly dramatic side to side juddering from the front of the car. My first thought was the gearbox, having had a serious problem with the g/box 18 months ago. Flashed down my brother-in-law and got him to go behind me in case the car gave out altogether. During the rest of the journey home the car seemed to improve and occasionally there was no sign of any problem going up hills (things were fine as long as I didn't need lots of power or to accelerate quickly). Have been driving the car since and it is mostly OK with a little judder around 2000 revs ocasionally under load, reminicent but not as bad as the holiday problem judder. Seems to come and go. Having read around on this notice board I decided to change the MAF as I've done 50k and it hasn't been changed. Got a cheap pattern MAF from ebay, a Macht(!?). With this new MAF I seem to get completely random power delivery. Sometimes fantastic all the way up to 4500rpm, other times, on hills power can die altogether. Performance seems best on the flat. Sometimes without moving the throttle the power comes and goes. Sometimes pressing the throttle all the way down the power does not change at all. Other times get super smooth and lively acceleration, especially from 3000-4500rpm. Most random behaviour seems to be below 3000 rpm. The company that sold me the MAF agreed to swap it as I thought it must be faulty as the random performance seemed so much worse than the little bit of judder around 2000rpm with my old MAF. Needless to say replacement MAF (pattern again) behaves just the same. The fact that performance is better when it does work with tne new MAF makes me wonder if I don't have two problems? Anyway, I shall go back to my old MAF for now and perhaps try a Bosch MAF next if it could still be a MAF probelm? I cleaned the TMAP sensor today but this made no difference. Oh, one thing I noticed when I removed and cleaned the TMAP was that the chunky tubing that the TMAP sits in goes into a silver lump at the back of the engine and the joint between the tubing and the silvery lump is not all that tight fitting - it is very easy to unclip and pull out the tubing - it does have a rubber sealing ring inside the joint - is it supposed to be tight? I also need to check out the vacuum tubing properly, how do you get the metal plate off that covers the boost control valve? :unsure: (VAG-COM on order...) Quote
tim-spam Posted September 26, 2005 Report Posted September 26, 2005 Is this 'chunky' tubing the charge air pipe by any chance? If it is, and if it's loose, you will be losing turbo boost pressure and a lot of power with it - all the joints should be tight and airtight. Quote
seatkid Posted September 26, 2005 Report Posted September 26, 2005 Yes the silver lump is the turbo. There should be a tight fitting rubber pipe with a large water hose type clip tightly on it like so..... Quote
Masked Marauder Posted September 26, 2005 Report Posted September 26, 2005 Yes the silver lump is the turbo. There should be a tight fitting rubber pipe with a large water hose type clip tightly on it like so..... Cough! Actually that would be the inlet manifold...... Quote
edmondsj Posted September 27, 2005 Author Report Posted September 27, 2005 Yes the silver lump is the turbo. There should be a tight fitting rubber pipe with a large water hose type clip tightly on it like so..... Thanks for the reply and photo. My Gal is a little different in that the connection you show in the photo to the silver lump (turbo/manifold) is a sort of push click afair with an internal rubber seal - it doesn't seem all that tight in that you can slide back and forth quite easily up to the point where you need to release the locking mechanism. (I will try ot post a photo next time) I've put my old Bosch MAF back until I can investigate further because I get much more reliable power delivery... Quote
seatkid Posted September 27, 2005 Report Posted September 27, 2005 Cough! Actually that would be the inlet manifold...... ..plenum! Close enough.... :D Quote
Justice Posted September 27, 2005 Report Posted September 27, 2005 It is posible that the Maf you brought is not right for your car and that the old one was playing up anyway, have you not got a mate who has on you could use to see if it is that problem. Quote
GSMGuy Posted September 27, 2005 Report Posted September 27, 2005 Guys Edmondsj has a PD 115 motor, so it will look a LOT different... Mike Quote
edmondsj Posted September 28, 2005 Author Report Posted September 28, 2005 It is posible that the Maf you brought is not right for your car and that the old one was playing up anyway, have you not got a mate who has on you could use to see if it is that problem. The part number is correct, it looks the same and is a perfect fit. But as you say, I do wonder if these pattern MAFs are just not up to it. I may just buy/borrow a proper Bosch part to try. Anyone else tried pattern MAFs with any success? Quote
Justice Posted September 28, 2005 Report Posted September 28, 2005 if you PM me all your cars details and part number I may have a new one so you could try it. Quote
GSMGuy Posted September 28, 2005 Report Posted September 28, 2005 Justcice, do you supply the MAFS, or just happen to have one? Mike Quote
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