car advice needed

[Phooey]

Zafira 54 plate 2.0 diesel

Ex took her car for MOT yesterday. Failed. Brake pads and bulbs ... easy fix. Oil leak ... severe enough should be able to find. But, she has black smoke on heavy revving, and she told me for about a year there has been no power on acceleration ... fine on the flat just no guts on incline or accelerating. Down to a crawl on anything more than a moderate incline.

So I checked the obvious, turbo is clean, no oil inside and vanes are free with no abnormal movement. Now I'm thinking injector or fuel pump or maybe just general crap in engine.

Thought about running a good dollop of REDEX through. Any other thought? I have till the end of May or she's scrapping it and buying a new one. I already give her enough money can't afford or want the hassle of her nagging for more - which she will.

HELP ME! Please!

[MarkW]

Cut the brake lines and hand it back to her. Both problems solved!

[Guest Richzx6r]

Could just be a carbon build up, is the air filter clean as it might not be breathing properly

[Phooey]

Cut the brake lines and hand it back to her. Both problems solved!

 

[Phooey]

Could just be a carbon build up, is the air filter clean as it might not be breathing properly

 

Gonna take out air filter and push some REDEX through ... might work!

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

I had something similar once. Fine at moderate throttle but smoky when opened up, coupled with loss of power. It was the intercooler trunking collapsing when the throttle was opened so it strangled the air supply into the engine.

[Phooey]

I had something similar once. Fine at moderate throttle but smoky when opened up, coupled with loss of power. It was the intercooler trunking collapsing when the throttle was opened so it strangled the air supply into the engine.

 

Interesting. Was that Zafira?

[Six30]

EGR valve

[Bianco2564]

Sounds like a lack of boost.

Check the wastegate.

Check all the pipes from turbo to intercooler etc are intact and not split.

Check the egr isn't gummed up as suggested

Zafiras catch fire, chuck a match on it and complain to Vauxhall claiming for a new one :

[Bender]

Pipes collapsing are before turbo, after turbo they are pressurised at anything approaching load.

Boost leak will result in over fueling and lack of power and black smoke, don't have to be to big either, small split or loose clip etc

After that could be anything, worn injector, fuel pump issue, egr, faulty afm/map what ever it uses for metering.

To check for boost leak, cap of turbo outlet, cap off where it goes into manifold, blank off any other pipes that go to wastegates or sensors or anything that may let air through, pressurise and put a gauge on or spray every pipe and intercooler with soapy water look and listen.gauge is best though.

[Guest Richzx6r]

Or as said just chuck a match at it

[Phooey]

Thanks guys. Lot to think about.

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

You can always blank the EGR on them. The issue with intercooler trunking I had was that it collapsed before the turbo could come onto load so that prevented the trunking from being pressured in the first place so no boost was developing. It was sorted under warranty so I never got too hands on with it but the report I got said it was the internal structure coming adrift.

[Bender]

Yup before turbo is suction so can collapse if air filter is blocked or the intake is made of cheese, you don't get pressure before turbo but there is usually a reason for collapsing intake pipes.

[Six30]

Any pics of your ex ?

[Phooey]

Any pics of your ex ?

 

Yes I have Six. Coincidentally,

[Phooey]

You can always blank the EGR on them. The issue with intercooler trunking I had was that it collapsed before the turbo could come onto load so that prevented the trunking from being pressured in the first place so no boost was developing. It was sorted under warranty so I never got too hands on with it but the report I got said it was the internal structure coming adrift.

 

This is an old 54 plate. 120 000 miles and not looked after at all. She's had it about five years and has not done a single service or repair on it since we separated ... nearly four year now! Hence if I can squeeze it through the MOT for her I can forget it for another year and it'll cost me less. I am being somewhat selfish here but she doesn't look after them. She ran it on low oil, red light on for a couple of days because couldn't be bothered to put oil in. More than once too!

[Mississippi Bullfrog]

You can always blank the EGR on them. The issue with intercooler trunking I had was that it collapsed before the turbo could come onto load so that prevented the trunking from being pressured in the first place so no boost was developing. It was sorted under warranty so I never got too hands on with it but the report I got said it was the internal structure coming adrift.

 

This is an old 54 plate. 120 000 miles and not looked after at all. She's had it about five years and has not done a single service or repair on it since we separated ... nearly four year now! Hence if I can squeeze it through the MOT for her I can forget it for another year and it'll cost me less. I am being somewhat selfish here but she doesn't look after them. She ran it on low oil, red light on for a couple of days because couldn't be bothered to put oil in. More than once too!

 

Those engines won't tolerate poor servicing - particularly running with old oil. By the sounds of it she's destroyed it.

[Phooey]

Those engines won't tolerate poor servicing - particularly running with old oil. By the sounds of it she's destroyed it.

 

That's what I was thinking.

I might look at the simple stuff; bottle of REDEX, good blast, EGR valve, clean Air filter etc ... Then say she's on her own!

[Guest Richzx6r]

Tbf mate you would be wasting your time and money doing that, it sounds like a goosed motor

[Six30]

Any pics of your ex ?

 

Yes I have Six. Coincidentally, 16711.gif

 

Yeh you wished , she's safely locked in my basement .

[The Hitcher]

Check the hoses to do with the turbo and intercooler too, I had a split in one of the rubber pipes on a car and it did the same thing-no power and really smoky on acceleration.

[Joeman]

if its got an OBD2 port then buy a cheap OBD2 code reader and see what readings you get.

lots of smoke and no power suggests too much fuel or not enough air so reading the boost pressure from the OBD2 port should allow you to identify/eliminate low boost pressure due to split hose etc.

[Bender]

The car should probably throw up an engine fault of its own if it can tell there is low boost

[Six30]

If you got to spend more than 150 quid on it scrap it .