83C's Shite-esque Fleet: Oh Ship!

[Zelandeth]

If she's done a lot of short trips it's definitely not impossible that courtesy of the EGR system that the inlet manifold is a solid block of carbon.  Shouldn't be too hard to check.

Had pretty much identical symptoms from a VW Passat a few years ago which turned out to be the cat having become totally blocked (car only did three miles two ways every day).  After we spent an hour attacking it with oven cleaner and a steam cleaner we had the car running like new.  Was a dead easy one to diagnose though as the moment we cracked the manifold to downpipe joint the car ran perfectly. 

Worth a visual inspection to make sure someone hasn't just physically squashed the exhaust too...had that on a Landie which had taken a knock off road we reckon.

Both of these cars idled and drove perfectly around town, they were just absolutely flat on the open road.  Turbos in particular hate having excessive back pressure as they rely on a pressure drop across the inlet and exhaust side of the exhaust turbine.

[320touring]

1 minute ago, Zelandeth said:

If she's done a lot of short trips it's definitely not impossible that courtesy of the EGR system that the inlet manifold is a solid block of carbon.  Shouldn't be too hard to check.

Had pretty much identical symptoms from a VW Passat a few years ago which turned out to be the cat having become totally blocked (car only did three miles two ways every day).  After we spent an hour attacking it with oven cleaner and a steam cleaner we had the car running like new.  Was a dead easy one to diagnose though as the moment we cracked the manifold to downpipe joint the car ran perfectly. 

Worth a visual inspection to make sure someone hasn't just physically squashed the exhaust too...had that on a Landie which had taken a knock off road we reckon.

Another good set of things to check:)

[83C]

Transhit investigations part 1:

That looks healthy. Not.

[83C]

Filter changed, ran without filter and turbo could be heard spooling up and down as appropriate. No boost leaks audible. Cracked off the injector tops, fuel spray out of each instantly - no bubbling. Cylinders started missing as they should. Test run = no difference. 

Got someone coming in a minute who might buy it, if not it’s onto the next job: fuel filter.

I have already tried to release the filter but the collar holding the filter on is as stiff as. Think it’ll be a take whole housing off and stick in the vice job. Fingers crossed the chap coming to look at it buys it instead, even though i’ll take a hit. I’m away tomorrow for 10 days and just don’t have time to deal with this shit.

Deep joy.

[83C]

Fuel filter done. Better. Still not great.

[320touring]

5 minutes ago, 83C said:

Fuel filter done. Better. Still not great.

its the right direction:)

[83C]

True. Next stop is investigating potential crap-filled inlet, then the exhaust. The exhaust itself doesn’t look that old. 

[83C]

Started it this morning, still not keen to start from cold. 

Could be the glow plugs on their way out, or could be fuel system related. Does anyone know if the earlier 2.4 Duratorqs have a fuel pressure regulator in the system anywhere? The TDCi’s do but I don’t know about the TDDi.

Thanks everyone for the help so far, it’s much appreciated.

[83C]

Finally got to de-clag the EGR valve in the Transhit today:

Grim.

Less grim. 

But it hasn't sorted out the sluggishness. The inlet manifold is reasonably clear, cleaning the EGR has probably improved it by around 0.74% according to the arse dyno. So, next stop will be the fuel filter housing, see if the top of that is admitting air (probably the most likely cause of the poor starting). 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

12 hours ago, 83C said:

Finally got to de-clag the EGR valve in the Transhit today:

Grim....

Reminds me of those fatbergs that they often find in urban drains......

[83C]

Struggling like hell to source a fuel filter housing for the Transhit for reasonable money. Being an old 2.4 Duratorq TDDi its very old school - no common rail, just a big fuel pump hanging off the side of the engine with individual lines to each injector, fed from a fuel filter that has a manual priming pump on the top. Apparently the diaphragm in the priming pump perishes and allows a little bit of air in, which would account for the fucker being a twat to start after 5-6 hours of standing still, but starting easily when warm. It's probably also the reason for it being dog slow. Problem is, none of the local factors even list a fuel filter housing, so I'm reduced to scouring eBay or going secondhand - bollocks am I going to Ford for a new one. There's a chinese one for £60ish that doesn't look exactly like what I have, or there's an allegedly genuine Ford one for £120, but really I don't want to go mad on spending. 

Bah.

[Cavcraft]

Have to say those 2.4 Transits are both slow and pretty crap (no offence, M8) but the 2.0 is fab.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

What is the diaphragm made from? Can it be removed and patched up?

[83C]

11 hours ago, Cavcraft said:

Have to say those 2.4 Transits are both slow and pretty crap (no offence, M8) but the 2.0 is fab.

Absolutely agree on the 2.0 TDDi - cracking machines. The 2.4 isn’t usually this bad though....

11 hours ago, Tadhg Tiogar said:

What is the diaphragm made from? Can it be removed and patched up?

The top looks removable (similar securing ring to the one that holds the filter in) but as of yet I’ve not managed to make it shift. Can’t find a service kit for them either. I don’t honestly know what I’d use to patch it.

[Cavcraft]

You can 'chip' the 2.4. The one I had had a little sort of plug in thing (iirc, about an inch long and half inch wide). The previous owner swore it made a difference, sadly I never found out as he wanted it back.  Mine was desperately slow, due to some sort of EGR issue. It had been 'deleted' but not done on a computer, so sorted that, ran a bit better for about 18 miles, then the bastarding thing just went back to what it was like before and the light on the dash came back on. At that point, it was never going to be a keeper so I sold it to a nice Eastern European lad who drove it back to Peterborough, or somewhere like that.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

1 hour ago, 83C said:

....The top looks removable (similar securing ring to the one that holds the filter in) but as of yet I’ve not managed to make it shift. Can’t find a service kit for them either. I don’t honestly know what I’d use to patch it.

If the diaphragm is one of those thin plastic or rubber sheet things, then a temporary repair might be possible using nothing more than a flexible rubber glue such as Aquasure or Stormsure.

[83C]

It did occur to me to try using an inner tube patch on it, if it will adhere to the rubber.

[83C]

Transhit appears to be dead. 

Took the fuel filter top off to investigate any potential air leaks, pump diaphragm is sound, no perishing or splits. Put it all back together, primed the system, van turned over but wouldn't fire. Battery went flat trying. Hooked up Mrs 83C's Focus via jump leads, eventually it fired up for around 15 seconds with minimal smoke, but wouldn't rev at all. It then died and refused to restart. I cracked off the pipes to the injector tops, the hand priming pump is supplying fuel to 1 & 4 but 2 & 3 are dry. I then attached a booster pack, it tried to fire on at least one cylinder briefly but then went back to turning over with no signs of life. I've now given up for the night and poured a large Jamesons. 

I can't think of anything that I've missed, there is nearly a full tank of diesel in it, the manual priming pump isn't split or sucking air, I'm getting around to the conclusion that the fucking thing just needs fragging. It did an 80 mile trip yesterday and a bit of door to door this morning but felt as sluggish as ever - I wonder if the main fuel pump has just given up the ghost. 

Balls.

[Arthur Foxhake]

They are an absolute shit to bleed after opening the housing.

My method has been to use easy start on the bastards, it has worked every time for me to get the engine spinning fast enough to make the fuel pump work.

It is an old rotary pump in electronic disguise.

It has even worked on a van that I ran out of diesel, like a fuckwit.

[rickvw72]

Tow start it. There like Vauxhall DTIs and are a complete knob to bleed.

[83C]

27 minutes ago, rickvw72 said:

Tow start it. There like Vauxhall DTIs and are a complete knob to bleed.

Seen plenty of advice not to do that with the Transit as they have a habit of the timing jumping out if tow started. 

I’ve got a borrowed booster pack on charge overnight so I’ll have another crack at it tomorrow morning. My battery charger is 280 miles away so I can’t whip the battery out for a charge unfortunately.

[rickvw72]

Could be out already tbf with your symptoms. 
Ive seen a starter die, it had to crank for so long.

Do you have a vacuum pump?

you could pull diesel through with vacuum then. 

[Zelandeth]

Easy Start and rev the crap out of it...every time it tries to die give it another blast up the intake.

I think this is a case where you haven't really got much to loose.

[Arthur Foxhake]

Do not tow start it!

 

[83C]

2 hours ago, Arthur Foxhake said:

Do not tow start it!

 

Not planning to. Just been out to get some easy start, battery has been on charge all day.

[rickvw72]

Not ideal to tow start it normally, but I’d try it before it goes over the bridge.

Would / should have reccomended the vac pump first! Stick it on a fuel return hose and pull some diesel through. These type of pumps don’t like to spin for long without diesel to lubricate them.

[83C]

Well, this went on the back burner this afternoon as Mrs 83C’s Focus decided to have a wee. OAT-coloured wee to be precise. 

New thermostat housings, thermostat, and an emergency trip to Halfords for 16mm coolant hose and instant gasket, finally fixed at 2030. Transit handballed out of the way to a car park in the next street over, I won’t have any chance  now to look at it until next week, when I’m back in Cornwall briefly on Weds/Thurs. 

Bugger.

[Zelandeth]

You actually managed to find something as useful as coolant hose at Halfords?!?  What devilry is this...

[83C]

9 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

You actually managed to find something as useful as coolant hose at Halfords?!?  What devilry is this...

Yep, depends on which branch you use but I find certain Halfords are pretty good at keeping useful stuff in stock. Sodding useful at 1925 in the evening when you’ve just fitted a new thermostat housing and find out that the small hose that disappears behind the fuel distributor has a split in it.

[83C]

In boring modern news the 525d is going for MoT in the morning. I thought the MoT expired in April only to have a bit of a shock when I checked on 05/03 to find it expired that exact day. It couldn’t go immediately because it had just started suffering from a regular F10 issue, the plug in PCB in the back of one of the headlights failing causing beam levelling issues and the angel eyes to fail. 

New one landed yesterday, fitted today, test tomorrow.

Fingers crossed.

In van news, I’m thoroughly pissed off with how things have gone with the Transhit. I can’t do owt to it until Wednesday when I’m back in Cornwall, and even then it may well be that I can’t do anything. If I do get it running I have to admit I’ve totally lost faith in it, with 3 FTPs to its credit so far in just 6 weeks, and performance that is best described as glacial, and struggles to hold 70mph on the flat (74 is the fastest I’ve ever managed on level ground). Not ideal for a machine that needs to do at least half a dozen 600+ miles round trips, fully laden half the time in the next few months.

I’m really tempted to take the easy option here and just buy what I would like, a Transit Custom for around £6k (6-7 years old, under 100k miles) and just suck up the monthly payments. I have plenty of use for a van after, including carting bicycles and motorcycles around. Thing is, I’d need to spend around a grand in VAT to get anywhere near what I’m looking at (unless a VAT-free machine happens to pop up) and I can’t help but think that grand would get me a whole van. But would it just be the same as what I have, i. e. something that is going to be a massive pain in the hoop? I’ve got loads going on over the next year (job change, moving family 300 miles across country) and I just don’t need the stress of worrying whether the van will start or make port. But equally I don’t need the stress of making sure I can afford repayments on a newer machine....

Fuck

My 

Life.