I've got a Rover 200SDi diesel (1998 46K on the clock). I was driving it down the motorway and it was running great then it suddenly lost power and the red engine management light came on. I pulled over and took the car out of gear and realised the engine was still ticking over so I turned it off. I then checked the oil and so on and all seemed fine. I started the car again and the tickover seemed ok again and the engine warning light didn't come on. I started to pull away but the engine had no power only made it to about 8mph. I revved the engine out of gear and it only managed around 1.8-2k revs before running out of steam and not going any higher !!!
Any body have a clue what this could be. The RAC couldn't rind the problem and now a rover dealership have had it for 5 days and are running out of idea's ?????
Some things I do know :
The fuel is diesel i ran about 120 miles on the tank before the problem.
The fuel filter seems ok and no air in the system.
The intercooler/airfilter are letting air into the manafold.
Rover are talking about trying a different fuel pump off another car but could a faulty fuel pump still allow the car to tick over so well ? If it is the fuel pump anybody know of any places in the midlands where I can get a recon one or it repaired because Rover will charge the earth !!!
Any idea's, ANYBODY ????
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Could be the mass airflow sensor has stopped working properly. I had a similar problem with my Vectra DI as few months ago. The car was very sluggish, but was still able to get to normal crusing speeds. The new Bosch sensor was about £150 and I fitted it myself.
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Still could be the fuel pump. My experience was donkey's years ago with a mini which kept cutting out. Took it into a BMC dealer whose idea of testing it was to start the engine at 9:00AM and leave it running until I came to collect it at 5:00PM. "No Problem," they said. Paid my 10 shillings (or whatever), leapt into the car, and didn't get off the forecourt before the engine cut out again. Was I mad!
Moral - a dodgy fuel pump can supply enough fuel to keep an engine ticking over nicely, but not enough to drive the car when you press the accelerator
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Yeah but thats a low pressure pump for the mini, basically just lifting fuel around. The one on my diesel is a bosch electronic pump supplying injectors which open at between 2000-3000psi as far as i understand ! I would have thought the difference between it pumping at tickover and at higher revs was minimal pressure wise. I would have thought the man difference was how often the injectors were injecting.
I must admit im no diesel expert so I may be completly wrong but i thought the compression of the engine and the pressure generated by the pump for the common rail kept fairly constant in a diesel.
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Cheap solution : partially blocked fuel filter? Or water in filter. Has it ever been changed?
Easy check.. undo it and look at it. If full of dirt or water, renew..
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Well the RAC guy disconnected the outlet pipe from the folter and squeezed the rubber ball in the inlet pipe which is used to clear air in the systems and the diesel went through the filter fine. I don't think he checked for water however. I'd have hoped that seeing as the Rover dealership are having problems isolating the problem they would have thought of disconnecting the whole fuel system from the fuel pump and connecting to to a pipe and bottle of diesel just to rule out fuel problems. Saying that the impression so far is they would have difficulty with anything other than a spark pug change .... dealer huh !!!
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Well dealer where taking the pump off to send off to be checked on noticed some sludge in the bump or the pipes attached to it. So they cleaned it and reconnected it and it revved fine for a while then the problem came back.
They now aren't sure if the problem is related to the fuel or the fact that moving the pump has disturbed to the cable going into the pump and highlighted a that as the cause. They will check tommorow !!!
Anybody else had similar problem. Sounds like where the cable enters the pump is sealed and they can't mess with it.
Where would the sludge come from ? The filter should stop that !!!
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Sorry about the english in the last message, was typing while chatting with someone, here is the improved version :)
Well the dealer was taking the pump off today to send it off to be checked and noticed some sludge in the pump or the pipes attached to it (not sure which). They cleaned it and reconnected it and the car revved up fine for a while then the problem came back.
They now aren't sure if the problem is related to the sludge or the fact that moving the pump has disturbed the cable going into the pump and highlighted that as the cause. They will check tommorow !!!
Anybody else had similar problem. Sounds like where the cable enters the pump is sealed and they can't mess with it so needs a specialist if its that anyway.
Where would the sludge come from ? The filter should stop that i would have thought !!!
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I had a similar prob. Try the wiring loom connecting the fly by wire sender unit to the engine management system (left hand side as you look into the bonnet). The batch of wires pass over the engine block and may chaffe on the plastic engine cover. Mine did this and only a few strands were connected. Easily sorted by cutting and reconnecting the wires using a standard electrical bullet connector.
Check it out yourself by tracking all the wires back. Alternativly, get a friend the rev it in the dark whilst you watch the wires. You may see a blue light indicating the current trying the bridge the gap and the location of the break.
Hope this helps
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Hi Macker,
Rover have got the car at the moment but I'll mention it to them. I asked about the throttle sensor before and they said it was fine.
Did your do the same thing then, would response to a little throttle pic up a 1000 revs or so off idle and then no more ?
Steve
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Mine would rev up to say 2.5k (I can't remember exactly as it was a few years ago)lose power and then pick up again. It wouldn't stall though.
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First port of call is to check all connectors. So easy to get water in, corrode unseen. I would pull apart, clean dirt, spray with servisol, wipe, and reconnect. I know it leaves an oil film but in practice creates no conduction problem but does prevent future contamination of socket.
If problem not solved I would do end to end checks of wires in case vibration caused fatigue fracture of wire unseen inside insulation.
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Ok thanks for the info both.
The rev to 2.5k and then settle back down sounds just like mine !!!! It gets upto around 2k ish and then sounds a bit like its running lean or rich, basically struggling and then the revs slowly drop to just about idling.
Funny I asked the dealer to check the throttle sensor cable and he said they had and saw no problems.
Any idea's what the sludge in the pump could be ? A mate mentioned metal to metal contact which sounds a little worrying :(
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Well the garage found sludge in the pump, cleaned it out, put it back on and its fine now !!!! I thought the filter stopped all the crude in its path but it sounds like it only stop the heavy particles and if you have doggy diesel at any point it can still cause sludge problems .... new one on me !
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" I thought the filter stopped all the crude in its path but it sounds like it only stop the heavy particles and if you have doggy diesel at any point it can still cause sludge problems .... new one on me !"
I wonder.. did it have a filter at all? My experience with diesel filters is that all the crud settles at the bottom and the clean fuel goes out at the top. Or is it one mounted flat on its side? If so that seems a potential design fault as it is conceivale it would not filter very fine rubbish or allow it to settle at the bottom.
Or have you been buying fuel at stations where they do little trade and the fuel sits and festers in the tanks for days?
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I think swebb may be suffering from a bacterial infection of his diesel. Surprisingly there are bacteria that like nothing better than to lunch on your diesel, leaving a nice gooey mess behind.
Unfortunately I can't remember what you have to do to get rid of it - try a net search!
Richard
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Yeah I was reading about the infection. Happens a lot without people knowing, usually in the fuel tank. It would appear the filter can't stop it.
You can get some fluid whci you put in the tank every year or so and it fixes it, just gota find where ya get it ?
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Anybody know where i can get some of this biocide stuff to clean the tank and pipes out over the next few tank fulls ?
Or have any info about it ?
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