2006 D4D pulling away (76K genuine miles by me)

[LordBucketHead]

Hi All,

Occasionally there is hardly any response when pulling away at a roundabout/junction and I have to panic, put the clutch in, rev it high and persuade the car to shoot off. If I pour some injector cleaner in the tank it improves matters for a while. I don't want to spend a fortune on injectors but I would like to get one more winter out of my beloved car before I trade it in. It's the best car I've ever had and the only car I've ever bought under 3000 miles. The question I'm asking is.. what is the likely-hood  of my problem being only one naughty injector. I have other cars so I have no problem taking it off the road. How tough is it to swap injectors around ? The last injectors I played with were on my old H registration Land Rover (in 1990) lol.

[yossarian247]

Hi, 

I think its unlikely to be an injector causing the issue. Usually a failing injector on a common rail diesel will cause excessive exhaust smoke,  poor/lumpy starting, poor fuel economy, sometimes diesel knock. Acceleration is often reasonably normal, even with badly worn injectors. 

Have you checked the simple things such as the fuel filter? When was it last changed? 

[LordBucketHead]

8 hours ago, yossarian247 said:

Hi, 

I think its unlikely to be an injector causing the issue. Usually a failing injector on a common rail diesel will cause excessive exhaust smoke,  poor/lumpy starting, poor fuel economy, sometimes diesel knock. Acceleration is often reasonably normal, even with badly worn injectors. 

Have you checked the simple things such as the fuel filter? When was it last changed? 

Thank you for your reply. Much obliged. I changed the fuel filter last November. However.. If I remember correctly.. I forgot to buy an air filter & then I think it just slipped my mind altogether. Could that have anything to do with it ? Just to re-describe the problem.. usually when the car is fully warmed up after a few miles of driving, I'll pull away from a junction or onto a roundabout and there is very little power.. just flat. If there's no traffic behind me I can wait it out and it eventually it recovers and pulls away. Occasionally it has happened in 2nd gear when the car is being driven along. Thanks again for your reply. 

[yossarian247]

I think on early D4d engines the SCV could sometimes go faulty and cause symptoms like this, but ideally you really need to connect the car to some diagnostic equipment and look at fuel rail pressure, MAF and MAP sensor readings etc as it is being driven. Otherwise its really just guesswork. There are some quite good apps available for smartphones which in conjunction with a cheap OBD2 bluetooth dongle will read this info from the ECU and display it on your phone. 

[Byzii]

20 bucks on it being EGR valve, especially because it only happens after car warms up (EGR doesn't work until the thermostat opens). I just had the same problem and cleaning the EGR resolved the issue, it's easy enough to do it yourself.

[LordBucketHead]

On 8/12/2018 at 7:20 PM, Byzii said:

20 bucks on it being EGR valve, especially because it only happens after car warms up (EGR doesn't work until the thermostat opens). I just had the same problem and cleaning the EGR resolved the issue, it's easy enough to do it yourself.

Hi Byzii.. I read your thread on the problems you were having and I recognised that they were the same problems I was having. I googled around and sure enough, other folks have experienced this with D4D Avensis. I've pencilled in Monday to do this job. I'll report back with the results. 

PS: Thank you yossarian247

[Amateurtorque]

Out of interest Robert, did the clean work?