Newbie Needs Help??

L19YDC said:

Limp Mode?? Would that not display a engine fault light or similar?
The other thing i have read loads about is the MAF sensor & in Wills 3rd picture i noticed today he doesnt have one near the airbox where mine is? - is that a possible cause of problems?

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What year is your P38?? The ones AFTER 1999 got a MAF sensor along with the EGR system as well. Does the pipe shown in my last pic enter straight into the manifold like mine or do you have a sort of 'thing' with a circular bit on it that the pipe attaches to??

-Wills

Mine is a 1998 model but i was told it had a later 2001 engine in it. Mine does have the pipe on to the 'thing' with circular part (EGR valve??) & a MAF sensor near the airbox

L19YDC said:

Mine is a 1998 model but i was told it had a later 2001 engine in it. Mine does have the pipe on to the 'thing' with circular part (EGR valve??) & a MAF sensor near the airbox

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oh hmmmm, well now it gets a bit more complicated. Has it ever revved above the 3500RPM mark?? I wonder if when the engine was changed the other parts were change to support the introduction of the EGR system to the vehicle.

Do you know whether the EGR system works as it should when your driving??

-Wills

Not always. You can do a lot of guess work, but until you have the ECU checked for any codes you will be chasing your tail. May be something simple as fuel starvation, have you changed the fuel filter? or even the lift pump under par. Get those codes read....

Is there any kit i can purchase to read the codes

You can purchase a Faultmate MSV from Blackbox Solutions Ltd - Designers and manufacturers of the best vehicle diagnostic tools. but its expensive if you are not planning on doing alot of DIY work yourself or if you only want the engine ECU read once. You also need a laptop for the system.

I don't think an OBDII code scanner will do what you want. I know on the petrol models you can read certain faults with one but Im not sure about the diesels.

Im not convinced about the engine faults though. Especially if you haven't seen the orange injector light show up when driving (it will show and then go off sometimes or it can stay permanently lit).

To be honest, I think the only real way you are going to find out what's wrong is to goto a specialist with a computer and have him hook up the diagnostic machine and have a live view of what's going on with all the engine sensors etc.

Where abouts in the country are you?

-Wills

Many Thanks for that.

I dont know if it could be connected but when i first got the car i only had a few days before i decided to have it serviced. The service was done & i was advised to have the gearbox oil & filters done as we werent sure when they were last done. After the gearbox service was done the garage took it for a run to check BUT came back advising of 'crunching' in the gear changes - the next day the gearbox completely lost drive & was pronounced 'knackered'

So then i sourced a replacement gearbox with transfer box & this was fitted - but my thought is do you think with the gearbox packing up, the fault will have been logged by the computer maybe putting into the mentioned 'limp mode' ??

Ok Update for my problem ......

I today bit the bullet & put the car into main dealer, it turns out that my 1998 has had a newer 2001 engine fitted at some point. This is fine but it appears my rev counter is mis-matched with the engine. The dealer tells me that the car is revving properly up to 4800RPM on the computer but the rev counter only registers up to 3500RPM (bizzare !!)

Do you think a later set of 2001 clocks will resolve the problem ??