Driving down to London yesterday, 73 on cruise control, when I deactivated and pressed the accelerator I got almost no response. Engine was running, car was still moving more than a coast, but slowing down. Pulled over, ignition off, cloud of smoke (white/grey, one thought it looked a bit blue, I think; smelled like TCP). Started back up and all seemed fine again, made it to London.
Driving back it did it again. One time it recovered itself while still driving, another it had me on the hard shoulder again. Some advice from a friend (aside from getting recovery - yes I know I probably should have) and we reckoned a turbo pipe had come loose. Tried sticking below 2k rpm, and it only happened once more - on the cruise control up a hill, where I imagine the turbo still kicked in. From there kept CC off, and revs low manually, and made it home (150 miles - 3 hours) without further incident.
Now I need to work out what's going on. I've had a general look around the engine bay from the top and nothing appears out of the ordinary that I've noticed.
Symptoms:
- temperature is stable (based on the needle, which I know is poor - but it never got hot enough to make that rise up)
- smoke smelled (to me) like TCP
- idling engine sounds normal (to my, granted relatively inexperienced, ear)
- smoke only occurs during power loss incidents, not when idling or any other driving, even over 2k rpm until the issue occurs.
- problem didn't occur immediately after topping 2k revs, I was happily driving well over that for some time before it occurred. It also occurred once below that, but with the cruise control up a hill, so still under extra load.
- It didn't seem like coolant or oil had dropped; but checking this morning I have to admit there's a possibility I might have lost some oil, hard to be certain; and perhaps a sliver of coolant - again hard to say for sure.
Help!
ETA:
Someone recommended giving the radiator hose (top hose?) a squeeze while someone revs it. Didn't feel any pressure or stiffening of it when revving to about 2.5k rpm.
Driving back it did it again. One time it recovered itself while still driving, another it had me on the hard shoulder again. Some advice from a friend (aside from getting recovery - yes I know I probably should have) and we reckoned a turbo pipe had come loose. Tried sticking below 2k rpm, and it only happened once more - on the cruise control up a hill, where I imagine the turbo still kicked in. From there kept CC off, and revs low manually, and made it home (150 miles - 3 hours) without further incident.
Now I need to work out what's going on. I've had a general look around the engine bay from the top and nothing appears out of the ordinary that I've noticed.
Symptoms:
- temperature is stable (based on the needle, which I know is poor - but it never got hot enough to make that rise up)
- smoke smelled (to me) like TCP
- idling engine sounds normal (to my, granted relatively inexperienced, ear)
- smoke only occurs during power loss incidents, not when idling or any other driving, even over 2k rpm until the issue occurs.
- problem didn't occur immediately after topping 2k revs, I was happily driving well over that for some time before it occurred. It also occurred once below that, but with the cruise control up a hill, so still under extra load.
- It didn't seem like coolant or oil had dropped; but checking this morning I have to admit there's a possibility I might have lost some oil, hard to be certain; and perhaps a sliver of coolant - again hard to say for sure.
Help!
ETA:
Someone recommended giving the radiator hose (top hose?) a squeeze while someone revs it. Didn't feel any pressure or stiffening of it when revving to about 2.5k rpm.
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