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Dom-300tdi

Active Member
Question for the pro's.

Got a 1996 300tdi 130,000miles. De-egr'd, new fuel lines, lift pump, fuel filter. recent oil and oil filter change. Starts fine, runs lovely. The only problem is when pulling away it is quite sluggish and has very little power. On a steep hill start the engine comes close to stalling unless I let the revs build up really high and then drop the clutch.

As soon as the revs reach about 2000 - 2500 rpm it roars into life and pulls like a train, but anything much below 2000 and its totally gutless. Is this normal ? I'm guessing it's not.

Anyone know what might be causing this or know of a fix?
 
Mine can be alittle like that. I just put it down to being an older diesel engine with turbo lag. I'm sure that some one will correct me if i'm wrong. Mine has been de-egr'd and de-cated.
 
You can do some minor tweaks to the injector pump that will improve this a lot. Can't remember the link to it now but do a search on here.
 
Dom-300tdi said:
Question for the pro's.

Got a 1996 300tdi 130,000miles. De-egr'd, new fuel lines, lift pump, fuel filter. recent oil and oil filter change. Starts fine, runs lovely. The only problem is when pulling away it is quite sluggish and has very little power. On a steep hill start the engine comes close to stalling unless I let the revs build up really high and then drop the clutch.

As soon as the revs reach about 2000 - 2500 rpm it roars into life and pulls like a train, but anything much below 2000 and its totally gutless. Is this normal ? I'm guessing it's not.

Anyone know what might be causing this or know of a fix?
Click to expand...

This is not normal in my experience. On e of the big advantages of TDi 300 over TD5 is that it will pull well from 1500 (not as well as a TDi 200 mind) So there is something wrong imo.

I would approach it like this:

1. Change the air filter and check again;

2. Change the fuel filter and check;

3. Clean out the fuel sedimenter and check;

4. Change the fuel lift pump and check.


Do one change at a time and see if that sorts it.
 
Very intresting thread! My dads disco is like this, he has to go down to 1st on a hill that my **** 2 1/4 can take in 2nd if he hits it a bit slow. Im personaly not very impressed with the 300tdi (what i've experinced of it so far)!!
 
Hmm, interesting, i'll be watching this thread as my 300 seems to be a bit slack at pulling away unless you rev it a little, i thought it was normal.

If only there was a way of quantifying "low power" without going to a dyno.

I dont know whats normal or low as its the first disco i've owned but i do know that if i hit hills at the wrong throttle setting, i'll end up changing down, i tend to put the power on before the hill to get the revs up a little.

Maybe i'm just using the wrong gear :)
 
i take it the motor is attached to a manual transmission?

have you changed the fluids and for the correct oil?

do you give the engine time to warm a little to get the fluids round it a bit.

have you checked and cleaned the intercooler and pipes for blockages or delaminateing pipes?

check the turbo spins (cool engine and not running) and has very little playin the shaft, check the actuator opperates and is attached to the waste gate ( i have found rods off of actuators before allowing no pressure buildup) you can check the actuator by hand but it will be very stiff, borrow a vac pump if you can and attach to pipe.

i hope this will help

if its auto well it is slow to start as the oil needs to warm and flow better

all these will cause drive and power issues
 
It's a manual transmission. I have not changed the fluids in the year or so i've owned it.

As you would expect the car always performs better all round once its had a good long warmup but even when warm it still has very little power when pulling away.

I've checked the big fat pipe between the intercooler and the turbo and it looks clean and dry inside. I have not checked any other pipes, not sure which ones i'd need to.

How do I check if the turbo spins, isnt it a sealed unit? What does the actuator and wastegate look like ?

When i'm driving along above 2500revs I can hear a distinct high frequency whine which I belive to be the turbo operating so I think it does work at least partially. However I have no way of knowing if it is cutting in at the right time or if it is actually providing the right amount of pressure. Is it possible that the turbo stil works , but for whatever reason is waiting too long to spin up when it should in fact be spinning up at much lower revs?
 
Ok then, boost guage seems like a sensible next step. Are they simple to fit .. any tutorials out there?

Also where can I find out the specs on what the guage should be reading at what rpm to confirm if the turbo is good or fubar?

Any idea on where I can pick up a guage that is cheap but accurate? Most of the ones i see on ebay are blinged up with led's and all sorts and are quite pricey. I just want something that I can fit to test and remove again. I'm not particularly fussed about adding a guage to my dash.
 
Dom-300tdi said:
Ok then, boost guage seems like a sensible next step. Are they simple to fit .. any tutorials out there?

Also where can I find out the specs on what the guage should be reading at what rpm to confirm if the turbo is good or fubar?

Any idea on where I can pick up a guage that is cheap but accurate? Most of the ones i see on ebay are blinged up with led's and all sorts and are quite pricey. I just want something that I can fit to test and remove again. I'm not particularly fussed about adding a guage to my dash.
Click to expand...

You can get a gunson gauge to test and it will also be useful after for testing fuel pressures etc or you can sell it on.
 
Dom-300tdi said:
What is it i'm actually mesauring .. positive pressure or vacuum? There seems to be turbo guages on ebay for both.

Found this link for fitting if anyone is interested - http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f41/fitting-turbo-gauge-60825.html
Click to expand...


For the turbo you will be measuring pressure, i used a 0-30psi industrial gauge as the working pressure of around 12-14psi would be in the gauges' accurate mid-point. A 0-20psi boost gauge would be ideal, not sure what ranges they come in.


The link is a good guide, as always from Buster:) its basic plumbing really.
 
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