Couple of ongoing issues/brain-twisters

[Micoclarke]

Hello all, 

I've got a couple of ongoing issues with my Berlingo. It's a 1.9d forte 2002.

1. Flat spot around 2000rpm.
- When (slowly) accelerating up to 2k rpm, with foot not hard down on throttle, the car begins to hesitate.
- It gets stuck around 2k rpm and starts to go a bit jumpy. Only way to get out of this is to 'floor it' - it then quickly lurches, sometimes accompanied by a puff of blue-ish smoke from the exhaust.
- Best way to describe it - Imagine there's a 'power trough' around 2000 rpm, if you approach slowly you fall into the trough. If you approach quickly (quicker revving) you can 'ump over the trough' or bypass it. If you fall in the only way to get out is to floor it up the trough ramp.

Any suggestions about where to look first? I'm thinking of cleaning the MAF sensor this weekend.

2. Overheating in traffic
- The car overheats in traffic, so much so that I've had to drive around with the heater on. Not fun the last few days.
- Couple of things jump out to me: the fans don't come on when the needle goes past half way; the engine seems to heat up very quickly, like a couple of minutes in traffic.
- The fans do function, somewhat - if I remove the coolant temp harness the temp gauge goes straight to red and the fans come on. They just don't switch on in traffic.
- There seems to be only 1 relay on the rad housing. The left position (out of 3). Can provide pics if necessary.

I'm planning to do a coolant change this weekend, don't know the last time it was change.

Let me know if anyone can solve these brain twisters!

[Civvic]

Hello all, 

I've got a couple of ongoing issues with my Berlingo. It's a 1.9d forte 2002.

1. Flat spot around 2000rpm.
- When (slowly) accelerating up to 2k rpm, with foot not hard down on throttle, the car begins to hesitate.
- It gets stuck around 2k rpm and starts to go a bit jumpy. Only way to get out of this is to 'floor it' - it then quickly lurches, sometimes accompanied by a puff of blue-ish smoke from the exhaust.
- Best way to describe it - Imagine there's a 'power trough' around 2000 rpm, if you approach slowly you fall into the trough. If you approach quickly (quicker revving) you can 'ump over the trough' or bypass it. If you fall in the only way to get out is to floor it up the trough ramp.

Any suggestions about where to look first? I'm thinking of cleaning the MAF sensor this weekend.

2. Overheating in traffic
- The car overheats in traffic, so much so that I've had to drive around with the heater on. Not fun the last few days.
- Couple of things jump out to me: the fans don't come on when the needle goes past half way; the engine seems to heat up very quickly, like a couple of minutes in traffic.
- The fans do function, somewhat - if I remove the coolant temp harness the temp gauge goes straight to red and the fans come on. They just don't switch on in traffic.
- There seems to be only 1 relay on the rad housing. The left position (out of 3). Can provide pics if necessary.

I'm planning to do a coolant change this weekend, don't know the last time it was change.

Let me know if anyone can solve these brain twisters!

1) Could either be EGR tubes not properly connected - either loose or wrongly installed. Also MAF could be it. You could try cleaning it up.
2) could be low speed fan not kicking in or pressure cap valve weak, or there could be some leak somewhere hence cooling system not pressurised enough.