[Engine] Real lack of power on hills

[flanagaj]

So I was driving the Berlingo up a hill the other day and I heard a noise which sounded like someone was using a circular saw outside the car.  I didn't think much of it, but then my wife drove the van the next day and said it had no power and it would not go above 40 mph and was gutless.

I have hooked up the code reader and it is showing a P1351 fault code (faulty glow plug) but the car starts and idles fine, so not sure on that one.  

I'd rather not start stripping parts down and replacing without ideally knowing what the problem could be so any suggestions on how to diagnose what the problem is would be most welcomed.

Thanks

2008 B9 1.6 HDI 90 BHP model - 120k

[Gryffindor]

How much shopping (Xmas pressies) had your wife filled the van up with?

[Sol]

Not sure about the circular saw noise, maybe check something hasn't happened to one of your brakes to cause binding - but then it would pull to one side. Too vague an issue to be able to help much.

MAF, fuel pressure, brakes binding etc

[jj9]

My first thoughts from your description of the sound is the turbo, could be the turbine / compressor wheel was catching the housing.

I would remove the turbo air intake pipe and take a look at the compressor wheel.  



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[Mark604]

I had the same noise once on a different car and it was the aircon pump clutch breaking up.

[flanagaj]

Definitely not brakes. Car starts and idles fine, but the moment you hit an incline you'll have your foot to the floor and the vehicle starts going slower and slower. It is smoking a bit, but not excessive.

Aside from the P1351 the OBD11 reader is not showing any fault codes.

[Sol]

Without being able to measure boost, fuel pressure and airflow it will be hard to diagnose. Generic OBD readers can't do it on PSA cars but the Torque Pro app can, with a Bluetooth OBD adaptor.

There are other ways but more expensive.

Boost should get to just over 1 bar / 16psi and fuel pressure should hit something like 1200 bar at full load.

You might have a vacuum leak to the turbo boost control or a partly blocked DPF, lower fuel pressure than required or low readings from the MAF which would cause reduced fuelling to the injectors.

These may not be enough to trip a fault on the dash but reading live engine data is going to be the way to get to the bottom of it. Could even just be a clogging fuel filter.

[jj9]

We're all assuming it's a diesel !

It would be nice if we had some info about the vehicle like what engine, what year is the vehicle, mileage.

If you put your vehicle details in your signature like Rasputin, Zion & I have it saves you having to remember to include them when asking questions, it also helps members when attempting to give advice.

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[Sol]

Good point JJ9....!

[flanagaj]

SO I did a live data recording earlier and captured 121 frames of data. The details are below.

Fuel Rail Pressure - values range 12000 - 95000 PSI
MAF(lb/s) - 0.02 - 0.09
Intake manifold pressure is 12 -14 PSI

Fuel rail pressure looks ok, but the intake air pressure?