RR p38 2.5dse very thick black smoke

hi my p38 2.5dse seems to run fine and drive fine but if i kick down it pushes out very thick black smoke not the normal black smoke you would get from a diesel any ideas what it could be i was thinking the turbo had gone but not sure???????? as it seems abit slower than the last 2 p38 dse's ive had its not useing any excess oil and it not losing any water i just dont want to go spend out on a new turbo if its not going to sort it any help would be great
thanks jamie

If its forcing out thick black smoke thats usually too much fuel not enough air{unused fuel},check your map sensor,thats the one near the fuel filter,and also check your turbo to intercooler pipes cos these can delaminate and restrict airflow.If your turbo was on its way out it would also lose alot of power when you use kickdown so check the obvious first ok

ok cheers sorry but how do i check the map sensor? also would you suggest changing the intercooler pipe? if i put my foot flat to the floor it will basically hit the limiter very quickerly and slow down?????
cheers jamie

Problems like these are always just a process of elimination,depends on age of car,mileage and history. As for the map sensor for the sake of about £45 i'd just change it and see if its any different,also check the pipe that runs from that to the underside of the manifold for any leaks or pipe damage.
With regard to the turbo/intercooler pipes there's 3 no, 2 from turbo to intercooler and 1 from intercooler to manifold,check all jubilee clips are tight and the pipes haven't moved. If you take them off for inspection, see if there's any internal damage that can cause restricted airflow, if you have loads of oil present in this area then take your intercooler out and clean it out with something like thinners or brake cleaner and make sure its dried out properly before re-installing . Try these things first and see how you get on.

my mom owns a 2.5 dse an i got a phone call off her sayin the car is throwin out loads of black smoke an wouldnt rev properley an it was the cat was broke up so once we cut the cat out car is a lot more responsive

First check must be the air filter. Make sure it's clean and dry.

if that was me i would do a full service all filters and oil change
then see what happens

i hve one with a blown turbo and u will know, it has no go what so ever

would hardky drive on to the trailer unless you revved it hard

drove mine yesterday and was going along fine along a duel carriageway then i went to overtake a lorry on a upward hill and it took forever and even started to slow down, used the kick down and the revs came up and sat around 3-3500 but the actual speed started to drop! ive had a look at the intercooler pipes and air filter both look ok(filter a little grubby but nothing major), i squeezed the intercooler pipes and they are quite spongey, are they suppose to be like this? Any another ideas what to inspect would be a great help.

thanks for all that i have just given it a full oil an filter change as i thought that could of been it but no change my does the same as tommo138's and my pipe feel spongey but i will clean the intercooler an check all pipe tomorrow my has done 139,000 and has a full service history
thanks again everyone

cant remember what my pipes feel like

have one out in the workshop may give that a squeeze to help you

the missus has the main one at work so cant use that

well i was checking the fluid levels today and engine oil is fine but gearbox level was a biy low so have toppped up and it seems to be ok at the moment, got a motorway run to do in the next few days so will see if it plays up again and report back. if anyone can tell me what the intercooler pipes are suppose to feel like when squeezed (i.e soft/ very hard etc)it would be a great help.

tommo138 said:

well i was checking the fluid levels today and engine oil is fine but gearbox level was a biy low so have toppped up and it seems to be ok at the moment, got a motorway run to do in the next few days so will see if it plays up again and report back. if anyone can tell me what the intercooler pipes are suppose to feel like when squeezed (i.e soft/ very hard etc)it would be a great help.

Click to expand...

Take them off and look for delamintaion on the inside

thanks data keep hearing about this delamination but didnt know if it was the whole pipe or just inside will take a look tomorrow, def felt like it was like a restriction of airflow when the power loss happened. is it a dealer only job for the pipe or anyone know the part numbers?

tommo138 said:

thanks data keep hearing about this delamination but didnt know if it was the whole pipe or just inside will take a look tomorrow, def felt like it was like a restriction of airflow when the power loss happened. is it a dealer only job for the pipe or anyone know the part numbers?

Click to expand...

Easy to replace yourself. Try Rimmer Bros, Island 4 X 4, P38 spares etc. I'm sure they will know what you want if you phone them with a description of which hose you want

thanks again data.

well i took it for a run yesterday after checking all the intercooler pipes(all look good from the inside a little oil on the intercooler side but nothing major) but it still seems to struggle for power when going up hill! its not kicking out any smoke when under load, but as soon as you climb any sort of hill(i was going up a very long but not steap hill) the revs will stay up high but the speedo will start to slowly drop down and if you put your foot to the floor nothing will happen(kick down still works) and you can feel the engine holding back and struggling. Could it be fueling? Oh just to mention it doesnt seem to happen when cold only when running at operating temp.

anymore ideas from you guys would be great, dont really wanna hand it over to my indie, if its gonna be something simple, and they charge me 6hrs labour to just find the fault.
thanks guys.

My DSE is a bit sluggish up hills, I've had trouble with the vacumm pipe from the manifold to the MAP sensor, but it looks ok at the minute, so I might test the MAP sensor or just buy a replacement for £40. A faulty map sensor limits fuel delivery by the ECU.

thanks ill take a look at this. was thinking of sticking some injector cleaner to see if that made a difference, but ill take a look at the map sensor first.

well took her out all day and seems to be okish!(maybe im looking to hard for a problem!) i have the map sensor connections a clean and checked the vacum pipe as you said lanmjdun, the vacum pipe is a little lose where it connects to the manifold so think i will replace that. Thanks again people for pointing me in the right direction.(hopefully it will stay ok!)

tommo138, did this solve your problem?? I have exactly the same fault with my dse. I am leaning towards the in tank diesel pump as it definitely seems like a fuel starvation problem. I was trying to get up a steep hill from standstill the other day and my rangie wouldnt go over 12mph as it just had no power/torque whatsoever.