TD4 Hesitation @high boost roughly 4000rpm in 5th Gear.

Well... were do I start, someone on here must know more than the landrover technicians...!!!! I have a problem with my 2.0TD4.

On acceleration through the gears it doesn’t seem to bad although have no reference vehicle to compare, but it is very noticeable once you have changed into 5th Gear and start to accelerate above 90mph. The car hesitates for approximately 20seconds @ 90mph and then starts to accelerate and then it will hesitate again at 95mph for 20 seconds and then it will be ok until 100. It will not reach any further than this although when I first got the car it would do more than that.

The MAF sensor was replaced 500miles ago in response to another problem (no power below 3000rpm), this cured that problem but this one has now appeared.

Anyone got any ideas?

Possible fuel delivery issue, has the fuel filter been changed recently ?

I would change that first, as the problem with the 20 second delay sounds like either a blockage with the filter or a fuel pressure problem due to the high demand at speeds which could be fuel pump related.

Zippy

Land rover specs indicate Max power @4000rpm and top speed 102mph, I don't know if yours has been chipped etc. but if not I would think the engine is at its limit.
I'm not being cheeky but I don't think this type of vehicle is meant to be driven at those kinds of speeds. (unless you have had some serious mods)

Thanx for suggestions fuel filter changed sunday and made no difference, regarding not driving at these speeds I accept that its not a sports car (had plenty of those) *but* when I noticed this problem it was when I was overtaking on a hill and the car suddenly died on me.. well I know that its capable of more as when I got it I did get it to 110mph - in fact it ran out of revs...., so I know it can do it.

Took it to the stealers today and have just got it back and they reckon it was the turbo modulator valve, something that I suggested..? they replaced it without my permission as I would have probably done it ( not that hard a task looking at the Haynes manual) anyway not had chance to test it fully as the roads around here r to busy but will let you know if that was the problem

Still no joy, still has hesitation, anyone got any positive ideas?

Hi, this may not be the answer but its something easy to try out, my td4 has hesitation when pulling away, causing stalling/ bad running at the slightest release of the clutch, try disconnecting the vacuum pipe to the egr valve at the valve and blank it off with a rivet or something, and take it for a drive,( it wont do it any harm, the valve,when operative,only recycles a bit of exhaust gas under some conditions), and see if the problem occurs. If it doesnt then theres a fair chance the egr valve programming is wrong, like I'm sure mine is, the only trouble is I don't think the stealers are capable of fixing it. Good Luck.

Well its back at the stealers again..! I have now taken the head mechanic out in it to show him the problem he has now seen it doing it ( dont think he believed me as his computer said no) .

Any way he is now saying it could be one of the fuel pumps, dunno if anyone agrees with him?

Also I asked him how he would diagnose a problem with the viscous coupling and he didnt know! so I said about lifting the rear wheel up in the air and trying to turn it and he said that would be impossible, although somehow ive managed to do it..? also I said that if you take it out for a run and then jack the car up if the wheel moves by a quarter turn this could be an indication of failure and he hadnt heard of that one either...! is it me or am I losing faith in Landrover westover in Christchurch?

As my 1st post states, the fuel pump would be my next choice after the filter.

I hope you get it sorted, as for the speeds you read, youre right.

My 53plate TD4 will happily sit at just over 110 mph (around 115), I went through most of Germany like this a few months ago. Strangely enough 110mph still doesnt hit the red line, it just doesnt have the power to push faster.

But hey, what more do you need Its a top car.

Well they have just rung me up.... guess what they still cant find a fault! I am glad that there are some people on here have achieved the same speeds that I have as I know me little landie can do it, I know Im not imagining it. Anyway i will go down the fuel pump route and double check and clean as a first point of call to the problem.

Still open to suggetion tho' guys & gals

Thanx to all so far

baldeagle said:

Hi, this may not be the answer but its something easy to try out, my td4 has hesitation when pulling away, causing stalling/ bad running at the slightest release of the clutch, try disconnecting the vacuum pipe to the egr valve at the valve and blank it off with a rivet or something, and take it for a drive,( it wont do it any harm, the valve,when operative,only recycles a bit of exhaust gas under some conditions), and see if the problem occurs. If it doesnt then theres a fair chance the egr valve programming is wrong, like I'm sure mine is, the only trouble is I don't think the stealers are capable of fixing it. Good Luck.

Click to expand...

My MY01 has the egr valve disabled as well (small ball of a bearing, diameter 6 mm, in the pipe), it helps to keep the engine clean as only clean fresh air used for combustion, not the black smudge you can see when you take the hose off the egre valve, all the black stuff you see in there also goes into your engine you know .... When in the past I did a certain route with speeds of 30 kmh near a couple of schools and 50 kmh in town followed by the open road where 90 kmh is allowed I could always see in the rearview mirror a cloud of black exhaust fumes when I hit the accelerator really hard (it's a Steptronic I have), since I disabled the egr valve doing the same route under the same circumstances gives me no black cloud or exhaust at all anymore. Furthermore at the yearly MOT a diesel can go up till a value of 3.5 of sootparticles I think, mine got 0.9 ?
My neighbour having a new MY05 Td4 Sport had some hesitation pulling away as well, I told him about the egr valve thing and he disabled it as well but don't know yet what results he got.

Blockinh this EGR valve thingy sounds a good idea, it looks like its a warm fuzzy eco friendly gadget stuck on the engine for the tree huggers - I must rip it off , it does sound a very good idea. Did you just block the little pipe connecting the EGR valve or have you blocked the actual metal pipe aswel? does this not effect the lambda sensor readings?

I have come to the conclusion that TD4s can be far quicker than is good for them. They are built for it to a point.

Remember the V6 is the same car but with a different engine, so we know the chassis et al can take speed. That leaves the engine as the deciding factor, and after all, the TD4s are BMW engines that in their 320ds push about 160Bhp, so we know the engine is well within tolerance levels.

QED.

Labiarat said:

Blockinh this EGR valve thingy sounds a good idea, it looks like its a warm fuzzy eco friendly gadget stuck on the engine for the tree huggers - I must rip it off , it does sound a very good idea. Did you just block the little pipe connecting the EGR valve or have you blocked the actual metal pipe aswel? does this not effect the lambda sensor readings?

Click to expand...

Hi Labiarat,

I just blocked the small pipe, went to the garage and took a pic. of it.
As for the lambda readings, not a clue, but what I know is that on a VW forum I read that the 1st thing most of the owners (in Holland) do is to block this valve, they also mentioned that several VW dealers in Holland deliver new cars with the valve blocked by them, so ......

Take care.

Hi Willo, I'm interested to know what made you disable the egr valve in the first place, did your td4 have hesitation / driveability problems? I'd also be keen to know the outcome of your neighbours problem with an 05 model td4, mine is a late 04 model with similar problem but other than disabling the valve which allows the car to run without the problem occurring, I am completely baffled as to what is causing it and so are the landrover technical people, they havent got a clue.maybe l/r people in other eu countries such as yours have more of an idea where the problem lies. Best Regards.

I agree with the fact that this type of landrover is quite fast, having driven different types of landies the freelander is definatly the most stable at speed, and since I have upgraded my alloys to 17" profiles it handle really well too.

Now Im on a hunt for a ball bearing now thanx guys, also I am curious to why the EGR valve is a potential problem and why other manufacturers block this off. I think Im gonna have to do a google on it...

baldeagle said:

Hi Willo, I'm interested to know what made you disable the egr valve in the first place, did your td4 have hesitation / driveability problems? I'd also be keen to know the outcome of your neighbours problem with an 05 model td4, mine is a late 04 model with similar problem but other than disabling the valve which allows the car to run without the problem occurring, I am completely baffled as to what is causing it and so are the landrover technical people, they havent got a clue.maybe l/r people in other eu countries such as yours have more of an idea where the problem lies. Best Regards.

Click to expand...

Well, I did search for this when I noticed the black sludge in the inlet channel near the EGR valve, by checking things out, hearing things and reading things I came to the conclusion that, since with VW most, if not all, of the valves are/get blocked with good result as otherwise they wouldn't keep doing this and as the principle is the same on all diesels I thought the risk of problems is minimal if at all existing, also that the engine would get clean fresh air all the time instead of dirty air most of the time (having a Steptronic the revs always oscillate around 2.000 rpm which is let's say halfpower thus in the range where the EGR is always functioning). As for my neighbour, I asked him last night about and he said he hasn't got that hesitation anymore since he blocked the valve (temporarily as trail he said) as well. The info. re the blocking of the valve did not come from LR technicians but came from different forums etc... (Mine is also chiptuned (original chip tailored rewritten, no powerbox, since about 30.000+ km and so far nothing but positive feelings about, also the Steptronic box seems to like the extra power (30 hp extra and about 50 Nm torque extra) as it now selects/changes and drives like a dream. Of course not "racing" constantly with the car, just enjoying the increased driveability. Also the mrs. not a driver herself, feels the difference and the ease the car is handling, the engine does not have to 'work' anymore to move the car.)
Best regards and good luck to all.

Done the ball bearing thing on the egr valve pipe as demonstrated by the lovely piccy. However, I have now removed it as it made a clicking whirring type sound when I turned the engine off. (kinda scared me a bit). Any one had the same problem? am I worrying too much, it did seem to drive better through the gears but still got the problem at 90mph

Hi Labiarat,

Sorry to hear you still have the problem around 90 mph. (I never drive that fast, 120 kmph is the maximum allowed overhere, also as it is a Steptronic it never reaches 4000 rpm unless I put it in manual and leave it in 1st or 2nd and let it go up in gears by itself, than it goes pretty high in revs too but no usual drivingstyle of me that is). As for the clicking whirring type sound, I have the same, but not all the time, only every now and than I can hear it. When I think of it arriving home, I open the hood in advance, lower my window and shut the radio off, than I stop the engine from the outside, through the window, in the hope to hear that sound, only once I was able to 'catch' it and I had the impression it came from the egr valve somewhere. Maybe that valve is vibrating for one reason or another, which is odd to me as it opens with vacuum meaning that the valve is 'sucked' open, maybe the resistance of the retainingspring is too weak or just at the limit to keep the valve closed against the strength of the arriving gases from the turbo, being so strong that it creates that vibrating sound, the gas overcome the spring but the spring cures the supposed closed status resulting in that open/close clicking sound. Not sure, just thinking loud here. Any other (better/correct) info on this from the world ??

Thanks and best regards to all.

I only go that fast on private roads... !