Td5 low power & poor torque mystery.

So, have had slight issues with my ´04 TD5 Defender, 200.000km.

From a cold start it absolutely sucks at torq and I have to A) wait for the engine to warm up 5mins or B) use 4low to get out of my driveways small hill. Engine starts fine, on the first try. Engine runs evenly and does not have any extra noises. It even revs normally when on neutral.
But, in gear and trying to get up that small (15%?) hill and it just start choking, stuttering and dies.

History:
- Blew the head gasket in jan & shop repaired it. It did not seem that engine suffered any extra damage.
Gaskets have gone before as previous owner had installed the new AMC cover, but the previous owner failed to install it properly and it failed on me.
- Injector nr 3 was changed few months after gasket job.
- All the filters have been changed.
- Fuel Pressure Regulator has been changed.
- Throttle pedal crapped out few months ago and was changed.
- Eyeballed MAP & MAF sensors and they looked ok.
- Wiring loom on the engine side has been chaged.
- Turbo wastegate was sticky and caused one overboost but now seems to move quite freely.
- Turbo hose had a small oil leak but repaired, the shop said the turbo was ok though.


When warm & highway engine performs relatively well. Pulls ok´ish on higher revs, can hold 120-130kmp/h but lacks the low range torque, imo.

So, any guesses where to start to hunt for poor performance? Will get a nanocom in the couple of weeks, but could start troubleshooting in the meantime..

Thx in advance!!

Clean the MAP with brake cleaner
Unplug the MAF
- See how it runs, if better then ->
Replace the MAF with a genuine/VDO/Siemens unit

Check for oil in the red plug of the ECU
- if so replace the injector harness
- clean plug with brake cleaner

Check the air intake is clean and free flowing

Blank the EGR if fitted.

Probably the maf as banks mentioned in plug it to find out

Tried disconnection : No dice. No difference in performance either.
Could not get up that bloody little slope with or without.
It just basically stalls, for few seconds the drive lights flicker and if you dont press the clutch, the car stalls. Clutch depressed the car revs normally but when trying to move, bonk. Had to get out from the yard by switching to 4low. The car starts moving from stop on flat surface quite normally though.


What I do have that I forgot to mention: i think my clutch is going out as well.
DMF is shaking a bit when coming to a stop for few seconds or if you are taking of by sliding the clutch. Pinion bearing(?) have been screeching loudly now and then.
The car starts moving from stop on flat surface quite normally. But on a cold start and trying to get uphill, hell, had to use 4low to get up from the yard yesterday.

Second weirdness it when trying to get moving on slow speed (1st gear+reverse) the TC can kick in for a second (light comes on) and there is a churning sound from transfercase/gearbox area you can feel on brake pedal as well. Like the abs would be kick on. It goes away when pressing the clutch down. And the TC light can come on for a second if the right wheel hits a larger bump on slow speed with the "gccccrrrrrrrhh" sound as well, like the TC/Abs would kick in...

What a goddamn mystery this is. Flanges were changed in the front few weeks back after front (right) wheelbearing decided to totally seize...after 1000kms... Could it be that the front diff is borked somehow, abs ring being damaged and that is feeding some weirdness to the ECU or whatnot?

#baffled

Not sure about yours but with normal TC if the ecu detects a wheel spinning then it reduces the engine power to allow the wheel to gain traction (some can also apply the brakes to the spinning wheel). You may be loosing the signal (or it is low) from one wheel so the ecu is reducing engine power. If you can, stick a reader on it and look at wheel speeds when driving to see if they all match

Kwakerman: You dare to guess how that could affect in real life? I mean, trying to move from cold start -> Some weirdness on the diff end -> ABS keeps wheel breaked -> Stall?
Any similar scenario where that kind of thing might happen?
The weirdness is that I have not notice that in other kind of situations during the summer, not that I have done that much uphill starts on steeper grades to begin with..

Other thing : I have a webasto heater (scandi arctic pack). When it is on in the cold I can definitely hear a Click-Click sound from the fuel pump when it is cold.
Fuel pump crapping out?

Scandihoovian said:

Kwakerman: You dare to guess how that could affect in real life? I mean, trying to move from cold start -> Some weirdness on the diff end -> ABS keeps wheel breaked -> Stall?
Any similar scenario where that kind of thing might happen?
The weirdness is that I have not notice that in other kind of situations during the summer, not that I have done that much uphill starts on steeper grades to begin with..

Other thing : I have a webasto heater (scandi arctic pack). When it is on in the cold I can definitely hear a Click-Click sound from the fuel pump when it is cold.
Fuel pump crapping out?

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Sometimes electronics can become sensitive to temperature once they start to fail, when they have had power applied for a few minutes they can warm up slightly and temporarily fix themselves. It sounds more likely that engine power is being reduced rather than the brakes being applied.
If it seems to cure itself after a few minutes is it worth trying turning the ignition on for a 5 minutes (don't start it) so that the electronics can warm up, then try starting it and see if it drives ok or you have to wait another 5 minutes with engine running (if that makes sense).

Kwakerman said:

If it seems to cure itself after a few minutes is it worth trying turning the ignition on for a 5 minutes (don't start it) so that the electronics can warm up, then try starting it and see if it drives ok

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Curious : What would that affect, heating up the "electronics"? Fuel pump, Ecu? I can understand leaving the engine running, yes. But, electronics...
Genuinely curious!?

More the ecu and sensors than the fuel pump. anything that has semiconductors in it can become temperature sensitive. I've worked in electronics for 35+ years and seen many occurrences of components that will only work in certain temperatures ranges and fail if they get too hot or cold. Not saying that is your issue but something to consider. Trying to fault find odd faults over the internet can take a bit of guesswork, if you are there looking at things then it is so much easier (as is having any fault codes from a reader)

Kwakerman said:

Trying to fault find odd faults over the internet can take a bit of guesswork, if you are there looking at things then it is so much easier (as is having any fault codes from a reader)

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Do tell! Thx for the patience, everyone involved!
And yep, have been involved with sensitive electronics in cold climates my life (cameras,lights etc) but this case really baffles me. Waiting for that Nanocom...

You say you have had a new injector on number 3 cylinder... When fitting an injector on the td5 it needs to be coded to the ecu to run 100 percent... I would look into this and also the fuel pump

Scandihoovian said:

Do tell! Thx for the patience, everyone involved!
And yep, have been involved with sensitive electronics in cold climates my life (cameras,lights etc) but this case really baffles me. Waiting for that Nanocom...

Click to expand...

Things like as a duff coolant or air temperature sender can send the ecu bad information so it thinks the engine is hot when it is not and so the ecu uses different settings for fuel injection timing and quantity, once the engine warns up a bit then can manage it a bit better. That said I think the TC light and ABS kicking in are connected with your issue as they also speak to the engine ecu, TC is normally disabled when the clutch is pressed (as the engine cant send power to the wheels if the clutch is disengaged). Certainly worth a second look at the front right

Discodevon said:

You say you have had a new injector on number 3 cylinder... When fitting an injector on the td5 it needs to be coded to the ecu to run 100 percent... I would look into this and also the fuel pump

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The shop that did it coded and checked afterwards as well. According to them everything was up to specs.

And Kwakerman : What do you mean "duff coolant" or "air temperature sender"?
If you mean coolant, it is up to spec, LR approved red. And with air temp sender do you mean the ambient air pressure sensor in the filter box?
How would a malfunctioning one manifest itself? Have found a lot of info on MAP/MAF but very little on the AAPS(?).

'Duff' means bad or broken, I was trying to say that if a sensor is giving the wrong information to the eco then it can confuse it. There are a lot of sensors that send information to the ecu (air temperature / ambient air pressure / boost pressure / airflow / throttle position / wheel speed to name a few) that is you you need a reader so that you can check each is giving a reasonable reading. If you don't have a reader then you can spend a lot of money taking educated guesses. You should be able to check the AAPS by looking at your local weather report and comparing the readings as that is just your air pressure (probably around 1013mb area) on a 'normal' day