Lost Horses???

[ChrisH]

Hi. Car as in sig.

Recently noticed that it needs a bit more 'work' to keep up with how it used to be, a bit more right foot needed so to speak. Car has done just shy of 151000 mainly motorway miles, and has been serviced as per guidance. Theres no smoke at start up, cold or hot and it uses no oil as far as I can see. Recently changed oil, cleaned air filter and the maf sensor. Injector 1 was out a couple of months back to replace a leaky copper seal, and it looked fine and peering into the bore looked ok too. Have visually inspected the egr valve and it looks ok. There is a flat spot sometimes at low revs, and coming to a junction, dropping to 2nd and pressing accelerator again there is noticeable judder a bit like a misfire, lasts a couple of seconds. No codes been generated. Im at a bit if a loss. The power is there but it appears to be a bit gutless. Would terracleaning do any good? Am I missing anything? Or is it thats shes just getting on a bit in mileage. Only possible thing I can think of is the throttle position sensor possible having worn a bit at the start of its travel....

[nazsky786]

If it is all motorway miles then you shouldn't really have any issues with the engine. However do a compression test and see that it's going enough compression.

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Ford OC mobile app

[FOCA]

The warmer weather can reduce power by increasing the inlet temp + reducing the efficiency of the intercooler, but -

Your EGR valve chucks muck into the engines inlet and the manifold, etc gets blocked/ choked up, choking the engine/ reducing power/ torque - the CAT can get coked/ blocked up too, as well as the VNT mech/ turbine housing/ wheel/ blades

You never mentioned replacing the air filter - this is important (as well as the fuel filter)

As well as the EGR valve contaminating the inlet, with carbon/ gunge it also lets burnt gasses into the inlet (instead of clean, unburnt air, containing oxegen this is normally at part-throttle at lower revs, this is lible to be your flat spot

Cleaning the inlet manifold out (by taking it off and cleaning it properly with petrol and/ or a high pressure jetwash) and fitting a solid EGR blanking plate will "fix" the EGR - it will no longer continue to be contaminated (will not need to be cleaned out again), and the flatspot should dissapear, throttle response should improve, lag from low revs reduced, performance and economy should improve (even a little)

As the engine gets older the crud builds up and more muck may be injected into the inlet - cleaning it out and fitting the solid plate will stop this

As well as the muck that comes out of the EGR valve, the crancase breather injects oily residue/ droplets/ burnt gases into the inlet, usually into the airbox or in front of the turbo compressor, all the boost hoses, right into the engine tend to get coated, it builds up over time and older, worn engines tend to inject more oily droplets (due to the bores/ valve guides/ seals wearing, or a build up of pressure, - the oily drops mix with the carbon from the EGR in the inlet manifold, forming an oily gunge, the intercooler also acts as a condenser, where the oil cools and builds up,

The answer is to clean the inside of the intercooler out, and fit a crancase breather catchtank - (one with the same diameter as the breather hoses - hard to find

So to repeat -

New air/ oil filters

Clean out inlet manifold and intercooler

Fit solid EGR blanking plate

Fit crankase breather catchtank

Keeping the weight down in the car, making sure there is plenty air in the tyres and checking the brakes are not dragging

A code reader is a worthwhile investment, and a Haynes manual

Finally, to get the power back (and more!) a remap (including bluefin) can make a big difference

[Andy.B1971]

I cannot agree enough ^^^^ I recently fitted the EGR blanking plate and the horrible flat spot and or lack of power low down has disappeared the £3.55 piece of stainless steel has transformed the drivability of the car. EGR dirty air etc NO MORE.

And definitely new filters on a regular basis :D

[ChrisH]

Hi

thanks. Sorry to be unclear. The air filter js a pipercross and was cleaned as per manufacturers guidance. oil filter changed with oil. Seems like egr blanking may be the way to go then. Is terracleaning a waste of money seeing as I put archoil through a few months ago. I've got a Haynes manual and mechanic brothers in laws code reader gives nothing.

[FOCA]

Hi

thanks. Sorry to be unclear. The air filter js a pipercross and was cleaned as per manufacturers guidance. Oil filter changed with oil. Seems like egr blanking may be the way to go then. Is terracleaning a waste of money seeing as I put archoil through a few months ago. I've got a Haynes manual and mechanic brothers in laws code reader gives nothing.

Yes, without all the information we can only guess - for all i knew it had the original filter on it and it had never been changed (surprisingly common - as it is often left unchanged in dealer services)

Terracleaning is expensive and it only cleans "downstream" of the injectors, so it cannot clean the intercooler, inlet manifold + its only cleaning what the EGR valve, breather and combustion process as caused, which will build up again

Blanking the EGR stops the muck getting in in the first place "prevention is better than cure" - it is very inexpensive, (as Andy has said) and cleaning out the inlet manifold wont break the bank either, once its done,(with the solid EGR plate and breather catchtank) it should stay clean

so the plate costing less than a fiver is probably more benificial (esp, in the long run) than the terracleaning £80? so the cost- benifit must be taken into consideration

Others on the site have tried terraclean and found it benificial, but i would do the "service" items and lower cost things (like the things i have recommended) first. How long you plan to keep the car, and how tight a budget you are on must be taken into consideration too (ie - you might need that £80 for fuel, tyres, brakes etc)

A bluefin comes in at an expensive £320, (or some remaps a little cheaper) its a lot of money but it can make a big difference to performance - like a different engine/ car, i would go so far as it increases performance more than all the othe convenional ("regular") modifications put together