Hi All 🖐️

I'm a brand-new driver (1 day of driving so far!) and our second car has a problem.

It's an S-Max Titanium 1.8TDCi Duratorq from 2008. It drives fine for a few minutes, but then it loses power (limp mode?). The AA guy who brought us home said, after a quick visual inspection, it was a sticking EGR problem, he's seen it lots of times. First he said try driving it fast, but my missus tried, but the same thing happened (limp after 4 or 5 mins), so he towed us home. He seemed like a good, experienced guy, but before I engage in hours of frustrating work removing and cleaning/WD-40-ing this valve, I'd like a second opinion if it's possible.

Extra info:

- The car previously had a faulty injector for an unknown length of time (intermittent and slight power loss). This was fixed professionally with a new injector. I don't know if this matters, I'm thinking a lot of carbon or jizzle from the bad cylinder reaching EGR. But I know not much of new diesel engines.🙄

- It starts first time, even after being left for a month or more.

- When started, there are no warnings and the exhaust smoke looks fine. (just mild white, when revved high)

- The missus can't remember seeing any warnings when it happens.

- I think the car goes into limp, because the revs can only reach around 2k when it happens.

 

So from this very limited information, could you tell me if it is possible the valve is sticking or needs cleaning?

Thanks 👍

This guy on Talk Ford seems to be describing my issue exactly! Shame there was no resolution posted.☹️

https://www.talkford.com/threads/s-max-not-performing-as-should.189972/

After more research, I realised I can take the actuator module off the EGR/inlet system without too much fuss, and turn the valve-opener manually to see if it's sticking. I turned it, and it seemed to be sticking at the top and bottom, but not sure if I'm just turning it too far, or just turning it awkwardly🤔. I WD-40'd it and whacked the front side of the inlet system with a hammer -> a thought I had when it first broke down was to hit everything with a hammer, but we didn't have one! Another thing to note, is the open side of the actuator has a light carbon layer throughout with a small amount of carbon dust, and it was also extremely easy to take off (screws very easily loosened with a small screwdriver).

But anyway, I test drove it, slowly at first, as it's been stationary for about 3 months. After a bit, I decided to try pushing it past 2,000 revs (Apparently, that's about when the valve closes). I got onto a straight road, left it in second gear and pushed it. At around 2,000, it lost power... for a split second, then it flew up to 4,000. I did that a few times, and it was really great, no other problems. I drove it around for about 10 mins, pushing it past 2k when I could, and it seemed fine. I'll leave it for now and take it further in a few days.

Oh, one thing I noticed was the orange engine light was staying on. That may be because I started it once with the EGR cable disconnected. Not really sure, atm. There are no other warnings.

I'll keep updating, just in case anyone has the same problem and is equally clueless.👍

I decided to check to see if the valve needs cleaning anyway...

DIS IS MY INLET, MOFOS!! I'M GUESSING THE VALVE IS AT THE BACK??

I'm no expert. But I don't think all that crud is a part of the design.🤔

 

So... It's inlet removal time. ...and guess what? That doesn't just involve removing the inlet... that would be too easy, silly!🙄 On this s-max, I apparently have to remove the exhaust manifold AND the turbocharger AND the catalytic converter AND god knows what else, I'm not even sure, just to get to TWO STUPID BOLTS on the EGR/inlet manifold😫. Modern engine design is fantastic 👍

😒🙄☹️🤐

I've taken some 20-30 bolts and nuts off so far, but next, I must get the car onto ramps to get underneath...

As the car can't roll back and there's no way to push it forward, that was a hard job in itself, involving two types of jack and some random big broken bricks you find in any low-income urban area. But now it's up on ramps and I must proceed with the removal of stuff - any stuff - that's in my way 😈 It's time to geet oily!

^{(Yes the ramps are backwards, it was the only way to do it, plus, as it can't roll back, it doesn't really matter)}

#AMATEURMECHANICS

#GOOGLETAUGHTME

Good morning, I think mine has the same problem as yours, now & then it hesitates then goes in to limp home mode with “Engine Malfunction” comes up on the display

I’ve replaced the injectors (thinking it was that) so now I’m off to remove the EGR Valve, I’m going to clean it up & blank it off.

wish me luck, please keep us posted on how you are with your problem too, thanks and good luck  

On 4/8/2022 at 7:39 AM, fr150bhp said:

Good morning, I think mine has the same problem as yours, now & then it hesitates then goes in to limp home mode with “Engine Malfunction” comes up on the display

I’ve replaced the injectors (thinking it was that) so now I’m off to remove the EGR Valve, I’m going to clean it up & blank it off.

wish me luck, please keep us posted on how you are with your problem too, thanks and good luck  

Hi dude! You're in Neath? I'm in Swansea!! Ha!

Yeah, it took me ages to get all the bits off, but I've cleaned the whole inlet manifold the best I could and should have it all back together in two or three days. I'm very slow, but a perfectionist!

Good luck if you haven't done it yet. I don't think you have to take it off to give it a quick clean, but if you want to get it really clean, and you don't want any crud to go through the engine(which it will), you should definitely take it off. Also, you can then soak it or blow it out or burn it(as a mechanic told me) or whatever, much easier to get all the crap out.

Hope it goes well.👍👍