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Weird Trafic Engine/ECU Issue

24K views 9 replies 8 participants last post by  ours2012 
#1 ·
Hi,

Vehicle is a 2003 (52 plate) Trafic SL27, with 1.9DCI engine.

I had an issue some time ago which I reported back on here; my Trafic was "stuttering" during acceleration - almost feeling like you were accelerating, then not, then accelerating, then not etc etc. Ended up taking it down to a friends house, we took out the air flow meter, cleaned it with contact cleaner and put it back. This resolved the problem, and the engine has worked fine for some time since.

Recently, I started to notice a slight lag at 2500 rpm when accelerating it just seemed to slightly hesitate at that point. Barely noticable, but I had a feeling it might have been again related to the air flow meter. It was nowhere near as bad as it was originally.

Anyway, was heading home from Bognor Regis on Saturday night and was about 160 miles from home with a loaded van. Driving up the M3 I started to notice quite a severe loss in power, and hesitating acceleration whilst heading uphill. At first we thought it might be something to do with the hideous headwind, but it was far too regular. Took the exit from the M3 onto the A34 and had to stop at lights. Noticed then when pulling away that the van was only revving to 2000rpm. Suddenly, it kicked back in and we were on our way again, but still lacking in power.

At that point, I decide to call the RAC, as I figure I dont want to do any damage by driving it with this issue. A man comes out, removes the air flow meter and it appears to be broken - but it was the bit that looks like a disc with legs, which I believe to be the air temp sensor???? So we get recovered back, which took forever, and the man is sure the air flow meter is to fault.

So yesterday, I buy a new air flow meter and replace myself, and since then it has been behaving strangely; It seems to drive great, and there is no hesitation when accelerating up through 2500 rpm and beyond. (When I first connected the new one, it had BIG issues accelerating beyond around 2000-2500rpm - big hesitation. But that seemed to get better with time). The most bizarre thing, which seems to be very consistent, is that when driving the vehicle, I can rev anywhere up to 4000rpm, BUT whenever I come to a stop, park and rev it, it seems limited to 3000rpm. A stop and start rectifies this, but why is it going into limp home mode when it has just been driving Ok?

Does the ECU detect when the vehicle is moving and adjust accordingly?
Does the fact I have put in a new meter mean that I have to reset the ECU to learn the new one, in case it has slightly different values to the original?
Is it likely to be something else?

Also, just out of interest, how many miles are people getting out of a Trafic? Mine is currently at 193850 and when working normally drives very well. Is this issue an impending turbo failiure? Do the turbos go on Trafics?

Any light anyone can shed on any of this would be much appreciated,

Cheers.

Simon
 
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#4 ·
Hi Owen,

Thanks for your response .. I dont think it is that as it never used to be like that, and other Trafics I have driven havent been like that either. It seems such a bizarre issue. My local garage read and cleared the fault codes yesterday, and I will return in a few days to see which ones re-appear and see if we can go from there. I am not overly optimistic though, and was hoping someone else may have come across it before.

If you stop and restart the engine again, even when stationary, it will rev up to 4000 rpm again. It seems something is making it switch in and out of limp home mode.

Simon
 
#5 ·
Mine wont rev beyond about 2.5k in neutral but goes to the limiter when it is in gear with the clutch in.

I also had the loss of power the other week, for a couple of minutes until I could pull over and shut off the engine the re start after which it was fine and has been since.
The only thing I had noticed was that the turbo was not making its usual whistle when the power loss occured, but came back as soon as the power did. Is it an electronic wastegate on the DCi, and if so is this the cause or a symptom of going into 'limp home' mode.
There were no warning lights on the dash when this happened either.
 
#6 ·
My Trafic LH29DCi100 is an 04 plate with 72000 on the clock but had brand new engine fitted at 50000.
The fault is when you are driving along, the glow plug light comes on and you lose power, it seems to happen at the same location on the roads that I drive regularly, some are uphill but some are along the flat or slightly downhill.
Every time it happens while driving I turn the ignition off and then back on and it clear the fault for a little while until it occurs again.
Also I have noticed that when stationary sometimes you cannot rev the engine above two thousand rpm and when it does rev to the limit it stutters around that mark.
The renault main dealers are clueless and have told them so.
I contacted a guy called Pete the plug, who has a laptop but he was already dealing with one with the same fault and didn't come to see me.
I have spent six hundred with renault and the last thing they wanted to try was changing the injection wiring loom at a cost of nine hundred and ninety eight pounds at which point I said no.
One of the things they did pick up was that a solenoid had water in, that they had changed it and had made no difference and changed it back.
The fault still there, I decided to buy a solenoid, part no 120f04, for thirty seven pounds which seemed to correct the fault.
I swapped the solenoid several times to see what changes it made and was convinced that I had cured the fault.
I had three to four months without a single problem and was dismayed that while I was driving one day that the fault had returned.
The fault does not occur that often now but when it does it is always at the same place on two or three different roads.
 
#7 ·
I had a similar problem with my 04 Trafic Dci1.9. Called out the AA to mine they removed the air filter housing and identified a cable running to the fourth injector which was very tight and bent at right angles, on releasing this by pulling a bit more cable through the fault was fixed. It has happened a second timer to me and on the second occasion I did the same trick and it worked. She has been running trouble free ever since but I suspect it will happen again, The wires in that area are flimsy and stretched taught and hitting all these pot holes must take it's toll on them.:mad:
Give it a try it might work!
Robin


My Trafic LH29DCi100 is an 04 plate with 72000 on the clock but had brand new engine fitted at 50000.
The fault is when you are driving along, the glow plug light comes on and you lose power, it seems to happen at the same location on the roads that I drive regularly, some are uphill but some are along the flat or slightly downhill.
Every time it happens while driving I turn the ignition off and then back on and it clear the fault for a little while until it occurs again.
Also I have noticed that when stationary sometimes you cannot rev the engine above two thousand rpm and when it does rev to the limit it stutters around that mark.
The renault main dealers are clueless and have told them so.
I contacted a guy called Pete the plug, who has a laptop but he was already dealing with one with the same fault and didn't come to see me.
I have spent six hundred with renault and the last thing they wanted to try was changing the injection wiring loom at a cost of nine hundred and ninety eight pounds at which point I said no.
One of the things they did pick up was that a solenoid had water in, that they had changed it and had made no difference and changed it back.
The fault still there, I decided to buy a solenoid, part no 120f04, for thirty seven pounds which seemed to correct the fault.
I swapped the solenoid several times to see what changes it made and was convinced that I had cured the fault.
I had three to four months without a single problem and was dismayed that while I was driving one day that the fault had returned.
The fault does not occur that often now but when it does it is always at the same place on two or three different roads.
 
#8 ·
Well where do I start? simple really the Trafic is an absolute pile of ****, before buying mine I used to drive a Tranny and never, yes NEVER had one single thing go wrong apart from putting in a new battery.
Anyway back to my problems with this heap of scrap metal they call a Trafic 1.9 SL27 DCI 100, I have changed every bloody sensor on it and to add insult to injury I had to replace the bleeding Alternator today, the van has only done 54000 from new and is on an 06 plate and yet it still goes into "Limp Mode", I think it's spent more time off the road than on it, I'm going to trade it in for a new TRANSIT.
I will NEVER, NEVER, NEVER put my hard earned cash towards another Trafic, as I said previously they are a pile of ****E.
 
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