Frontera 2.2 dti coughing and smoking.

[V8Rik]

Looks like the problems have started already..... started it up tonight, ticked over no problems.

Pulled out of the drive and instant bucking bronco. Thick black smoke under throttle opening, bright blue oil smoke on throttle closing from the exhaust. No engine check light came on so no codes to read or tell about. Put your foot down and the engine dies completely and belches out blue smoke, give it a second and the power chimes in and off you go with a cloud of thick black smoke behind you ...... repeat until the next junction, then do it all again.

Disconnected the MAF and everything settled down, no power but nice smooth running. Reconnected it and the bronco returned but not as badly. Picked the grandkids up and gave it a good caning around the lanes up here, it's a lot better but it's not right by any means.

Have I bought another POS or is this a common fault with the 2.2 DTI engine.....HELP.
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[stretch]

Firstly does the eml come on briefly when you switch the ignition to position 2?

[V8Rik]

No EML light at all, absolutely nothing. If it had I'd have stuck my reader straight in and hopefully found the problem if the code had been saved......very odd as I've never had a diesel do this without throwing up codes.
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[V8Rik]

Just to add, the EML light comes on with the ignition then goes out as it should once it's been through its checks.....
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[stretch]

I had similar issue with my dti and it was vac pipes no code shown. Get then changes as first step.

[V8Rik]

Started it up this morning, starts first turn of the key and happily ticks over.....apply any kind of throttle and it starts hunting badly and the world is filled with a massive cloud of unburned diesel from the exhaust, bad enough to look like a battleship laying smoke. Mash the throttle and it gets even worse !!!!
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[stretch]

Yep I had the same do the vac pipes as easiest cheapest place to start

[V8Rik]

Pipes it is then.....time to stand in the rain for a while.
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[V8Rik]

Before I started ripping vac' pipes off, I stuck a can of "SeaFoam" in the fuel tank and let it tick over for ten minutes or so.

As we were pulling vac' pipes off and checking for vacuum, the engine note changed dramatically for the better. Gave it a rev and no hesitation, no smoke what so ever so I'm assuming it was a problematic injector that wasn't closing fully causing the smoke screen and washing the bore clean. Just given it a blast up the road for a few miles and it runs and pulls fine again.
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[stretch]

Could be but the fact you were playing with the vac pipes at the time might be related. Glad you got it sorted.

[V8Rik]

True.....it's stil got flat spot/hole in the power delivery at 4k, no smoke though.
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[V8Rik]

Back to hunting and belching unburned diesel out of the exhaust again this morning....ho hum.

New vacuum pipes ordered, delivery on Tuesday.

Removed and cleaned the EGR valve (just to be nosey), little bit of carbon build up but nothing that wouldn't clean off with a blast of carb cleaner.

There's a YouTube vid showing the exact same problem as mine's got, one of the suggestions is the TPS switch is goosed and/or the throttle body butterfly is gummed up. Quite used to working on big V6's and V8's, can i find the main butterfly and TPS.... can I hell, said there'd be a load of stupid questions.

https://youtu.be/ixwU8SJyddY

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[dave1966]

Maybe the inlet manifold could be needing cleaned.

[V8Rik]

Maybe Dave, it's only done 40k from new and the EGR valve wasn't that dirty when I checked and cleaned it a couple of days ago.

As I'm Still sitting and waiting for the new vacuum pipes to turn up (next day delivery, I think not), I've been emersing myself in YouTube videos on anything and everything to do with B series Fronteras..... including cleaning the manifold and throttle body.

It's an easy enough job pulling everything apart, soaking everything in oven cleaner, pressure cleaning it then nailing it back together, until it comes to the bit were you have to prime the frankly ridiculous injection pump. Not self bleeding, mustn't crank it on the starter or you'll kill it, no built in primer, special tools required etc etc Best I pop out and buy a Laser bleed bubble and lines, not had to use one of those for 30 years or more !!!

If the vaccum pipe replacement thing doesn't work, it's bucking, hunting and smoking it's way up the road to my good friends garage who's son runs a diesel tuning business for a thorough plug in check up. If no fault is found (which I very much doubt) then I'll look at other possible avenues to explore....

The thing was running fine until I started it up the other evening, there was no prior issue with the way it drove until then so this (whatever it is) is a complete failure of something that happened in an instant rather than a series of tell tale signs that something was amiss. What I'm not going to do is sling a load of money at parts that might, or might not need replacing....seen that stupidity far too many times.

So at the moment it's dead in the water round the back of the house, unloved and for the most part hated and ignored. Far to used to a Merc (were the pump does self bleed/prime) and Lexus reliability these days.....the chances of it managing a 3k hop to Bulgaria are I think, very limited indeed.

I've trawled this site to try and find something, anything that that would give me a pointer to what's wrong with the thing but no one seems to have had the same symptoms as mine, all I seem to read about is destroyed pumps and massive repair bills for the owners. Anyway, I'll sit and wait for these nice new black vacuum pipes to arrive sometime and then see what happens to it once i've fitted them......including taking the bash plates off to get to the ones on the front axle.
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[robbie]

I have fitted one of these

filters 002.JPG

in the engine bay. Makes life so much easier. Also replaced all rubber with silicone

[V8Rik]

Now there's a very good idea, no more silliness with bleeding the pump.....or grubbing around on the floor changing the fuel filter, then purging the system of air once again.
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[V8Rik]

After a couple of hours snipping and fitting nice new black silicon vacuum pipes, the result is.....it's now worse than it was before fitting the pipes.

Then to add insult to injury, the dash failed completely shortly after start up.

It's going into the garage next week to see what they can find. bleep off with it, you bet.
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[stretch]

Did you replace each pipe as you went along ie not remove them all at once? What do you mean the dash failed? The electrics? The clocks?

[V8Rik]

Yep, replaced each pipe as I went along, trimmed the new ones so they are the same length as the originals.....vacuum pump one is interesting to get at.

The dash, everything stopped working, even the odometer. Reading else where on the forum at dash problems, mine is now cured by turning on the side lights. Binnacle out and re-solder everything by the looks of it....or fit a diode as another member has so I don't need to run around with the side lights on.
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[V8Rik]

The billowing white smoke (unburnt diesel) from the exhaust has now stopped, all that's left is a badly pinking diesel engine, similar to a petrol engine with the ignition way too far
advanced and a sump oil level that's gradually rising.

The exhaust still reeks of unburnt diesel with the odd puff of blue smoke, but the acute miss fire is still present above fifteen hundred revs......broken/leaking injector perhaps ???

It's still off to the garage next week, just postulating at the moment.
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