Fiat Ducato 2.8 JTD engine woes (loss of power)

[zzr1400tim]

Just returned from a week in Dorset. The red engine light decided to come on while away and the engine started to loose power and "misfire"
I gave the fuel a good dose of Redex cleaner (which seemed to help but maybe that was wishful thinking on my part?)
I managed to get the van back home yesterday and the engine ran fine until met with a hill then just started to fade. Sometimes it seems ok then it will go crap for a bit then come back to life.
It seems to me that the thing is only running on 3 cylinders
I am suspecting that maybe a fuel injector has gone bad although it could be any one of a number of things..
I need to get this sorted sooner rather than later before our main holiday to France end of August.
My problem is that the chap who used to service my vans has sadly passed away..

Can anyone recommend a trusted Fiat mechanic in the Birmingham / west midlands area?
(My van is a 2004 model)

thanks
Tim

 

[Canalsman]

I have had the same problem with a later Ducato.

The fault was fixed very easily. The wiring harness connection to one of the injectors was loose and making contact intermittently.

Try that first.

 

[maingate]

I have had the same problem with a later Ducato.

The fault was fixed very easily. The wiring harness connection to one of the injectors was loose and making contact intermittently.

Try that first.

Agreed, it was a fairly common problem of vans built around then. There should be info as to which injector it was. From memory it was due to the wiring harness being just a bit too short.

 

[campervanannie]

I had a similar problem with the same engine it turned out to be a clogged up waste gate actuator once cleaned it ran fine.

 

[zzr1400tim]

I have had the same problem with a later Ducato.

The fault was fixed very easily. The wiring harness connection to one of the injectors was loose and making contact intermittently.

Try that first.

I have cleaned all the wiring to the injectors.. number 4 was the faulty one. My mate interrogated the van with his plug-in computerized thingy and cleared all the fault codes
I have taken it out for a good run this afternoon and its running sweet on all 4 cylinders.
Plenty of power now
thanks to all for your help

 

[Canalsman]

I have cleaned all the wiring to the injectors.. number 4 was the faulty one. My mate interrogated the van with his plug-in computerized thingy and cleared all the fault codes
I have taken it out for a good run this afternoon and its running sweet on all 4 cylinders.
Plenty of power now
thanks to all for your help

You're most welcome. I'm glad it was an easy fix.

 

[gasgas]

That's brilliant. I have dumped a 2006 Volvo because of repeated computer faults and repeated expensive garage mis-diagnosis. Money down the drain. I have replaced it with a 1981 Mercedes with no electrics that Faraday would not understand. It has a starter motor, electric ignition ( as opposed to a glowing cigar in each cylinder), electric light bulbs and electric windscreen wipers. Windey-up windows, pull across sun roof, turn-a-key in the door locks, carburettor, mechanical fuel pump and mechanical water pump. What more could you want?

 

[zzr1400tim]

That's brilliant. I have dumped a 2006 Volvo because of repeated computer faults and repeated expensive garage mis-diagnosis. Money down the drain. I have replaced it with a 1981 Mercedes with no electrics that Faraday would not understand. It has a starter motor, electric ignition ( as opposed to a glowing cigar in each cylinder), electric light bulbs and electric windscreen wipers. Windey-up windows, pull across sun roof, turn-a-key in the door locks, carburettor, mechanical fuel pump and mechanical water pump. What more could you want?

there is something to be said for "old tech" much less to go wrong. I used to be able to do just about anything engine wise on my old cars. Nowadays I lift the bonnet and see a huge mass of engine and electronics. Still, I am able to top up the windscreen washer bottle so its not all bad..

 

[caledonia]

there is something to be said for "old tech" much less to go wrong. I used to be able to do just about anything engine wise on my old cars. Nowadays I lift the bonnet and see a huge mass of engine and electronics. Still, I am able to top up the windscreen washer bottle so its not all bad..

When you get down to it nothing has changed really. Your engine still goes, suck, squeeze, bang, blaw. First things to check is fuel and air and yours wasn’t getting fuel to one cylinder. It’s actually easier these days because a computer tells you where to look. I’ve been a HGV mechanic for over 30years and and all the wires and gubbins make the job a lot easier if you know what your doing

 

[Wooie1958]

When you get down to it nothing has changed really. Your engine still goes, suck, squeeze, bang, blaw. First things to check is fuel and air and yours wasn’t getting fuel to one cylinder. It’s actually easier these days because a computer tells you where to look. I’ve been a HGV mechanic for over 30years and and all the wires and gubbins make the job a lot easier if you know what your doing

I fully agree however, not a lot of people these days actually know what they are doing, they may know quite a bit in theory but in practice they know nowt

 

[gasgas]

My experience of garages is that they connect The Computer That Knows All and then they do what it says. Charge the customer say £400 - £600 for changing a bit as a starting gesture. Then think 'oh dear that didn't fix it but we're not going to refund the customer because we did what The Computer told us to'. Then they plug The Computer in again and it says the same thing. Now comes the difficult bit. They have to think. Oh dear, that involves a brain. Let's try changing this bit. Another £500. Oh gosh, surprise surprise now it works. That bit wasn't the bit the computer said was wrong. Still never mind, the customer will pay. All along it was a different bit that was the fault.
I have tried 6 local garages all of which failed me in one way or another, and then I tried another one out in the bundu somewhere nearby. I had tried to rectify a fault that my cheapo diagnoser said was the cam chain position sensor. It wasn't. I changed the sensor and the fault persisted. So just to try yet another garage I took it to this one on a farm and told him about it. He said "Oh I know these, it's not the cam chain position sensor, it is the hydraulic chain tensioner, which in turn changes the position of the camshaft. They get stuck". He unscrewed the tensioner, tapped it on the bench and a little rod popped out to where it should have been. He fitted a new one and it worked perfectly. So as he has more than one brain cell that is where I will be going in future. Except that my 41 year old car doesn't have any computers or chain position sensors to go wrong. . . . . . .
My new-ish motorhome does, though . . .

 

[maingate]

Back in the early days of computer diagnosis (1986) I was in charge of Maintenance of 3 factories in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. A car belonging to a Big Boss (a Toyota Cedric .... yes, I am not kidding lol) started to misbehave. They brought it over to the workshop, I took one look under the bonnet and suggested that if it went in to the big Toyota Dealership, their computer would diagnose the fault promptly. Off it went and a week later was returned in proper working order. A couple of hours later the Yank General Manager came flying over shouting and waving some pieces of paper. He was throwing a fit about the humungous invoice for the repair, they had changed almost everything electrical under the bonnet, including most of the harness. The car was still there so I opened the boot and there was a huge pile of everything they had changed.

It does not matter how clever the kit is if the operators are dummies.

 

[zzr1400tim]

When you get down to it nothing has changed really. Your engine still goes, suck, squeeze, bang, blaw. First things to check is fuel and air and yours wasn’t getting fuel to one cylinder. It’s actually easier these days because a computer tells you where to look. I’ve been a HGV mechanic for over 30years and and all the wires and gubbins make the job a lot easier if you know what your doing

sort of agree with you mate.. it makes life a bit easier for a proper mechanic (like yourself) but not many folks have a diagnostic plug-in thingy and most would not know how to understand the digital computer read-out codes anyway..
the days of the "home mechanic" are well and truly over
good old days .. fiddling about with points, distributers and carbs etc..
ah
them were the days
(I remember swapping a whole re-con (Blue Ribbon) Ford sierra 2L engine into my old car outside my house with a hired engine hoist back in the day after the original motor one popped its clogs)

it went really well for another 4 years too

 

[Pudsey Bear]

My experience of garages is that they connect The Computer That Knows All and then they do what it says.

Or they think it might be wrong so connect up the other three diags until they find one which makes sense, customer still pays.

 

[trevskoda]

What more could you want?

A skoda estelle.

 

[trevskoda]

sort of agree with you mate.. it makes life a bit easier for a proper mechanic (like yourself) but not many folks have a diagnostic plug-in thingy and most would not know how to understand the digital computer read-out codes anyway..
the days of the "home mechanic" are well and truly over
good old days .. fiddling about with points, distributers and carbs etc..
ah
them were the days
(I remember swapping a whole re-con (Blue Ribbon) Ford sierra 2L engine into my old car outside my house with a hired engine hoist back in the day after the original motor one popped its clogs)

it went really well for another 4 years too

Feck you are lucky i went through fore engins & 3 boxes diffs in my kit jeep, 40th miles was the best i could get out of a new gold seal engine, old iron wartime junk.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

A skoda estelle.View attachment 121989View attachment 121990

RAC/AA membership???

 

[ChrisInNotts]

there is something to be said for "old tech" much less to go wrong. I used to be able to do just about anything engine wise on my old cars. Nowadays I lift the bonnet and see a huge mass of engine and electronics. Still, I am able to top up the windscreen washer bottle so its not all bad..

For older Fiats such as yours you can pretty much do nearly everything free diagnostic software. I've used Multiecuscan for many years. It was very useful on our old Alfa but I've only rarely used it on our 2.3JTD van. All you need is a laptop and a diagnostic adapter. All is detailed below;

Multiecuscan - Diagnostics software for Italian cars

Its a bit of a steep learning curve to get used to modern (ish) diagnostics but worth the effort as it can save lots of money.

Keith

 

[gasgas]

.......

Its a bit of a steep learning curve to get used to modern (ish) diagnostics but worth the effort as it can save lots of money.

Keith

I have thought that it might even be cheaper to buy a flashy Snap-On £4500 diagnostic computer than to keep giving a vehicle to an incompetent garage. Then at least if you wrongly replace a £500 EGR valve, you know who to blame.




The Snap-On diagnoser designer . . .

 

[zzr1400tim]

A skoda estelle.View attachment 121989View attachment 121990

OH GOD.. not him again