I got a call from a mate today asking to borrow my Transit Connect. It turns out the one he bought a week ago has developed a fault. It's lost power to the extent that it's dangerous to drive. You put your foot down and there's not enough power to pull the cock of a chocolate mouse.
He took it to the local Ford dealer who plugged their diagnostic machine into it and declared the AFM sensor to be faulty and chraged him £50. He bought a new AFM and fitted it and the van was just the same. He took it back to the dealer and they declared that there were no faults logged and said the wastegate was seized in the turbo so a new turbo was needed.
He wanted to borrow my Connect to try swapping a few sensors to try to eliminate the alternatives before handing over £400 for a new turbo.
I poked my head under the bonnet and moved the wastegate by hand and it seems to move OK. I pulled the intake hose off the turbo and fiddled with the actuator and the wastegate flap moves OK. On my van, the actuator wiggles in and out when the engine is first started and again as you blip the throttle. The faulty vans doesn't. Theres a electicy type doofer on the thin pipe from the vacuum pipe to the actuator. Swapping this with mine didn't make any difference. Bridging the valve out so the little pipe bypassed it made the actuator activate so we know the vacuum is working.
The MIL light pings on for a second but then goes off. I'll interrogate the OBD2 tomorrow but is there any obvious known fault that these 1.8TDCI have? It's covered 75000 miles.
Cheers gang.

Check the rubber hoses to the intercooler(they are like rubber bellows with thin metal rings around them) these have a habbit of perishing or splitting and leaking all of the boost also the intercooler plastic ends are known to leak where it seals to the aluminium core.

These fault normally give you lots of black smoke...... but not always

Hope this helps

There's a boost presure sensor in the pipe to the intercooler. That goes faulty and gives the symptoms you describe. It's not far enough out of range to trigger a code thorugh so doesn't show up on EOBD. The output values are in AutoData CD if you have access. I can find the data for you tommorow if not.

I've checked the hoses and pipes and they look ok. There's no black smoke.
I'll check the pressure sensor on the boost pipe tomorrow.
Cheers guys.

throttle peddal knackered. Drive by wire, no cable.
It's happened to two of my mate's connects.££££ to fix.
They couldnt drive over 40 mph.

We have one of these shite vans at work and had a similar prob and it turned out to be the egr valve which was broke. The part was worth about 12p (a plain bearing about 1/4" in dia), but had to be bought with a new manifold. So about £400. Buying french next time. Well done Ford!

ATB

Simon

Looking throught the service file that came with the van, it's had a new EGR unit about 3 months ago and it looks shiney enough!
I'll try swapping the throttle pedal with the one out of my van.
Cheers again guys.

Had a quick looksy at the busted Connect today.
No faults on the ODB2.
Swapped the pedal assy.
Swapped the EGR flappy sensor thingy.
Swapped the temp sensor out of the intercooler pipe.
Swapped the cam sensor.
Still no difference.
As I was taking stuff off, I was refitting it to the other van to check it worked and then putting it back on the busted van.
Suggestions?

Biodiesel? My mondeo ran like a sack of poo after I filled it with that... Couldn't put my foot down further than about 1cm or go uphill without it cutting out.

On our van the, it was the actual mech that broke - it's difficult to describe but imagine a bush that rotates inside a housing and as it does so, winds out to open the valve. The bit that fails is the two "bearings" that allow the inner bit to rotate. It really is pathetic that something so small can cost so much to fix.

ATB

Simon

check the wires at the tdc sensor at the rear of the engine next to the gearbox they rub through and short out also check the fuel presure relife valve on the small common rail where the injector pipes conect to it opens and cuts fuel pressure fault on the transit aswell