Intermittant winter turbo failure

I have a 04 Sprinter passenger van

I brought my hunting crew out to the woods on a perfect Vermont hunting day. They could not believe how well the Sprinter van handled on the Class 4 -unplowed roads. I told them it is not invincible but it does okay when the snow is cold. It snowed all day in the mountains we were in.

That evening the tractor would not start and we needed to move hay so the Sprinter was employed (via jumper cables) to boost the battery power on the tractor - reving at about 1500 rpm for 10 -15 minutes.

The next day on the way to church the Sprinter was behaving rather strangely. It was not shifting and needing to because there was not enough torque to go in the gear it was in. At first I thought "transmission" as we have 2 gone and another on its way out in the family fleet. But then I thought "wait - the turbo whine is gone..." We made it to church -rather slowly without further issue.

On the way home from church everything seemed to work normally. :

I am planning a 500 mile trip toward the end of this week for the holidays and I am wondering if I should be concerned about what seems to be an intermittant turbo problem?

I think I remember reading a thread a year or so ago about a similar issue related to driving in snowstorms.

Classic T1N off day symptoms: snow, rain, sunshine or any day with a "Y" in it.

Have a read here for a possible cause.

It could also be a leak in your vacuum circuit. An easy test to help establish this is to open the bonnet and check press the air recirculate button on the heater control panel - the flap in the blower air intake should open and close as you do so (easier with two people). The vac circuit is also used to control the turbo (see above link).

Could be worn turbo - what's the mileage? They don't last forever.

Could be a wiring fault: loom rubbing or crusty connector.

Could be EGR issue if US market vehicle - is there plenty of black smoke?

Boost charge pressure - hose leak or split

Can you get a plug in and read any stored codes?

The milage is about 65-70K
I did not notice any black smoke, however, I was focused on the top of the hill I was climbing - not the ground I had already covered.
I do not have a code reader. I feel an urge to buy a new tool:

I seem to remember people reporting similar intermittent symptoms with no codes that was traced to a small split in the turbo hose. It has also been said that the hose needs to be squeezed and deformed to show a small split. It may not be obvious. Might be worth looking. Hope this helps.

Full quiver said:

I have a 04 Sprinter passenger van




I think I remember reading a thread a year or so ago about a similar issue related to driving in snowstorms.

Click to expand...

You did.
It may be a long-shot, but check your air-cleaner to make sure it has not plugged with snow or snow-dust.
I had my air-cleaner box fill with snow dust last winter after driving behind trucks for a few hundred miles. The clogged filter caused the computer to shut down the turbo. For a while, the computer would reset after a half-hour stop; the turbo would work again until a high load was applied and a large imbalance developed between the pressure that was supposed to develop and the pressure that actually developed with the clog. Finally after the clog got worse, it would not reset after rest. Cleaning out the filter box and the filter solved the problem.