Help - 1200 miles from home

grapegrower

New member
We've been on a long road trip from Oklahoma to Calgary to Vancouver and are on the way home in Idaho. The problem I'm having is with turbo boost.

Symptoms: Under load (going uphill) it acts like an old carburetor engine that surges. I've read the turbo boost while driving with the scan gauge and the boost goes on and off (sycronous with the surge). Turbo boost pressure will be from 16 to 17 then drop to 11 then go back to 16 or 17. About every 5 seconds. Seems to run good on the level or downhill. Yesterday, I lost nearly all power for about 10 to 20 miles. Scan gauge showed no boost. Made it to the next town. Switched off the engine. Restarted and van ran fine except for the surging problem. Have gone another hundred miles without the no power symptom.

I see no oil on any of the hoses around the turbo.

Any suggestions from one of you guys, please?
Won't be able to check responses until the next free wifi - Thanks in advance.
 

sailquik

Well-known member
grapegrower,
Check all your turbo hoses and your turbo resonator.
Change your Scan Gauge II to MAP rather than boost.....MAP is what your engine uses to adjust boost/fuel ratio.
Are you downshifting when you see the % engine LOAD (LOD on your Scan Gauge II) increase beyond 75-80%?
If not, perhaps by keeping the % LOD below 80% you won't load it enough to surge or go into LHM.
If it does throw a code and go into LHM you don't need to drive it that way for 100's of miles. Just stop, where and when it's
safe, shift to park, shut the engine off, wait about 30 seconds, restart the engine and you should be back at full power.
The symptoms sound like a turbo hose or turbo resonator leak to me.
Hope this helps,
Roger
 

220629

Well-known member
Your symptoms sound very similar to other problems which have traced to charge air system leaks. Split turbo hoses, and (maybe a bit less likely here because you said you have already inpected) the turbo resonator are often the cause.

...

I see no oil on any of the hoses around the turbo.
... Thanks in advance.
You may need to more carefully inspect for a leak. Hose splits are notoriously difficult to find. Closely inspect all the hoses. If a hose split is found then a tire patch ON THE OUTSIDE, or even some duct tape, followed by some hose clamps or wrapped wire will work as a temporary fix. A recent thread here indicated that a couple angled sheet metal screws will work to hold the turbo resonator seam together as a temporary fix, or you may luck out find the Dorman turbo resonator in a parts store on a Sunday.

Good luck.

vic

Edit: What Roger said. I type slowly.
 
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grapegrower

New member
Thank you, Sailquik. I've been downshifting up the steeper inclines and trying to keep the rpms above 2K and the engine load down, but it's nearly always above 80 percent even in 3rd. Was going only 40 mph uphill and being passed by other Sprinter Navions which I know are heavier and they seemed to be doing fine, so I've decided it's not altitude or the inclines, but my turbo boost. I'm afraid it will be raining all day today and I'm not much good at side of the road repairs. Will drive on as soon as it's daylight and hope to limp home where I can look at it under better conditions. Thanks again for the help. I'll try to keep everyone posted on my journey. Oh, will add the MAp boost to the scan gauge. Nice to know that the engine off / engine on trip will work for a while.
 

grapegrower

New member
Thanks to Aqua Puttana as well. Your post came in while I was reading Sailquiks and responding. Do you guys sleep? I didn't figure I would get any response until later this p.m.
if at all. Well, I'm encouraged to know that I will be able to limp along for awhile. On to Jackson Hole and then home via Cheyenne, Denver, Salina, OKC. It's been a good trip. Just over three weeks now in a used Sprinter with no problems except for this boost issue. Bought it about last March or April and have been converting the inside to a camper. Decided to leave with it unfinished before winter set in up North. Never been to Canada before. Love the Tim Horton's. Not only for the coffee and food, but they let us park in their lots overnight, just like Walmart here at home. And not all, but just like Walmart, some do, some don't. We've tryed to stay two nights in the van and then the third night in a motel. (No shower or running water yet in the van) Thanks again guys, my mind is more at ease.
 

T1nFan

New member
I also had similar symptoms and it turned out to be the charge air hose right before the intake manifold. Just a small split so it held lowere pressure but under heavy load the split would let go and you felt the loss of power. I found the split only because there was an oil spot surrounding the problem area. I wraped the hose with a cut up soda can, duct tape and then some wire ties and the symptoms went away, ordered a new charge air hose from Europarts-SD spent 20 minutes to install and the van is back to normal.
Hope this helps,
Dan
 

grapegrower

New member
My heartfelt thanks to all of you. We made it home about 2 hours ago. From Craters of the Moon where I first felt the problem we limped on to Jackson, Wy. by stopping in populated areas and turning off the engine. It would run great for awhile then start surging and then have very little power. We spent the better part of the day at Jackson and I decided that we would try for home. It rained on us all the way to Rock Springs and the Interstate. From Rock Springs to Cheyenne there was very little pulsing and I was able to run 70 all the way. Missed your posts about Denver and repair shops because for some reason my tablet would not access some of the free wifi spots - don't know why. Anyway trouble started again from Cheyenne to Denver. Top speed up a hill was 50 to 60 mph. I was pretty sure we were going to make it so we took the 235 cutoff around Denver and spent the night in the Walmart parking lot at Colby Kansas. This morning was about the same, but my gut feeling was that we were going to make it. The pulsing and loss of power and the subsequent stops and restarts was an annoyance, but we have AAA and I was prepared to rent a UHaul truck and car trailer and haul it home. Fortunately, I didn't have to do so. Checked the oil this morning and topped it up. I found some oil on the resonator hose which hadn't been there when I first checked in Idaho. Average mpg dropped from 22.5 before the trouble to about 17. Tomorrow I'm going to crawl under it and see what I can find. Will let you all know in a couple of days. It's nice to be home and have a computer with a keyboard.
 

fdhamlin

New member
Sounds familiar. When my resonator failed, the first thing I noticed was a loss of fuel economy.
Then oil on the hoses around the resonator. 125000 miles +/- and in Mexico to boot.

We tried to repair the separated seam in the 2-part plastic resonator with JB Weld but it wouldn't stand up to the heat. A couple of hose clamps held it together 'til we got home.

I think it may have been due to over fueling. Due the MAF is seeing more air than is getting to the engine. If so, you may be looking for an air leak between the turbo & the intake manifold.

I went with the resonator eliminator. That's where I went.


Fred
 

grapegrower

New member
Replaced the turbo resonator today. It had separated where the two parts are joined. All is well now. No more pulsing. Plenty of acceleration and no more losing power uphill. Thanks again to all. See photo.
turbo.jpg
 

surlyoldbill

Well-known member
Thank you for spelling "losing" correctly.

Anyone who hasn't already replaced their stock resonator should do it NOW.
 

grapegrower

New member
I agree with Surly. It turns out to be about a 1.5 hr job for a fumbling diy mechanic. Having done it now, I'm pretty sure I could take one out and put in a new one in less than half that time. Tools needed are a long flat blade screwdriver for the hose clamps and a 1/4 inch combination wrench for the mounting bolts. (I went through all of my metric wrenches and didn't have the size to fit - it's probably 5 or 6 mm). Oh, and for my tired old eyes, I needed a flashlight to see where the bolts are located. Access bolts from under the vehicle - hose clamps from above.
 

220629

Well-known member
... Tools needed are a long flat blade screwdriver for the hose clamps and a 1/4 inch combination wrench for the mounting bolts. (I went through all of my metric wrenches and didn't have the size to fit - it's probably 5 or 6 mm). ...
Not that anyone asked...

The fasteners are E-torx External Torx type. The 1/4" box wrench is a cheat for fitting the fasteners, but it works just fine. The 1/4" cheat wrench has the advantage of more movement choices when out of swinging room. It needs to be a 12 point 1/4" box wrench. A six point will not fit.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/p/...google&utm_campaign=gpla&utm_content=25961221

As has been mentioned, it isn't a bad job at all on a nice sunny day. Doing it under the van in a slushy cold parking lot would add color to your story about the experience if you're looking to add drama.

The bolts on my TR were so tight that I needed to add another box wrench over the end of the short 1/4" wrench as a torque increaser. That worked great. The two wrench combo is shown in this picture.

AlternatorTools.jpg

vic
 
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