Surging Power

[Holmeslice]

Tonight, after a long 800 mile day, I was driving up a slight incline holding steady throttle at about 65mph and cold hear the van pulsing. I let off and it would go away. If I put my foot into it it would go away. But if I held steady it would pulse/surge. So I quickly started up my OBD Fusion app, and sure enough, the load was fluctuating up and down from approx 70% to around 90% every couple of seconds, and the boost pressure gauge was bouncing too. As the road levelled off the pulsing went away and didn’t come back, and the gauge dials remained steady for another half hour before I pulled in for the night. I’m many miles from home, have 400 more miles to go tomorrow, and - return trip starting Sunday eve. My van has only 2800 miles on it! I know I could get it warranty serviced, but I’m in Kansas - not big sprinter country here.

2020 144” Crew. Pulling small trailer with about 2500lbs gross weight (trailer and cargo).

I’ve done a quick forum search and see similar issues have happened to others but almost always with T1N vans. Any ideas for an almost brand new VS30?

Kenny

 

[RVBarry]

Hi, I have seen recent complaints about the Renntech tune at higher altitudes.
Are you running a tune?

 

[Holmeslice]

No tune. Drove it 250 miles today and no problems. No codes either. Intermittent stuff like this is the hardest to troubleshoot. I’ll report back if it reoccurs on my return trip this weekend.

 

[RVBarry]

Approximately what was the elevation (aka altitude) where it happened?

 

[Holmeslice]

Was just west of St. Louis, approx 500’ above sea level.

 

[Rocfox]

Hello!
I was about to post about the same kind of issue. I have a 2020 4x4 144 with 6500 miles on it.
A road trip ago, I noticed a slight intermittent loss of power that I would characterize as a hesitation or a surging, around 2-3k RPM or 50-60 MPH The RPM needle is visibly showing this as well. It happens when I'm gradually accelerating at all speeds. I doesn't do it if I pretty much floor it. I noticed on my last trip that this symptom has pretty much become constant and I'm very concerned of a total loss of power i.e. breaking down.
I've contacted several dealerships who either say they simply cannot help me because of all the recalls, or are booked weeks out just to take a look.
This is also my home so, I'm especially concerned to find a solution.

 

[Eric B]

@Rocfox what you're describing to me sounds like the 1750rpm blip others have reported which it seems like MAY be related to a dirty EGR valve..
What OP @Holmeslice described seemed like a much more rhythmic on/off/on/off/on kind of pulsation... Confirm ?

For example, here:

Hesitation during acceleration

I'm having a hiccupping issue with my van... it just hiccups during acceleration. Anyone else have this? Any remedies?

sprinter-source.com

And here:

1,750 RPM Hesitation with my 2019 VS30 3.0 Diesel

Anyone else notice a slight hiccup sometimes at 1,750 rpm when accelerating? Almost like the fuel is cut for just an instant? I have over 30,000 miles on it now but it has been doing it intermittently since it was new.

sprinter-source.com

I had it too on my 2019 4x4 w/ 32k miles... It happened only on gradual acceleration, usually when rolling on to the throttle after having coasted a bit, always at exactly 1750rpm, and never when flooring it to get up to speed from a standstill... and just when I thought it was getting worse / more frequent and I had scheduled a dealer visit to show it off, it magically stopped doing it ... so without the ability to demonstrate the problem I cancelled the service visit for now.

My van spends 5 days a week at 3000' elevation up in the Mojave desert with temps currently in excess of 100F fwiw... I've recently found myself using the manual downshift paddles to engine brake more often than in the past, and I'm wondering if maybe the slight extra rpms might have contributed to clearing out the EGR valve a bit which is why it seems to be bucking a lot less / almost not doing it at all anymore ?...

 

[Rocfox]

Hi! Thanks for responding! After building out my van from basically barely knowing how to use a drill to DIY fine carpentry, nothing about working on my van frightens me. However, I would expect more from a $65K vehicle and the company that built it. I'm grateful that we can all share our experiences and knowledge here on this forum. We got this!

 

[Rocfox]

Hi! I'm not 100% certain I fixed it. But it was hesitating earlier today, and I just test drove it for 15 min on the hwy and it was not doing it. I was videoing the RPM the whole time in case it did it.
Keeping my fingers crossed that I got it; and saved myself weeks of waiting for a dealership to look at it.
I couldn't have done it without all of your help and videos.
Thank you all so very much!
?

 

[Rocfox]

Hi! I'm not 100% certain I fixed it. But it was hesitating earlier today, and I just test drove it for 15 min on the hwy and it was not doing it. I was videoing the RPM the whole time in case it did it.
Keeping my fingers crossed that I got it; and saved myself weeks of waiting for a dealership to look at it.
I couldn't have done it without all of your help and videos.
Thank you all so very much!
?

I want to add that I'm going to order a pedal box and tune kit too.
If anyone has any suggestions or tgoughts on that I'd be thankful.

 

[Holmeslice]

My surging was while holding steady throttle going up a slight incline. It felt like the trailer I was pulling was intermittently tugging at the van. I don't remember seeing it on my tacho, but definitely saw it on my OBD Fusion app under my "Load" and "Boost Pressure" gauges - the needles were bouncing every couple of seconds. It went away and hasn't returned (and I've done two big trips since then). I'm going to say it was almost like some sort of electronic anti-sway or trailer assist kicking in - it was very rhythmic and consistent. Hope you get yours sorted