Sluggish acceleration, changed MAF with little improvement

[fattail95]

I am located in Rye, East Sussex, but am willing to travel for some help in resolving the issue!

I've noticed, that this plastic device (not sure what it is?) pictured below is very oily and damp on the bottom, and there is a black pool of fluid sitting below it on the head of the engine (maybe a few ml's worth, looks like oil?)



Could this be related?

Again, the issue is that if I go half throttle, audibly let the turbo spin up, and then go full throttle, it pulls perfectly. But if I jump straight on the throttle quickly, theres no torque or power at all.

Many thanks

[madmadmax]

that would be the air doser it closes and the egr opens to encourage egr gases to flow the fact it has oil around it nothing to be bothered about

thats the most intreging about having to let the turbo spool up then mat it and its fine have you tryed giving it an Italian tune up?

[fattail95]

Yes I have - its not been babied throughout its life so that's unlikely to be the issue. Could it be something to do with one of the electrovalves mounted on the firewall? Vacuum is good - after pumping the pedal until firm it soon gets sucked back down after a few seconds. When this is occurring, you can hear the turbo spool down - as if the wastegate is opening early?

[fattail95]

I believe its the central EV that controls the wastegate on the turbo? How would I check its functionality?

[madmadmax]

of the wast gate or the elector valve

for the wast gate you would need a vac pump

for the ev then you would need a diffrent ev best thing to do it to swap one of the 3 with the turbo ev and see if the fault moves

[fattail95]

I may be wrong, but I was under the impression that the central EV was different to the other two, and as such not interchangeable? Or are they all the same?

Thanks

[madmadmax]

the central one is diffrent but that should have pipes with a blue tag fitted that go to the egr valve, the turbo is gray tags so swap the two at opposite ends as they have matching part numbers

[fattail95]

Might be me being dopey, but I don't really understand what you mean? Which two valves do I swap?

[gumby6371]

When I was faffing about with the bulkhead electrovalves on mine the vac pipes were quite tight when trying to remove them and the back ones are dificult to get a decent grip on in situ. I unbolted 2 of them (might be even easier to access if you unbolt the mounting plate first, 2 *10mm nuts). Be careful not to lose the nuts as 1 of mine fell down the back of the engine bay never to be seen again, it took me ages to find one in the shed the same size and pitch!
Then to avoid getting confused I swapped the pipes and cables one at a time, this avoids having to label or remember anything as you only ever have 2 things disconnected at a time.... unpug connector A then connector B, swap over and plug in, then undo front pipe A and front pipe B...etc.....

This may appear to be a lesson in egg sucking for an elderly female relative to some but over the years I have often taken things apart and thought 'I know exactly where that goes, it's blindingly obvious' only to be called away in the middle of the job, go back later and think 'oh tits they both look identical'.
Labelling/colour coding helps if there are lots of things to undo but in this case just swapping like for like is the quickest and simplest option.

I would also suggest you get yourself some more vac pipe and swap the existing stuff while your at it, it's not expensive from your motor factors and it eliminates dodgy pipes from the list of possibilities. You only need to change the soft rubber stuff and not the hard plastic type stuff as this is the restrictor pipe (assuming it is similar to the 2.2). The pipe from the EV to the turbo requires either the car in the air to access the turbo end or someone with arms like Mr Tickle to reach down the back of the engine.

[fattail95]

I'll take a look at the electrovalves today.

Another thought - could it be a lazy/sticky wastegate actuator? After doing some research, it seems to produce identical symptoms... How would I check its functionality?

[gumby6371]

Thinking about this logically if the wastegate is stuck slightly open you would be unable to build boost but may feel some boost at higher RPM's purely due to the wastegate not leaking all the pressure as the turbo reached maximum RPM's.

Not sure how you'd get the best view but you need to inspect the actuator for alignment/damage and watch the actuator rod while someone revs the engine and check for smooth linear movement.

Of course while you're at it it wouldn't hurt to check the intercooler pipe for splits and ensure its seated properly on the turbo.

[fattail95]

It's interesting that you said that actually, because when this happens (i.e. if I get directly on the throttle), it is sluggish and wont build boost until ~2800rpm, then a wave of torque arrives and it goes relatively well (still not 100% though). The thing is, this issue is not consistent, so again that may potentially point to the wastegate sticking?

Where is the actuator in the engine bay?

Many thanks

[gumby6371]

The turbo is buried down the back of the engine on the drivers side, if you look at the left hand electrovalve you'll see the actuator vac pipe, follow that and it will lead straight to the actuator.
Removing the plastic air pipe and the EGR gubbins should make it visible from above assuming the 2 litre layout is similar to my 2.2.

Don't forget you'll need some high temp liquid gasket when refitting the EGR if you end up removing it.

[fattail95]

I'm going to see a friend at Rye Performance and Motorsport tomorrow, and hopefully we can figure out what the issues are. Any suggestions for further checks I can perform to find out the cause?

[fattail95]

Just had the Pug on the diagnostics again, the ECU reported duff MAF (and IAT) sensor, so the unit I purchased off ebay is a pile of sh*t. New siemens one on order, going to collect it from eurocarparts today! Hopefully thats the source of my issues?