V220cdi - Cam Crank angle sensor - low rail pressure - auto box ecu problem
Hi - I thought this might help somebody somewhere and save them a small fortunre.
I have a V220 cdi auto with 220k on the clock. Yep 220K miles and still as strong as an ox.
However, on the motorway it was difficult to get it to change from 3rd into 4th. It selected 4th once you knocked it into nuetral and then back into drive but otherwise it wouldnt change. When I had been driving it lightly it seemed ok but press on a bit or brake too hard and then the problem occurred and then remained for the rest of the journey. I had the gearbox fluid changed (or as much of it changed as they could drain out (it keeps about 40% of it in the torque converter) as I thought it was low but its all ok.
It sounded to me like an electrical problem with a sensor not sensing it needs to change to 4th or a prlem with the auto box ecu.
I had stephens engineering run a diagnostic for me which cam up with crank to cam angle sensor as a fault and low rail pressure. I spent a few hours on this site reading quite a few helpful blogs. I was worried that I needed new injectors or there was a fuel leak from them or the return. I also thought about changing the cam sensor but at £50 do it really need replacing? COstly if it didnt!
None of these were going to be a cheap repair so the diagnosis needed to be accurate. The injectors had been replaced just before I bought it 6 months ago with merc genuine injectors so was getting worried at this stage that something big was going down. With 220K on the clock was this going to be a big bill. The engine was sratring and running really well with only a bit of smoke.
Anyway - to cut to the chase - I read a blog on here which mentioned the Vito and V-class diesels were prone to the inlet manifold getting clogged with a tar like liquid which caused all sorts of problems. I decided to have a look and took my inlet cover off (the black cover on the top of the engine) and low and behold it was disgusting. So was the air recirculating valve. Completely coked up with black tar. After much scraping and decoking with a paint brush and petrol I got both as clean as new and also discovered 2 pipes coming off the inlet manifold to be blocked up with the same crappy tar. These went off to electrical boxes (sensors for something or other).
Someone had also previously replaced the gasket for the air recirc valve with a blanking plate. I suspect this was either due to high emissions (to reduce them for it to get through an MOT) or because the air recirc valve was thought to be fauly.
Anyway - I chucked this away and with a bit of instant gasket re-instated everything.
The result was quite alarming. The whole job took about 3 hrs and all I needed was a few torx sockets, a screwdriver, paint brush and petrol.
I now have about 5% more power. Fuel economy is up, the gearbox is as smooth as silk, the kick down works as it should and it now changes into 4th all the time. Its also smoother changing down on engine breaking and there is no sign of any smoke from the exhaust.
I returned to stephens engineering and they plugged the car back in to the computer and, guess what, no faults found.
They reckoned, with the sensor pipes blocked, this was giving the wrong rail pressure signals and with the air recirc valve coked up and blanked off the emission readings would have been wrong. All this would have told the ecu that the engine was doing things differently to what it was and thus instructing the gearbox to change at the worng times or not at all.
So please do not go spending £50 on sensors or £300 on injectors if you are getting fault codes as there are so many reasons why things can be giving off wrong signals. It might ultimately be a big repair bill but please start with the easy bits that you can do at home.
I could have quite easlily replaced the gearbox, gearbox ecu, cam sensor, injectors.....christ knows what else when all it was was 3 hrs of cleaning the top of the engine.
Sorry for the boring blog but am hoping it will help someone with the same probs with engine code faults, auto gearbox problems, low rail pressure fault codes or cam to crank angle sensor fault codes.
It might just be worth a try before spending lots of money.......
I like the "pimp my vito" blog by the way. Some good pics.
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