Wastegate Actuator Stuck Open

[Ian]

Ian, where in essex is the garage? Nath

I don't know. Thye last communication I had with him was that he was now talking to Ian Taylor about trouble shooting.

[Ian]

This must be a fairly common problem. This morning I have had a Maidenhead based garage on the phone asking about a similar problem. It's a 2003 diesel, after the engine has warmed up, it loses power and the glowplug light starts flashing. I told them to look at this thread, so if there are any other ideas, please post them here.

[MX5Marc]

I don't know for certain, but this sounds very much like my garage in Essex, who have been trying to sort out the various issues on my Bongo since December.

The garage is LA Cars in Braintree - and I can't fault Lac (the owner) for all the hard work, and trouble he's gone to try and fix the thing.

Having had so much work done to it, the problem now seems to lie with the wastegate actuator - or at least, all symptoms point in that direction.

I'm very excited about seeing the new factsheet - so I'll go out this afternoon and see what I can do about it.

Does anyone have any pointers as to where I find the actuator on a 2000 diesel?

I'm currently driving it around, and really hoping to make it to a meet next weekend - but I'm not sure if driving it is advisable? Can anyone confirm?

Thanks

[stig444]

Has anyone been able to get to the bottom of this knotty problem yet as we are seriously thinking that we must get rid of our bongo which I love, because it is becoming dangerous to drive when joining major roads when there is just no power and the turbo doesn't kick in, especially since we are now towing our Gobur caravan.

This has been the situation for 1.5 years. We set off, no problem but as soon as the engine warms up and we have to slow for say a roundabout, the turbo whines and the glow plug starts flashing continually. We can fly along quite nicely on the straight and flat but as soon as we have to slow down, or hit a long incline, with foot flat to the floor there is no power. We have joined dual carriageways and most scarily motorways and the revs are up to 4000 and we can't get up to or over 30 which is really frightening. When we reach our destination and rest for a while, and then set off again, we have exactly the same scenario. Other than this our Bongo is a super drive but it's too risky to carry on like this. I would mention that this is the case whether we are towing or not.

Discount Trucks have been trying to sort this problem which they have with a few of their other customers, all owners of the new shape models, but no one seems to have the cure. We've read the various threads on here that we've found but so far haven't found the answer. Can anyone suggest what we can do since we want to be able to go off on our travels without worrying that we are a danger on the roads because of crawling along as soon as we hit any sort of incline. All advice will be appreciated, even if it's just to say there is no cure and get rid of it, although we really don't want to.

Thanks. In hope,
Barbara and Jonathan

[MX5Marc]

Hi Barbara and Jonathan,

Mine has been like it for over a year now - and I've had a lot of very expensive work done on it so far to try and cure the problem.
It's now back in the garage with the Wastegate Actuator factsheet, and hopefully that will help my mechanic find the problem.

Once I've heard from him and know a little more, I'll update the thread - and you never know, this may fix things once and for all!
I just hope it doesn't mean buying a new turbo!

[Simon Jones]

Anyone tried a squirt from can of freezer spray on the various sensors, valves and ECU? Often temperature related problems can be traced using this method.

[MX5Marc]

A quick update.

The water temperature sensor has been replaced, and still 'Beety' goes into limp mode.

I've tried moving the turbo actuator with a pair of pliers and found I can do so when cold, but not when the engine is hot.

Does this require a new actuator, or can it be lubricated in any way to prevent sticking?

Thanks

[Northern Bongolow]

as brian has said this turbo suffers from overheat/sticking very easily, the vanes in the turbo run very close to the internals so extra heat can affect them.
julian has made posts saying the same in the past.

i would take the actuator off the turbo while hot, leave the vac pipe on. and see if the actuator rod moves, if it does it means the vacuum system is fine, if nothing moves then there maybe a problem with a solenoid not letting vac through or shutting off to stop vac depending on which way round its piped up.
it is said that its temp related, has anyone got any idea at what temp the problem starts. could it be approx 50 deg c, if so i may have an idea .
if everything checks out with the actuator and vac supply then it maybe that the internals of the turbo are touching, has it been inspected for carbon build up, try a de-coke. industrial boilers suffer similar problems when the carbon builds up and heats up more than the surrounding metal boiler casing, this also insulates it from the cooling of the oil and water so the internals run hot and expand while the outside casing is cooler and more stable.
what oils are you using ??. i would try a good quality 5w40 or even 5w50 see if this helps. it maybe that if you increase the cooling of the turbo that things may improve, this model of diesel already has an improved cooler bolted on the side of the block, so they must have recognized poss problems during manufacture and improved this.
maybe even try and build a simple small rad water cooler mounted near the front rad to help cool just the turbo.

[oibaf]

it should move quite easily frank, the manual gives details as follows.
put in adjustable air supply, remove pipe from bottom end of turbo, (starting low) to a max of 112-121 kpa, (just over 1 bar) actuator rod should move. do not over pressure as it will damage diaphragm.

i wouldnt spin it though as it may be fastened to the diaphragm with a screw/nut, not sure, although it may be a circlip.

http://lushprojects.com/bongopartsmk2/c ... mgno=.html

Massive thread resurrection here folks, apologies if that is frowned upon.

I can't move my actuator rod/arm using a pliers, it's fairly stiff. Doesn't seem to be a problem with the turbo but just a bit of curiosity on my part with me trying to trace what I thought was the sound of an exhaust manifold leak (however, manifold replaced, gasket replaced...sound remains so maybe it's normal).