Intermittent power loss on W169

[MrFog]

Hi all,

I have a A180 (W169, 2006 1992cc diesel automatic).

Recently I replaced an injector seal. Since then the car has an intermittent fault - it will be going fine, and then there is a sudden drop in power and white/grey smoke out of the exhaust. When I stop the engine and restart it's all fine again.

There are no warning lights.

I didn't clean the injector - could it need a new injector?

To get to the injector I removed the air filter, front of exhaust, fan and turbo. Could it be one of these that I have somehow damaged?

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[V6Matty]

That does sound like a leaking injector, but as the 169 is so tight in space it could be that something else was disturbed when taking everything off,

 

[MrFog]

Thanks for your response. How would I fix a leaking injector?

 

[mattkh]

Recently I replaced an injector seal.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

How carefully did you handle the injector..?
Did you by any chance take a photo of the injector..?

 

[ajlsl600]

You should be able to get it tested. Make sure all wiring is clean and secure a diagnostic session should locate a faulty injector.

 

[MrFog]

Thanks for all your replies. I really don't want to take it all apart again to get to the injector, so I've tried a couple of other things just in case....
It turns out the problem goes away when I drive the car with the mass airflow sensor disconnected.
I tried cleaning it, but no luck.
I've just ordered a second hand replacement MAF, so fingers crossed that will sort it ouit.

 

[MrFog]

UPDATE - the replacement MAF sensor wasn't the solution. But I now have more information....

Every time I start my mercedes W169 (A180 2006 2 litre diesel automatic) it works for almost exactly 5 minutes and then it loses power. It doesn't matter if it's being driven or just idling - it's like it's on a five minute timer. When I turn the key to turn off the engine and then turn it on again - it starts straight away and I have another 5 minutes of driving.

The loss of power is very similar to fuel starvation: the engine will rev when not in gear, and the car will move slowly when in gear and no throttle is applied, but once I put my foot on the accelerator the engine is erratic - it splutters, struggles to move, sometimes jumps forwards and then crawls along; white/grey smoke out of the exhaust.

This started happening after I replaced an injector seal following the "black death". To replace the injector seal I had to remove the air filter, front of exhaust, cooling fan, turbo. So I think I may have disturbed something...

Since then I have replaced the fuel filter, the MAF sensor, the O2 Lambada sensor, and disconncted the battery for 30 minutes.

I am occassionaly getting a P0299 error code (Turbo Underboost), and no other error codes.

This power loss doesn't happen when the MAF sensor is disconnected

The 5 minute timer and the MAF sensor disconnect leads me to think the ECU is checking something 5 minutes after starting the engine which it wont check if there is no MAF sensor.

Has anyone got any suggestions ?

 

[mattkh]

Please put up a picture of the ECU in your car, showing the location and cables going to it.

 

[MrFog]

UPDATE: I found the problem : me.
The air hose at the bottom of the turbo had come free. It looks like I didn't tighten up the hose clip when I put it all back together. I have reconnected the hose, tightened up the clip and it's like a new car.
Thanks to everyone who has offered advice

 

[ajlsl600]

Always helps to have a bit of boost....

 

[V6Matty]

UPDATE: I found the problem : me.
The air hose at the bottom of the turbo had come free. It looks like I didn't tighten up the hose clip when I put it all back together. I have reconnected the hose, tightened up the clip and it's like a new car.
Thanks to everyone who has offered advice

Post number two then

 

[mattkh]

UPDATE: I found the problem

Well done.
Sooooo the 5 minute thing could be akin to a choke ???