My car is a 2001 CDI270. For who have one, I would like to share with you my experience on the low power problem. Before going into details you need to know that I always had a rattling noise from the exhaust. Once the exhaust was replaced (80k km) but shortly after the rattling noise reapeared and I decided to live with the noise because it was only intermittent present at idle. Now the car has
150k km.
It started , as usual , that the engine would loose power when cruising on the motorway. I did all what needed to be done i.e. replace the air mass sensor, change the air filter etc. However the problem continued. The only thing which helped was to stop the engine and restart. Than I started to have a 'hissing' noise coming from the rear when accelerating, mainly when going uphill. Checked for air and fuel line leaks, nothing found.
And the low power problem got worst. It happened now also at low speed. I just needed to go a bit uphill and promply there was the power loss. Each time the only way to continue to drive was stop and restart.
All this made me thinking that the problem might be not on the intake side of the engine but at the exhaust. The rattle from the exhaust comes from the exhaust filter which is installed in the small exhaust pot in the middle of the exh. system. This gets loose and causes the rattle. I decided to cut the exhaust open and sure enough, the exhaust filter was completely loose in the pot. The filter has the shape of a approx. 4 inch diam ball and made of some very light fiber material. The filter itself looked very clean, almost like new but there were several round marks with the diameter of the exhaust pipe. You are already guessing what happened. The filter ball was floating around in the pot and ocasionally blocked off the the exhaust outlet causing restriction to the exhaust gas flow (and the hissing noise). Therefore when stopping the engine, the ball would drop down and the engine would run for a while until the next time the ball would get again in the way of the exhaust gas flow. So I decided to throw away that filter ball and welded the pot together again. Now the car goes like a rocket and no more exhaust rattle.
What I still wonder is how that filter ball was,if ever, fixed in the exhaust pot. I did not find any support or other devices which would hold the ball in place. Anybody knows ?
Well, this is a long story and I hope it will be of help.
150k km.
It started , as usual , that the engine would loose power when cruising on the motorway. I did all what needed to be done i.e. replace the air mass sensor, change the air filter etc. However the problem continued. The only thing which helped was to stop the engine and restart. Than I started to have a 'hissing' noise coming from the rear when accelerating, mainly when going uphill. Checked for air and fuel line leaks, nothing found.
And the low power problem got worst. It happened now also at low speed. I just needed to go a bit uphill and promply there was the power loss. Each time the only way to continue to drive was stop and restart.
All this made me thinking that the problem might be not on the intake side of the engine but at the exhaust. The rattle from the exhaust comes from the exhaust filter which is installed in the small exhaust pot in the middle of the exh. system. This gets loose and causes the rattle. I decided to cut the exhaust open and sure enough, the exhaust filter was completely loose in the pot. The filter has the shape of a approx. 4 inch diam ball and made of some very light fiber material. The filter itself looked very clean, almost like new but there were several round marks with the diameter of the exhaust pipe. You are already guessing what happened. The filter ball was floating around in the pot and ocasionally blocked off the the exhaust outlet causing restriction to the exhaust gas flow (and the hissing noise). Therefore when stopping the engine, the ball would drop down and the engine would run for a while until the next time the ball would get again in the way of the exhaust gas flow. So I decided to throw away that filter ball and welded the pot together again. Now the car goes like a rocket and no more exhaust rattle.
What I still wonder is how that filter ball was,if ever, fixed in the exhaust pot. I did not find any support or other devices which would hold the ball in place. Anybody knows ?
Well, this is a long story and I hope it will be of help.
