D2 running issues - advice wanted

[faffi]

Taking off without the use of the throttle seems to confuse the car - it will sometimes add more throttle on its own than you would get by adding a little throttle yourself. So by using a little throttle every time I take off and use first gear as long as rpm in that gear is below 1900-2000, the engine seems to give very few issues - at least compared to what it used to be. And if it does jump a little, I can get it to run evenly simply by giving it a lot of throttle. And since nothing much happens the first second, you will not accelerate before the engine smooths out and you can ease off the throttle again.

[faffi]

Oh, forgot to mention that all this have been made possible by the last upgrade(s). Earlier, the car would become spastic if I drove it this hard.

[colinstone]

faffi - how is your car going? Read through your tale of woe and does not bode well. Just ordered a V50 D2 Drive and would not be happy revving the nuts off it just to move around. My Golf quite happily idles around town in 5th gear at 28mph!!
I suppose one issue that might be confusing the ECU is the fuel injection when at around 1200rpm. On several cars, inc VW, fuel is shut when on the overrun above 1200 rpm. Below 1200rpm the engine tries to idle.

[Clan]

These problems have gone now since the latest software and bulletins in January . New ones will be ok ...

[faffi]

The engine sometimes stutter 4-5 times in rapid succession, even in higher gears and higher rpm, but they pass quickly. Engine is still upset from time to time when turning less than 1300 rpm, but compared to before it's nothing. The tendency to self-throttle, when I get 2000+ rpm instead of about 1200, also happen far less than before. So the latest update definitely have helped, but the engine doesn't run perfect like a petrol. It will be my last diesel, definitely. However, the engine now runs well enough on a daily basis that I do not work myself up over it - I can now enjoy the overall comfort of the car.

[colinstone]

faffi - Thanks and it still does not fill me confidence that a Volvo V50 is going to give me the reliability that I have enjoyed in Golfs since 1986. One of the outstanding diesel charcteristics is low down torque so that one can trickle around at idle in any gear - even going up steep ferry ramps is not a problem in 1st gear at idle with no throttle.

[MacV50]

Originally Posted by colinstone

faffi - Thanks and it still does not fill me confidence that a Volvo V50 is going to give me the reliability that I have enjoyed in Golfs since 1986. One of the outstanding diesel charcteristics is low down torque so that one can trickle around at idle in any gear - even going up steep ferry ramps is not a problem in 1st gear at idle with no throttle.

You must be lucky as my A4 TDI 130 was gutless until the turbo spooled up. Modern diesels are far more driveable than diesels from even 5 years ago.

I did find the D2 I test drove a little harder off the line than my Fiesta but I put that down to a different clutch because by the end of the test drive it was fine.

[faffi]

The old 1.6D definitely pulls stronger from idle to around 1600 rpm, where it feels more like a normally aspirated petrol engine. The D2 is pretty weak below 1500 rpm. But the most annoying feature is the power limitation in 1st gear in particular and to some degree in 2nd gear. The lack of power is blatant when trying to take advantage of a gap in traffic from a standstill. The 95 hp version of the D2 engine used in the Focus is much quicker up to 30-40 mph, but gutless at higher speeds. Passing power in 3rd and 4th gear is good in the D2, luckily enough.

[faffi]

I had the car in for its annual service November 1 and they also upgraded the SW for the engine. Although not running perfectly, it was running very well with nary a hint of rough running at low rpm. And the clutch worked consitently, none of the engine falling on its face regardless of how gently you let the clutch engage. There were noticeably less power around idle, however, and I killed the engine many times as it's basically not possible to take off even in 1st gear without any throttle now, let alone 2nd gear.

So I was pretty happy after picking the car up, and it was good all evening, riding around and in town. It's never been better during the 20k miles I've had it (since new).

However, starting the engine this morning idle speed was very erratic, engine almost stalling before picking itself up again. It ran horribly. I will admit that although disappointed - it's never been like this before, ever - I weren't surprised. There is a reason I have to try hard not to downright hate the thing.

Anyway, since temps where 5C outside, just where the car may or may not decide to run the engine heater, I thought I'd see how it would run as it warmed up. And it didnæt run well. I even got the arrow telling me to shift down when the car wasn't even in gear! I guess it was because the car was still rolling and the rpm bounced all over the place, falling under 600 rpm and jumping above 900 repeatedly. This was with the temp up to normal.

Then, all of a sudden, everything returned to nigh on perfect - at least as perfect as I hope this thing can become - and stayed like that for the rest of the day. Another cold start didn't faze it, either.

Will be interesting to see over the next weeks. If it actually will be running good from now on, I will do something about the horrible suspension and keep the car for many years. If the erratic running comes back, I'm going to replace it with a Jaguar XJ cirka 2002. It may not be a better car, but at least it will be lousy in comfort.

Sorry for another long-winded post.

[faffi]

Tomorrow, the car will be exchanged for a Skoda Superb and I will admit to never having been happier to see a car go - it has been a let-down from day one.

However, here is the final report on the running issues. I chose a new garage for its 60K km service and they discovered that there were errors in the adaption. Yes, I thought, maybe they can finally fix the stumbles and cut-outs and erratic running this darned thing has suffered from new!

So they diagnosed it to be a faulty #3 injector as well as being too much slack in the drive train. The injector was replaced under extended warranty. After the replacement, the car would shudder intensely when accelerating from 13-1400 rpm in 6th gear. It felt like a wheel being way off-center and bouncing along. No sounds, just the crazy shudder.

The garage said it was the DMF and replaced that also under warranty. To no avail. Well, the garage said the car was now perfect and refused to come for a drive and let me demonstrate.The two mechanics were great, but their leader wouldn't know what customer service is if it hit him on the head. I told him thank you for telling me to never use the shop again. Just to make things perfect, they had by now been bought by the shop I first bought the car from, meaning Volvo owners no have only one option in town.

The car stumbles and stutters, especially when cold and under re-gen, as always, although there are no fault codes. The slack in the drive train is unchanged. So the only thing that's come out of the repair is that the fault codes are gone and I have a new vibration in 6th, and to a lesser degree 5th gear that never was there before. My guess is that the injector broke down recently and caused a greater variety of how the car acted/changed on a daily basis, but it clearly wasn't the culprit from new.

In sum, this car was my last diesel, my last car from the shop (they sell Ford and Mazda also) and my last modern Volvo (I still have wet dreams about a modernized PV544, though).

Yes, I know I probably sound like a customer from hell, one looking for things to complain about. Yet everybody who have driven my car or been a passenger has commented on the running issues.