Poorly Picasso

[CarlosV8]

Hi all

I have just bought myself a 2002 Picasso 2.0 HDi for a cheap family runabout and am having a couple of issues. On test driving the car it felt a bit sluggish, but I just assumed it was because I wasn't use to driving an under-powered MPV! Well I bought the car last week, and after having a proper drive it's definitely lost some of it's 90 horsies! It takes forever to accelerate up to the NSL and struggles to maintain speed on the motorway.

On top of this it keeps losing all power, along with illuminating the engine management light on the dash. This has always happened in 5th when under load (ie sustained acceleration or foot to the floor going uphill), but could just be a coincidence as that's what 80% of the driving has been so far. It lasts for about 10 seconds, and the car slows down, then all of a sudden it's fine and we (slowly) accelerate back up to speed. The engine light then stays on until the car has been restarted 3 or 4 times.

Apart from this the car runs great - decent fuel economy (53 mpg so far), no smoke at all and no nasty noises. After doing a bit of research on the issues i tried the following this weekend:

1. Tightened throttle cable (by 2 notches as it was slack)
2. Checked air filter - near enough new
3. Check brake light switch - seems fine
4. Cleaned MAF
5. Disconnected EGR solenoid by plugging the vac pipe on the bottom solenoid.

The result of this was a slight improvement at low revs but still gutless at higher revs. The turbo seems to cut in initially, but then just fades away leaving you with a total lack of power. Couldnt hear or feel any boost leaks, but I'll get under the car to check the pipes properly sometime this week.

Could anyone help shed any light on the matter? I'm tempted to get a new MAF from GSF to try as these seems to cause similar problems although doesn't normally bring on the engine light?

Also what does the second vacuum solenoid do on the drivers side inner wing? I assume I've plugged the right pipe on the lower one to disable the EGR, but curious to know what the other does.

Any help would be appreciated!!

Thanks

Carl

[RichardW]

It's most likely the MAF. See my thread here: Picasso MAF

I bought a cheap one - it's not perfect, there is a tendency to stall at low revs if you load it up, but it's bucket loads better than it was on the old one! Wheeler explains in the thread what the two vac solenoids are for.

[CarlosV8]

Ahhh, thanks for that. I'll leave the upper vac solenoid as it is then as it's not doing any harm.

I think I'll just order a MAF and give it a try. Will also get the fault codes read to check what they are.