Wife keeps complaining about the car (Toyota Verso D4D) having a flat spot. Says she’ll be driving at 70, back off a bit, then go to accelerate again but it has no power. Has to change down or come off the gas & back on again to get it to clear. Also accelerating hard creates a bit of smoke. Cant say I’ve really noticed before mind though.
Is worrying as were off to Cornwall in the thing on Wed.

Just wondering how a blown turbo will manifest itself ?
Also, looks like a service might have been missed before we bought it. Schedule calls for replacement of Fuel filter, could this cause it ?
Has just had a service but it was just an interim one. (Oil + filter basically)

PT

Get the ECU read by a local garage to see if there are any faults logged. If the turbo is blown then you would have no power all the time and not just at 70miles an hour. Could be a load of things, air flow meter, air temp sensor, EGR valve, air filter, fuel filter, I could keep going…

Your based in the Midlands arent you…? Any where near Halesowen?

I thought i’d blown the turbo as it wasn’t working at all. Turned out to be a faulty sensor on the back of the turbo which was telling the ecu it was working fine.

I blew a turbo on an Avensis 2.2 D4D
It all of a sudden had very little acceleration & it sounded like the waste gate on a spotty yoofs Saxo

It happened leaving a toll booth on the A1 Autoroute near Paris 😀

Ditto check ECU fault log, sensors etc.

When turbos fail you tend to know about it – the turbo bearings went on my 406 HDi & it made a very loud screeching noise, major loss of power, dashboard full of warning lights etc. But exhaust smoke at full throttle away from roundabouts etc is common enough for TDs that have done a few miles, not something to worry too much about in itself.

Mentioning the fuel filter raises slight possibility of a blocked injector or similar?

That said my 406 (with replacement turbo) has always had a similar “flat spot” around 2000rpm if you lift off and then get back on the gas. Never worked out why but it’s been like that for years.

Lichfield neilb67.
A bit of a trek from Halesowen.

As said above, when you blow a turbo, it’s a “**** me what was that?!” moment! 🙂

Massive power loss, white smoke out the back etc etc…

I would first off get it read at a local garage, if your struggling to get it read I might be able to borrow the scanner and read it for you. Im in Sutton Coldfield but ride the chase a few times a week.

Sounds exactly the same as what happened to the Turbo on my VW Bora Sport. Happly riding along when all of a sudden no power usually when your in the fast lane 😕
A friend who is a VW mechanic told me that a lot of Turbos have this trouble it has something to do with a flap in the turbo which sticks in the closed position. If you are driving down on your hols and this happens then pull into next services and switch off for a couple of minutes, when you set off it usually releases itself until the next time it feels like sticking 30mins or 30 days 😥
Cost me £650 for a new one to be fitted and that was at cost 😥

As said above, when you blow a turbo, it’s a “**** me what was that?!” moment!

Massive power loss, white smoke out the back etc etc…

+1

My ex-car (Mondeo TDCI) filled the lower Ogwen valley (Snowdonia) with smoke when it went, which took about 5 mins to clear once i’d ground to a halt. Not good when overtaking…

Sticking EGR valve?

Does it get driven ‘enthusiastically’ every now and again? If not, the EGR valve might be gummed up. I think that is the flap that footstomper is talking about.

Thanks all.
Will see about getting the wife to pop it into the garage before we go.
Car seems fine otherwise, no loss of power when booting it.
Reading on a Toyota owners forum (lively place!!!) the EGR is a likely cause.
Not much time for faffing about now though, too close to holiday.

neilb67…if your passing Lichfield before Wed I’d have a cuppa ready for you if you could plug your reader in for us.
PT

stumpy01…yes, Wife commutes in it & she doesn’t hang around.
(70mph for 20 mins twice a day)
Trying to locate the EGR but really not sure what I’m looking for as cant get a manual for the thing.

Might be the EGR but 1.4d4d of a certain vintage are known for blowing headgaskets – do the normal checks. Brilliant engines and normally bulletproof but when they go wrong it ain’t cheap.

takisawa2 – driving at 70mph for 20 minutes isn’t exactly what I had in mind…..that probably equates to <2k rpm. 70 is about 1800rpm in mine.

What I meant was does it get a good revving regularly? The EGR valve can get clogged up with deposits & a regular Italian tune-up should help clear it a bit.
I can’t remember exact gear ratio/speeds in mine but 30secs or so on a dual carriageway with it merrily revving at 3500 or more will get some heat through the system & help to burn off any deposits.

Obviously make sure it’s warmed up first!
When I first got my car, it really chucked out soot on acceleration. A week of ‘enthusiastic’ acceleration and some occasional high revs sorted it out & you get hardly a puff from it now.

stump01…I’ll give it a try mate…
🙂
PT

+1 for giving it a serious flogging to the red line several if not many times. Show it who’s boss. Make sure the engine’s warm first tho 🙂

” Flap inside the turbo ” = wastegate , controls the path of the exhaust gas either to , or bypassing, the hot side of the turbo.If it sticks open the car will feel sluggish and down on power. It may take a while for the wastegate to close if there is an air leak. The wastgate is opened and closed to prevent overspeed on the turbines, causing too much pressure in the inlet manifold. Possible air leak on wastgate actuator, or a split in the wastgate actuator diaphram (sp)

If you can find the EGR valve, its should be pretty easy to clean. Just unbolt in and clear out the cack (a mix of soot and oil) with brake cleaner.

Cleared a flat spot and smoke during hard acceleration, not bad for 15 minutes with a toothbrush. Oh, and 30 minutes with carpet cleaner as no matter how careful I was, I still managed to tread some cack into the carpet!