Hi,

I have a 1.9 120 Bravo. Was driving quite happily yesterday and all of a sudden it seemed to lose some power. Would move, just not very swiftly. No lights etc on the dash. Got to where I was going stopped the car, left it for about 45mins, started and still lack of power. Got going again and gave it a bit of a boot and all of a sudden it seemed to spring into life (almost like something was blocked and cleared itself) and then it seemed to run OK.

Seems to be running OK(ish) again now, but did lose some power when going up a a particularly big hill.

Any ideas on anything I can check or what it may be? Bit worried now!

Thanks for your help.

Sounds very much like a blocked EGR valve. The symptoms are like massive turbo lag.

The car does quite a lot of miles. I thought they tended to block if you only did short miles, or have I got that wrong?

Thanks for your help.

Not necessarily, ours has 75k on now and blocked!

Perhaps I should clarify when I say it does a lot of miles...it does a lot of long motorway journeys.

I guess if it can still block, that is the first point of call. Is there a guide anywhere? Hard a look at the how-to's, but there doesnt seem to be one!

Thanks

Long motorway journeys and gentle driving seem to block more. Ours was a warranty job so no idea myself

Is it covered in the third year of warranty? Mine is a March 08 reg so well into the third year.

venturer said:

Is it covered in the third year of warranty? Mine is a March 08 reg so well into the third year.

Click to expand...

You got 5 years warranty? mine was replace couple months ago, cover under 5 yrs warranty.

I had it second hand and I think it only came with a 3 year job. How would I find out if it was a 5 year one?

Hi Venturer.

Definitely sounds like the EGR valve. Mine went last November (1.9 MJet) - got replaced under 3rd year warranty. Same symptoms as you described. Has your Bravo been serviced regularly? Fiat probably won't entertain it unless its been properly serviced. Let us know how you get on.

Hasnt quite been service to schedule, think I will take it to my local friendly garage.

Do you think they will be able to give it a clean and it will be fine or should i be looking at getting a new one?

How much are we talking for a new part? Any other bits they should be changing whilst I am at it to avoid problems in future?

Thanks for all your help everyone.

Hi Venturer.

Apparently EGR (Exhaust Gas Recirculation)valves can be cleaned out, they get coked up with diesel soot through time. There are plenty of threads in the forum on the EGR valve. I think one actually tells you how to do it.

I've had the same problem with a 6 month old 1.9 165 Diesel - it's going back under warranty next week. I'll point out the EGR possibility when it goes in as I'm not at all confident about the capabilities of my local Fiat dealer (used them when they did Alfas too, pretty useless then). However, I've also got the change engine oil warning appear. The car's only done 9.5K miles - isn't this a bit premature? Driving is mainly town driving with a (fairly) light right foot

dcdewick said:

I've had the same problem with a 6 month old 1.9 165 Diesel - it's going back under warranty next week. I'll point out the EGR possibility when it goes in as I'm not at all confident about the capabilities of my local Fiat dealer (used them when they did Alfas too, pretty useless then). However, I've also got the change engine oil warning appear. The car's only done 9.5K miles - isn't this a bit premature? Driving is mainly town driving with a (fairly) light right foot

Click to expand...

Yours is more likely to be a DPF problem. ***** footing round town and DPF regeneration will cause problems I believe. Wrong car for the job IMHO.

BTW its 1.9/150 or 2.0/165 The 1.9's dont have a DPF

Not really sure what's going on with mine now!

A couple of weeks ago on a long motorway journey - like 5 hours, noticed that whilst driving around 70mph mark, the engine seems to gently stutter, but if put under a little more pressure the stutter stops. I 'think' (because you become naturally more alert) it's getting worse. Basically I don't lose much power and it's fine under pressure, but when the engine is hot and driving on the balance between acceleration and deceleration, it seems to stutter.

It's the 2.0 165 Mjet, about 14.5k miles which are mainly rural quick road commuting (35mile runs, twice a day). EGR? DPF?

Cheers

rambyuk said:

Not really sure what's going on with mine now!

A couple of weeks ago on a long motorway journey - like 5 hours, noticed that whilst driving around 70mph mark, the engine seems to gently stutter, but if put under a little more pressure the stutter stops. I 'think' (because you become naturally more alert) it's getting worse. Basically I don't lose much power and it's fine under pressure, but when the engine is hot and driving on the balance between acceleration and deceleration, it seems to stutter.

It's the 2.0 165 Mjet, about 14.5k miles which are mainly rural quick road commuting (35mile runs, twice a day). EGR? DPF?

Cheers

Click to expand...

EGR problem is nothing, nothing, whoosh as you pull away from standstill.

At 70mph 2000+ rpm & light throttle, a bit of stuttering suggests a DPF regeneration in process. More fuel is injected to make the exhaust hotter and burn of the soot in the DPF. I think you might be advised to drop down a gear, and give it a bit of throttle action!

neilshep said:

EGR problem is nothing, nothing, whoosh as you pull away from standstill.

At 70mph 2000+ rpm & light throttle, a bit of stuttering suggests a DPF regeneration in process. More fuel is injected to make the exhaust hotter and burn of the soot in the DPF. I think you might be advised to drop down a gear, and give it a bit of throttle action!

Click to expand...

OK thanks, should it be doing this everyday though? It seems to be doing it everyday and it's normally more like 1500-2000rpm (any gear)

rambyuk said:

OK thanks, should it be doing this everyday though? It seems to be doing it everyday and it's normally more like 1500-2000rpm (any gear)

Click to expand...

As I understand it, if the DPF regeneration doesn't complete, then it will tend to happen more often, perhaps with less success, ending up with dcdewick's problem of his oil needing to be changed at about 10k miles, and a choked DPF. A spirited drive is apparently helpful, but doesn't do much for economy

Well, had the EGR cleaned out...and...still exactly the same. The valve itself wasn't too badly sooted up, so at a loss now.

Problem exactly as you describe though. No power, crawl along, yawn, 2500rpm.. Weeeeeeee.... And then you fly.

Any more ideas anyone?

Thanking you!

I think I had a similar problem, nothing nothing, woosh. Just had a big service and everything is much smoother now. Could this be related to service items then (if not egr)? Oil, filters or something similar? I didn't mention anything at the time as it was only after the service that i really noticed. Just a thought.