I've got a Doblo Family 1.3 diesel, 2007. It's recently been very poor at starting from cold. It fails to start the first time, then starts on the second attempt but stalls as soon as I've reversed it a few feet. It then restarts OK but stalls again as soon as I try to get up my fairly steep drive. Once warmed up its fine , but the engine does seem 'clanky' when pulling away from traffic lights say, even when warm, but smooth enough once its running at speed. Its been to the garage three times so far -they did a service, then I returned it and they put it on the diagnostics and it showed an injector was partially blocked. They repalced that, but it made no difference. So then they replaced the additive in the oil filter (I may have misunderstood this, but it was some sort of additive to do with the oil) , but that has also had no effect. The garage are willing and helpful but they are out of ideas, and their dignostics shows no fault, and there are no warnings on the dashboard. Has anyone got any tips I might pass on to the garage?

Well I've still got the problem but no answers! Its been in the garage more than its been at home this past month. They replaced an injector and cleaned the dpf which made starting better, but there's still this very sluggish acceleration from standing (making it impossible to get up our drive first time). It also makes it quite dangerous to pull out into traffic as you never know if its going to stall. After the first 50 yards there's a sudden surge of power and then its fine thereafter until its turned off, then it does the sluggish thing all over again, even if its only been parked for half an hour. The garage have tried everything they know. I see some mention of an egr on here - what is it? And would remapping help or is there a more fundamental fault that needs sorting first?

alanterrill said:

Well I've still got the problem but no answers! Its been in the garage more than its been at home this past month. They replaced an injector and cleaned the dpf which made starting better, but there's still this very sluggish acceleration from standing (making it impossible to get up our drive first time). It also makes it quite dangerous to pull out into traffic as you never know if its going to stall. After the first 50 yards there's a sudden surge of power and then its fine thereafter until its turned off, then it does the sluggish thing all over again, even if its only been parked for half an hour. The garage have tried everything they know. I see some mention of an egr on here - what is it? And would remapping help or is there a more fundamental fault that needs sorting first?

Click to expand...

Sound like egr valve is blocked and needs cleaning or replacing...or maybe there is some split pipe somewhere or a faulty maf sensor...try to clean egr valve and maf sensor with an apropiate cleaner and see if things improve.
Would not remap as there is no point. If the engine is poorly it would probably make it worse and any professional mechanic would refuse to remap if is not ok
hope this help

Many thanks, I'll pass this on to my garage.

i assume fuel filter changed could be water in diesel

I'm pretty sure thats been checked, but thanks for the suggestion.

Can someone point me towards a pciture or diagram of where the egr connector is? I've found one of the maf connector on this forum but not of the egr.

I'm still stuck with this -my car has been in the garage almost every weekend for 3 months! The dpf has been cleaned, the egr has been disconnected and cleaned, the map and the maf (I think I've got that right!) have been replaced, but it still appalling when first started. It now starts first time but then stalls as soon as I try to reverse it. It often takes three or more restarts plus a lot of high revving to make it go up the slope of my drive. Once its going its Ok but every time I change gear , there's no acceleration at all for about 7 seconds then it leaps into action . It’s getting quite dangerous to pull into moving traffic now as I know I can't accelerate to keep up with the other traffic until the engine decides its ready. Fuel consumption is bad too -only about 40mpg -about the same as I used to get with my old petrol Doblo. I've asked the garage to take the dpf off and replace it with a piece of steel tube as had been suggested here, but he says if I do that there'll be a permanent warning light on the display and it would fail the next MOT. Is that true? If so, how have other people stopped the light coming on? Could the garage do A remap or is this a specialist thing. I can’t find anyone advertising remaps in Shropshire –there used to be one in Shrewsbury but it’s gone out of business. Are those plug-in remap boxes they sell on ebay any good?
I’m getting desperate – I’d like to sell it and get a petrol version , but who’s going to buy one with a fault?

While I'm at it -is it worth me buying the FiatECUscan software I see mentioned on here? Will it tell me more than the garage's software can? (they're an indepandent garage, not a fiat dealer). Can anyone advise which software and which adaptors I'd need to diagnose my sort of problem? There do seem to be a bewildering variey of lead options. Any how do i know which version I've got - the compatibility list shows four different 1.3 Mjet 16V types called 152,119,263 and 223.