Dj530

What kind of boost is the car making when you get to the pedal from a start?

Whopperoni

No clue tbh. The issue itself is solved. I'm more curious now if the air-mass at the analog values 1 screen shows MAF values whereas I suspect that the NOMINAL/ACTUAL values 1's "actual air-mass" might be the O2 sensor on the (emptied) DPF?

Dj530

The reason I was asking about the boost levels is because I had a customer with your similar problem. It would shut down when he came to a stop and restart after a bit of hesitation. Ended up being a plugged catalytic. The DPF was deleted, but they forgot to do the cat. Besides the cleaning and adaptations was there any other actual issue?

Whopperoni

Yeah, I don't know. It's been running fine ever since I cleaned out the MAF and restored adaptations. Cat and DPF is gone on mine.

No other issues found, and nothing else from my troubleshooting did anything to remedy the problem.

I can't say for sure that the MAF cleaning and adaptations were the issue. But I had a fault code (and a yellow CEL) regarding the MAF before, which hasn't returned. The only other thing I can think of that might have been related to the fuel injectors would be the fuel injector cleaner I put in the tank (same tank of diesel when the issues started). I did put new diesel in it as soon as it started acting up though, and it still gave me a hard time up until the MAF cleaning and adaptations.

Whopperoni

Hi again. A little update, I think seanjordan20 and the rest of you guys might have been onto something with the voltage regulator.
Car has been running flawlessly since the last post (May 7th). I have noticed a few more extra cranks when starting the car up for the first time the last couple of weeks, but wasn't sure if I was just imagining things.The other day it had a really long crank before it fired up. Figured it was just low on battery since I mostly drive it to and from work, which is a ~7 minute trip.
Got to the garage where I was gonna change engine oil and filter, and once I got it on the lift it wouldn't start again and the "charging fault" error showed up, along with the red battery symbol in the cluster.

I put the car on charge while I changed the oil, and ended up being able to start it just fine and drive around for a couple of minutes before it threw the same "charging fault" code, which then went away for a couple of minutes before returning and with a vengeance. "Transmission fault" "4x4 fault", "reset time and date", etc. Managed to get back home to my parking spot and once I put it in park it wouldn't disengage.

Charged it up again for a little bit and saw that I had a whole heap of error codes stored. Two of which just read as "DDE: Alternator" in ISTA. 004A07 and 004A17. Once I got enought juice again, I started the car up and did some live data. The battery voltage was stuck at around 11.8 volts, small fluctuations up and down. The battery is about 2 or 3 years old, AGM 90 or 95ah, coded and registered ofc.

I guess the safest bet here is the alternator, or voltage regulator having taken a dump on me after all. Gonna see if I can get a hold of a new one this week and just switch the regulator to begin with and just keep the alternator laying around in case that solves the problem.
Can't be anything but the alternator/regulator, right?

INPA live data with the engine running:

habbyguy

That's all in keeping with your garden variety alternator (regulator) failure. Sequential failures in electrically-dependent systems as the battery voltage sags.

There are theoretically other things that could be in play, but given your car is over 300,000km, it would be borderline shocking if your alternator wasn't due for a refresh (whether with a new one, a rebuilt one, or installation of a new regulator).

FWIW, one cheap and useful addition I've made to my vehicles is a USB charger with voltmeter built in. This allows me to glance at the resting battery voltage before starting the car, and the alternator voltage while the engine's running. Hey, you need a USB charger anyway (I'd guess...) so might as well get one that does double duty.

- works great, though there are a host of 'em out there that might be a better fit for your car / aesthetic preferences..

Whopperoni

Yeah that's what I'm thinking too. I've got quite a long trip coming up in about two weeks (around 1000km / 620 miles, round trip), so I may just replace the alternator all together.

Great idea with the volt meter! Definitely going to be ordering one of those. And I'll keep updating here with the progress as well

Whopperoni

Quick update:

I replaced the voltage regulator today. Easy enough, and the old plastic cover was cracked in several different places along with the brushes being completely worn.
However: The idle voltage is still more or less the same. I'm getting it to "spike" up to 12.8v when reving it up to 2.5k RPM, but that's it. It goes down to ~11.8v directly after that (with the car idling). If I turn on power consumers I got it down to as low as 10.97v.

I forgot to mention, I did notice a burning smell whenever I've been running the auxillary ventilation after driving for a bit right before this happened. I figured it was my jerry rigged auxillary heater mod (shorted the sensor to make it heat up the engine instead of the cabin since I live in the arctic circle, and I'd rather have a happy engine than being able to heat up the cabin while I'm parked. I also have a 1400w electric heater and a cable for heating up the cabin instead).
Anyway, lol, I realize now that smell was probably my generator taking a dump and dying (albeit slowly). Gonna replace the generator in a couple of days while I keep the battery on charge and just hope I can drive to my garage with all the power consumers turned off. Seems like a fairly easy job to change the alternator but I'd much rather do it in the comfort of my garage rather than my (outdoor) city parking spot.

Whopperoni

Update. Any suggestions are welcome as I'm in need of the car for a roadtrip within the next couple of days, and I'm kind of stressing out lol.

I drove to the garage today and after a full charge according to the CTEK when I left work, it was still only pushing 12.1v -> 12.2v with the engine running and all power consumers off.
It stayed around the same voltage up until about 10 minutes into driving on the highway when it started showing upward of 13.8v (reading with the hidden menu in the cluster). The drive all in all was only about 20 minutes.


I replaced the alternator (I realize I've been calling it "generator" in my previous post. That's what we call it in Sweden). today. Not as big of a headache as I thought it would be.
The bearings were fine, but it was still definitely time for a new one considering this was the original alternator from 2006.

Once I got everything back together, I started up the car and to my surprise, I was now getting 11.8v -> 12.0v measured from the generator and from the jump start posts under the hood. The battery (with the engine running) jumps in voltage when I try to read it before going down to 0.
Should the little charging I got while driving, as well as the short drive completely drain the battery according to the CTEK despite being around the same voltage?

I'm starting to suspect the battery might be the culprit. It's a ~4 year old AGM battery. Registered and coded as per the voltage and ah's.
Any other things I can check? I'll do a quick swap tomorrow between a family members car which is also running a same size AGM battery to see if that helps.

Summary:

Driving today, car peaked at 13.8v while driving.
Swapped alternator, and I'm getting 11.8v to 12.1v. Measuring both at the jump points and the alternator itself.
I'm also getting "position light, front left/right" errors once the voltage drops. Despite the lights being on and functional. This never happened prior to the battery dying.

(Edit, new alternator is a new Vaico OEM alternator).

Any ideas?

seanjordan20

Unplug the IBS (connector on the negative terminal) and it will get you through your trip and address the issue when you come back.

When the battery is fully charged your voltage will dip due to the car wanting the battery to stay around 85% charged although I think 12.1/2 is a bit low. I would do a real load test Ont he battery to see if its good also do a draw test to see if you have something still on when the car is sleep