Hi All!
After the death of my Toyota Avensis, I grabbed an Altea XL TDI 2.0 on a 2009 plate in a hurry. I've always been a VW man from a VW family and really like the car. So rather than use it as an interim as originally planned, I'm trying to fix all the issues to keep it longer term. If it's not worth it though, happy to be told. I have my eyes on an EXEO estate.
The car has two issues I could do with help with. I've purchased the Haynes Autofix manual, which is crap. Recommendations on decent alternatives welcome.
- Judder on acceleration, once the car is warm, at certain points in revs.
Once the car is to temperature, most noticeable in 4th, 5th and 6th. If I apply more than say 10% throttle, the car judders and shakes with a loss of a little power.
It's always between 2K and 3.2K ish RPM. Slightly different within the range, depending on the gear you are in and its about 4 specific spots in that range per gear.
At first I thought this was injectors. But no smoke, no sign of the issue when the car is cold.
Then we thought it was DMF, given its when under some load or more acceleration, but there's no clutch pedal vibrations. Though 1st and 6th are hard to select sometimes, but I think this is the selectors needing some attention.
There's some suggestion it could be clogged EGR. It does feel like there's something supposed to be happening at those points in the rev range that isn't working. Maybe vacuum hose?
Any thoughts?
- Relay 1 (Relay 370) is not activated on the ignition.
So this is the main relay. The car broke down on the previous owner and the RAC put a fuse over the supply pins in the fuse box and all is well. Fuse has to come out when you stop.
I've changed the ignition switch, no joy. I've cleaned up the battery earth and earth behind the passenger headlight, no joy.
There's 12V on the supply pin to to what I'd call the relay activation circuit. Looking at the electrical diagrams, the otherside of that circuit doesn't go to ground. I was expecting the ignition to fire up 12V to the supply pin, but it doesn't. It's always there. Looking at the wiring diagrams, the pin on the other side of the circuit actually goes back to the ECU. The ECU looks like it switches this pin to ground internally when ignition comes on. Activating the relay.
I bought the Haynes manual in the hope it would tell me where the ECU earth is, because this might be it from what I've read, but no joy. So does anyone know where the earthing point for the ECU is?
I can trace the cable back from the other side of the relay activation circuit to the ECU, could be a bad wire. There's also suggestion that the ECU could be faulty and its not internally taking the pin to ground. Is this a thing?
I'm about to wire a fused switch into the cabin to turn the main relay on manually. Would there be a reason not to do this?
Outside of that, I've got this to contend with, but she feels worth it if the above can be solved:
- Engine wobbly at idle, shakes car. Suspect lower engine mount.
- Heater only blows luke warm. Suspect resistor.
- Dump noise from the vacuum system when changing gear above certain rpm
- Drivers door won't unlock on central locking fob
- Selecting 1st can be hard, 6th almost impossible.
- Random metal clip in the engine bay. Suspect RAC removed and not replaced at breakdown. Need to find its origin. Doesn't look like a normal VW hose clip.
Many Thanks!
After the death of my Toyota Avensis, I grabbed an Altea XL TDI 2.0 on a 2009 plate in a hurry. I've always been a VW man from a VW family and really like the car. So rather than use it as an interim as originally planned, I'm trying to fix all the issues to keep it longer term. If it's not worth it though, happy to be told. I have my eyes on an EXEO estate.
The car has two issues I could do with help with. I've purchased the Haynes Autofix manual, which is crap. Recommendations on decent alternatives welcome.
- Judder on acceleration, once the car is warm, at certain points in revs.
Once the car is to temperature, most noticeable in 4th, 5th and 6th. If I apply more than say 10% throttle, the car judders and shakes with a loss of a little power.
It's always between 2K and 3.2K ish RPM. Slightly different within the range, depending on the gear you are in and its about 4 specific spots in that range per gear.
At first I thought this was injectors. But no smoke, no sign of the issue when the car is cold.
Then we thought it was DMF, given its when under some load or more acceleration, but there's no clutch pedal vibrations. Though 1st and 6th are hard to select sometimes, but I think this is the selectors needing some attention.
There's some suggestion it could be clogged EGR. It does feel like there's something supposed to be happening at those points in the rev range that isn't working. Maybe vacuum hose?
Any thoughts?
- Relay 1 (Relay 370) is not activated on the ignition.
So this is the main relay. The car broke down on the previous owner and the RAC put a fuse over the supply pins in the fuse box and all is well. Fuse has to come out when you stop.
I've changed the ignition switch, no joy. I've cleaned up the battery earth and earth behind the passenger headlight, no joy.
There's 12V on the supply pin to to what I'd call the relay activation circuit. Looking at the electrical diagrams, the otherside of that circuit doesn't go to ground. I was expecting the ignition to fire up 12V to the supply pin, but it doesn't. It's always there. Looking at the wiring diagrams, the pin on the other side of the circuit actually goes back to the ECU. The ECU looks like it switches this pin to ground internally when ignition comes on. Activating the relay.
I bought the Haynes manual in the hope it would tell me where the ECU earth is, because this might be it from what I've read, but no joy. So does anyone know where the earthing point for the ECU is?
I can trace the cable back from the other side of the relay activation circuit to the ECU, could be a bad wire. There's also suggestion that the ECU could be faulty and its not internally taking the pin to ground. Is this a thing?
I'm about to wire a fused switch into the cabin to turn the main relay on manually. Would there be a reason not to do this?
Outside of that, I've got this to contend with, but she feels worth it if the above can be solved:
- Engine wobbly at idle, shakes car. Suspect lower engine mount.
- Heater only blows luke warm. Suspect resistor.
- Dump noise from the vacuum system when changing gear above certain rpm
- Drivers door won't unlock on central locking fob
- Selecting 1st can be hard, 6th almost impossible.
- Random metal clip in the engine bay. Suspect RAC removed and not replaced at breakdown. Need to find its origin. Doesn't look like a normal VW hose clip.
Many Thanks!
