Help!!!! 1.7CTDI

[Bhavika]

Hi All,

I hope one of you can help. I've just (when I mean just about 2 months ago) bought a Honda Civic 1.7 CTDi SE from CarGiant with one previous owner. It's brilliant and worked fine up until the end of last month.

Around a month ago on route to work my car all of a sudden lost power. I couldn't rev the engine, move faster than 50mph or go past gear 4 unless going downhill. Since it's been happening every other day almost. I took it to my mechanic who carried out a diagnostic test to see if he could find anything. However, he was unable to find anything wrong with the car, as it's proving even more difficult to determine the route cause as there is no warning light on the dash board. He spoke to a Honda Dealership who also said that they're ensure what the problem may be, but that it could be the turbo as there is a known problem with the civic turbos, and that I should take it to them directly.

So, today I took the car to the dealership who also carried out a diagnostic test and they too said they couldn't find the route to the problem and that there was nothing wrong with my car. There's obviously something wrong as its happening regularly now and is very dangerous when it does as I've almost had an accident on 2 occassion because of it. They said as there is no warning signal they can not do anything.

Has anyone had this problem or can advise me what I can do as it's really causing me problems. I work a great distance from home and as there is no tube/train station close to work I have no other means of getting there, and therefore rely on my car heavily. Please please please if anyone knows anything that can help please come back to me, as no matter how much I've tried no one seems to want to help me. Any advise will be greatly appreciated. Please............

Thanks,
Bhavika.

[TTDegs]

Hi Bhavika, sorry to hear your news

unfortunately I don't know quite how much help we will be able to be here, as this forum is dedicated to the latest shape Civic - but there are people here who have had older ones, so we might get lucky

[Charles_Harding]

Originally Posted by TTDegs

Hi Bhavika, sorry to hear your news

unfortunately I don't know quite how much help we will be able to be here, as this forum is dedicated to the latest shape Civic - but there are people here who have had older ones, so we might get lucky

Unfortunatley I had one of the older ones, and it was petrol, so no help there then.

......but you never know who's reading this site!

Must be something good about them.

I bought this one didn't I?

"She spoke 18 languages.
And could not say 'no' in any of them!"

[Unknownsoldier]

Some one was saying something about gear servo's causing trouble earlier, so a possibility? Or it could be a faulty ECU, which would clear the fault code each time it restarted.

Tom

[Bhavika]

Thank you guys for your help....still no luck but appreciate the response nonetheless. I will however, mention about the gear servo's and faulty ECU.

Bhavika.

[TTDegs]

going to move this thread to 'bugs' section where it might get some more answers

[ghowarth]

Hi,
I used to have a laguna tourer 2.2 deisel, and had exactly the same problem, the car just packed in and you could not get any power to the car whatsoever, even though it continued to run, there was nothing on the throttle.
Happened a few times, and it was a faulty valve to do with the injection system, it was sticking open (had 3 initials, which could have been ECU, but not sure)!
I had it replaced twice, and after that it was fine!!
Hope that helps.

[Honda Tech]

Originally Posted by Bhavika

Hi All,

I hope one of you can help. I've just (when I mean just about 2 months ago) bought a Honda Civic 1.7 CTDi SE from CarGiant with one previous owner. It's brilliant and worked fine up until the end of last month.
Bhavika.

hi there.

i have come accross this problem many times before and it has very nearly always been the turbo causing the problem...once it was a faulty map sensor.
it worries me that dealers dont seem to be very helpful from what i have read on this forum.

this problem doesnt always throw the mil light on so diagnosis can sometimes be difficult but i would put a fair bit of money on this problem being the turbo.

[richierich69]

Hi Bhavika,
I had a 52 reg 3 door Cdti lovely car and at 63000 miles I was travelling down the M11 and the engine cut out in the outside lane EEEEKKKKK! .It was obviously 3000 miles outside of the warranty, but took it to main dealer who replaced the turbo under warranty no quibble. I would say that from your description thats exactly what the issue is.What kind of guarantee/ warranty did you get from Cargiant? Maybe worth a trip back to them for any claim.

Good luck Rich

[Honda Tech]

this is what happens when honda use isuzu engines.

[peterdh]

I had an 04 and had the same problem. Honda are aware of this and when it happens the dealers should replace the turbo as there was a out of tolerance problem they identified with the Izuzu engine/turbo.

However if it is out of warranty !!! It is the turbo though and needs replacing.

[Rockair8]

Hi same promlem on 1.7ctdi dealer changed turbo and induction pipes etc promlem sorted, Honda know of the problem.
Rockair8

[Duecut]

I had this with a 03 Civic 1.7 CDTi, The Honda dealer in stirling use every Diagnostic kit they had and nothing showed up.

They got the "old" mechanic to look at it (he didnt like using the diagnostic computer) He found that the Fuel Filter (the little one just before the High pressure pump) was clogged up with a load of junk. The Engine managment System recognised the shortage in fuel and just limited the engine. Cost £220 to get the Fuel system cleaned and have all the filters replaced, car was under warrenty at the time but this kinda thing is not covered.

Turns out the <INSERT EXPLITIVE HERE> Garage in cambridge that did my 72000 mile service didnt replace the fuel filter but charged me for it (Only thing they did do was change the Oil)

[Honda Tech]

hi guys,

i have done a little investigation into the warranty side of things for this turbo fault and i have found that they have extended the warranty for turbo replacement for 4 years. this is on top of the standard 3 years so you get 7 years in total. the mileage is still 90,000 miles but they dont really take much notice of that unless it is well over.
so good luck Bhavika. my suggestion is just tell them to change the turbo.

[refgenius15]

Hey. I agree it is the turbo. My Dad's Vito turbo diesel had a problem with the turbo once due to the wastegate being blocked. The wastegate is where the air flows through the turbo and as you can imagine if it becomes blocked, its not good. Because the Merc has an advanced engine management programme it cut the engine so no further damage would occur to the engine but same symptoms as you described, loss of power speed etc.

The problem is with Diesels people think "oh theyre great for fuel economy" and never drive them that fast or accelerated. But seriously if u don't use the turbo regularly, i.e. drive the thing and give it a good right boot every now and then it will affect performance and leads to blockage of wastegate as the valves on it are not opening regulaly. Id put a good bet on that being a problem and I know it is a Vito not a Civic but turbo diesels seem to have common problems. Was the mileage high from previous owner? Hope this helps and good luck

[hondatech]

Originally Posted by refgenius15

Hey. I agree it is the turbo. My Dad's Vito turbo diesel had a problem with the turbo once due to the wastegate being blocked. The wastegate is where the air flows through the turbo and as you can imagine if it becomes blocked, its not good. Because the Merc has an advanced engine management programme it cut the engine so no further damage would occur to the engine but same symptoms as you described, loss of power speed etc.

The problem is with Diesels people think "oh theyre great for fuel economy" and never drive them that fast or accelerated. But seriously if u don't use the turbo regularly, i.e. drive the thing and give it a good right boot every now and then it will affect performance and leads to blockage of wastegate as the valves on it are not opening regulaly. Id put a good bet on that being a problem and I know it is a Vito not a Civic but turbo diesels seem to have common problems. Was the mileage high from previous owner? Hope this helps and good luck

The turbochargers used on all honda diesel engines DO NOT UTILISE A WASTEGATE they all use varible vane geometry to control boost pressure,the fault on your car is due to incorrect clearence between the turbine vanes & its casing which get clogged up with sooty deposits & stops it working correctly, once the ecu detects a fault in boost pressure it puts the car into limp home mode until the fault is repaired.

[Koen]

Originally Posted by hondatech

The turbochargers used on all honda diesel engines DO NOT UTILISE A WASTEGATE they all use varible vane geometry to control boost pressure,the fault on your car is due to incorrect clearence between the turbine vanes & its casing which get clogged up with sooty deposits & stops it working correctly, once the ecu detects a fault in boost pressure it puts the car into limp home mode until the fault is repaired.

Correct! Any decent Honda dealer should be aware of the problem of the clogging vanes. The stator vanes should be able to move freely, but after a while en when not using the turbo enough they can get (partially)blocked. There was an update to the control software, which made the stator vanes move back and forth when the turbo was not boosting (eg. on idle). This "keep on moving" should avoid the vanes to block again.

I'm not saying that this is the problem, but it's a known issue.

K.

[refgenius15]

Sorry hondatech, I did not mean that the Honda had a wastegate. The point was the clogging of the turbo. Thanks for clearing it up though

[Honda Tech]

Originally Posted by hondatech

The turbochargers used on all honda diesel engines DO NOT UTILISE A WASTEGATE they all use varible vane geometry to control boost pressure,the fault on your car is due to incorrect clearence between the turbine vanes & its casing which get clogged up with sooty deposits & stops it working correctly, once the ecu detects a fault in boost pressure it puts the car into limp home mode until the fault is repaired.

this is correct for all honda designed engines but on the old 1.7 diesels (isuzu) it is down to the wastegate not being man enough.

[hondatech]

Originally Posted by Honda Tech

this is correct for all honda designed engines but on the old 1.7 diesels (isuzu) it is down to the wastegate not being man enough.

sorry honda tech but you are wrong on that one ,have a quick look under the bonnet or on maris at esm & you`ll clearly see that on the 1.7 isuzu engine as well as all the other diesel engines ,the turbo doesnt have a wastegate !!