Mondeo TDCI - flashing coil light, no turbo & limp home ... intermittently.

Were_Doomed

It needs to be long enough to fill the hole all the way through, but not too long that it interferes with anything inside. How thick is the material you'll be tapping?

thorganby

You can see from this picture that it is not very long compared to the 13mm spanner head. I would say M8 x 12mm but a longer bolt could be cut down to suit after you have drilled and tapped the hole.

JustAnotherSaver

Were_Doomed said:

It needs to be long enough to fill the hole all the way through, but not too long that it interferes with anything inside.

Correct, but i want to have it ready to go before the hole is drilled and not drill the hole and then need to go finding a suitable bolt.

Were_Doomed said:

 How thick is the material you'll be tapping?

No idea i'm afraid. I haven't drilled it out and measured it. I don't think it's super thick.

thorganby said:

You can see from this picture that it is not very long compared to the 13mm spanner head. I would say M8 x 12mm but a longer bolt could be cut down to suit after you have drilled and tapped the hole.

I remember reading one thread, which i now can't find, on the Ford forums where a guy was commenting how he was struggling to get a bolt on the short side to fit in. Someone commented about using a longer bolt and then just cutting it down to suit.

I could do this but first off i was wanting to begin with a bolt that isn't all that long and may do anyway. I can't find the thread now though.

My plans were to use a stainless steel bolt and i've read of someone using a copper washer, so since that's what someone else used i was going to go with that. Just throwing it out there in case there's an issue with that approach and you can tell me beforehand. If not then that's how i'll go.

If i can get this sorted then it's just a case of sorting the thermostat, the doors, the mirrors, the reverse sensors, the wobbling bumper, the clunking from the rear, the steering wheel clunk from centre (which i think is unfixable by the sounds of it) and then i should be somewhere near right

JustAnotherSaver

As said in reverse light thread - i'm here to update this for the jump in with both feet crew. There's a reason why i don't & that was proved yesterday. When you say just get on with it, you're probably basing that off your knowledge/experience/confidence. When I say not yet because I know what I'm like, i'm going to test it out first ... i'm basing that on the fact that I know what happens when >I< do things.

Saw the chap yesterday who went through it with me on tapping threads. Everything was pretty straight forward. He drilled out holes of various size on an 8mm piece of steel (had no cast iron) using a pillar drill.

Coming in at an angle doing it free hand is going to be tricker but anyway...

He set me off with the tapping and it went ok.

So then we got on to the second hole and it was a case of on you go, do it yourself now.

I get so far in and i snap his tap bit.

I did the other ones ok but when I say I know what happens when i do something i mean i know what happens when i do something. When i say it's best i test out first and you scoff, there's a reason i say it's best i test out first

I thought we had an angled drill attachment. Had a look yesterday and turns out we don't so i'll need to order that in and then I'm good to go.

JustAnotherSaver

@thorganby (or anyone else who has helped me here and may be interested) ...

So today i 'had at it'. Got everything together and tried to make a start on the job. Took the 3 nuts holding the turbo heatshield in place off. Heatshield wouldn't come off. Figured out there's a 4th at the back. Wiggle that out.

Prayed someone had already done this job .... no such luck.

Got my right angled attachment, got my 4mm drill bit. Tried to line it up ..... no chance. There's just not the room. I don't know what these other people have done but i couldn't get it (and that's with the 4mm bit). I was having to come in at an angle downwards which i didn't want to do. Obviously with the 6.8mm bit being longer if the 4mm wasn't fitting in square then the 6.8mm had no chance.

The 4mm was a bit off, not a lot but the 6.8mm wouldn't have got close.

Now i'm not saying it can't be done as clearly enough people have done it so obviously i'm doing something wrong/different. I wasn't prepared to come in on an angle though as i figured it'd end in tears.

So i packed everything up and while i had some turbo cleaner, i figured i'd pop the intake pipe off (yeah i know that wont fix the issue but i thought i'd give it a squirt anyway and clean that side). Only thing is the engine had now cooled and the instructions say to squirt in to a warm running engine, not a cooled running engine.

Popped the circlip off the actuator arm and moved the arm. I've no idea how much movement there should be but it was moving from bolt to bolt on the left hand side of the arm as you face the windscreen and i could do this with my little finger. Whether it needs to move further than that i've no idea. Watching YouTube videos i don't think the distance is a whole hell of a lot anyway so if i had to make a decision i'd say that it moves its full path very freely - so no idea why i'm getting P132B and this light if it's sticky vanes?

Went for a walk to a nearby garage to see if they would tackle the job for me (obviously properly, not drilling and tapping). They didn't seem sure. Said they'd remove the turbo, send it off to someone probably 3-4 hours away, they'd clean it out and send back. I'd be looking at approx. 1 week and maybe £300-£400. He didn't sound convincing with the price so maybe £500-£600, who knows.

That's if it is the turbo needing cleaning that's the issue?

Walked back to my car. Started up & went to drive home. All good. Got about 50 yards on the private land i was parked on, went to join the A-road, shifted in to 2nd gear, approx 2k revs max and i crapped myself as the revs just shot right up like you'd floored it in neutral. They went racing right up to the max, hit the limit (this is with my foot OFF the pedal) and then settled back down to what they should be. The rest of the journey was fine.

Yes i'd put the circlip back on. Yes it's still there. Yes the intake hose is secure on to the turbo still.

But anyway, i thought i'd post up an update as you'd put time in to help me. It's a bit disappointing but i've had a go. Not really too sure what i'm doing wrong but it's obviously something.

JustAnotherSaver

I don't know how much this will make a difference but the right angled attachment I used was the red one in this image:

From the images it looks quite bulky (the red section) whereas the black ones are probably a bit more streamline and MAYBE give a bit more room?? I don't know, i'm only going off a photo and purely guessing.

With that said, even if the others DID give more room, sure it'd allow the 4mm drill bit to fit in but they would have to give a fair bit more room over the red one to allow the 6.8mm bit in.

thorganby

Seriously it is not confidence that you lack, however you do constantly look for excuses why you can't do various jobs and then just take the easy option and give up!

You have bought all of the necessary bits required but still no progress because you lack a positive mental attitude and are defeated far too easily, even when you know that others have done it.

Watch the video and learn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFDMd8eVVXo

"He does a bit of waffling on, like me I suppose, but he gets there in the end" unlike you!

"Seems to drill a hole on his turbo and squirts oven cleaner in there. From what i've read, a few people have done this & reported success."

The video shows exactly how it was done on your car, even using the same right angle drill tool as you have bought yet you say that it can't be done!

No need to remove the heat shield, plenty of room.

You have now finally changed the thermostat with positive results, even if it has taken you months and drilling one hole, tapping and fitting a bolt is an easier job.

No more excuses, you know that many others have successfully done this simple job, so get some gorm and get on with it, as the car is a scrapper until fixed.

You know that you want to.

JustAnotherSaver

thorganby said:

Seriously it is not confidence that you lack, however you do constantly look for excuses why you can't do various jobs and then just take the easy option and give up!

I think it'd be pretty accurate to say that you know yourself better than I know you, right?

So on the same note, I know myself better than you know me. So on this one you're wrong.

It is exactly confidence I lack. Confidence and also the knowledge, especially the knowledge as to when something goes wrong, because it's all so easy when it's going right. More on that in a second.

I'll have a bash - as I have done. I wont do it if i'm not completely comfortable with it though and when i'm coming in on an angle (forget it's a 90deg angle attachment - i mean when the drill bit is not square) then i know it's not right and there's too much potential for a mess up.

thorganby said:

You have bought all of the necessary bits required but still no progress because you lack a positive mental attitude and are defeated far too easily, even when you know that others have done it.

Many many many others have performed brain surgery. Just because they've done it doesn't mean i can go buy myself a hacksaw and immediately start doing it. I can have a go but it'll go wrong.

Ok that's an extreme example to make a point which you may not like. I know many others have soldered SMDs when wishing to change the colour of their various switches. I attempted this on my old car and the first one or two went ok even though i had no previous soldering experience. Had never touched a soldering iron in my life and just looked at it on YouTube. Then i ended up knackering some units. I had no experience and nobody to guide me with it saying whoa hang on you're going to make a mess there.

Though i'll give you the PMA comment. See, people here say you don't accept what you don't want to hear etc etc. I accept what i think is right. That comment is accurate, some of your other stuff isn't.

thorganby said:

Watch the video and learn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFDMd8eVVXo

Learn what? All it shows is a finished job and what to do once the job is finished. I don't need to watch a video on how to unbolt and insert a nozzle and squirt. Even I can do that (that's your cue to crack a "are you sure about that" joke that'll get you 10 thanks).

thorganby said:

The video shows exactly how it was done on your car, even using the same right angle drill tool as you have bought yet you say that it can't be done!

Really? What segment of the video shows it being done? I've watched that video a few times and don't see it.

Also more importantly, where did i say "IT CAN'T be done"? Or are you making things up?

When i went at it, i couldn't get in straight with the right angle attachment i had. Simple. Now if i had a slimmer right angle attachment (if such a one exists?) then maybe it would create enough room.

The fuel filter was in the way. I've never changed one on these and wasn't about to start having diesel P'ing everywhere. If i removed the fuel filter then that would help quite a bit. I was able to push it slightly but i didn't want to put too much strain on the lines and again create a problem.

thorganby said:

No need to remove the heat shield, plenty of room.

Not sure why you wouldn't. For the sake of a few nuts it just makes it easier.

thorganby said:

You have now finally changed the thermostat with positive results, even if it has taken you months and drilling one hole, tapping and fitting a bolt is an easier job.

The more on that later part.

I watched the one and only video on YouTube showing this. A Scottish pair. Read a guide even though i find video easier to learn from. Looked simple enough.

Took the old one out, coolant P'ing everywhere as it did with the Scottish pair. Quickly inserted the new one to stop coolant gushing out. It didn't. I turned the thermometer upside down to use gravity.

I then had an almighty problem with the hose and the clip. The access was poor. I could not get my hands in and the hose grips to adjust the spring clip. Took me about 30 minutes and in the end i had to remove the EGR to allow flex in the EGR pipe to give me that extra few mm.

Connect it up but the thermometer is still weeping. I try push it in more and then tighten it up. Still weeping.

I think i'm sure the torque on this was 8Nm which is sod all and i'm sure i'm already beyond this. Tighten it some more (even though i've been here before and suffered the consequences). It appeared to have stopped it.

Put in 1.5L-2.0L coolant.

Drove back to my house. Heater gauge was sort of working but also sort of not. Parked up and looked under - coolant P'ing all over my drive.

Got it booked in with our mechanic. He said he found the problem when he was able to get in at it ...... someone who wasn't a mechanic was playing at being a mechanic.

The actual cause was that the thermometer wasn't in flush/straight. It was ever so slightly angled, allowing water to weep out and then come out more under pressure. I didn't see it, it looked ok to me.

As i say, simple when it's going right, but when it goes wrong you find out how good you really are.

thorganby said:

No more excuses, you know that many others have successfully done this simple job, so get some gorm and get on with it, as the car is a scrapper until fixed.

You know that you want to.

After more research and discussing with other people, the thought about MY issue with the car seems to be leaning more towards the actuator rather than the turbo. Not totally ruling out the turbo but more actuator than turbo.

Oh, I also finally popped that clip off when attempting the drilling and moved the arm. It was free as a bird. I could move it back and forth with my little finger with ease. Absolutely no sticking point whatsoever.

EDIT: FWIW i measures the play/travel in the actuator arm this afternoon. It's 22mm-23mm. I don't know if this translates as full length travel or not but it's what it is.

I had the tape in there, the arm in the forwardmost position sat at 10cm and then i pushed it back - it was 7.7cm-7.8cm. Worked it forwards and backwards a few times to see if i'd kept the tape steady and i had - so the travel is 22-23mm. If travel is supposed to be more than that then it's going to take a fair bit of force to shift it.

Current plan is between just cutting my losses and sending off the actuator to a repairer for £85 and hoping that sorts it, although it may not, or it may make it better than it was but not sorted, who knows.