Good advice or drivel?

[eric]

Hello everyone,

My old bus has been in sick-bay since Good Friday (22/04/11) and is still there with seemingly unsolvable problems ... to date.

One of the things I've provided to the garage was another Mass Air Flow Meter which was unchecked (terminals for resistance etc) and informed them as such.

I also searched the internet for a guidance on these pieces of vital equipment and came across this:-



"TIPS
When we changed the air mass meter it did not fix the problem immediately, it eventually started to work but I was not too impressed with the fuel consumption.
It was suggested to us that what we should have done was to disconnect the power from the battery for about 30 minutes to reset the ECU after we had fitted the new meter.
After the 30 minutes, we reconnected the cars battery. The ECU then has no memory of what all the previous settings and readings were from the meters and sensors and is allowed to start from fresh and draw in all the correct relevant information.

This did the trick. All the power had returned, the throttle response was more crisp and precise and we believe that we now had a little more power than before the air mass meter failed for good. We also noticed that the fuel consumption went back up to slightly better than it was before. We were getting about 35-40mpg around town, much better than when it was running in 'limp mode', but now we are getting 40-45 mpg around town and even better at steady speeds on the motorway."

I tapped a copy of this to the MAFM when I gave it to the garage and verbably told them.

A day or so later the garage announced the bus was ready to be collected, but according to the on-board clock it was clear to me that the advice was disregarded.

8 miles later, the bus, yep, you've guessed, broke down yet again and I used my 6th call-out (allowed 7 in one year) from RAC in 3 months.

The vehicle is now at a different garage and has been for the last 2 weeks .....

Any opinions from you learned lads/lasses?

Eric.

[Aidan]

Eric
if it's a DJ then it's not adaptive, ie it doesn't store real world data it just works to the inputs and looks them up in it's map and outputs accordingly, some of the management is mechanical and some electronic by parts other than the ecu
the MV is mildly adaptive (ECU runs almost everything) and resetting the ECU is good practice, but if the system is working properly then it doesn't matter as the ECU will work to the inputs and takes less than 30 seconds to get itself together if everything is working properly, when I switch from gas to petrol the ECU has a "What the blithering heck" moment and then goes "ok if that's what you want...." and works
I can't remember what your set up is but this is daft, they aren't difficult to fix as long as you have the information and go about it in a logical way, it's all in the Bentley manual for anyone who can read
if it's a gas problem then just set it all up properly on petrol, then satrt again with the gas set up

[tonytech]

If the OP is getting 40- 45 mpg around town... he isnt running a DJ or an MV.

T

[Aidan]

If the OP is getting 40- 45 mpg around town... he isnt running a DJ or an MV.

T

must be one of them new fangled hybrids

[eric]

Thanks Aidan and Tony,

It's a DJ and I do have not only the Bentley, but still have your CD you kindly sent me a couple of years ago. The book is in the bus.

Tony, I'm afraid the old girl does not see 14 mles per gallon of petrol or with LPG (with the relevant calculation).

The bus is with a local bloke who is regarded in the area as some kind of guru when it comes to tuning vehicles.

Eric.
ps ... yes, there is a lot more detail to my current saga and frankly, I'm not sure whether I will ever feel confident of driving the bus on any lengthy (5 ml max) journey again.
pps ... when you are told by the proprietor of a garage who has serviced the vehicle since 2005, he doesn't understand LPG and refused to take it back from the RAC (who towed me), it kinda left a bitter taste ...

[Ian Hulley]

The bus is with a local bloke who is regarded in the area as some kind of guru when it comes to tuning vehicles.

Corsas and C untos ?

[Aidan]

Eric
can you get it to Fred's Garage in LLanelli ? Go and see Lee he knows T3s and wbxs

[eric]

Thanks for your suggestion Aidan.

I consulted Mr Google and Fred's Garage is about 60 mls away, nevertheless, my intention (which, in hindsight, I should have done earlier) is to write a report on the exact problems experienced over the past 3/4 months, in chronological order.

I shall, as a matter of interest, post this on the forum because other folk may have had similar problems.


Eric.
ps: I have counted up the number of call-outs.... total so far 31.
..... and before anyone suggests my blithely accepting RAC's (and others) temp fix, I confirm my garage was instructed to rectify the problem on every single occasion.