Turbo governor - possible cheaper replacement
 

After reading this thread I decided to order up a 'vacuum modulator' from a VW/Audi application to see if it would indeed fit.

I don't know if my own governor is shot, but after 10 years and 230k miles it's probably past it's best - and for the cost involved I thought it worth a shot.

I ordered this part from GSF and used the code 'offer10' to get 10% discount. The part arrived next day at a cost of £32.82 all in. I believe the Volvo part is in the £150+ region, so that's what makes this look like a worthwhile exercise.

On first inspection it looks very much like the Volvo part (I can't make a direct comparison until I have the original removed). One primary difference is that it does not have the 'filter' over the exhaust/inlet, but I figure I can probably swap that part over.

The other (pretty crucial) difference is that the electrical connection seems to be some kind of VAG/Bosch thing and not what Volvo use. This will slow things up but won't stop the project. I intend to visit the scrappies at the weekend to see if I can plunder the appropriate connector, failing that I have found one online supplier so far - but it looks a bit expensive for what it is.

I'll update as and when I make progress.

Pics of the item received today:

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...ps9c67cd7a.jpg

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...psf6a5f870.jpg

i do hope it works as that is a very good saving, as long as at the outport you get 25hg at idle and that figure changes when the throttle is applied for £33 its worth a punt:thumbs_up:
mike

http://www.thetoolboxshop.com/0-011-...way-2436-p.asp
any good.
mike

I love threads like that "Beating the system" is a great hobby of mine

good luck

Thanks for that Mike, it may well be a connector like that that'll do the trick.

I had originally figured it might be like this one, but you've put a doubt in my mind now.


http://www.simtekuk.co.uk/cdata/1094...94_2206294.jpg

All fuellprep equipment is bosch on these volvo's
I needed last year a few new connectors for the fuelpump and railpressure regulator
Your local Boschservice will have them

I had another look at the GSF website and it looks like this part would be a direct fit, albeit the price is £85.20.

I'll persist with the one I have, as a £50 price differential is worth a wee bit of wiring adaptation.

I'm not likely to get to the scrappy until tomorrow, so no progress likely until then at the earliest.

I managed to get finished from work in time to get to the scrappy today and I've found the connectors I need.

For reference I removed them from a VW Golf and Audi A3 (I took 2) and both were used to connect the windscreen washer pump.

£2 later I've got 2 of these:

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...psf5631d84.jpg

More to follow when I get round to attempting to fit the governor.

looking good:thumbs_up:

Time for an update...

Last weekend I tried to measure the output from the vacuum pump and managed to convince myself it was faulty, so I located a used spare and fitted it today.

Having done that I measured the vac again and was only getting 10in/hg at any rpm.

After a bit of dismantling and measuring with a vacuum test pump I discovered that my governor was actually faulty, so this replacement exercise is actually required after all.

As per previous posts the connection on my new governor is not the same as the Volvo unit so I started there.

I was going to cut and splice the VW connector I got from the scrappy into the loom, but I had a change of heart and decided to make a patch lead just in case I wanted to revert to the original part.

Using the VW connector shown in a previous post, I attached a connector I bought from ebay. I'm sure these could be bought cheaper if you have a Farnell account (or similar), but I was pushed for time.

Comparison of original governor connection and new plug:

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...vernorplug.jpg

Patch lead made from VW plug and new plug:

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...vernorlead.jpg

Turning to the governor itself, once off it looked pretty identical to the VW/Audi part I had bought new. The main difference seemed to be the filter over the vent pipe.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...comparison.jpg

Fortunately the vent filter assembly just clips off and can be fitted to the new part, so here is the new governor ready to fit;

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...withfilter.jpg

Actually, it wasn't ready to fit - the new part has slightly narrower mounting slots although this was easily sorted with a round file.

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...ntingslots.jpg

The new governor with patch lead & filter all fitted:

http://i1072.photobucket.com/albums/...rinstalled.jpg

After a brief test drive I can say that I think the car is stronger in the low/mid range - because the VNT will now be working It's smoother at idle - because the vac engine mounts are working, and I think it's less smoky as well. I am also hoping that the fuel consumption will improve, but only time will tell.

I did notice that when stationary (bonnet up) if I rev the car I can hear a venting type noise (dump valve-esque) when the throttle is released. This was not there before (probably due to no vacuum) and is not audible when driving the car.

I'm also happy to say that the persistent ECM6805 that the car has had has now gone :)

Summary of parts used:

Governor from GSF: £32.82 using discount code offer10

VW/Bosch 2-way connector: £2 from scrapyard

Durite junior timer connector: £5.50

Total= £40.32, and you could probably knock a few quid of that if you source the connector a bit cheaper than I did.

Either way, the cheapest genuine governor seems to come in around around £140 so I've brought it in around £100 less.

Really useful thread .

cheers

Thanks.

It's been really worthwhile for me as I know now the original governor was kaput. My vac pump was knackered too, but that's another story...

I've done a few more miles on the car and it's going really well. Far better low/mid power, no smoke, and no more ECM6805.

Also, the 'dump valve' type noise has more or less gone - it's certainly inaudible from within the car. I assume the ecu has adapted to the new vac pump and governor and is running as it should be again.

The last question for me is whether this will improve my fuel consumption, but I won't know that until I refuel and make the calculation (I don't trust the onboard figures). I can't help but think this can only improve the efficiency.

D5 turbo governor
 

Hi
I'm new to this forum but this thread has worked.
Following your clear links the part from GSF is the exact same number as the volvo original, not the makers number but piedburgs part number.
Replacing this on my S60 d5 has made the car much smoother in the rev range. Have just filled the tank to full and will report back with mpg findings. Previous to this replacement I was getting 38-40mpg average. for the price difference of nearly £120 for Volvos part to the one from GSF this is a bargin.

Thanks again for you post.

You're welcome. It's good to hear that someone else has been able to make this work.

Did you use the more expensive part with the proper connector, or make up a lead?

FWIW my car is still going well (much better than before this fix), but I haven't used it enough to make a decent judgement on improvement in economy (or not).

Hi, the part I used was the £36 one, I used a connector from a scap car (believe it was a 06 plate VW) cut off the Volvo one, leaving enough wire if ever needed to be re-connected, soldered the new connector in place and used heat shrink to insulate the wires. This keeps all wires looking neat and tidy.
Have also noticed the tick over to be smoother. Previous to the replaced governor I thought my rear engine pad was leaky. Reason for this was when I disconnected it and plugged the tube the engine sound changed, with new govenor fitted it makes no difference at all and the vibration felt on tick over before inside the car has now gone. Obviously the governor was leaking air somehow. Have done 130 miles of urban type driving and fuel gauge has not moved like it would have done before. Will only know true figure when I next fill up, but it looks promising.

Silly question but what does FWIW mean?
Cheers

Excellent! - it's a bargain if you are confident/able with a few tools.

Not a silly question, it's an abbreviation of For What It's Worth.

Just an update on how my car is running after this Turbo governor was replaced.
As stated previously the car is much smoother and enjoyable to drive.

Now the BIG test.... MPG?

I have just done 462 miles and decided to fill up. It took 46.2 litres divide that by 4.5 Approx the amount of ltrs to gallons you get 10.2 gallons, 462/10.2 = 45.29mpg

Thats 5mpg more than I was getting before.
So not only was the fix a heck of a lot cheaper but it wont be long before I have saved on my fuel too.

Once again Thanks for the initial info, very helpful


Sorry if anyone thinks I'm dumbing down the working out of mpg, just wanted to show how i do it.

Thanks again for the further update.

Good news that economy seems to have been improved, and all for £40 or so!!

I'll update on my own fuel figures after the next fillup, I'm not really putting too many miles on the car just now.

Apologies for the delay, but having just returned from my annual Hogmanay trip up north I can report that the D5 averaged 43.47 mpg.

That figure is calculated rather than taken from the trip computer, it was reading a (very) optimistic 57 mpg......

Nothing else to report apart from the car is still going very well and there has been no return of my ecm 6805.

Just thought I'd post this one that I did myself using this very useful post!

I obtained all the bits from the above links. GSF provided an excellent 2 day service and were by far the cheapest compared to the same solenoid found on E bay from 2 particular sellers that won't even ship to Northern Ireland. Unfortunately.

I can confirm that the VW connector (last pic) was too small and did not fit. I tried cutting it with a blade but finally failed with the crap pins supplied. Instead I simply used tiny spade connectors and a touch of glue to seal it all in. The Volvo connector side was nice and simple. Also made sure the wires were the correct way around should that have even mattered.

I have extended this patch lead should I wish to mount this solenoid elsewhere away from the engine block with heat and also easier access for future.

Lastly used some handy shrink wrap for the wiring loom to hold it all nice.

http://imageshack.us/a/img6/1095/img1276sl.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img69/3135/img1277xk.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img546/4492/img1278e.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img171/7656/img1279ai.jpg

http://imageshack.us/a/img23/9985/img1280y.jpg

The offending connector:
http://imageshack.us/a/img845/5138/img1281w.jpg

Glad to say I've now covered around 3k miles and no more issues what so ever!

Thanks for that link. I have no obvious symptoms but at 130000 miles I can't imagine the original valve is mint. In the spirit of mindlessly replacing perfectly serviceable parts I bought one (£79 delivered):

http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/e...7-24141032.jpg

I'm on holiday with a different car (but same wife :ani_heart:) and I'm watching this closely. Will be interested to see how it goes, hopefully a lot better. :thumbs_up:

Valve fitted. Filter was gungy so cleaned it up - not easy to remove from the old valve though. I gave the pipe to the actuator a good sucking and could hear it doing something. While I was down there I blanked the EGR mixer with some drinks can. The emissions light came on immediately but goes off with a click of the READ button. First few hard dabs of throttle were smokey but fine after that. Performance is significantly more spritely and it actually felt like it had some go! I've not had the traction control light on before tonight no matter how hard I've driven. My motivation for blanking is the gungy intake - it was spotless 2000 miles ago but now has a thin coating of greasy soot again - though to be fair my oil stays much cleaner than our Galaxy which has less than half the miles on it. FRF are doing D5 clutches for £147 so might get a Shark map with EGR delete. Not sure yet though as really impressed with the improvement made tonight. Thanks again Yosser.

on the old barge having had the Egr mapped out and blanked off with a cherryade can i did not notice any power difference.a lot cleaner Egr mixer.
mike

Could be the effect of my new TGV then. I was going to do the EGR blanking on a separate occasion so I could note the effect my hands were already dirty so I just got on with it. Who did your EGR delete software and was it part of a performance upgrade remap?

yes it was done with Shark plus remap:thumbs_up:
mike

I've had this fitted for a while now and just thought I'd raise the possible non-issue of whooshing/dump valve noises coming from the TGV. Mine starts to whoosh at ~1600 rpm and stops at ~2100 rpm. There is no more noise up to the redline (valve pretty much open - low vac). As the revs fall the whoosh happens again as the rpms cross that 2100 rpm threshold (valve closing to create high vac) . I had got into my head that this was bad but if the valve is going to bleed vac to atmosphere it has to make a noise - and the valve is very active between those points. So isn't whooshing to be expected? Just thinking out loud - my car goes well so I couldn't get my head around the bad "dump valve" sound until I gave it a bit more thought and watched a few of Mikes vac videos.

Quick question...does anyone know if the governor is polarity-sensitive? I'm about to make up my patch lead, but I've only got a 50% likelihood of success if polarity matters...!

It's easy to see the polarity Carl went for, so if no-one knows, I'll just copy his :)

Actually, I just noticed he carefully traced it, which at least answers that his is correct...but I'm still interested to know if anyone knows about the polarity issue, for future reference!

cheers

James

hi yosser
how did you wire the new connector? is it critical on polarity ? is there a correct way round?
or is it fine to connect them however....
all the best
richard

I honestly can't remember now, but I'd be fairly certain that polarity is crucial.

If you have both the old and new valves in front of you when making the final connections on your patch lead then it should be fairly straightforward to ensure the polarity is maintained.

The pin positions on the valves will be the same albeit the connector type is different.

I have followed this article with interest, but there is something that is bugging me, what does this valve actually do, I presume with the power connector it must either open or close the valve at the end, and at what speed/rpm of the engine allowing vacuum to the other connection presumably.
Is there a description any ware of how this valve should work, then I will be able to test its function, rather than just replacing it.
Any info would be rally helpful please.
John

It is a PWM valve. Pulse Width Modulation.

Modern powersupplies switch on and off with a very high frequency. This is what makes e.g. a modern switching welder a quarter of the weight of one from 30 years ago.

Think of it this way: if you switch 12V on and off fast enough on a lightbulb, you can dim it to half its brightness when you turn it on for 1/100th of a second, then off for 1/100th of a second, then on, then off, etc.
But if you turn it ON for 5/100th of a second and then off for 1/100th of a second, it will burn at near full brightness.

This valve does something similar with a vacuum. By switching a vacuum fast enough (actually switching between vacuum and environmental pressure I think), it can regulate the vacuum in the tube to the turbo between a high vacuum (= very low pressure) and environmental pressure. With this it regulates the position of the vanes in the turbo in 100's of steps.
I think you can meassure between the governor and the turbo and it should be 25mmHg at 2000rpm or so. It should be somewhere in other posts about turbo problems.

On a side note, when my 'governor' was broken (tear in the membrane inside), I did not notice any problems. I opened it up hoping to put it back together and seal it again and luckily I found the tear (or I would have screwed up a totally good governor...very little chance of putting it back together). But the new one made no difference whatsoever.
What it did do was cause severe vibration in the needle of the analog vacuum meter I had attached to see how the vacuum was holding up.

You answered 4 years to late,
Dave