Are GDI's crap? HELP!!!

[scrumper]

I picked a V40 GDI as a company car back in 2000, because the tax man liked it better than other models. It had a 3 year lease and at the end I bought it as a family car. Up to this time it had behaved very well and I liked the fuel economy. (Round about 50000 miles). 40 mpg.

Towards the end of 2005 the GDI now had about 80000 mile on it and was now an absolute dog. Erratic idle. lumpy running. Stalling at junctions. After the 80K service I was told it really needed the de-coke and it was all because I had been driving it too gently. It was now idling at about 2000rpm which was a bit embarrasing, with no adjustment possible.

Estimated max cost at the main stealer was about £2k but they expected the actual cost to be less than this. Volvo were prepared to chip in about 25% as the car had a good service history.

The suspension bushes were also getting a bit long in the tooth so after weighing up the options I decided to cut my losses and traded her in for a nice S60. Lovely car, reckon I made the right choice.

Time for an update.

Well not much to tell really, I know as little as I did before. Except one other code was also found and that was to do with compression in No. 4 cylinder.

Now I’m really confused. Is this another problem I need to worry about or is it a red hearing? Who knows, certainly Volvo and the Volvo specialist garage aren’t prepared to give an answer. I understand as it’s partly due to them not knowing 100% and they are trying to cover themselves if the solution they proposed doesn’t work.

Anyway I’m now making a decision and its going to be one of the following:

1. Decoke (approx cost £1,200 - £2,000)
2. New throttle body (approx cost £700 - £1,000)
3. Sell the car.

Not sure what’s going to happen with regards to the latest fault code. The car runs o.k with a slightly erratic idle, its just that I know its not 100% and it worries me in case I’m forced into a situation where the car breaks down and I have a massive garage bill to pay. I must say everything ive read about the Gdi’s is making me very nervous.

If using a higher grade fuel and thrashing the car regularly helps to reduce the carbon problem that totally out weighs the advantage of fuel economy and in that case I might as well buy a turbo diesel.

Sorry I haven’t got a definitive answer to this problem, I hope everyone else has more luck. I will of course post more if relevant or useful.

I forgot to mention something else.

The engine management light went off before the code was cleared. I thought once the light came on the only way to turn it off was to read and then clear the fault code. Thats what the garage also confirmed, very strange. Has this happened to anyone else?

[mengland]

Originally Posted by s40mark

I forgot to mention something else.

The engine management light went off before the code was cleared. I thought once the light came on the only way to turn it off was to read and then clear the fault code. Thats what the garage also confirmed, very strange. Has this happened to anyone else?

This has happened to me before - when my injector broke/was breaking.
The light will come on if the fuel air ratio is outside a set range or if the emission levels are too high. In either of these cases the light my come on and then go off if the problem is corrected. For my case the light came on and off a number of times due to fuel/air ratio. (when the injector finally went the light stayed on, fault was injector number 3 not working, and i obviously noticed a massive change in performance as i limped to the garage).

Although the light goes off the fault that was detected is logged and can be read later.

Marcus.

Originally Posted by mengland

This has happened to me before - when my injector broke/was breaking.
The light will come on if the fuel air ratio is outside a set range or if the emission levels are too high. In either of these cases the light my come on and then go off if the problem is corrected. For my case the light came on and off a number of times due to fuel/air ratio. (when the injector finally went the light stayed on, fault was injector number 3 not working, and i obviously noticed a massive change in performance as i limped to the garage).

Although the light goes off the fault that was detected is logged and can be read later.

Marcus.

Thanks for that reply, it fits in with the last code about cylinder No. 4. I'm trying to figure out whats going on. Also makes sense seeing as other people who have gone the decoke route have suggested changing the injectors at the same time.

Thanks again.

[mengland]

Originally Posted by s40mark

I'm trying to figure out whats going on. Also makes sense seeing as other people who have gone the decoke route have suggested changing the injectors at the same time.

Don't think anyone knows whats going on (not even Volvo). Seems to me if you go to dealer and describe the common problems such as irratic idle and lumpy throttle they recommend the following:
Firstly have it de coked for about £2000, if that doesn't work then change the throttle housing for about £1000, if that doesn't work have all the injectors replaced for about £1000.

When my injector went i took it to a non-volvo place. After reading the code about the injector being broken they suggested (quite sensibly) to replace the injector that had broken. After this was done, the car is still running 1 year (and 25000 miles) later.

I suspect if i took it to Volvo they would have suggested that the injector broke due to the carbon build up and i should have all the injectors replaced and a de-coke. Infact the place i took it said they had tested the injetor (how i don't know?) and it was a fault with the electronics and that it was not blocked.

Guess if volvo suggest de-coke first and it doesn't work they can say something along the lines of "we also noticed that the injectors were slightly blocked and that will probably be causing the faults", as well as being able to show you lots of crud that came from the engine (so you still think it required doing even though it didn't help).

I can see coke build up being a slight problem but there are plenty of GDi's (both volvo and mitsubishi) that have done over 100000 mls with no problems, surely giving it a good thrashing only helps to keep the injectors clean and not the actual engine?? I'm starting to think that a replacement of injectors is a better cure to the problem than the de-coke (backed-up by a previous post in this thread where a de-coke made no difference but problem solved after injectors replaced). Also, while the injectors are being replaced Volvo will surely clean off some of the deposits around where the injector sits so that the new ones can be installed properly.

[DavidMarron]

my light came on and off like a bloody disco.

If I thrashed it I'd clear the light

That's what got me into the decoke in the first place - they didn't change the injectors and the light came back on within a couple of days.
then they replaced one, it came on a few days later so they replaced the others.

[mengland]

Originally Posted by DavidMarron

.

If I thrashed it I'd clear the light

That's what got me into the decoke in the first place - they didn't change the injectors and the light came back on within a couple of days.
then they replaced one, it came on a few days later so they replaced the others.

So... injectors getting blocked/maybe dodgy electronics too??
EMS detects problem with injector or amount of fuel being delivered and puts warning light on.
Good thrashing clears blockage slightly (and as alot more fuel being delivered EMS will be less sensitive to any problems caused by slight fault in delivery timings regulated by electronics) everything seems ok and light goes out.
Repeat...

Take car to volvo about problem.
Volvo read codes and are told the occuring faults are a problem with air/fuel ratios and (possibly) problem with one (or more) of the injectors.
Volvo assume its due to carbon build up and this will fix it (as they will try to unblock injector too) and suggest de-coke.
When this doesn't work they think maybe they should replace the injector that the codes told them wasn't working properly.
When this still doesn't work (maybe fault codes with more than one injector) they think they should replace all of them.
And problem now fixed.

This is only my theory... but seems to make sense to me.

[DEANO]

VOLVO S40 1.8 GDI 1999 99,000 MILES

My gdi has given me 18 months of trouble free motoring but reading about what trouble a gdi engine can cause makes me think i should sell mine before any trouble starts.

DEANO

[mengland]

Can i ask what 'sort' of driver you are, do you like to put your foot down?

Also, do you know if it had any work done like de-coke or injector replacement before you got it?

If it's done 99,000 with no problems and you like the car, can't see why you'd sell.