Sluggish(2) Fiat Multipla 1.9JTD

By a bizarre coincidence whilst I was busy cleaning the huge amount of gunk in the rubber seals around the Terrano driver's window, my immediate neighbour's son comes up and says-well, my Fiat is misbehaving. When I enquired what was up with his 47,000 Fiat, it came as a surprise to learn that he was having similar problems as I am with the Terrano (hopefully sorted out later this week). (And many thanks for those replies,too) Apparently in the last week he suddenly loses power when in 5th gear and a red light comes on - I believe the pre heat warning light. His Fiat specialist is,alarmingly perhaps, not immediately sure what is up-and it is still in their garage. It always occurs when he is accelerating ( the limited extent that 5th will,presumably). As the son is going to oblige and fit new taps to the kitchen sink, I promised to post his predicament to see whether anyone else has heard of this issue Cheers Robin

On this application- you'll more than likely find the MAF (mass airflow sensor) is faulty. Fairly common problem on this car. (Assuming no undue smoke or other running problems) This would be a permanant fault though- you could reproduce it at will.

What happens is they provide perfect output to the ECU upto a certain airflow but then stick- increased airflow doesnt give a higher output- so the ecu carries on fuelling for less load than there is- reduced power.

On the JTD also check that no pre-turbo inlet hoses have gone soft from oil contamination etc and are collapsing when the turbo is sucking hard- most likely in a higher gear- which is also fairly common. I've seen the underbonnet sound insulation drooping and being sucked over the inlet. This fault will produce lots of black smoke.

Both causes will illuminate the MIL.

Otherwise he'll need to get the fault memory checked.

Tim..