OldManWinter
Veteran Member
= a crappy day.
Was just heading out on leg two of a three day trip across Canada from BC to Winnipeg when as we were leaving Calgary the Glow plug light started flashing, the engine lost power and the Check Engine! message came on, just after filling up with Diesel.
Called roadside assistance, waited for two hours in the freezing cold, with small children in the car, thank goodness we'd packed blankets and all their winter gear.
Got towed to a dealership and waited 5 hours for a diagnosis.
At first they thought the diesel I filled up with had gas in it, after some testing it turns out to have had water in it. The water trap did it's job, but at highway speeds at -20c the water in the intercooler froze and the turbo was starved for air. They thawed and drained the intercooler & water trap, cleaned the intercooler with break cleaner and reassembled everything. Got the rest of the water out of the gas tank, called the gas station and complained to them. Their diesel tank was low after the holidays and the pump must've sucked up the water.
I'm not convinced that the water in the intercooler came from the diesel, I thought the intercooler was where air form outside got further cooled before going in to the engine. the day before the problem we drove ~700km through the mountains and had a lot of slushy wet snow splashed all over the front of the car from big pick up truck drivers going too fast. I know they were going too fast because I saw one in the ditch and another with his truck smashed, he slid into oncoming traffic.
We got on the road at about 5:30pm and still made nearly 600km that night and made another 900 today, it's great to be home.
I'm so glad that the car is happy and that we drove 4,500km round trip in the dead of winter with only the one minor (in retrospect) incident.
On a happy note, the car is a LOT of fun in the mountains with the 6 speed manual.
Was just heading out on leg two of a three day trip across Canada from BC to Winnipeg when as we were leaving Calgary the Glow plug light started flashing, the engine lost power and the Check Engine! message came on, just after filling up with Diesel.
Called roadside assistance, waited for two hours in the freezing cold, with small children in the car, thank goodness we'd packed blankets and all their winter gear.
Got towed to a dealership and waited 5 hours for a diagnosis.
At first they thought the diesel I filled up with had gas in it, after some testing it turns out to have had water in it. The water trap did it's job, but at highway speeds at -20c the water in the intercooler froze and the turbo was starved for air. They thawed and drained the intercooler & water trap, cleaned the intercooler with break cleaner and reassembled everything. Got the rest of the water out of the gas tank, called the gas station and complained to them. Their diesel tank was low after the holidays and the pump must've sucked up the water.
I'm not convinced that the water in the intercooler came from the diesel, I thought the intercooler was where air form outside got further cooled before going in to the engine. the day before the problem we drove ~700km through the mountains and had a lot of slushy wet snow splashed all over the front of the car from big pick up truck drivers going too fast. I know they were going too fast because I saw one in the ditch and another with his truck smashed, he slid into oncoming traffic.
We got on the road at about 5:30pm and still made nearly 600km that night and made another 900 today, it's great to be home.
I'm so glad that the car is happy and that we drove 4,500km round trip in the dead of winter with only the one minor (in retrospect) incident.
On a happy note, the car is a LOT of fun in the mountains with the 6 speed manual.
