Good evening everyone,
First of all I want to say thank you to bring me the chance to write in this very interesting forum, that has a lot of information and where I found that there are a lot of colleagues sharing information and why not, all their experiences.
Second, you probably will find that my English is not good enough, so my apologies for that (I’m not a friend of Google translator, so everything it’s on my own).
And third, I’m sorry if this post is very long, but I need to write exactly how this happen, and what I have done all this time to leave this creature working as I was expecting (in other words, like it should be working).
This is due because at this point, I’m looking for help (and I really need it).
Besides the official intro that I made a few weeks ago, my name is Mariano, I’m 39 years old and I’m from Argentina. Currently, and during the week, I’m working from my country as a pre/post support engineer for a computer related Dutch company, and every Saturday I’m working as a mechanic in my garage. This was a project that I started since five years ago with my cousin, and it’s part of my weekly therapy ?
The truth is that the Captiva LT (not LTZ as I mentioned in my signature) is from my parents, and my real car is an old (but quite good) Renault 21 TXE (J6R engine) that I modified with a programmable ECU, a better camshaft, and has some parts from the Turbo version, that I imported one by one from UK. This was my first car and even when I know that it’s a very old car, I really love it and fortunately I can still using it here in my country (we don’t have a hard pollution laws here… yet).
Well, the story begins by the end of 2017, when my stepfather called me to ask me about a 2011 Chevrolet Captiva VCDi. I have mentioned to him that I has no experience with it but it seems to be a very good car. Then he asked me if I could go with him to see the car and only with my OK he will be buying it.
We meet the sales guys in the store, it was not an official Chevrolet, they sell used cars and We tested the Captiva for a while. The truth is that I felt that the turbo was not quite good (too much hiss on throttle) and probably the car had a lot of miles on it, but I felt good, it has a good response, everything was working good and with exception on the start (not too much, and by the way, was very fast starting) there were no black or blue smoke behind.
Still, I had my doubts, but my parents were very excited that they will changing the old KIA Sportage and after testing the Captiva I give to them my OK to get the new vehicle.
Today, I’m very embarrassed because of my choice, but I’m assuming my mistakes and I’m trying to help them to solve it.
After one month, and as I felt it before, the turbo blowed up. I did not have the time, so they send the Captiva to their usual garage. They repaired the Turbo, but the P0045 DTC code appears and there was no way to quit it. I have 2 generic scanners, that I have used to clear the code, but the appears on every start up.
The Captiva seemed to worked fine, but on the next month, more problems appears, such as fuel pressure problems, particle filter errors, the turbo problem (P0045) and during a travel to the beach, the gear box had problems and the beautiful Captiva has towed for about 400Km until it reach my parent’s house.
Then they claimed to the seller, who said that he will be taking care of the vehicle, and the Captiva was in the seller’s garage for about 4 more months, and they only fixed the gear box.
During the last travel to my parents house, the gearbox has been stuck again, so they have the car 3 more months, the gearbox was finally fixed, but the car started to work like an old diesel locomotive… on every throttle there was a large amount of black smoke on behind, no power, and a knocking rod….
The car sleept till the end of 2018, moment in that tired of this, and having in mind that there will be no return of the money, they decided to leave me the car in my garage. They said that they want to fix it, so the car is in my hands since almost one year.
This was in January of 2019, and working only on Saturdays (and sharing the day with other serviceable cars) we did this…
1) Engine dismantling: We found that the connecting rod from cylinder number 3 had a lot wear in the piston bolt, and that’s why the engine was knocking. Cylinder 1 and 4 had a lot of wear (taking the piston from the head, I was able to move it on X and Y axis) so probably the rings have been in end of life.
Cylinder head wasn’t bad, there was no problems with valves, valve guides, camshaft, followers, etc. Everything was fine.
The clutch was almost dying, also the flywheel, so we pulled put to repair it.
We sent the complete engine assy. for a complete rebuilding (2 months, hard to find parts)
2) In the meaning time, an engine bay clean up was made and also we double check the wire harness and all the damaged zones have been repaired.
3) We checked the exhaust components: there were no more DPF (was empty) and no CAT converters. Only the final muffler.
We made a complete clean up to the EGR valve, tested it. It was not blocked but we pulled out a lot of carbon deposits from it.
4) Fuel pump and injectors: We checked the primary fuel pump (the one from the tank) and found that it was working at 5psi, very good. Then fuel filter was completely clogged, so we changed it.
Then we have sent the HP fuel pump and injectors to a laboratory. They found that the injectors had a lot of return flow (not good as they said) so the needles have been changed, and the fuel pump received a maintenance (clean and new seals). Everything was tested in the lab. and seems to be working fine again.
So, the engine arrived, with a complete rebuilding. Cylinder liners have been rectified (don’t know if this is the correct term) plus 0.5mm with new pistons also with plus 0.5mm of diameter.
The crankshaft was OK, only the bearings has been changed and regarding the piston rods they only changed the piston bolts. The rest of the engine was OK, including the oil pump and the harmonic balancer.
A complete cleanup was made to the rest of the engine and cylinder head.
The engine was installed again in the engine bay, with the gearbox, then we have installed the cylinder head, exhaust manifold with the turbo, new water pump, timing belt using the timing tools, high pressure fuel pump, injectors, valve cover, intake manifold, sensors, wire harness, etc.
Once everything was connected, we have purged the fuel line up to the injectors, and then started the engine. It took 5 o 6 attempts and then started, idling perfect!
There was good oil pressure, alternator voltage, water circulation, so everything seemed to be fine. After 10 minutes, we tried to start the engine several times, and immediately the engine fires up and stays in a perfect idle state.
No black or blue smoke behind, until we tried to push the throttle pedal….
We found that the engine never revs up more than 1800 RPM, it feels like a rev limiter in that range, and even if you try to push more the pedal, it keeps there, and if you leave it there, the engine starts to knock (the ignition effect, not because of a mechanical problem of the engine).
Behind the car there’s a lot of black smoke and it impossible to breath there…
What we have done trying to solve the issue:
1) Checked the battery voltage with the engine idle it’s in 14.3V, and accelerating rises 15V. Seems to be fine.
2) We already knew that the DFP was empty and there’s no cat converters installed, so there is no blocked exhaust system in this car.
3) The EGR valve it’s not blocked and we have cleaned up. Also, we took it off the engine and we have seal the inlet side and the exhaust side, and the problem remains the same.
4) We double check the engine timing position and it’s perfect, in fact, the engine starts inmediately.
5) We check the CKP sensor signal: there’s a clean signal, also with the engine idling and accelerating.
6) Checked the Phase sensor in the camshaft, and we get a clean signal when the engine is idling and accelerating.
7) Water temperature sensor was checked and has a normal resistance at room temp. There is no open circuit or extreme low/high resistance, also with the engine warm.
8) Changed the MAF for the same brand and type. We also checked the frecuency in both MAFs and it’s exactly the same idling or rising the 1800RPM.
9) We changed the MAP sensor, that also includes the IAT and the measurement with both scanners was the same in both cases.
10) We found that the P0045 (TURBO / SUPER CHARGER BOOST CONTROL SOLENOID CIRCUIT / OPEN) wasn’t a circuit problem in the electronic actuator or in the wire harness, it was a working position related error (if you leave the lever that connect the actuator with the variable geometry, the error disappears), so we dismantle the repaired turbo, assembly it again, and seems that now it’s working in the right position.
11) With the electronic actuator lever disconnected, we tried to throttle the engine changing the turbo geometry and of course, when the turbo push more air, the black smoke disappears, so it seems to be that there is an excess of fuel, but the rev limiter still there.
12) In some occasions, a new DTC code appears, P0402 - Exhaust Gas Recirculation Flow Excessive Detected, but I’m assuming it’s because the excessive black smoke in the exhaust side.
13) We have also checked the vacuum pump, to see if there is oil leaks, or no vacuum, but this works fine.
14) I tried to run some of the special functions of my scanners, such as the DPF cleaning, clean the ECU adaptive memory, but nothing gave us results.
15) Also, we started to think that the problem could be that the car has the front side dismantled, so we have connected the external air temperature sensor, and also we have emulated that the hood it’s closed.
Probably, there is a hidden error that our scanners are not showing us, but I have no chance to get the GM scanner from a colleague.
I have read a lot of threads in this forum, and also in internet, but I could not find much more information about what to do.
Any suggestion or tip on how to move forward with this issue, I will really appreciated!
Thank you!
First of all I want to say thank you to bring me the chance to write in this very interesting forum, that has a lot of information and where I found that there are a lot of colleagues sharing information and why not, all their experiences.
Second, you probably will find that my English is not good enough, so my apologies for that (I’m not a friend of Google translator, so everything it’s on my own).
And third, I’m sorry if this post is very long, but I need to write exactly how this happen, and what I have done all this time to leave this creature working as I was expecting (in other words, like it should be working).
This is due because at this point, I’m looking for help (and I really need it).
Besides the official intro that I made a few weeks ago, my name is Mariano, I’m 39 years old and I’m from Argentina. Currently, and during the week, I’m working from my country as a pre/post support engineer for a computer related Dutch company, and every Saturday I’m working as a mechanic in my garage. This was a project that I started since five years ago with my cousin, and it’s part of my weekly therapy ?
The truth is that the Captiva LT (not LTZ as I mentioned in my signature) is from my parents, and my real car is an old (but quite good) Renault 21 TXE (J6R engine) that I modified with a programmable ECU, a better camshaft, and has some parts from the Turbo version, that I imported one by one from UK. This was my first car and even when I know that it’s a very old car, I really love it and fortunately I can still using it here in my country (we don’t have a hard pollution laws here… yet).
Well, the story begins by the end of 2017, when my stepfather called me to ask me about a 2011 Chevrolet Captiva VCDi. I have mentioned to him that I has no experience with it but it seems to be a very good car. Then he asked me if I could go with him to see the car and only with my OK he will be buying it.
We meet the sales guys in the store, it was not an official Chevrolet, they sell used cars and We tested the Captiva for a while. The truth is that I felt that the turbo was not quite good (too much hiss on throttle) and probably the car had a lot of miles on it, but I felt good, it has a good response, everything was working good and with exception on the start (not too much, and by the way, was very fast starting) there were no black or blue smoke behind.
Still, I had my doubts, but my parents were very excited that they will changing the old KIA Sportage and after testing the Captiva I give to them my OK to get the new vehicle.
Today, I’m very embarrassed because of my choice, but I’m assuming my mistakes and I’m trying to help them to solve it.
After one month, and as I felt it before, the turbo blowed up. I did not have the time, so they send the Captiva to their usual garage. They repaired the Turbo, but the P0045 DTC code appears and there was no way to quit it. I have 2 generic scanners, that I have used to clear the code, but the appears on every start up.
The Captiva seemed to worked fine, but on the next month, more problems appears, such as fuel pressure problems, particle filter errors, the turbo problem (P0045) and during a travel to the beach, the gear box had problems and the beautiful Captiva has towed for about 400Km until it reach my parent’s house.
Then they claimed to the seller, who said that he will be taking care of the vehicle, and the Captiva was in the seller’s garage for about 4 more months, and they only fixed the gear box.
During the last travel to my parents house, the gearbox has been stuck again, so they have the car 3 more months, the gearbox was finally fixed, but the car started to work like an old diesel locomotive… on every throttle there was a large amount of black smoke on behind, no power, and a knocking rod….
The car sleept till the end of 2018, moment in that tired of this, and having in mind that there will be no return of the money, they decided to leave me the car in my garage. They said that they want to fix it, so the car is in my hands since almost one year.
This was in January of 2019, and working only on Saturdays (and sharing the day with other serviceable cars) we did this…
1) Engine dismantling: We found that the connecting rod from cylinder number 3 had a lot wear in the piston bolt, and that’s why the engine was knocking. Cylinder 1 and 4 had a lot of wear (taking the piston from the head, I was able to move it on X and Y axis) so probably the rings have been in end of life.
Cylinder head wasn’t bad, there was no problems with valves, valve guides, camshaft, followers, etc. Everything was fine.
The clutch was almost dying, also the flywheel, so we pulled put to repair it.
We sent the complete engine assy. for a complete rebuilding (2 months, hard to find parts)
2) In the meaning time, an engine bay clean up was made and also we double check the wire harness and all the damaged zones have been repaired.
3) We checked the exhaust components: there were no more DPF (was empty) and no CAT converters. Only the final muffler.
We made a complete clean up to the EGR valve, tested it. It was not blocked but we pulled out a lot of carbon deposits from it.
4) Fuel pump and injectors: We checked the primary fuel pump (the one from the tank) and found that it was working at 5psi, very good. Then fuel filter was completely clogged, so we changed it.
Then we have sent the HP fuel pump and injectors to a laboratory. They found that the injectors had a lot of return flow (not good as they said) so the needles have been changed, and the fuel pump received a maintenance (clean and new seals). Everything was tested in the lab. and seems to be working fine again.
So, the engine arrived, with a complete rebuilding. Cylinder liners have been rectified (don’t know if this is the correct term) plus 0.5mm with new pistons also with plus 0.5mm of diameter.
The crankshaft was OK, only the bearings has been changed and regarding the piston rods they only changed the piston bolts. The rest of the engine was OK, including the oil pump and the harmonic balancer.
A complete cleanup was made to the rest of the engine and cylinder head.
The engine was installed again in the engine bay, with the gearbox, then we have installed the cylinder head, exhaust manifold with the turbo, new water pump, timing belt using the timing tools, high pressure fuel pump, injectors, valve cover, intake manifold, sensors, wire harness, etc.
Once everything was connected, we have purged the fuel line up to the injectors, and then started the engine. It took 5 o 6 attempts and then started, idling perfect!
There was good oil pressure, alternator voltage, water circulation, so everything seemed to be fine. After 10 minutes, we tried to start the engine several times, and immediately the engine fires up and stays in a perfect idle state.
No black or blue smoke behind, until we tried to push the throttle pedal….
We found that the engine never revs up more than 1800 RPM, it feels like a rev limiter in that range, and even if you try to push more the pedal, it keeps there, and if you leave it there, the engine starts to knock (the ignition effect, not because of a mechanical problem of the engine).
Behind the car there’s a lot of black smoke and it impossible to breath there…
What we have done trying to solve the issue:
1) Checked the battery voltage with the engine idle it’s in 14.3V, and accelerating rises 15V. Seems to be fine.
2) We already knew that the DFP was empty and there’s no cat converters installed, so there is no blocked exhaust system in this car.
3) The EGR valve it’s not blocked and we have cleaned up. Also, we took it off the engine and we have seal the inlet side and the exhaust side, and the problem remains the same.
4) We double check the engine timing position and it’s perfect, in fact, the engine starts inmediately.
5) We check the CKP sensor signal: there’s a clean signal, also with the engine idling and accelerating.
6) Checked the Phase sensor in the camshaft, and we get a clean signal when the engine is idling and accelerating.
7) Water temperature sensor was checked and has a normal resistance at room temp. There is no open circuit or extreme low/high resistance, also with the engine warm.
8) Changed the MAF for the same brand and type. We also checked the frecuency in both MAFs and it’s exactly the same idling or rising the 1800RPM.
9) We changed the MAP sensor, that also includes the IAT and the measurement with both scanners was the same in both cases.
10) We found that the P0045 (TURBO / SUPER CHARGER BOOST CONTROL SOLENOID CIRCUIT / OPEN) wasn’t a circuit problem in the electronic actuator or in the wire harness, it was a working position related error (if you leave the lever that connect the actuator with the variable geometry, the error disappears), so we dismantle the repaired turbo, assembly it again, and seems that now it’s working in the right position.
11) With the electronic actuator lever disconnected, we tried to throttle the engine changing the turbo geometry and of course, when the turbo push more air, the black smoke disappears, so it seems to be that there is an excess of fuel, but the rev limiter still there.
12) In some occasions, a new DTC code appears, P0402 - Exhaust Gas Recirculation Flow Excessive Detected, but I’m assuming it’s because the excessive black smoke in the exhaust side.
13) We have also checked the vacuum pump, to see if there is oil leaks, or no vacuum, but this works fine.
14) I tried to run some of the special functions of my scanners, such as the DPF cleaning, clean the ECU adaptive memory, but nothing gave us results.
15) Also, we started to think that the problem could be that the car has the front side dismantled, so we have connected the external air temperature sensor, and also we have emulated that the hood it’s closed.
Probably, there is a hidden error that our scanners are not showing us, but I have no chance to get the GM scanner from a colleague.
I have read a lot of threads in this forum, and also in internet, but I could not find much more information about what to do.
Any suggestion or tip on how to move forward with this issue, I will really appreciated!
Thank you!