Mysterious power loss found

[jbach36]

Not sure if I posted the end solution to the problem I had with power loss on my car.

I live in Atlanta, and the car ran fine. When I drove to the steep hills of VA and W. VA, the car was DYING going up hills, dangerously slow. Other cars were whipping up hills at 70 mpg, and I could only go up at 45; it was literally dangerous; I had to pull off the road at one point.

I posted on the forum, and responses were "probably bad fuel", "they've changed diesel fuel it doesn't have enough power anymore", "there was probably water got in the filling station's fuel", "vacuum leak", and a range of other suggestions.

Thankfully, and by accident, I saw Kent Bergsma's video on YouTube about cleaning your TANK filter. I didn't even know the car had one. I had my general mechanic take the filter out, and sure enough, it was fairly clogged. He cleaned it, put it back in, and the car makes it up the hills of Va/W. VA again.

If you do this, MAKE SURE you have a NEW FILTER and a proper tool on hand, because it's tight to get into that area. You don't want to have your car apart, and find out your filter got damaged when you took it out, and it's going to take 3 days to get one. If anyone needs one, please buy mine. I have the tool and a new filter on hand just in case, but I (thankfully) didn't need it. Email me (not message) if you need it.

1991 300d, 191k

[psaboic]

Thanks for posting the solution to your problem. I always try to do that as well as it is nice (and probably helpful) to others to learn the outcome!

[leathermang]

You should find your old thread and post your solution there... not orphan the ending..

[Lucas]

Planning on doing this when I drop my differential and cv's. Good idea? I have a 115 220d


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[Diesel911]

Originally Posted by jbach36

Not sure if I posted the end solution to the problem I had with power loss on my car.

I live in Atlanta, and the car ran fine. When I drove to the steep hills of VA and W. VA, the car was DYING going up hills, dangerously slow. Other cars were whipping up hills at 70 mpg, and I could only go up at 45; it was literally dangerous; I had to pull off the road at one point.

I posted on the forum, and responses were "probably bad fuel", "they've changed diesel fuel it doesn't have enough power anymore", "there was probably water got in the filling station's fuel", "vacuum leak", and a range of other suggestions.

Thankfully, and by accident, I saw Kent Bergsma's video on YouTube about cleaning your TANK filter. I didn't even know the car had one. I had my general mechanic take the filter out, and sure enough, it was fairly clogged. He cleaned it, put it back in, and the car makes it up the hills of Va/W. VA again.

If you do this, MAKE SURE you have a NEW FILTER and a proper tool on hand, because it's tight to get into that area. You don't want to have your car apart, and find out your filter got damaged when you took it out, and it's going to take 3 days to get one. If anyone needs one, please buy mine. I have the tool and a new filter on hand just in case, but I (thankfully) didn't need it. Email me (not message) if you need it.

1991 300d, 191k

The problem may not be over yet if there is something growing inside of the Fuel Tank.

Startron for Diesels is one of the ones that People have been using that has an Enzyme that breaks up the Organisms into pieces that can pass through even your Spin-on Filter.

Or as suggested the Tank Screen plugging could have been caused by bad Fuel.

[diesel friend]

had algae growth in a tank of a 190D which came from Florida. The algae was filtered out by the first small filter and was clearly visible as a dark brown substance. Also changed the filter in the tank, no screens on the tank filter anymore.

[jbach36]

That way anyone searching will see the end of the story.

[BayouFlyFisher]

Thanks for posting your solution!

[toomany MBZ]

Glad to hear of a relatively cheap/easy fix.

If one sees gritty type stuff in the primary filter, a tank strainer cleaning would be in order, I would think.

This can be done at ones leisure, as opposed to being stranded.

[vstech]

diesel clear...

from power service

or startron for diesel...