Re:Tonka's poorly

Went out for the day last Friday and reached Worcester (15 Miles) when motor cut out. Backed off throttle and motor resumed. Struggled through one lane system on roadworks when she resumed after dipping clutch and pumping throttle. Continued on but motor obviously struggling so turned back.Reached Redditch with serious loss of power. could be coaxed up to 50 mph but only slowly. Drop to 40 and full throttle and she died; back off and she picked up. Booked into dealer next wednesday.

All suggestions gratefully received.

Roger

ps. Tonka is a gen.4 with 1800 miles.

Sounds like either blocked fuel line or blocked air filter. Unless something has gone wrong with the ECU or a sensor.

Sorry to hear about your problem, the dealer is the answer if it's in warranty, it's also feeds any issues into Suzuki's system on new vehicles.

This modern stuffs a pain if the diagnostic software is poorly written, the ECU has carte blanche to do what it wants with the engine and it's not always clear why. The G3 typically never puts up error codes for failed or fault sensors, I guess it's just not in the software to do so.

My last car (VWpolo) had the problem your are describing, turned out the cooling fan was not plugged in (new car!). No Temperature gauge on this modern stuff, only over temp warning light. ECU detected hot temperature and backed off engine performance accordingly, even to the point that the car would not rev ( side of roadworks ). Never turned on the over temp warning light as ECU prevented this, no error codes. Net result is I had a car for two years with a random power loss fault. Poorly written diagnostic software, only found the issue by chance..
So much for advanced diagnostic ECU control, what was wrong with a temperature gauge?

Mike

Roger you are not the first.

My experience was merging into a motorway @ 100kph,
I think the thermo-fan cut in, then the motor cut out.
No response to depressing the throttle, so I backed off looking for somewhere to run-off the motorway, but the motor came back, I regained the speed of 80kph only!
I monitor voltages, merging 12.1V, at cut-out 11.8V and dropping, after the resumption of power 12.2V.

My Initial Diagnosis was loose wire or bad connection in the Alternator/Regulator/ECU, I move harness, the problem changes.

I suggest monitoring voltages if you have electrical anomalies.
There are anecdotal reports of the motor shutting down at 11.5V!

My car then spent 15 days in the workshop, no fault was found!

Update.
Doc. Robins comment made me think of a situation from many years ago when a fuel filler cap stopped venting and tried to create a vacuum in the tank. This situation has caused tanks to implode so I checked the cap on Tanka and all appeared ok. I then drove her for about 10 miles using 5,000 rpm where possible and up to 80 mph.

Not a flutter, not a cough, not even a stutter. Back to base, jump out and unscrew fuel cap. No hissing.

Point to note. On startup from cold engine cooling fan came on within a few seconds and that it should not do.

Roger

Roger Fairclough wrote: Update.

Point to note. On startup from cold engine cooling fan came on within a few seconds and that it should not do.

Roger

Not accidentally caught the A/C button have you? I know that won't solve your problem, but will explain the fan coming on whilst cold.

GeorgeC wrote: Roger you are not the first.

My experience was merging into a motorway @ 100kph,
I think the thermo-fan cut in, then the motor cut out.
No response to depressing the throttle, so I backed off looking for somewhere to run-off the motorway, but the motor came back, I regained the speed of 80kph only!
I monitor voltages, merging 12.1V, at cut-out 11.8V and dropping, after the resumption of power 12.2V.

My Initial Diagnosis was loose wire or bad connection in the Alternator/Regulator/ECU, I move harness, the problem changes.

I suggest monitoring voltages if you have electrical anomalies.
There are anecdotal reports of the motor shutting down at 11.5V!

My car then spent 15 days in the workshop, no fault was found!

I imagined i had an invisible friend once. Weird.

Cheers Soeley and Martin.Yes we have had the aircon on auto and a quick check shows the cooling fan comes on as described and off when aircon switched off.That at least is a problem solved.

cheers

Roger