Is220d poor mpg poor low revs

[Mark c]

Hi Guys first time posting on the forum but wanted to share my experience. I have a 07 Is220d for almost a year now with 120k. I drive about 400 mile per week motorway driving. 

When I got the car it wasn't great so got it remapped. I then got it carbon cleaned through the air box and put some fuel cleaner in it to and still not great. Low revs poor. Couldn't get 40mpg no matter what I done. Monday night I decided to pull of the egr valve and it was totally blocked. The fuel cleaner and 1 hour carbon clean was useless. I soaked the egr valve in brake cleaner and also the steel pipe. Used a tooth brush to get as much carbon off the manifold. Put it all back together and I'm now getting 50 mpg at 75mph. Takes any gear at low revs. Different car. It took me about 2 hours and it's only 6 nuts.

Hope this helps some of yous.

[Shahpor]

Welcome

Yep, the egr system on these diesel cars is not good.  Wish I could block mine off somehow, but of course, it is not that simple.  I am currently get 38mpg with a mixture of a roads and motorway driving.

I cleaned my egr when I got the car a year ago, and then did 5000 mostly motorway miles on it before taking it apart for another look;  again, it was covered in soot.

As mine is about to hit 120k miles, I can't help but wonder what condition the inside of the inlet manifold is.  If it anything like the bit you can see when you take the egr off, then it is in terrible shape.  In fact, there are a few pictures floating about on this forum where the inlet port is almost completely blocked.  If I knew for sure that this was the case, I would try and get it cleaned out, but it costs too much to just do without proof.

What I really need is an endoscope with a small enough head and good resolution to have a look inside.  Did try one a while back, but the head was too big to fit around the corner of the manifold.

[Monocle]

I'm not a mechanic by any means but I do enjoy tinkering!

The 220D gets a lot of stick here and rightly so. But if you have time and patience, you can do a few things to get the most out of it. Most of which I have learned here! I love my IS but have had to accept its limitations. It's now on 140,000 miles and I'm in the middle of a TLC project to keep it going for another few years. 

I religiously clean the EGR valve every 5000 miles and sometimes more frequently if I'm at something else in the engine - it's such an easy job. 

I recently pulled the inlet manifold off and cleaned it as well as as much of the inlet ports as I could. It was a big enough job taking about 10 hours total. I took a power hose to the inlet manifold to get as much carbon off as possible - probably not best practice!

The reason I did the job was because the car was coughing when accelerating at around 50/60mph in 4th/5th. Since the job has been completed, it has only happened once in ten weeks. It was happening nearly every time previously. 

Thinking about trying the exhaust manifold next and the second EGR valve. It looks like an easier job than the inlet. 

Here are a few photos. They are not great I'm afraid but will give you a rough idea. 

Photo 1: The manifold itself removed. I had started cleaning the 5th and 6th ports

Photo 2: Inlet ports. Right pair cleaned almost fully

Photo 3: Inlet ports (not sure why it's upside down). As you look at it, the right four have been almost fully cleaned

Photo 4: I'll type this up if someone is interested

 

[Shahpor]

Wow, that is some good tinkering there!

I would like to do this, but I am too chicken since I can't afford to get it wrong.

Good to see some pictures to get an idea though.

It would be useful to have the list typed up, if you don't mind.

Thanks.

[Monocle]

I'll post in a separate thread.