Hi again!
Ok, symptoms:
When climbing a long hill at high rpm the car (2.5td) invariably after only a few seconds starts to squeal, and gradually loses rather a lot of power until I have to practically crawl up the hill in what I would normally drive up at 70mph. Removing and reapplying load on the engine stops the squeal, so it sounds like it's air/fuel dependant not engine speed dependant. When I have prompted the fault to start the car then struggles to rev. If i keep changing down the gears and keep the accelerator pressed into the carpet as the speed drops off, the squeal gets worse and eventually the car starts misfiring at which point common sense kicks in and i start treating the car with the respect it deserves. Often when i get home, even without the abuse mentioned just now, the car is clearly overheating as it stinks under the bonnet and water is bubbling around the engine. of course the temp reads perfectly normal the whole time. Oh, and occasionally, despite abusing the car the fault will magically vanish and the power will come back with some urgency allowing me to quickly speed back up to the 70-80 mph i was doing up the hill before the problem starts.
So, from reading the forum I have come to one conclusion:
Could it be the fan clutch?
It would cause the loss in power (although not sure if it could cause such a significant loss), forcing the fan to spin too quick could cause the squealing belt??
And if it suddenly freed up while being revved it would give me all my power back without any engine lights coming on.
Dunno.
What you think?
Oh, the fan is sometimes stiff to turn by hand with the engine off. Oh. That was a stupid thing to say. You wouldn't turn it by hand with the engine running would you.
Anyways,
please would someone reply and just say yeah, think you're right. Or, but it could be...

I would love to know if there's any other "but it could be's" before i go and fit a new one!

Might actually take the belt off if i can to test it (good idea or bad idea? It has an electric fan too)

Many thanks

Russ

 

It's not your fan clutch.
Your symptoms looks more like a turbo problem (loosing power), I used to drive a L200 pick up (same engine) and have the same problem, check your turbo.

 

Thanks for the advice... Is there a part of it which is replaceable? I wonder as the fault can rectify itself when under load and it sometimes does it from cold just driving up the hill straight out my driveway. I like what you said though as it does only do it under load, i.e. when the turbo is working overtime. What sort of part would start working sometimes even while under the load i was asking of it.

Thanks a million...

 

Wicked right, I'm sure you're right, I just did about 15 miles feathering the throttle, trying my hardest not to put any load on the engine past the revs (if you know what i mean) and it never skipped a beat, even when driving a 2 mile stretch at 4000 rpm then, just as i was coming home, one last hill, full throttle, and she just raced up like a cork out a bottle. Great stuff. So, it's definitely only when you ask for more revs than you got, i.e. when the turbo is doing all the work that the problem happens.
MUCHOS GRACIAS RSOTO.

So, anyone got any idea what the problem with the turbo is, and how I can fix it this side of dropping the car at Mitsubishi for a month?!
Thanks again folks