What have you done to your Elgrand today?

[Lpgc]

Not on my own Elgrand but on a customer Elgrand... It was brought to me on a trailer a few days ago running terrible, the owner (who is on here but I won't say who it is, they can identify themselves if they wish) thought the problem might be plugs/coil packs. I did some diagnostics... The LPG ECU had logged that petrol injector pulse duration was very short compared to normal for any given manifold pressure. I did my usual electronic cat test which revealed bank2 was flowing more air than bank1, meaning it was possible there was a front cat blockage on bank1 (the owner said rear cats had already been decored). I removed the drivers side (bank1) rear cat section, no cat debris in there, I stuck a bit of pipe through it, yes it was decored, stuck a camera through it to confirm no bits of cat in it, it was clear. Managed to stick the camera up the exhaust to see the rear end of the front cat on the drivers side, it looked normal. Still it seemed to me (due to the other evidence) that the front drivers side (B1) cat was blocked, so I removed it, drilled the spot welds and corner seam welds holding the heat shield around it, cut it open, decored it, welded the cuts in the cat, put the heat shield back on re-welded the spot welds and seem welds. During the decore I could see that indeed the cat material was damaged, melted in places, even though this wasn't evident when I checked with the camera, so it was already seeming I'd done the right thing. The owner had supplied new plugs and coil packs, the plenum has to come off anyway to remove the front cat(s) the way I do it (which is more or less the same way that I did the write up about years ago). While I had the plugs out I did a compression test, all good at around 200psi and all well within 10% of each other. I did notice that the coil lead to number 3 cylinder could have maybe been loose but I was fitting the new coil packs and plugs anyway. Put it back together with the drivers side front cat now decored, new plugs and coil packs, she ran sweet. Took it for a test drive, all good! The owner will be able to collect and drive it home now instead of having it collected on a trailer and then scrapping it. Good result, the owner is very happy

 

[Richard Fox]

Same here today ,looked on eBay yesterday at£99, got a 10% off offer today so rude not to at £89

Good deal buddy, I had to pay 134 euros!

 

[Highway Dave]

Not on my own Elgrand but on a customer Elgrand... It was brought to me on a trailer a few days ago running terrible, the owner (who is on here but I won't say who it is, they can identify themselves if they wish) thought the problem might be plugs/coil packs. I did some diagnostics... The LPG ECU had logged that petrol injector pulse duration was very short compared to normal for any given manifold pressure. I did my usual electronic cat test which revealed bank2 was flowing more air than bank1, meaning it was possible there was a front cat blockage on bank1 (the owner said rear cats had already been decored). I removed the drivers side (bank1) rear cat section, no cat debris in there, I stuck a bit of pipe through it, yes it was decored, stuck a camera through it to confirm no bits of cat in it, it was clear. Managed to stick the camera up the exhaust to see the rear end of the front cat on the drivers side, it looked normal. Still it seemed to me (due to the other evidence) that the front drivers side (B1) cat was blocked, so I removed it, drilled the spot welds and corner seam welds holding the heat shield around it, cut it open, decored it, welded the cuts in the cat, put the heat shield back on re-welded the spot welds and seem welds. During the decore I could see that indeed the cat material was damaged, melted in places, even though this wasn't evident when I checked with the camera, so it was already seeming I'd done the right thing. The owner had supplied new plugs and coil packs, the plenum has to come off anyway to remove the front cat(s) the way I do it (which is more or less the same way that I did the write up about years ago). While I had the plugs out I did a compression test, all good at around 200psi and all well within 10% of each other. I did notice that the coil lead to number 3 cylinder could have maybe been loose but I was fitting the new coil packs and plugs anyway. Put it back together with the drivers side front cat now decored, new plugs and coil packs, she ran sweet. Took it for a test drive, all good! The owner will be able to collect and drive it home now instead of having it collected on a trailer and then scrapping it. Good result, the owner is very happy

Caught it just in time then simon.
What makes a cat clogg or melt rather than crumble, oil, rich mixture ??
I’ve known garages put cleaners in when they suspect clogging or blockage often making things worse.
Nice to know this one has possibly been saved

 

[Lpgc]

Caught it just in time then simon.
What makes a cat clogg or melt rather than crumble, oil, rich mixture ??
I’ve known garages put cleaners in when they suspect clogging or blockage often making things worse.
Nice to know this one has possibly been saved

Obviously they melt due to high temperature. In this case I reckon the high temperature was caused one or more of 1. some pre-existing partial blockage inside the cat, 2 if the coil on cylinder 3 wasn't properly connected (or if there was a misfire on any of cylinders 1/3/5 on bank 1 due to an ignition problem) it would cause that cylinder to pump air and fuel into the cat on bank 1.

Yes mate like you I doubt a cleaning potion would have helped at any stage.

Caught it in time but then again it would hardly run as it was, so it probably wasn't like the owner would've been driving it around while the problem got much worse. I do reckon we caught it in time though, it doesn't seem to smoke etc.