Questionhi again yes i am in europe the the car is 1991 engine is a 2.5i regular 95 unleaded petrol but also as a lpg gas conversion so i can switch from petrol to lpg, it runs the same on petrol or lpg sluggish, yes i just checked the codes after reading one of your other anwsers, are as follows 17 bad thermosat senser, 21 bad oxygen senser, 25 vacuem leak, 31 bad evaperater purge solenoid ciruit, thank you for any suggestions adrian
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Followup To
Question -
hi i hava a problem with my chrysler grand voyager the engine is very sluggish it runs on petrol and gas, ive changed the spark plugs, cleaned the rota arm and distributer cap, the spark plugs have a dry soot on them, i tried avancing and retarding the Ignition to no avail, there was a vacume pipe not conected conected it, still no differance, if i press the accelerator down quickly the engine nearly stops, the exhaust is leaking could this add to the problem please could you give me some advice thankyou adrian
Answer -
Hi Adrian,
Can you tell me what year and size of the engine is in the van? Have you tried to get the fault codes from the engine controller? (Procedure varies depending upon year model)?Finally what do you mean by 'petrol and gas', which are these in other terminolgy and in what mixture ratios.? Thanks for some additional info that will help me. Are you in Europe or?
Roland
AnswerHi Adrian,
I just lost about 3/4 of my reply due to a foul up with the allexpert server. So I'll try again:
The 17 code means that either the thermostat is not closing when the engine is cold so that the engine doesn't warm up properly, or that the coolant temp sensor on the side of the thermostat housing box is not reading properly (its resistance vs. the temp of the coolant is wrong). Do you have an ohmmeter? Let me know and I can tell you how to test it. Does the coolant gauge rise to mid-scale as it should in a few minutes?
The 21 means the oxygen sensor on the exhaust manifold is probably shot unless it somehow is unplugged. I would check for that, then buy a new sensor and install it. You will want to put penetrating oil on the threads the night before you try to remove the old one. And only remove it when the manifold is cold. Torque it like you would a spark plug. It should come with anti-seize compound on its threads.
The 25 by my book is about the automatic idle speed motor control circuit or the motor itself. I would remove the AIS from the throttle body, clean its tip, clean the passageway into which the tip fits, take off the intake hose and clean the throttle butterfly valve on both sides and clean the airpassage way that the tip of the AIS controls, all with solvent. Then if you have an ohmmeter or continuity tester check for continuity between the two outside pins of the socket and between the two inside pins of the socket.
The 31 code is about the purge solenoid for the vapor canister collection system. Here is what I wrote recently to another owner with that code:
"Hi Duane,
The purge solenoid controls the evacuation of the fuel vapors stored in the charcoal canister which is part of the emission control system. The solenoid is (I believe) located on the right side inner fender shield and it the forwardmost relay/solenoid mounted on that side. It has a 2-wire plug which has 12v on the dark blue wire when you have the ignition switch to "run" position. The other wire is pink trace and is attached to the engine controller 60-way at pin 52. If you don't find the solenoid where I described it to be, check the right side strut tower for a similar 2-wire plug of the same colors.
Its purpose is to open the vacuum line from the canister to the intake manifold (when the pink wire is grounded), and that happens AFTER the engine is warmed and as well after a time delay of a few minutes. So it may well be that your rough early idle is due to a solenoid pink wire that is grounded all the time OR the solenoid valve is stuck open so that it is allowing vacuum to suck at the canister before the engine is warmed up. When it is not grounded, the pink wire may either have 12V on it or be floating, I am not sure which, but in any case you should not find it to be grounded when you start the engine cold. You could test the solenoid valve by putting 12v and ground jumpers direct from the battery and see whether it clicks and whether the vacuum line nipples indeed open the valve (suck), and then remove the jumpers and see if the valve is then closed (suck again). So those are my suggestions and an explanation as to how it is supposed to work. Please let me know what you observe and how this is resolved.
A quick follow up:
Ooops, I just re-read the manual and see that I reversed the valve function when it is energized/de-enegized. It is normally open, but closes when energized. The time/temp function of the valve is correctly described, but the grounding of the pink trace was reversed in my description to you."
I should point out that I don't have a manual or experience with the dual-fuel 2.5L engine so if anything above doesn't fit with what you have let me know. Another cause of sluggishness is a plugged catalytic converter, but that is noticeable only at higer speeds and rpm if that is the problem. So I would focus on clearing all the fault codes first.
Roland
