typical diesel or ...??
 

As I was parked today waiting for the mrs to return to the car, I was revelling in the extra oomph I had found after changing the blacker than black air filter (surely must have been strangling it's breathing) car just feels more 'alive'.
Sitting there with engine idling I raised the revs to about 2,500 rpm, and noticed a definite un-balanced feel, almost like a slight misfire in a petrol motor, only for about 200rpm (2,500-2,700 rpm). Before and after those figures the cdt is as smooth as can be, in fact it really is hard to tell it's a diesel when just idling it's so smooth and so quiet.
I have heard it said that this is an inherent thing with diesels, they have sweet spots and not so sweet spots.
When driving ... it pulls through all gears with no sign of any harshness or hesitation, never misses a beat, part throttle is smooth with no 'over-run' hesitation. None of that 'pinking' sound when under load either.
Anything to look out for or am I just being paranoid? this is the first diesel I have ever owned so maybe comparing it to petrol. car has only done 59,000 and starts literally on first turn of the key with zero other noises etc:

That is a classic sign of the EGR valve sticking open ;)

Unplug the electrical connector from the EGR actuator solenoid and repeat that test ;)

Follow the vacuum hose back from the EGR about 6" and you will find the electrical gubbins, unplug this ;)

It is very common on low mileage cars that have "tootled" about most of their careers :)

Brian :D

Cheers Brian, i'll give that a bash in the morning, just about every car I've had has been plagued with egr problems. Funny you should mention the 'Tootling about' thing, the previous owner said he'd never been anywhere near a motorway in his life! (I believed him tbh... he was about 125 years old) hahaha.
Would it be best just to replace it / strip 'n' clean it (if do-able) or delete the egr?
Thanks.

Disconnect first to confirm, but a strip down and clean will likely be needed, and check the inlet manifold too.

A nasty job, but once done, never need be done again......as you are not going to be recirculating spent exhaust gasses through the manifold any longer ;)

Brian :D

Sorry to sound like a numpty brian, when I disconnect the egr solenoid and repeat the 2,500 rpm test, should it feel smoother at those revs or the same?
Also ... would it be an advantage to remove the egr permanently and get a blanking kit? or just remove it and give it a damned good clean?

Just remove it and give it a good clean, and afterwards "forget" to plug the electrical connector back in, this effectively bypasses the EGR by disabling operation ;)

And yes it should feel smoother at 2500 RPM :xmas-smiley-008:

Brian :xmas-smiley-040:

Haha. I don't have any trouble forgetting things mate so shouldn't be a problem there!
Will 'forgetting' to plug the egr back in throw up any fault codes? or does it work differently with diesels.

well, I removed the EGR today as recommended by Brian (top man) and found what can only be described as the contents of a chimney ! totally sooted up, at a rough guess I would say the opening of the egr was reduced to about 40% of it's original size.
After much poking around and cleaning for a couple of hours it eventually looked like an egr again.
Put it all back together and took it for a run, with the egr wiring still hooked up & it felt a little smoother tbh.
Also did the (unplug egr valve mod) and raising revs up to 1,500 and then 2,500 from idle it was noticeably smoother at those revs where as before it was quite harsh.
So ... looks like the egr has failed despite my efforts to bring it back to life!
Question is .... do I leave it in situ and just leave it unplugged or get the egr delete kit?
Can anyone explain the advantages of having the egr delete kit over just leaving the old egr in place?
Thanks to anyone who can steer me in the right direction.

If blanking the egr it is beneficial to clean out the inlet manifold then it won't get clogged up again, or just keep it standard and clean out the egr and manifold every couple of years, I chose the first option as didn't fancy cleaning it out all over again.

I bought a second manifold and soaked it in screwfix no nonsense degreaser for a few days then pressure washed it out came up like new.

Hi, Yes I will be cleaning the manifold out as it looked a bit ropey.
As my egr is clearly not working even after the mega clean, I will either have to buy a new egr £££££! or get a delete kit, I have seen some nicely fabricated (complete kits) that also do away with the flexi pipe too, so a really nice neat looking job.
My question is this .... are there any 'downsides' to fitting the delete kit as you can get with petrol variants?
Will a delete kit throw any fault codes up if not plugged in after the delete kit is fitted.