V6 CDTI SCV woes

[averdigi]

Chaps,

Pretty certain my Siggy(2003 103k Auto) has caught the SCV juddering issue so many on here have reported. It had been intermittently losing performance for a few months.
However after a long drive down through France it became virtually undriveable on the way back. Trying to go uphill was a horror story of lost power, pretty scary when the HGV's start catching you up

Anyway when I mentioned Field remedy 1957 to the dealer 1K+ was the quoted price due to the long labour required.
Does anyone have any tips/pointers on somewhere I could get this looked at and done for less?

Any decent private/specialist places who might be able to carry out the work required.

[Celes]

I'd first try with a new fuel filter and a good cleaning of the filter housing. Was suffering from the same thing, intermittent power loss (complete power loss!!) and it turned out to be a blocked fuel filter coupled with contaminated fuel (water).

When I got the SCV's replaced on my old car I paid 240€ for labour (7hours+management update-discount ) at the authorised Opel garage I normally use and I bought the valves for about 180€. These actually came from the UK...they were £150 if I remember correctly. So all in all I replaced the SCV's for 420€ (£360 in the UK!!!). I really don't know where some dealers get the quote of £1k from...

[m8internet]

Anyway when I mentioned Field remedy 1957 to the dealer 1K+ was the quoted price due to the long labour required.
Does anyone have any tips/pointers on somewhere I could get this looked at and done for less?

Presumably the car is out of warranty
Phone them back and ask them to prepare a detailed quote, listing parts and DETAILED labour

Phone around and get quotes to replace the SCVs on a Y30DT engine and to complete the Field Remedy
Ironically, it might be cheaper to take the car further away, travel back, then go back on completion

My dealership completed this at a retail cost of £750
The part costs about £160 for two SCV (as you need to replace both of them)
As above, the labour is horrendous at about 10 hours
However, if you can find a local mechanic with experience of the Y30DT engine they should be able to fit the parts for about £300
You then need to go to a dealership for the EMS program to updated (which takes about 2 hours) and the fuel pump then needs to be recalibrated, taking a further 1 hour

Therefore you might be better having all of this done by one garage (so that if they mess it up then only one garage can be blamed)

[Jezzy]

Might be worth trying Renault dealers as well, as I believe the engine is used in the Espace as well.

[averdigi]

Car is well out of Warranty unfortunately.
The fuel filter was changed just before Xmas when I first took it into the dealer to investigate the performance loss.
It was sporadic then so they didn't find anything wrong.

I'm pretty certain the EMS is already running the latest version , as it was updated during the last service, and they check it before Xmas against the version mentioned in the 1957 field remedy.

Not sure how to find local mechanics with experience of the engine apart from phoning them all up

[Celes]

I think any good mechanic will be able to do it. You don't need special experience to replace the SCV's, since the pump doesn't have to be removed. And the EMS update in the 1957 remedy isn't a must immediately...you can always do it at a later time.

[averdigi]

Just an update as I'm sure lots of others will come across this thread when the issue hits their 3.0 CDTi.

Got quotes from 2 main dealers both very close to the 1K mark due to the 6.5 Hours of labour involved. On a side note 100 an hour is outrageous

Following a recommendation called Pedestal garage in High Wycombe who are a vauxhall specialist. Spoke to a chap there called Lawrence.
Explained that there was currently no EML light on , but based on other peoples experience suspected Field Remedy 1957.
He asked to be given some time to review it and call me back. Called back a couple of hours later and suggested I go down there and we drive around with Tech 2 connected and check if the rail pressure drop is visible when performance is restricted.

On arrival he checked if the EMS was up to date as required, ( it was)
We then drove around for a while, didn't take long to feel the lack of power.
Tech 2 was showing requested pressure 60+ , actual around 10.
So pretty clear diagnosis it was the SCV's, fuel filter had recently been replaced.

Anyway part order, total cost £570 quid fitted.

The difference is amazing, you forget how much Ommmfff the engine has when working correctly , as the performance degrades slowly over time until it becomes really bad.

I asked for the old SCV's just to check out what's been causing so many people so much aggravation , can post a pic if anyone is interested

On a side note , I'm absolutely certain I can track the problem back to refueling at a specific garage, the must be particles which fit through the fuel filter which block the SCV's, hence the modified manufacturing process. If you google Denso SCV's you'll see this issue is commonplace across many engines, we're just unluckly that it takes 6.5 hours to get the things out of the 3.0 CDTI

Hope this of help to others with the same problems.