Lagging Behind

Qusetion by: Devon Huysamen Answer by: Arnold VenterI own an ‘05 Mazda 2.5 DC TD with intercooler. I’m having problems with this vehicle on uphills of a fair gradient. When making these climbs the Mazda’s speed drops from 120 km/h to 100 km/h, at which point I need to gear down to 4th in order to maintain my speed.
Recently, I’ve tried downshifting before the hill in an attempt to keep the Mazda’s revs up, but the vehicle’s power still drops off. On longer hills my speed drops as low as 80 km/h with no hopes of recovering.
From past experience I know this ain’t right as I’ve owned two of these vehicles before and neither of them exhibited this problem. My average fuel consumption hovers around 7.6 km per litre. What could be causing the lack of power?
Devon Huysamen

THE EXPERT’S OPINION:
It sounds to me like this engine’s suffering a fuelling problem, resulting in the lack of power and poor fuel economy. I’d have the motor dyno tuned to factory spec by a reputable turbo-diesel specialist. This should be done before pointing fingers at other mechanicals such as turbo failure etc.
Arnold Venter
CRD (4×4 fitment & repairs)
(011) 907 0580 / arnold@crd.co.za