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Crack on intercooler pipe, easy fix?

20K views 23 replies 9 participants last post by  swordtail 
#1 ·
Hi Chaps, I was encouraged by randall's topic to clean the EGR valve on my 02 reg Mondeo TDCI 130. During dismantling the EGR valve, I found a 7cm long crack on the corner of intercooler pipe connected to the EGR. A bit of gunk out of the crack. Now I have a bunch of questions needing your help. :tonofbricks:

1. Is the gunk out of the crack is from the intercooler or exhaust gas?
2. I wonder if the intercooler pipe crack is the reason of the exhaust smoke increase and bad fuel consumption recently?
3. How easy is it to change this pipe? I looked at the Haynes Manual. It looks I need to take the front bumper off to access the other side of the pipe connecting to the intercooler. Any tricky bit to take the front bumper off? I didn't have much mechanical exprience before. This is my first car. :doh:
4. How much is the labour for change this pipe in a normal garage (not Ford dealer)?

Thanks for any answer!!!
 
#3 ·
Thanks mjw69. Is it easy to take the front bumper off? Is the £20 you mentioned for the price of the pipe itself from Ford? BTW, can I temporarily bind the pipe using some multi-purpose tape before I get a new pipe? :driving:
 
#5 ·
Thanks graemewelch. I will try to fix it by myself. Regarding my first question -- "Is the gunk out of the crack is from the intercooler or exhaust gas?", what is your opinion? Or how can I detect the source of the oily deposit at this pipe crack? Another thing is that I do see oily deposit covered the air cleaner outlet pipe connecting the turbo charger. Is that indicate some problem? or it is normal for a car with 133821 mileage?

Cheers.
 
#6 ·
Hi, same problem with mine. go the pipe today.
There is some oily gunk as well coming out of mine, but if you think about it, if there is an issue wiht EGR getting blocked at times wiht carbony deposits, maybe this is what this stuff is. Id love to know as well if i have a serious problem. Randall mentioned possibly issue with turbo seals, but i think i overstated the oily gunk. Amazing same pipe cracking for so many isnt it. Id say if you took out the pipe,cleaned it down good and then got good quality tape, i bet it would get u by for a year?
 
#9 ·
I went to a local garage this afternoon. They give me a quotation £31 for the pipe from other supplier. But they offered me £10 labour for fitting. I think £10 labour is cheap without get my hands dirty. So I decided to have it done in this garage tomorrow if the parts arrives. On the way back, I popped in the Ford dealer, the quotation is £30.53 which is 50p cheaper than what I get from the local garage. So some parts are not necessarily expensive from the Ford dealer.

Regarding the oily gunk in the pipe, my colleague told me it is normal because the crank case ventilation pipe sends some diesel + air mixture to the air intake pipe to the turbo charger. Looking at the pipe after air filter, it has a small branch pipe to the engine which is the ventilation pipe I think. So the the intake air will have a little amount of diesel inside anyway. That's why the pipe has some oily gunk. I am just a novice, so any comment is welcome! :)
 
#10 ·
10 quid to have it fitted is pretty good.

It can be done by removing the bottom engine cover but it's a pain lying on your back.

The area where the pipe splits is very close to the block and gets hot. Trying to seal it with electricians tape will only last a day before the sticky melts and the tape slide down the tube. Wrapping it with duct tape will last a couple of weeks tops.

While your on with the hood up - clean the EGR valve with carb cleaner (you'll chugg a bit on start up and belch a bit of smoke but it should clear after 15 - 20 seconds). Also, get some electrical cleaner from Maplins and clean the air flow meter wires CAREFULLY - two screws just after your air filter. They should be thin and shiny NOT furry and black.
 
#11 ·
Interesting, I didnt know that. I know that the turbo uses some engine oil sometimes to lubricate the bearing internally, in the turbo if a seal was leaking there, it could cause oil to come back that pipe id say. that was my concern. leaking oil from turbo could spell disaster. anyone else here ever see oily gunk in this pipe when replacing.
 
#12 ·
Thanks Getafix. The supplier of my local garage is useless. They didn't send the correct pipe to the garage. So this afternoon I bought this pipe from Ford dealer and got the refund from the local garage. So I will try to do it by myself. Finger is crossed. :kaffeetrinker_2: BTW, how tight I need to screw the nut to fasten the pipe to EGR. If I tight it too much, will it damage the rubber of the pipe?

Cheers,
 
#13 ·
I think youll find all turbo diesels have oily residue inside the intercooler pipes and the I.C. the exhaust recirculation valve adds to this oil residue as does the engine breathing system :kaffeetrinker_2:
 
#15 ·
Thanks Gatafix. I am not a native speaker. Sorry for my poor English. I guess you meaning is I don't need to tighten the jubilee clips too much. Am I right? I found I have a habit of tightening nuts till it cannot be tightening any more. Sometimes I did damage nuts. :(
 
#18 ·
Hi Adsi. I did mine on Monday. I used a flat head screw driver to open the top jubilee clip, and then there was enough play to remove it from where its connect to EGR. The i went under the car, and there wasnt really room to work with a screw driver so i used a small wrench to slowly open the bottom jubilee clip. once opened, i was able to push that off nice and handy, not to damage anyting else :) then i took out the damaged pipe. i place it beside the new one, so that i could confirm they were correct, then i went from the top and pushed down the pipe into position and connected it to EGR. i didnt tie jubilee at that point, as it hought it might need some play to get it in below and i was right. Then after i eased it over the pipe in bottom, tighted the jubilee clip and then tigghted the one above. ull notice when u unscrew those clips, there not tighht anyway, so u dont need them to be machine tight.
 
#21 ·
Thanks Tred. Your detailed explain give me great confidence to do this job by myself. Actually I did think about to replace the pipe in a lunch time like you did. However, I remind myself I am a novice. It may take more time for me to do the job. :) So I decided to do it during weekend. I will post my progress once I have done it.
 
#22 ·
Finally I changed my pipe this weekend. Thanks for everyone who helped me here. :thankyousign: The procedure is exactly like Tred's explaination. I just want to point out thing. The nut of jubilee clip at the bottom of my car need a 6mm spanner to do the job. However, the smallest one in my tool box is 7mm. So I have to put everything back and drive to a motor factory to buy a 6mm spanner. So make sure you get a 6mm spanner before you start this job. :)
 
#23 ·
I want to say a big big THANK YOU :L :L to everyone who has posted on this thread and on other threads on the same issue!

I too had the poor mpg, black smoke, lack of power, feeling like someone was applying and releasing the brakes for me at 2000 rpm, etc that many others have reported. I thought my car was dead.

The advice and guidelines on the site gave me the balls and info needed to find a crack on my intercooler to egr boost pipe, get the bugger off and even remove and clean the egr at the same time (did the MAF sensor too).

All the above issues have vanished into clean, black, smoke-free thin air :banana: Took her out for a spin today and I couldn't believe the difference. my mpg has even shot up from a meagre 35 mpg to over 50, and that with having a good play with my new found power!

so thanks all, hope I can be as helpful to others as you have been to me :thankyousign:
 
#24 ·
Just come back from Fords I wanted the ecu updating as I know It has not been serviced by fords for a while.Anyway apparently the service guy gave me an advisory that the intercooler pipe was split,So Off I trot to get the pipe and have fitted it (5 min job)but on checking the old one I was damned if I could find a split in it :eyesup: any way put the new one on I also checked the bottom one with the wire round it all ok there.I had a feel around the intercooler pipes (where the vibration fix is) [color:red]and could feel another rubber pipe I couldnt feel any leaks there but has any body had issues with that pipe?[/color]after the update and new pipe I went for a blast up the private track ;) and the smoke on acceleration seems to have gone and so was the 1800-2000 rpm misfire problem but I shall see how it goes over the next few days before I am convinced if it's cured my problems.Fingers crossed.
 
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