Have had the van in to slaters garage several times with a cost of £800 so far. They have updated the managment system,serviced it,changed 1 injector and done a pressure test.
The van can drive 2 miles or 100 miles befor the problem occures .Suddenly it will start to kangeroo and white smoke comes from the exhaust. Can still be driven slowly on the bite of the excelerator . If i park up and go back to it the van will drive fine until the next time. Nothing shows up on the diagnostics in the memory and the garage says they have no idea ,just seems they keep replacing parts in the hope that it solves the problem. Deperate,thanks. 2004 model

Shaun benton, February 2011

cdc,thanks for all that and will get these things checked out although i think the egr has been checked for sticking but dont know if the inlet system was cleaned like you describe. Will post back here with results

Shaun benton, February 2011

Hi shaun,Raz could be right in his diagnosis,these intermittent faults can be very difficult to sort out and just guessing as to what the problem is can end up costing a fortune,think the temp sensor is at the back of the head and when removed must be replaced with a new one and has a torque setting,think it is 4NM,this acts on the exhaust valve on no.4 cyl and may be a bit awkward where it is near the bulkhead,dont think these are that expensive and other things to check are egr valves,was at another garage today and they were on about a transit with bad running and intermittent smoking but this was a fwd and said they got an aerosol of egr/inlet system cleaner,think Holtz supplied it,get it up to working temp.keep the revs at 2k and spray 1/2 the can into air inlet hose,keep revving for 5 mins then empty the whole can and this cleaned out the whole inlet system and said they have had no problems since,these are cheap fixes and wont cost a fortune and are worth a look,good luck

cdc, February 2011

cheers Raz,wouldn't these things show up on the diagnostics when plugged in. Know nothing about engines if the question seems stupid

Shaun benton, February 2011

could be cylinder head temperature sensor.Or cam sensor if fitted.

Raz, February 2011