I am new here and this is my first post. Sadly it is a cry for help.
My car is unwell and I hope someone knowledgeable can give me some hints/advice. The car is 2009 Bravo and has 2.0 Multijet 165 engine. Symptoms of the problems are radiator fan turning on and then series of misfires happen shortly ie car starts juddering and pulling power becomes very poor. The duration of this fault condition varies and lasts 3 to 30 seconds. Juddering may be violent or mild, depending on revs and load. Worst is when it happens while accelerating in low gear and low revs. As revs enter turbo operation range judder becomes a violent shake that causes all panels rattle and it feels like car is going to fall apart with almost no speed gain. Then problem suddenly goes away and car starts pulling again as normal, just purrs away and accelerates like a rocket as if nothing had happened.
So far car had new EGR valve and water temp sensor replaced, applied EGR cleaner and fed diesel additives. Always fill up at Shell garage and fill up premium diesel every 3rd tank.
No lights on a dash or OBD error codes ever came up. Could not relate the fault to any environmental factor either. Happens during dry and wet days, evening and morning, on cold or hot engine, low or high revs (can't really feel it above 3000rpm though), don't see any smoke coming out.
Bought an ELM OBD2 v1.4 adapter (Bluetooth) and use that with Torque app and on a phone. Monitored every available sensor individually during normal operation and during fault condition but did not see any differences.
I've been trying to crack this problem for over 2 years now and am completely out of ideas. I really like my car but this problem is driving me nuts. I would be really grateful if someone could suggest something new for me to try. Thanks in advance.
My advice would be to get along to a Fiat dealer and connect to the 'Examiner' diagnostics first.
Maybe money well spent instead of relying on 3rd party OBD equipment
