Advice needed for family in need.

[DownEaster]

Hello everyone. My name is Brad and I'm new here. I'm looking for some advice on behalf of a local family with an E450 mini-bus. It's a 2002 model with the 7.3 Turbo Diesel and it's having problems. I don't have a lot to go on except for this. The bus starts and seems to run fine EXCEPT when you put it in gear and try to move, it will only do about 5mph. The local mechanic up the street says the turbo is bad and that the family is looking at a $2000 + bill. I'd like to help them financially and pick up a rebuilt turbo for them IF this is truly the problem. A quick bit of research here and elsewhere turned up the possibility of a "CAC" hose or connection being bad? Could something as simple as that cause the condition mentioned above? I know I haven't given you all much info, but any suggestions would be great. Thanks in advance!

[devo]

Does the motor rev up at all or only idle? A friend of mine's "drive by wire" throttle wouldn't work because of a blown fuse.

Pretty easy to inspect the turbo by taking the air filter boot off.

[ju015dd]

location?????

[DownEaster]

Originally Posted by devo

Does the motor rev up at all or only idle? A friend of mine's "drive by wire" throttle wouldn't work because of a blown fuse.

Pretty easy to inspect the turbo by taking the air filter boot off.

I'm not sure if it will rev up or not. I'm going to have to call the guy back and ask him that. Did your friends vehicle start up okay but just not move because of the fuse? Certainly would be awesome if that's all it was! As for the turbo, what should we be checking for? In your opinion does the vechicle's condition sound at all like it could be the turbo or do you think it's entirely something else?

We're in eastern Maine.

[JSchuricht]

Even with a blow turbo, you should be able to go more than 5mph. It could be the idle validation switch, throttle position sensor or an associated fuse if it isn't reving up.

[DownEaster]

Okay, I have some more detailed info. I spoke to the father of the family today who admits he's not mechanically inclined but did his best to explain what's going on. It seems that on a recent 200 mile round trip, he noticed that it didn't seem to have the power he thought it should when going up a steep hill. After that trip, it seemed to be working fine so he didn't think anymore of it. Then one morning he came out and started it to let it warm up in the cold. He let it idle for a good while to warm up. Then, when he went to go, is when it started acting the way it is. It will move but very slowly as mentioned. It does appear to rev up or in his words "get louder" when you give it gas and he said he even put it to the floor but still only moved slowly. Here's the interesting part. He said he's getting a lot of white smoke out of the exhaust. He thought it would dissipate after it warmed up but it didn't. I forgot to ask him if the smoke had a sweet smell like burning antifreeze. So in a nutshell, it does appear to respond to throttle input and at least rev up or get louder as he said but it has no power and is blowing a lot of white colored smoke. The smoke he mentioned had me thinking head gasket but could a bad turbo do that as well? Thanks again...