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Resolved turbo overboost P0234-77 throttle body sticking

2.2K views 8 replies 4 participants last post by  Mohawk  
#1 ·
Hi everyone 😀
Just sharing the information I learned about the sticking throttle bodies on the 3.0 V6D engine as I had mine replaced today. It has done 95000 miles.

Since I bought the car in January 2025 it has been running great, no warnings and dpf regenerating as it should, however when doing a diagnostic scan as I like to do for maintenance it was logging code P0234-77 Turbo overboots, commanded position not reachable. It kept reappearing after being cleared.

Lots of research pointed to the throttle body sticking, and if not resolved it was likely to generate warnings and clog the dpf which cannot regenerate if this is showing a fault warning. It also looks like attempts to clean the body do not work.

I had a look and also saw some oil misting where the charge air pipe joins the throttle body.
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I spoke to The Jag Specialist at Doncaster who I think will become my new best friends. As soon as I gave them the code they confirmed my suspicions, and suggested a replacement during a while you wait appointment. Helpfully they did not charge for diagnostics as I had given the code.

This morning I visited and first spoke to the head mechanic. He showed me the new Jag throttle body they had waiting and explained that with age and heat cycles the plastic body goes out of round, causing the butterfly valve to stick. He said they had tried cleaning and even reshaping the butterfly valve but they never work long term. The new valve returned to the open position if you manually closed it and then released.

They replaced mine and he brought the old one to show me, it was really clean, not clogged but still the butterfly valve was sticking on the closed position when it should revert to open.


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So it's all done, car still runs great as it always did but there is a noticeable improvement in gentle acceleration which is more linear than it was.

Total cost was £407.22 for the part and £80 labour (1 hour), plus VAT £584.66. Time taken was 45 minutes from driving in to driving out. The work included recalibrating the new throttle body on SDD.

I am happy with it and as I am keeping the car have confidence for the next 95k miles or so.

Just sharing as this is a common problem but most information suggests the throttle gets clogged with carbon, and that is not always the case, mine was clean.
 

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#2 ·
Good write up. The issue really is that this is NOT really the throttle body, as Diesels don't use air regulation like a Petrol does to control the engine. That is the air intake manifold & the flap is actually the EGR Vacuum flap. Such that when you lift off throttle which actually controls the injector duty cycle. The flap is actuated to create a vacuum in the inlet manifold & that sucks exhaust gases in through the EGR valve & recycles through the engine. If the flap sticks then when you throttle up the turbo creates boost, but the flap creates a momentary over pressure condition if it then opens or a proper over pressure if it does not.

These codes are stored & when stored the DPF regen is suspended because the ECU now believes the Fi is not working correctly ! That is a stupid failure condition as it could lead to DPF failure for no good reason.

In every video I've seen of people cleaning or filing that flap they are treating it like a throttle butterfly plate, its not it just needs to not stick when closed, file away enough but don't be precious about it, it does not require a perfect seal IMO.
 
#3 ·
Thanks for sharing and interesting, something to be aware of as clearly a known fault if they knew exactly what it was causing issue.

That tells me clearly a poor design, I would bet cost optimised. Would be much better to have re-enforced housing to prevent warping if it is exposed to heat, either thicker wall for plastic material or a material that doesn’t warp under same conditions (like metal). Many Plastics do tend to soften with heat (note I said many not all).
 
owns 2023 Jaguar F-Pace SVR 5.0
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#5 ·
There are two.
The Jag Specialist at Armthorpe just off junction 4 of the M18. 01302 832600
Very friendly, good reviews and they have SDD and Pathfinder. Busy but clean workshop.

SSG Prestige at Thurnscoe, about eight miles from J37 of the A1 M or similar distance from J36 of the M1, 01226 661731. Very busy professional JLR specialist with full dealer (Topix online?) kit and good reviews.

I visited them both before deciding and would happily have used both, I just found the Jag Specialist to be a bit more friendly and they got that I like to do some work myself and get them to do the rest.
They were also closer to where I live and a bIt cheaper for a B service. So far a good experience.
 
#7 ·
So I put the OBD reader on the car at lunchtime & found it had recorded a "P0234 Turbo Over Boost" code. Didn't have any other engine related codes. It has not gone into limp mode since I removed the TDI Tuning Box, which was doing it for a past time. The codes were cleared then.

So thinking about the mystical Throttle Body (TB) flap fault, I need to check mine again, not done it for a year or so.
This got me thinking if the flap sticks closed how does the car detect the over boost condition?

This led me to work out how the SDV6 intake system works with its sequential turbo chargers, I couldn't find a video or online write up, so heres my take on it.

So each turbo has its own air filter box & MAF sensor in each turbo feed pipe. The exhaust manifold on each bank (left+right) is different. The left turbo is the primary low rpm turbo, it receives exhaust from both banks via the engine exhaust crossover pipe around the back of the engine, which feeds the right bank exhaust into the left turbo exhaust turbine at low engine rpm, helping to spin up the turbo quickly. This is achieved by using an exhaust diverter valve on the right turbo manifold. At a certain rpm/load condition the diverter valve closes off the rear feed pipe to left turbo & allows the right bank exhaust to act fully on the right turbo exhaust turbine, spinning it up to feed boost via the boost merge valve below the intercooler. It's not a switch as in on/off, it's more like a dimmer control, gradually switching exhaust from the left to the right turbo for a smooth transition & power increase.
The boost feed pipe from the right turbo has a MAP (SCOP) sensor in it. This is used to determine when to open the boost merge valve. This is also how the ECU detects a "Turbo Over Boost" condition when the TB flap is stuck, because the TB MAP sensor can't detect pressure it can't feel.

So from that I can only assume that my TB Flap is sticking intermittently.

It also showed me that the crankcase is positively (negatively) vented by feeding the vent hose from the oil vapour separator into the left turbo low pressure feed pipe, thus its exposed to vacuum pressures when the turbo is spinning. This also explains how oil gets into the boost side of the feed pipes & the intercooler & sometimes as far as the TB. So I intend to add an additional oil vapour separator to hopefully fully stop oil from contaminating the turbo intake/boost track.

I hope that all makes sense.