The joys of modern diesel engines

Our MH is a 2010 Ford Transit based with a 2.2L engine and a 6 speed gearbox. When we purchased a little over 2 years ago there was 15000 miles on the clock.
My first impressions of driving it, I felt it was a bit sluggish and slow to respond with power. I put it down to be parked up for a while because the milage was soo low.
Last year while touring the back roads of Malin Beg in Donegal, the engine management light came on, but we got home a few days later.
Afterwards the MH was booked into the local ford dealer for a full service who afterwards informed us of an update to the fuel management software which fixed the engine management light. The engine ran smoother, less rpm needed for gear changes and better fuel economy.
The downside was while cruising along and then you met a hill, there was no power to get up it. The solution was to drop back to 3/4th gear, to get up the hill. Back to Mr ford dealer who informed me that my engine was too small for a 3500kg MH. Lets just say that he was not on the Christmas card list last year.
Last August, when we were making our way back to Cherbourg in France, as some folks here know, the motorway is quite steep in places, our engine management light comes on again. Gurrrr!!!! But most importantly we got home.
This time the MH was brought to a new garage here which was setup by a guy from eastern Europe. Within a minute of plugging in his laptop, he diagnosised the problem as been a faulty egr valve and what more it has been faulty for the last 3 years according to the fault logs on the ecu. Mr ford was soo good that they forgot to wipe the faults from the ecu.
Our egr was stuck fully open which meant when the engine has to produce more power the exhaust gases were choking the engine, hence the reason why, I was down shifting so much.
Why do these engine engineers make everytime soo complicated these days? I remember a time when the only tools need to fix an engine was a vicegrip and a screwdriver.
Malcolm

Is it sorted now Malcolm?

Just picked it up today. My wife drove the MH today. It will be Sunday before I will get a chance to take it for a spin. Egr valve replaced, fuel system recalibrated, full engine service and general check over. The mechanic took the MH for a 10 mile spin, as in his words "a good engine workout". In all €450 was lifted off me.
Someone will probably suggest here, as to why I didn't opt to have the egr valve bypassed and the reason was simple. It only works on a daily driver been driven all day, everyday. The MH might not move for 3 weeks but then do 200 miles over a weekend. To bypass the egr in this situation could lead to carbon build up in the intake manifolds.
These eastern european boys seem to know their stuff and their laptops.
I suppose the point that I want to make people aware of if a main dealer struggled with my problem, what chance does a MH dealer have of sorting something out on a modern diesel engine?

The BIG problem with the computer is that it reports on the recorded fault as detected by a sensor. In me case the sensor was telling a lie as IT had gone faulty, so it takes a trained mechanic (old style) to spot the lie by adding how the engine is actually performing into the mix of info.

I had another similar incident with the Truma unit in my MH, the voltage sensor on the PCB was reporting a low voltage and it was preventing the unit from firing up, the voltage was not low (it was as it should be, 13.4v) it was the sensor gone faulty and telling a lie.
The initial response from a local agent was that I needed two new leisure batteries which I declined to buy as the ones fitted were only about six months old, the real cure was a new PCB.

I eventually came to terms with modern engine diagnostics, but I will always prefer to work on older engines with a simple temperature sensor and oil pressure sensor and nothing else to give false readings.

They'll be nowhere near as efficient as a modern high tech engine, but they're just more fun to work on & diagnose.

Modern diesels might be more powerful and efficient but they also have potentially higher maintenance costs. Particulate filters, EGR valves and dual mass flywheels can be pretty expensive if/when they go wrong. More and more mechanics are encouraging folks towards petrol engines in my experience although I guess that's not really an option with campervans and motorhomes !
Having re-read this, I guess modern petrol engines have their foibles too e.g. multiple coils packs vs distributor/dizzy etc.