Ganda

Yes, it is quite stiff, but it was moveable. It should move when it's all connected, as all you're doing is compressing any air in the vac system.

Thanks for all of the suggestions so far, everyone. Having borrowed VAG-COM from a mate, I can now rule out the turbo completely, none of the vane related fault codes has shown up when a scan was done. It has thrown up a few codes, one is MAF related: 17552 - MAF Short to ground, intermittent The next one, which is slightly worrying, is this one: 17656 - Start of injection timing regulation : control deviation. Looking at the Ross-Tech wiki, it suggests that this may appear after the car is stalled (which it was on the last time it was used - my other half stalled it). But it may also be related to the cambelt, which was done about 4,000 miles ago. The last one is 17978, which is to do with an intermittent immobiliser problem, which I know about. I think I might have a dodgy connection somewhere, which was cured by the water from the car wash - does anyone have any suggestions of where to start, please?

Looks like an immobilser problem. Is it intermittent? I find on mine (98 TDI) that I normally have to pull the key out, wait a few seconds for something to click in the dash, then reinsert the key, pressing it firmly into the ignition lock, then turn slowly. That generally solves the problem and it'll start. It only does it occasionally and I've yet to find out why. I have read somewhere that changing part of the wiring loom solves the problem for good, but can't remember which part, or where I saw it (it's probably on here somewhere).

The plot thickens! Chucking the water over the turbo doesn't seem to have had an effect, as others suspected it wouldn't, but I have operated the vane system manually and I don't think it's the cause of the problem. When I pushed on the linkage, it moved down smoothly through its full travel, against the spring pressure of the vanes, and returned smoothly as well, which would seem to indicate that it's OK. I did, however, try disconnecting the MAF on a quick test run and it didn't seem to make much, or any difference, to the performance. I'm guessing that the noticeable difference in performance could be down to water from the car wash getting into the filter, and the vapour improving the performance as noted above. I'm going to try taking the MAF out and giving it a good clean in Isopropyl alcohol to see if that makes a difference. Edit - thinking about it, it would make sense - if the filter got a bit wet in the car wash, it could take a couple of days to dry out completely, which is why the car went brilliantly for a couple of days, before it dried out. I guess the only other causes of the problem, now that the vane mechanism seems OK, are either the vacuum actuator on the turbo, or the valve that controls it. Are there any simple tests that would indicate that either of these components are at fault?

Thanks everyone. I guess it could just be coincidence, but it was noticeably better after the car wash - it looks like I'm not the only one to experience this: http://www.vwaudiforum.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?97036-Audi-A4-1.9-TDI-%281999%29-power-loss...limp-mode&p=614624#post614624 As an experiment, tomorrow morning I'm going to chuck some water over the turbo to see if it happens again (are there any technical reasons why I shouldn't do that? I can't think of any). I'll report back with the conclusions. Sorry, I don't really believe in coincidence

Sorry, duplicate.

Thanks, but I left the engine running in the car wash, so it isn't the limp mode being reset. The car wash has definitely done something as it's behaved itself for nearly three days in a row, which it hasn't done for some time now. Mine appears to be missing it's undertray, looking down through the engine bay I can see the ground, so it could be that water has got onto the turbo and cleaned it a bit. I'll give the turbo a thorough external clean over the weekend to see if it makes a difference and will report back.

Recently my 1998 Octavia 110 TDI has exhibited all of the classic signs of the variable vane turbo problems, a loss of power on occasions and a general lack of power through the rev range at other times. Listening to the turbo, it's sometimes slow to get up to speed (it's hard to explain the noise it makes, but it doesn't sound right), and I was psyching myself up to get the turbo cleaned. However, I put the car through a car wash on Monday night, and the sticking problem was cured! The car went back to driving beautifully, with power all the way through the rev range, and that has lasted until tonight. When I set off from work earlier, it was back to how it was before, but did get a little better just before I got home. This has me a bit stumped. I guess it's suggesting that the problem I've got is external dirt, rather than internal, which would make sense as I don't often keep the car at low revs, I try to change gear at around 3,000 rpm as I've read that helps with this problem. I'm going to give the turbo a good external clean over the weekend to see if that cures it, but does anyone have any other ideas as to what is causing the problem? TIA.

Thanks for the tip Taxi219 - it's cured it! I've put a tiny bit of dielectric grease on each of the contacts, and tweaked the contacts together so the plug now fits a lot tighter. The car now has plenty of power again, and no annoying stutter! Thanks again

Thanks for the tip. I've ordered my dielectric grease off ebay, and I'll let you know if it solves the problem.

My 1998 110 Tdi Octavia has a hesitation/jerking problem around 2000rpm. I had the classic lack of power caused by a dirty MAF, so had a local garage replace the MAF last weekend. Power levels are back to normal, but it has developed this stutter ever since I picked it up from the garage. It stumbles briefly before getting back into it's stride. Top end power is fine, and it seems more pronounced when the engine is cold. I've read that the N75 or EGR valves can cause this kind of thing. The strange thing about it is that it doesn't do it on light throttle, or when booted - only in between. I took it back to the garage this morning, they checked over what they did last weekend and the MAF they fitted last week is functioning normally, and there are no air leaks etc. It's also registering a 16485 error on VAG-COM. One thing the guy at the garage said this morning is that there is a connection to the MAF which should be at 0.5v when the engine is running - on mine it's showing 1volt. Anybody got any ideas please? It's doing my head in....

Hi All. Noob saying hello for the first time. I've been lurking for the last few days, and decided to sign up and make myself known. Car wise, I've a '98 Octavia Tdi 110 which I love, even though it's started misbehaving recently (more of that in a more appropriate place later ). See you in the help forums.....