PeteG

Haha, too true. One spring clip, one jubilee clip to fix the boost pipe, and two coil packs later... it's fixed! For now at least...

This car is making a fool out of me... fixed the boost pipe, read the codes - no.4 coil pack decided to give up at the same time, so back to the parts shop tomorrow... perfect comic timing.

Bilt Hamber Autoclay is the best value for money, IMHO - about £10 for a bar from Ebay, or Elite Car Care - and only needs water as lube, as said.

Update on this - I'm trying with the most basic things first... throttle body clean and reassemble made no difference. I've traced the turbo pipes around the engine, and found the rubber pipe between turbo and pancake was a slack fit. New clip + jubilee clip to hold it tighter, and it seems to feel better, but it is still losing boost in 2nd gear and above. Next step I think is to do a proper fix, with a reducer pipe, to replace the utterly crap fitting on that pipe. How do I find the logs for the "MAF sensor, requested and actual boost, N75 valve and O2 sensor"? I'm guessing plug the car into my laptop, run VAG-Scope, and take it for a drive?

Cheers chaps. Going out to grab some cleaner now. Couldn't hear any hissing from any pipes, when revved or idling...

Right. I was driving on a dual carriageway last night, went to accelerate, and at about 2200rpm, the car judders like mad and starts slowing, and the engine management light started flashing. I read the codes, got - "17705 - Pressure Drop between Turbo and Throttle Valve (check D.V.!) P1297 - 35-10 - - - Intermittent". I know it's a fairly common code to have come up, so I did a quick road test today. 1st gear, it pulls through with no judders. 2nd, get to 2200rpm-ish, and it does it again - judders and loses power. I'm going to try cleaning up the throttle body, but should I be looking for a split hose? The pipe from exhaust to the dump valve, about an inch diameter, has a small slice in it, but not right the way through - could this be making it collapse under load, perhaps? Where else should I be looking in the engine bay?

Very nice, have fun

Could always get a light pod designed for something more popular, like an Impreza, then modify it to fit...

I've got those covers. Maybe grab a pair from a breakers?

Fixed! Got codes read, no.3 coil pack was throwing a hissy fit... new one in and car is fine. Now to get some spare ones in my boot...

Right. Just been out to it there... disconnected one coil plug at a time, and none of the three I could reach made any difference to the running of the engine. I even disconnected 2&3 together, and it still ran the same for the few seconds I tried it. That makes no sense to me... is it powered by voodoo? Going to have to get the codes read I think.

I'll test them by unplugging one at a time in the morning, if it's not evident then I'll have to sort out some code readage

Am I right in thinking it's about 30 quid for a coil pack? I'll have a search for a guide on how to do it. Ah, the seller said "super". I'll remember that from now on, and I'll top it up with V-power as soon as I get chance.

Right. I've been pootling about for the last couple of days, not given the engine anywhere near full throttle simply because I've been bimbling round town. Went to the shops tonight, and then on the way home decided to take the scenic route. It's down to 0 deg C, so I waited til I had a bit of straight road then gave it some throttle up to the maximum speed the local constabulary prefer. Ish. Went through the next village at 30, up to about 5-ish on the short link to the next village... then back into the 30. Engine management light started flashing, roughly once a second - and car didn't have any power underfoot. Pulled to the side of the road, and first thing was to knock the engine off, keys out, give it a second, then start it up again. It starts OK, idle is a little lumpy, but as soon as I put any load on the engine (pulling away from a standstill, even), the car judders and the EML starts flashing again. I limped it the half mile home, with next-to-no throttle, and pulled up outside, where it sits now. Firstly, is there a set amount of time for the ECU to reset itself, to see if it's just a one-off? Is it possible the cold weather has had an effect? Before I sort out getting the codes read, are the symptoms typical of anything in particular? Coil pack failure perhaps, or am I clutching at straws? It seemed unusual that the EML was flashing under load, and not illuminating permanently, as on the last few cars I've owned/ broken... Bit of background - it's a 51 plate 1.8T, mapped to 221bhp-ish, I put a tank of Total Excellium 97 in on Sunday, and it's done 100 miles ish without incident - and it was filled from empty then, so I doubt fuel contamination is to blame. Oh, and I've only had it a week...

Get it sorted ASAP - low oil pressure will kill an engine very quickly.

Ey up. Been registered for a while, picked up a 51 plate vRS Octavia today... going to be posting a lot more I think.