Hi I have just purchased this car and wondered if your meant to feel the turbo kick in or not? I have driven it about 250 miles so far and connot feel it doing anything. Acceleration feels quite slow to what i was expecting and was wondering if there was any way of telling if the turbo is working or not?

cheers

Dan:confused:

You can definitely tell the difference, assuming you have the 1.9 TDI as per your registration, it will pick up from about 1700ish onwards, and you should feel a distinct shove as the revs sweep up from there.

Any errors showing, did you buy it privately or via a dealer?

90 or 110bhp? (pretty sure the 130 was not available in '99)

could be a faulty maf, or sticky vanes in the turbo (110), or n75 valve.

Unplugging the MAF and going for a quick drive - if the car seems better than a duff MAF may be the problem.

The car is the 90BHP model and not meaning to sound a bit dense what is the MAF and how do you go about cleaning it out?

Dan

Brought Privately

Edited 21 January, 200917 yr by roadrashdan

Its the Mass Airflow sensor, straight after the airbox....will be a wiring connector on top.

Unplug the connector and take it for a drive, hopefully its not the turbo on its way out.

I've got a 1.9TDI PD 105bhp and the turbo failed before christmas, and you will be looking at around £400-£500 for a reconditioned turbo alone.

Then theres the fitting, and oil and filter change...ideally the turbo oil feed pipe would be best replaced too which is about £26 on the PD lump.

Would be looking in the region of £800-£900 if you've got a good local independant specialist. Skoda wanted £1300 for the turbo alone!

I was quoted £750 for a new turbo from my local stealer and 3 hours of labour to change it out. This was for the 110, and I don't think the 90 has variable vanes in it, do less to go wrong...

However do the MAF test before you get too worried! Also a really dirty air filter may be causing problems. I have also heard that the coolant temp sensor can cause issues.

Where are you based? Get someone to do a vag-com scan for you and see if anything is flagging up on there.

With sticking turbo vanes you will not notice the kick as the turbo kicks in as it is already working right from idle.

What you will notice is that the overboost above 3-4000 rpm will cause the engine management system to go into limp-home mode and suddenly all the top end power has gone.

You don't need to fit a new turbo as the old one can be cleaned for a quarter of the cost of new.

Do a search on this forum. There are many threads.

You should be able to hear it quite clearly if it's working. It should make a whistling noise which starts building up at around 1700revs.

My sister has a 90bhp Seat Leon TDi and you can feel a definate shove in the back when it accelerates... even more so than my Octy vRS!

I've driven a (hire) 90, and own a 110. The 90 didn't have a significant shove as the turbo comes in that I noticed, but did feel quick for its weight.

Try turning the ICE off, opening the driver's window, and accelerating away along a terrace, changing gear quickly, at about 2_000 rpm. You should hear a whistle coming in and out as you accelerate and change gear.

Good news guys!

Tried unplugging the MAF sensor and success the car flew.

the 0-60 time went from 33 seconds to around 14 seconds.

Will now look into buying a new MAF sensor.

Dan

Cheers Guys!!

the 0-60 time went from 33 seconds to around 14 seconds.

OUCH! If you'd said you were doin 33 second 60 times, I would have definitely said something was wrong. :eek: Good work to find out the MAF is fubar'd

glad its working better may go even quicker with new air filter fitted

OUCH! If you'd said you were doin 33 second 60 times, I would have definitely said something was wrong. :eek: Good work to find out the MAF is fubar'd

Likewise, and I'd have started with a MAF test since it's a common fault and effectively free to test.

IIRC the 0-60 for the SDi i.e. non turbo diesel is about 19 seconds, so something is definately wrong...

Worth trying a new MAF and you really should get the car checked for any fault codes just to make sure.

Most of the facelift 90's I have seen do have the same GT17V VNT turbo. They suffer in the same way, in that a VNT rebuild (most people change the turbo) is often required around the 100k mark.

The earlier 90's all had a wastegated turbo which is a weaker unit, but doesn't have the VNT issues.

Greg.

I was quoted £750 for a new turbo from my local stealer and 3 hours of labour to change it out. This was for the 110, and I don't think the 90 has variable vanes in it, do less to go wrong...

However do the MAF test before you get too worried! Also a really dirty air filter may be causing problems. I have also heard that the coolant temp sensor can cause issues.

Where are you based? Get someone to do a vag-com scan for you and see if anything is flagging up on there.