Hi,all.

I'm a new member and own a 2001 (Y) Octavia 1.9tdi (110) 83,000 miles.

The car is suffering an intermittent loss of power. Sometimes it's very responsive, but most of the time it seems sluggish and needs fairly hard acceleration to get any sort of performance. Also when reved up to 3000rpm there's a split second cut out and a noticeable loss of power which isonly restored by switching the ignition off and on again. I don't know whether it's connected but the fuel economy has also dropped and the engine oil is black after only 1000 miles of being changed. My local garage has run a diagnostic check which pointed towards a lack of pressure in the turbo.The EGR valve was found to be gunged up, once it was cleaned everything seemed fine, but for only 50 miles, and now the same problems back.

I'm not very mecanically minded and would be grateful for any suggestions as to what could be wrong and a possible cure.

Sounds like a sticking turbo VNT mechanism. It sticks in an overboost mode and the ECU shuts the turbo down, which is reset by cycling the ignition off and on.

Have a look here:

Turbo

It is referred to as the NGV actuating gear in the above link.

Does indeed sound like the sticky turbo vanes problem. The good news is you can remove the turbo and get it cleaned, you shouldn't need a new turbo! - A skoda dealer will tell you the turbo needs replacing for a ridiculous amount of cash so I wouldn't go near them.

As far as the oil goes, it turns black almost straightaway after a service in my car.

If you look in the octavia I forum you will find quite a few threads about this problem.

yes strip and clean time, well usually but i have found a few other causes such as faulty n75 solonoid,

also a vacuum leak on the servo pipes will make it sluggish but doubt it would get a boost cut then.

Our car seems to have an identical problem. How did you get on with solving yours?

Edited 13 February, 201016 yr by wobbleface

Our car seems to have an identical problem. How did you get on with solving yours?

Edited 20 February, 201016 yr by stuO