Octavia VRS - STUTTER

[stark]

Hi all, need some advice if possible, will try to be as detailed as possible with the symptoms.

Have owned my 53 plate Octavia VRS for a year now, having covered just over 20k (approx 129k on clock now) trouble free miles the car is now starting to play up. It has always suffered from the cold start problem, whereby will start perfectly fine but stutter for the first few hundred metres, revs bouncing, but then settling for a normal drive.

Since I've had the car the engine management light has come on about 4/5 times, remained on for about a day or so and then turned off. Whilst the light has been on I've experienced a sluggish drive, lack of power etc, but it's always seemed to have 'fixed' itself so I've ignored it.

However, the last time the engine management light came on (and remained on for about half a day), about a week ago now, it has left some lasting symptoms. Very sluggish, the car doesnt want to accelerate, feels as though i need to push that little extra on the accelerator to get it going. Secondly on acceleration (foot floored) it will rev upto about 3k with perfect boost and then hang, drop down to 2.5k and hang, then it'll pick up to 3.5k.. So I'm getting these flat spots and loss in revs etc... not fun!

Have had bad experiences with an S4 Bi-Turbo previous to this, so I'm hoping the turbo fairy has not called once again. There's no 'whirring' of the turbo, but i think i can hear it trying to spool? Have tried to inspect the hoses etc, but im no expert on these things, think i need a pressure test to check for boost leaks? Anybody know of anyone in the Birmingham area able to do this? ASnything else i could try myself? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

[The Ors]

You could try cleaning the throttle body. Only a couple of quid for a gasket & some carb cleaner. Mine had similar symptoms & a TB clean sorted it.

Are you getting any error codes flagging up?

[VRS Mike]

as above, a throttle body clean will probably sort your cold start issues. You need to get your car scanned for fault codes, it sounds like it might be going into limp mode, it could be a number of things so a scan would be first point of action.

[stark]

Cheers for the advice guys, will get on to the TB this weekend... Have not had it scanned for any codes, need someone local witha VAGcom.... The gasket for the TB - can that be sourced from any supplier or dealer only?

[illegal_in_9_countries]

Any VAG dealer theres a part number on the part number thread they might need to order it think its only £2 though

[DBP]

I keep thinking about doing this but I remeber reading somwhere once that if you do it you have to reset the ECU via vagcom or is this just if you have dash lights?

[Liverpool-Lad]

You dont, just leave the connector plugged in.

[stark]

Anybody local with a VAGcom? Would be a great help...

[The Ors]

Buy a gasket & some carb cleaner. Add some cloths & some earbuds.

Remove the pipe & undo the screws (Torx?) holding the throttle body on. Leave the electrical connector in place.

(CAREFULLY) lift the throttle body away from the manifold. Clean off the old gasket & the front/back of the butterfly with carb cleaner.

Get wife/girlfriend/boyfriend to sit in car, switch on ignition (CAREFULLY; DON'T START THE CAR! ) & then depress the throttle to open the butterfly so you can finish cleaning.

Re-assemble.

Drive away without (hopefully) any stuttering.

[stark]

Throttle body clean done, no more stuttering on cold start so thumbs up to that. But problems not sorted completely... To be a little more precise, on heavy acceleration the revs shoot up very quickly like revving the car in neutral and then hang and wait for the car to catch up. This happens across the gears. Slow and steady acceleration seems to be ok, but I've been keeping it to below 3k revs anyway. Any thoughts? Have not had it checked for fault codes, anybody local to me have a VAGcom or recommend a good place?

[Liverpool-Lad]

Revs rising and speed not may mean your clutch is going...

[VRS Mike]

sounds like clutch mate.

[stark]

What sort of price are we looking at for a new clutch then?