Hello all,

Had planned to join here soon,but needs must: I'm a newbie,so forgive schoolboy errors and/or statements of the obvious.. but frustration and practical reasons mean I'm seeking your collective wisdom/expertise!

The car: Octavia mk.2 2.0 TDI estate,manual,2005 plate,110k on clock.

I love it. Best car I've yet owned by some stretch,and it gets my family and tons of kit everywhere,without a hitch. Until...

...having owned it for just over a year,with no problems,the car has recently developed an intermittent fault. Essentially,the turbo doesn't kick in and power in the engine either drops dramatically or it contines to pull,but minus the turbo boost. The first time it did this (accelerating,uphill) it was akin to catastrophic failure,as the car reverted to "limp mode",the dash display lit-up like a Christmas tree and we crawled home at 25mph. By comparison,when it went again this morning the engine continued to pull but the turbo wasn't there - odd,given that for two-thirds of the way up the hill it had been pulling happily.

In between then and now,it's faulted like this several times,lasting for varying periods. It has been into our usual local garage who said they suspected turbo problems,with prospect of a replacement costing £1k+. With this in mind they advised us to take it to our nearby Skoda main dealer,because their diagnostic tech is higher level and VAG-specific,unlike his own - to be fair,our mech didn't want to skin us for a grand without knowing for sure.

Two series of diagnostics later,we were told that the car had cleared the faults that had been showing up,didn't appear to be faulting anymore but that it was still inconclusive as to what the problem was. They said that without clues from their diagnostics,they couldn't be more specific and wouldn't make guarantees,but it might be that it had righted itself! We were told the only particular work that had been done was to tighten an N75 tube/hose which runs onto the turbo. This morning,after giving it a test run to get a 'feel' of how it was faulting,I asked another local mech to give it an eyeball. He said he thought the turbo itself was fine (good news) since it did actually work but that something wasn't letting it always fire when it should. But,he couldn't tell what,and suggested another main dealer diagnostic. My initial hunch was that it's electrical/electronic,and I still think it is,judging by what he said. As it stands,we are back to Square One,my wife is panicking,on the verge of wanting to PX the car (as helpfully 'suggested' by the Skoda dealer ;-) ) and understandably worried since we live out of the way,off bus routes and with two small nipsters and jobs to hold down,we need this car! I want to get it sorted. I love this car. So...has anybody else out there come across a similar problem? If so,what happened? Info/suggestions welcome,as are requests for more info from me: I'll tell you what I can but I'm a layman with a layman's sense of how stuff should work ;-) Also..although no promises were made the first time,should we expect more from our main dealer? Help! Please!

all you need

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/243533-the-mr-muscle-vnt-turbo-treatment-thought-we-needed-a-guide-of-sorts/page__hl__%20mr%20%20muscle

Sounds like you have sticking vanes in the turbo, a common problem.

Search Mr Muscle on here for a fix that costs under a tenner. Your mechanic should be able to do this for you, but will no doubt be sceptical!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

all you need

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/243533-the-mr-muscle-vnt-turbo-treatment-thought-we-needed-a-guide-of-sorts/page__hl__%20mr%20%20muscle

Beat me to it!

Sent from my HTC One X using Tapatalk 2

Okay,I'm gonna check this out - thanks so far guys!Why does this cause these problems? And..thoughts on why 2 garages and two diagnostics sessions haven't brought this up..? When it faulted whilst my wife had it in Gloucester,THEIR local mech put "some additives" through (wasn't there so don't know what..) and reckoned it fixed it 9 times out of ten. The other one time would mean bad turbo news.. Would that have been this stuff,you think..?

again,thanks for the help one and all.

And..it might be a problem that's brought me to this site but my eye's already been caught by some of the customisation work going on amongst some of you ;-) lol

Okay,cool,just checked it out. I see what you mean about the mech maybe being a little wide-eyed! It sounds like a pretty gnarly thing to do and I'll admit,if it happens,it won't be me doing it..

Where in the world are you? What you need is the advice of a VAG specialist.

I had lack of turbo problems with similar symptoms. Turned out to be faulty waste gate (whatever that is). I had my original turbo removed and refurbished and re-fitted whilst I got a courtesy car for the week. Cost a lot less than a replacement turbo.

The stuff was probably forte diesel treatment or forte turbo treatment. I tried that too and it didn't work, although tick over was a lot smoother.

Okay,I'm gonna check this out - thanks so far guys!Why does this cause these problems?

The sticking vanes will be causing overboost at high RPM. The ecu detects this overboost and puts the engine into limp mode to avoid any damage.

A VCDS scan should reveal a fault code related to overboost.

Edited 3 May, 201313 yr by booke23

They did get a boost pressure fault showing originally,but this,along with the rest,cleared itself from the ECU. Hm,this is interesting. Oh and in reply to other poster (sorry,didn't get name..) I'm in North Devon and the local VAG main dealer has already had £130 out of us for "inconclusive" diagnostics...

Web ferret! Sorry,just checked - apologies. But yep,I'm in North Devon..

Nice part of the country. A Brisky member will hopefully advise you of the best VAG indy in Devon. Bit of a drive to Shark in Mansfield or Sultas in Leeds who fixed mine.

Ohh,yes,that's a long way. Especially in a limp-prone car,ha! A VW T4 devotee friend of mine has a contact he's going to ask but I dint know if he's Devon-based..

Meantime...

...anyone know of any independent VAG specialists in North Devon or (not too far) beyond? If I can get the car sorted before we are due to get it back to the local main dealer and their higher costs,that'd be awesome.

Thanks again,guys and girls,for all the help so far..