Hi all.  I was out for a ride when I realized that my car was lacking power.  Then I found out that the turbo was not activated no matter the gear and revs.  Also I noticed that the gear change indicator was not indicating for gear changing either up arrow nor down arrow but kept showing the gear number I had in.  

 

There were no warning lights on the dashboard and car kept going quite decently and of course very economically due to lack of turbo.  

 

This kept happening for about 30km with all kinds of roads until I decided to pull over and shut the engine.  

 

Then I started up the engine and everything was back to normal again. Turbo was fine and power was back.  

 

My car is a 2010 1.2Tsi, 77kw cbzb, with five gears manual gearbox and 135200km on clock and had the wastegate shim upgrade back in 2010 or the 2011. 

 

Any ideas what was that or what caused it?  

 

Thanks in advance.  

Edited 21 January, 20197 yr by stratosg

This sounds like the car was in soft limp mode, often caused by overboost faults.

Often, faults clear themselves when the engine is switched off and on again a few mins later. This can be disconcerting but if the fault does not re-introduce itself and the car is running fine, then it was most likely just a glitch, so to speak. Keep an eye on things, check oil and filters, along with battery charge, etc and hopefully, all will stay well.  Another thing that often clears glitches, is to remove the battery ng terminal for a few mins and when you fit it again, apart from having to set the time and power lift windows, the ecu will reset and perhaps clear any issues. This will, of course, defend on the severity of the issue. It will not clear a major fault, only a repair can do that!

Mrgf's post reflects my thoughts.  It's a bit like re-booting a computer after it freezes.  I had a similar thing happen to my old Berlingo.  And I'm sure I've read elsewhere on the Forum of a member who experienced the same 'problem' with his Skoda and discovered the same 'cure'.  I hope your Roomster is equally easily cured!

Lived with it for over a decade on my old Octavia, worse in cold winter weather or after not using the vehicle for a prolonged period, always happened during the warm up period, was always an overboost causing limp mode would always reboot while driving by flicking ingnition off and back on again, adapted my driving to avoid using the power until engine warmed to avoid the problem, sometimes when I had to do an overtake I would even know it would happen and leave space in case.

 

The cause was sticking turbocharger vanes and/or actuator mechanism, the treatment which was not always convenient in winter was a Mr Muscle enema, during that 10 years Iknew dozens of people that had been relieved of circa €3K a pop for new turbos that they did not need, some more than once.

 

Give the turbo the treatment and drive gently during the warm up.

4 hours ago, FlexibleMouse said:

This sounds like the car was in soft limp mode, often caused by overboost faults.

 

Bang on the money!

My car would occasionally overboost and go into limp mode, I cured it by loosening the wastegate actuator slightly. 

Thank you all. Well that was the first time ever happened, there were no warning lights, the car managed about 140km/h speed then reduced due to dangerous road, so maybe this is a sof limp mode. To be honest I realized the problem while climbing a hill where i felt the lack of power.

 

I use the car daily and currently covering a ca. 2000km per month, so no way to be from sitting at garage.

 

The actuator was my first guess, I am quite happy that since yesterday car drives as should.

 

So, it is up to me to keep you informed in case that this happens again and then what the solution will be. Of course anyone who wants to leave an input is always very welcomed.

 

 

Get it scanned for fault codes.

Yes for sure, it was difficult for me to do that but each time I found someone with a fault code reader it always had logged overboost events.

 

Pardon my ignorance but is a TSi petrol or diesel, if petrol the sticking turbo vanes and Mr Muscle may be a red herring.

 

And what is the talk about shimming an actuator that I keep reading about?

52 minutes ago, J.R. said:

Yes for sure, it was difficult for me to do that but each time I found someone with a fault code reader it always had logged overboost events.

 

Pardon my ignorance but is a TSi petrol or diesel, if petrol the sticking turbo vanes and Mr Muscle may be a red herring.

 

And what is the talk about shimming an actuator that I keep reading about?

Tsi engines are petrol ones. The shimming was an adition of a ca 2mm shim in the wastegate to increase her's route because in many cars stuck open due to overboosting, but then epc and engine lights went on at dashbard.

 

In my case there was no warning light and the car kept going.

 

Please can you rephrase the "Mr. Muscle may be a red herring" statement as I am from Greece and the English language is not my mother language I am not aware of that phrase. So please be kind with my low language skills.

 

Another think that I want to know is the name of that metalic heat? Cover that is in front of us when looking at the engine bay and the actuator shaft goes underneath it.

I believe JR is referring to this thread:

 

 

I believe this only applies to diesel engines and not to petrol engines, hence the "Red Herring" expression.

 

A "Red Herring" is 

 

a clue or piece of information which is (unintentially) misleading or distracting.

Thanks Robjon. Now I know.

As this happened again today, I decided to open the hood and take a closer look, where I found that there was a hose popped out from the crankcase breather valve (valve's code is 030103175B) then I took the car to my independant service man to put it back and take a diagnostic scan, which showed that valve.

 

As I am his customer since 2002 he sent me away with a kind smile and no charges.

 

If something new happens again I will inform you.

Excellent outcome, Stratosg.  We hope for no more problems.

 

Pipe replaced + diagnostic scan with a kind smile and no charges?  This only happens in Greece! 

And then it happened again...

 

Fault code was P307A00 coming back again and a sudden P0068 that came once and never again. So the car went back to my technician to have a throttle body clean and allignment. He also stated that the G71 air intake manifold positioned MAP was too dirty and he cleaned it, while the G70 air flow positioned MAP sensor was clean.

 

Car seems to perform as should. But we keep an eye on the G71 sensor as he may be dying.

 

Thankfully no charges from the technician.