Hi,

im a newby and only had my y reg octavia 1.9tdi elegance a week but we are not sure what to do. i know its always a little daunting when changing cars,but after reading loads of different threads on here im not sure if we have done the right thing.

basically we also have a w reg passat tdi sport 115bhp with nearly 154000k miles (Which we are about to advertise privately) , We love the car but the only downside to it is the low suspension.we live in rural norfolk and ground out on the back lanes frequently,lol.we have had the car nearly 3 years without any trouble whatsoever. i thought as the miles were mounting up maybe it would be best to sell it while we could get a decent amount for it and get a lower mileage car,i must admit i am biased towards vw so after hearing only good things about the octavia i thought a skoda may be a cheaper option.

The octy is not as powerful as i think it should be,i had it plugged in to the diagnostic thingy and the only fault was ........The gate on the turbo recycling thing sticking( or so he thinks?), But confirmed this was NOT the mass air flow sensor. The problem is basically the car gets to 3,000rpm in 3rd,4th and 5th gears and won't pull anymore, Ive only managed to get 80-90mph in top gear on a long straight and is so flat and not got any torque or peakiness in power. This is extremely worrying as we hope this is not the turbo (surely not at only 50,000k!). My wife also feels the quality and build is not as good as the passat, I'm just concerned that the Octy will not be as durable and trouble free as the passat, I know some could say well why buy a Octy in the 1st place but everyone I have spoken too has given the Octy a glowing reference and our 2nd car is a P reg felicia and been terrific for the past 3 and a half years. Any thoughts comments good and bad greatly appreacieted as we desperately need some consolation or the bare honest facts/truth. Many thanks one desperate VW patriot

My octy 1.9tdi was still pulling very strongly at 82k miles and had been very reliable indeed.

It should feel every bit as rapid as your passat so it sounds like something is wrong , potentially the turbo.

If they are only every driven gently the turbos can get clogged up with soot and stop working correctly. Can you hear it spin up if you drive round with the window down?

It could also be the MAF. I think it's possible for them to be on the way out and not log fault codes. You can try cleaning it to see if it makes any difference

The original owner was an old chap up untill 32,000k a year ago a young mature lad of 22 has owned it for the past year 18,000k. Yes the turbo does whistle when pulling off. i cleaned out the egr valve as it was thought that could be sticking and that was thick with sooty gammy sludge back as black. What next?? Many thanks Chris

Clean out the inter cooler, check the code on the ECU as like VW there were a load that gum everything up. Check the N75 and vacuum pipes. Try a new air filter as the 40k interval is too long. AS Dr Z said the MAF can go but log no codes.

The turbo vanes can stick, which means taking the turbo off and either cleaning it up or replacing it. The TDI110 doesn't have a waste gate as such, just a VNT mechanism, and this is what sticks. Perhaps this is what the guy meant.

Other thing to mention is that the TDI 110 drives very differently to the PD115, with only the latter being a PD unit.