To make a long story short i have octy 110 tdi its a 51 its done 52,578 fully serviced from new at skoda dealers timing belt at 4yrs everything by the book at 15,400 new engine and turbo put in that makes turbo number 2 at 32.000 miles i aquired the car 300 miles later another new turbo had to go in thankfully under warranty but i had to fight for it when i found the price out 1k that makes turbo number 3 ,now at 52k turbo has gone again took it to local dealer who are allways very good with me and it seems to be turbo again to make turbo number 4 now i have had tdi s for about 17 years and believe me i have no reason to lie but not one turbo has gone wrong in the past is it just the 110 or what becuase it just makes me ill that thse skoda people can market such ****e and no i dont granny the engine its often between27 and 36 rpm anymore and your just canning the gearbox skoda must be having a laugh when they read all these threads about power loss on there little design faults becuase thats what it must be becuase i havent heard o ther makes having this stupid problem.:thumbdwn:

Sounds as if they are replacing turbos but not fixing the fault, with the turbo being the result not the cause.

I'm sure there will be members who know way more than me as I've never had a turbo go before.

What symptoms did you get with turbo failure? Were they the same symptoms for each time the turbo failed?

Yes driving allong 4th gear took the car up to 3,100 rpm then the dreaded draw back in power without going into the world of switch of and on again when to my local dealer they put some kind of vacume tester on car which showed problem its exactly the same againjust feel like running car as it is now but its worthless unless i pay another 1k its a shame really becuase ive enjoyed the car,but not paying money again for another one to go i think 4 turbos on 52,000 is a bit sad done averything by the book let the enginwe tick over for 2 mins after each run to let the turbo cool down aswell .....waste of time?

hmm could be a few things without having a closer look. has it been leaking oil?

off the top of my head:

-blocked oil drain

-foreign body damage to the impeller

-pressurised sump due to blocked engine breather

-oil starvation

-turbo over speeding, due to wastegate not opening

all these things could cause the turbos to fail again and again unless fixed.

by the sounds of things the turbo isnt at fault though.

sounds like youve been very unlucky mate.

maybe try contacting the turbo manufacturer and asking someone to look at one of your busted turbos. theyll diagnose it quickly i expect.

Sounds to me that the VNT mechanism is sticking. Officially these are not serviceable so a dealer will go down the replacement turbo route. Unofficially the turbo can be removed and the mechanism cleaned and freed off. There is a guide here:

http://pics.tdiclub.com/data/500/Drivbiwire_VNT_repair_procedure_small.pdf

I don't know whether you wil be able to get your dealer to do this for you. All that you will end up paying is the labour plus the cost of a few gaskets.

Sounds exactly like the problem I am having caused by the variable vane technology on the turbo. mine is going in for a fix in 10 days but not a turbo change.

The cause is apparently driving the car too gently, making max use of the low down torque. The vane control then sticks at the low rev range and causes overboost at higher revs - especially when cold. See my other post on this problem.

You don't need to change the turbo. My Skoda dealer tells me there are two solutions. One is to take off the turbo and send it to specialist for cleaning as shown by fordfan above.

The second solution is a new chemical that can be used. The exhaust is dropped off and a blanking plate put on the end of the turbo. The chemical is pumped in and left for a while. The garage guy told be he has seen the chemical but not used it himself, but was used successfully by another garage. I have no other information.

Mine is having the turbo cleaned and paid for under an independent warranty that came with the car.

Here is something you can try. Make sure the engine and oil are up to working temperature first. Use the gears like a boy racer beyond 3000 revs until the turbo cuts outs on overboost - probably in third gear. Stop the car and reset by turning the engine off. Repeat until you can reach the red line in all gears. This will clean up the turbo vanes mechanism.

Unfortunately I found this only last a few weeks if you mainly drive in towns at low revs with a cold engine. You say you don't granny the engine but turbo temperature seems to play a part. Perhaps a regular hot motorway run is our preventative measure!

I agree it sounds like a design fault and it applies to other VW group cars too.

ahh i wasnt aware that it was a swing vane turbo. they are a pretty unreliable design, thats why we use a sliding nozzle design. nothing to get clogged.

but the number of turbos hes gone through in such a low mileage....

does your engine burn alot of oil?

what diesel do you use?

just thinking if the vanes are clogging, why is it happening every time, and after such a short period of time.

Pikpilot i agree with what you say,when i got the car back from skoda dealer with the third turbo in they advised me to take the car up to the rev limit quite often including motorway driving at roughly 2,800 rpm but that was doing 80 all the time you cant realisticly drive like that all the time, i would often drive third 4,5th taking the revs up to 4,400 rpm i did as much as was advised speaking to a retired AA man he siad it would be a matter of time till gearbox problems would start so you cant win really i never brought the turbo in untill i had done at least 4 miles i never knocked engine off untill it had cooled down by the book its a good job we dont allways take the advice of some of these idiots who tell us to drive with a light foot becuase then all the turbos would be knacked then i get so annoyed when i hear these idiots going on, I have to agree with what was said before dealers just replace the turbo and dont look for anything else that could have contributed to the cuase in the first place i suppose it would cost more then but surely third turbo should have rang allarm bells but when we go to these places what more can we do they are the experts not us, iam wondering what would happen if i drove the car as it is can i get the turbo blanked off so it was like an sdi or would it do damage hope one of you guys might have the answer to that one. i havent much confidenc in paying 4 another one would you.

ahh i wasnt aware that it was a swing vane turbo. they are a pretty unreliable design, thats why we use a sliding nozzle design. nothing to get clogged.

but the number of turbos hes gone through in such a low mileage....

does your engine burn alot of oil?

what diesel do you use?

just thinking if the vanes are clogging, why is it happening every time, and after such a short period of time.

i do about 9,000 a year im on long life oil serviced by skoda on the dot next one due december i check oil every fortnight or before a long run in 2 and a half years roughly 33k ive put possibly 1 and a half pints in the car is very very good on oil.

Hearing this story, my first thoughts are that there's a restriction in the oil feed or return (which are Skoda's fault), rather than in the turbo itself, which pretty much everyone buys in.

The regular high rev motorway runs will not cure it completely. I have this very problem, as confirmed by 2 VW specialists who have driven my car.

The majority of my driving is motorways (less than 1/4 mile to the motorway from home, and 100 yards from the motorway at work.)

I work shifts, and often find I have the motorway to myself to give it some beans, and I still get this problem on occations.

I've now got used to having to switch it off, and back on again. Just unnerves people who are not used to it, and causes problems occationally.

I travel along the M40 quite regularly, and you can bet your last dollar, that the turbo will not kick in when climing the hill just before High Wycombe!!!

Andrew, I think the key is to "violently exercise" the VVT mechanism, not just do a fast cruise. So the required pattern would be cruise at say 50, full throttle up to 70, then lift off completely and coast back down to 50, repeat.

Get the oil feed pipes to the turbo changed, check the N75, and all the vacuum hoses to the turbo too.

IMHO a good boot to near the red line when you're joining a m/way going up through the gears so you do it a few times helps the VNT stay cleaner.

:iagree:

There is a tiny pipe that connects to the airbox below the main pipe.

Replace this with a new one if it isn't expensive as I've seen pin ***** holes in this cause the car to start limping.

Andrew, I think the key is to "violently exercise" the VVT mechanism, not just do a fast cruise. So the required pattern would be cruise at say 50, full throttle up to 70, then lift off completely and coast back down to 50, repeat.

Which gear would you recomend for this 3rd i would imagine, is this problem down to just the 110bhp model ?

Which gear would you recomend for this 3rd i would imagine, is this problem down to just the 110bhp model ?

WHich gear isn't really so much of an issue; the point is the throttle setting as much as the engine revs.

And yes this problem is worse on the 1.9l 110bhp engine than any of the others.