About a month ago my 1 year old octy vrs started sounding like its exhaust was blowing.

This is most noticeable when warm/after a fast drive and traveling at higher speed.

In addition since this, there is a distinct lack of power. This is very noticeable in third gear when I get much less oomph between 1800 and 2200 revs.

I had rac look at it and he said it may have been just a damaged baffle as to the noise. Dealer has looked at the car but says there are no fault codes hence no problems. Servicer leader test drove the car and said he didn't notice it flat or noisy and that it was fast- but he did say he normally drives diesels so no surprise to me there.

Yes it is fast but NOT AS fast as it was and it is noisy as anything at higher speeds and I notice very much the lack of power. Its embarrassing sounding like an old cavalier sri or 1.3 fiesta with big bore exhaust.

Now thinking of just punting the car and going for something else but I like the octy especially the blue colour.

Anyone any idea or had similar experience.

I feel that the engine is not breathing properly or the gas is not circulating to turbo properly. Still have 2 years warranty but don't want to wait for this to get worse or to have to put up with it.

Now says it needs a service in 1600 miles (done 9000 miles) but this could just be cos I drive it hard. The service manager said that the first service should be 20000 miles.

Just get them to check everything when it goes in for the service.

It might just be the air filter thats clogged up with crap thats causing it

i had a similar problem in my alfa 156 in the past - a faint rattle from the exhaust plus the car felt asthmatic when trying to accelerate hard

part of the ceramic in the catalytic convertor had broken and was obstructing the outflow - a new cat was 600quid!!! so i put a bypass pipe in instead for 125 quid

My Mk.5 Golf GTI (same engine as the Octy) had a blocked catalytic converter within the first 6 months of it's life and they replaced the whole exhaust (except for the rear muffler) under warranty. It got progressively worse until it drove like the turbo wasn't doing anything, and it had a really sick sounding exhaust note. No fault lights showed up on the dash, but when they plugged the computer in it had a catalyst efficiency error.

Yup, i would go with the CAT matrix cracking/colapsing.

Happened to a Passat of mine.

Thank you so much for the replies.

I will book it in for service and suggest they check the catalytic converter- as it is getting worse and the warranty is for 3 years I hope this means that it is covered.

Regards