Help, Losing power :(

[supanova]

WAs heading up the motorway to a concert last night with the girlfriend, I was in the fast lane doing around 70-70mph overtaking when my power gradually decreased quite slowly but was slowing me down non the less. i hung back, switched in behind the car i was overtaking and pulled into the hard shoulder. turned off and on the engine and the power seemed to regain itself.

Maybe 10-15 miles later same thing happened and again i proceeded with my tactic on temp solving the problem, again shortly after it happened to me again but this time the engine management light came on and stayed on. I was a bit nervous to drive on but I did anyway.

it got me to my event anyway and after my concert I headed back down the motorway again, about 15mins into my journey the power dropped so i one last time, pulled over, engine off then on and continued on my way. it hasn't happened since i maybe drove it 20 miles today ( taking it easy ) and it seems fine. i took it to a guy i know to put it onto the comp to check it and he seems to thing its the variable vanes in the turbo and that might need replaced. he also mentioned that there is a spray solution that can reduce some kind of carbon build up?

has anyone came across this problem in the past and how was it solved? mind you im looking the cheapest way possible out of this. lol

Its a 2.0 tdi se audi a3 late 03 early 04 model.

cheers

 

[mjr901]

It does sound turbo'ish, Whats the mileage?

 

[supanova]

Milage is 108K mate. I didnt think so myself but they guy i took it to mentioned it although im just off the phone to an other guy and he reckons the first guy knows s**tall. :/ not sure what my options are.

 

[mjr901]

Surely the computer that it was plugged into would have stated "turbo fault" or something like that? or "Fuel pump fault?" Or "misfire" etc?

 

[murran]

must of had a fault code, what was it? did he tell you?

if its over boosting you'll have.... boost presure control positive deviation.

 

[Geraldy212]

It's very hard for members to diagnose this kind of engine behaviour without some more data. You need to have the car scanned with VCDS. That will determine if the engine has any fault codes showing up, which hopefully will point you in the right direction to get it fixed. There are several members on this board who can do this for you if you ask, and they are near to your location. Good Luck.

 

[supanova]

To be honest I knew at 2pm today what it said but can not remember now for the life of me. its a pain in the ***. plus need new shocks for it too. was asking about coilovers and got recommended the FK Coilovers. anyone know if these are a decent make and would do the job?

 

[BuckleyTDI]

any chance it was charge pressure control, positive deviation?

james

 

[mike foster]

To be honest I knew at 2pm today what it said but can not remember now for the life of me. its a pain in the ***. plus need new shocks for it too. was asking about coilovers and got recommended the FK Coilovers. anyone know if these are a decent make and would do the job?

You should be addressing the possible turbo problem before coilovers.

If you have it scanned properly with VCDS you will probably show an 'overboost/underboost fault code.

This can be due to a boost pipe problem but is most likely to be due to sticking turbo vanes. This will result in either having the turbo cleaned or replaced.

Whatever the problem turns out to be, ignore any upgrades until it's fixed !

 

[supanova]

found this video. seems to talk about loss of power etc

Diesel Variable Geometry Turbo Facts - YouTube


p.s Dont worry Mike, Ill be making sure the car is goin 100% before any upgrades begin!