VW Bora, Dead...

Joeseph Balls

Have a VW Bora TDI.
When i say she is dead, i mean no life what so ever. Sometimes when accelerating she'll start to go but after a second its like theres a limiter it hits and you can actually feel the drop of power.
Is this a known problem?
Car is NCT'd and serviced up to date.
Thanks.

Optimum

Its most likely the turbo ( or something associated with it), I had same problem with a TDI golf, you would be over taking anything on the road and the power would drop off and your stuck on the wrong side of road in what is effectually a push car. Switching off ignition and back switching back on would reset until next time.

Optimum

My uncle who thinks he is a "mechanic" said it wasn't the turbo and proceeded to show me out side his house by revving the engine until the turbo actually disintegrated into shards of metal. And so what was probably an easy enough fix turned out to cost him and me a right bit as engine had to be cleaned.

robertxxx

I hope you have a fat wallet.

kildarelad

First place i would be looking is at the air flow metre as it sounds like its going into limp mode,If it turns out this is ok i would then look and see is there any air leaks and after that the turbo.I reckon by what your saying it is the air flow metre but you really wont know until you plug it in on computer

Joeseph Balls

robertxxx wrote: »

I hope you have a fat wallet.

Unfortunately not:(

Thanks guys.
Will try organise for her to be plugged in this week. No engine management light on either.

tossy

robertxxx wrote: »

I hope you have a fat wallet.

Great contribution to the thread there, oh look someone has a diesel car with a problem - mortgage the house time :rolleyes:

OP it could be as simple as a boost leak or even an intercooler hose has come off altogether. Bring it to a good indie for a second opinion. Is it extra smokey (black smoke) when you put the foot down?

MrFrisp

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

Have a VW Bora TDI.
When i say she is dead, i mean no life what so ever. Sometimes when accelerating she'll start to go but after a second its like theres a limiter it hits and you can actually feel the drop of power.
Is this a known problem?
Car is NCT'd and serviced up to date.
Thanks.

Thanks for posting this..

I have an 02 Octavia TDi and it has the exact same problem.

I have been told recently that there is a small crack on part of the plastic on the Intercooler and this could be part of the problem.

Looking forward to some more suggestions here.
.

MidlandsM

robertxxx wrote: »

I hope you have a fat wallet.

I'd say youare great craic to have a pint with.....not!



All those responses are guess work and suggestions. This car needs to be plugged into a proper diagnostic, and a proper inspection by a technician who knows their tdis , for a proper opinion.

mustang01

your car is going into limp home mode, get diagnostic check done to see is there any faults stored, most likely problem is overboost due to sticking turbo vanes but could be few other things

tossy

If it's a boost leak or MAF i doubt there will be any fault codes, i've had many cars with these problems and no fault code ever appeared.

GTE

+1 for boost leak or MAF.

The latter is meant to be common enough, or at least known.

Boost leak happened to my 00 TDI when a mechanic didn't secure a boost pipe properly and it just popped off.

Moral of the story, such seemingly alarming symptoms could easily be a cheap fix.

alan partridge aha

Friend of mine had a 04 Caddy TDI, told my 3 mechanics the turbo was gone as it was losing power. Got turbo replaced at an indie vw garage and still no better. Eventually diagnosed as a collapsed rear exhaust box. So what should have been under €100 cost him nearly 2 grand.

jca

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

Have a VW Bora TDI.
When i say she is dead, i mean no life what so ever. Sometimes when accelerating she'll start to go but after a second its like theres a limiter it hits and you can actually feel the drop of power.
Is this a known problem?
Car is NCT'd and serviced up to date.
Thanks.

What year is your car? Is it the PD engine? It sounds like sticking turbo vanes causing it to over boost at higher rpm if you have the vnt type turbo. You really need to start at the beginning by getting it diagnostic tested first.

MidlandsM

alan partridge aha wrote: »

Friend of mine had a 04 Caddy TDI, told my 3 mechanics the turbo was gone as it was losing power. Got turbo replaced at an indie vw garage and still no better. Eventually diagnosed as a collapsed rear exhaust box. So what should have been under €100 cost him nearly 2 grand.

The outfit who did that, saw him coming.

alan partridge aha

MidlandsM wrote: »

The outfit who did that, saw him coming.

Not so sure about that one of them was a main dealer, but was too dear.

MidlandsM

alan partridge aha wrote: »

Not so sure about that one of them was a main dealer, but was too dear.

Main dealer you say? ,ahhhh,...big windows!

Deffo saw him coming.

alan partridge aha

MidlandsM wrote: »

Main dealer you say? ,ahhhh,...big windows!

Deffo saw him coming.

Possibly but if your not an expert it is very easy to get caught out. It showed all the signs of the turbo been gone. My friend is not a complete idiot but he was sick on finding out it was the exhaust.

George Dalton

I think what Midlands.m is trying to say is that misdiagnosis aside, €2k is an outrageous price for replacing a turbo on a Caddy.

OP, the best thing to do with your Bora is bring it to somebody who knows what they are doing and pay them for an hour of their time to diagnose the problem. All you will get out of this thread is educated (and uneducated) guesswork.

alan partridge aha

George Dalton wrote: »

I think what Midlands.m is trying to say is that misdiagnosis aside, €2k is an outrageous price for replacing a turbo on a Caddy.

OP, the best thing to do with your Bora is bring it to somebody who knows what they are doing and pay them for an hour of their time to diagnose the problem. All you will get out of this thread is educated (and uneducated) guesswork.

Bit slow there alright, it is a few years ago, I'll check with him again maybe it was less, however my point was it could be something very simple.:o

Dartz

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

Have a VW Bora TDI.
When i say she is dead, i mean no life what so ever. Sometimes when accelerating she'll start to go but after a second its like theres a limiter it hits and you can actually feel the drop of power.
Is this a known problem?
Car is NCT'd and serviced up to date.
Thanks.

Any warning lights or anything? Or is it just getting gutless.

If it's just running out of power it might be that the turbocharger wastegate has jammed open, so it never actually builds boost. Depending on the car, this might not be detected as a fault because all the sensors continue working happily.

Had that happen on a Renault Scenic where a vacuum pump clogged and needed cleaning. Had the exact same symptom. It'd start fine around 1500rpm, had go low-RPM torque, ran clean, and just didn't boost when the turbo'd normally kick in which made it feel utterly powerless.

John T Carroll

alan partridge aha wrote: »

Friend of mine had a 04 Caddy TDI, told my 3 mechanics the turbo was gone as it was losing power. Got turbo replaced at an indie vw garage and still no better. Eventually diagnosed as a collapsed rear exhaust box. So what should have been under €100 cost him nearly 2 grand.

It will stand you in good stead if you always remember that when searching for solutions to engine problems, start at the air intake and finish at the exhaust tail pipe.

Joeseph Balls

tossy wrote: »

Great contribution to the thread there, oh look someone has a diesel car with a problem - mortgage the house time :rolleyes:

OP it could be as simple as a boost leak or even an intercooler hose has come off altogether. Bring it to a good indie for a second opinion. Is it extra smokey (black smoke) when you put the foot down?

Nope, no black smoke at all.

jca wrote: »

What year is your car? Is it the PD engine? It sounds like sticking turbo vanes causing it to over boost at higher rpm if you have the vnt type turbo. You really need to start at the beginning by getting it diagnostic tested first.

Its a 03. Not sure what engine it is, or how to find out?

Joeseph Balls

Dartz wrote: »

Any warning lights or anything? Or is it just getting gugutless/QUOTE]

No, no warning lights at all.

Dartz

Joeseph Balls wrote: »

Dartz wrote: »

Any warning lights or anything? Or is it just getting gugutless/QUOTE]

No, no warning lights at all.

It's probably something simple.

You're feeling what a diesel's like when running naturally aspirated, more or less. It's not a pleasant feeling.

jca

Does it start and idle perfectly. Loads of power around town when you hit the open road it goes like a rocket up to about 2300-2500 rpm and then bang it's like someone turned off the diesel? If that's your symptoms it's very likely to be over boosting due to sticking turbo vanes. Another problem I had was with the accelerator pedal, it showed up as an implausible signal making the car virtually unusable, after about a minute the heater plug warning light would start to flash and the car was driveable again. This happened more and more frequently until I replaced it. Get it hooked up to vcds and see what that tells you.