~50% power loss at motorway speeds (TDi)

A

alodge

Member
:confused:Last week I had my 2002 110,000 mile 1.4TDi MOT'd, which only required a couple of repeater indicator bulbs and two new tyres. I also had a rear engine mount replaced which has at last has stopped a nasty knocking noise at low RPM. All was well until a couple of days later when I got out onto the motorway, and when I reached motorway speeds the power suddenly reduced. No smoke, no warning lights and no difference in sound. From that point on it struggled to maintain 70mph up hills, and general acceleration was poor as though the turbo was not working. After switching the ignition off and on again the car was back to normal, but the same problem continues to occur consistantly at motorway speeds.

I've now had to book it in at an Audi dealer for a standard diagnostic investigation (at the cost of £50) and I'm dreading that they won't be able to find the problem.

Has anyone got any experience of problems like this?
 
alodge said:
:confused:Last week I had my 2002 110,000 mile 1.4TDi MOT'd, which only required a couple of repeater indicator bulbs and two new tyres. I also had a rear engine mount replaced which has at last has stopped a nasty knocking noise at low RPM. All was well until a couple of days later when I got out onto the motorway, and when I reached motorway speeds the power suddenly reduced. No smoke, no warning lights and no difference in sound. From that point on it struggled to maintain 70mph up hills, and general acceleration was poor as though the turbo was not working. After switching the ignition off and on again the car was back to normal, but the same problem continues to occur consistantly at motorway speeds.

I've now had to book it in at an Audi dealer for a standard diagnostic investigation (at the cost of £50) and I'm dreading that they won't be able to find the problem.

Has anyone got any experience of problems like this?
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Is there no Vag Com A2 owner near you? I can't see any reason to pay the stealership £50 if we can scan it ourselves.



SARGE
 
Take a look at the Googlemap on this site and search out the relevant coloured pins.

While you're at it, log your location too.

Cheers,

Mike
 
Hi Alodge
I had a similar problem with my TDi. While changing the cambelt, which involves removing the front engine mount and dropping the engine, I must have partly dislodged one of the small (5mm dia) turbo boost signal lines hidden down the back of the engine. It parted company two days later causing a big drop in power. Re connecting the pipe gave an instant cure. If I remember correctly the line was green plastic with a black rubber sleeve where it connected onto the turbo. Ther is a sceond small pipe in the same area so its worth checking both.

Cheers Spike
 
I second what Spike says, this sounds exaxctly like an inadvertant dislodging/breaking of one of the turbo signal lines whilst they were fishing around doing the engine mount - it could be one of the little diameter hoses that sends boost signal pressure into the ECU. I had one of those split on a previous turbo car (due to the rubber perishing with old age) and it took ages to track it down, but sure enough that's what it was. Very simple to fix in the end.
 
Problem solved!
I think 'spike' and 'dan_b' were on the money. I reluctantly took my car to Basingstoke Audi for them to run a standard diagnostic check. No errors were found, but after some time they were able to identify two vacuum pipes (turbo signal lines) that had come adrift. One to the EGR and the other to the turbo. Despite this taking them a total of 1.5 hours to resolve they honoured their original quote of 0.5 hours labour (~£50). They advised I charged this to the garage that changed the engine mount; the most probably cause of the problem.
Many thanks to 'spike', 'dan_b', 'Skipton01' and 'Sarge786' for your comments above.
 
Glad to hear it was resolved simply and that the forum was able to help, that's what it's all about really - good luck in claiming the labour charge back off the original garage!
 
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