[MyGolfIsSlow]

so the story goes...
bought the car this spring it is an 03 alh with 127k on it. the PO bought it from a friend that moved away drove it for a short time and stop when the problems started. the cel came on and he brought it to autozone and an over boost was logged he then cleared the codes. we test drove the can and it was not boosting at all. so i priced a turbo and talked him down quite a bit and got the car. as it turns out the car had previously been a greasecar. all the veggi stuff had been removed i assumed when the car started running poorly.

the car is my girlfriends car an she has been driving it as slow as it is.

the symptoms at first were that it was not boosting at all, i replaced the turbo and still no boost, i checked and cleaned the boost sensor in the IC, tested the n75 nothing. as it tuned out the check valve in front of the n75 was installed backward.. problem one fixed it now has boost.

the symptoms now, it has no power it will not climb hills. the engine even in neutral has a hard time reving pas 3k in gear driving it will get just over 3k and just wont go it seems to be misfiring and dumps smoke when accelerating. on cold start it will have white smoke for maybe 10 15 seconds but goes away.

what i have done, when i did the turbo i cleaned the intake and replaced the timing belt/water pump
replaced maf no change. removed and cleaned a very clogged egr cooler no change. replaced the glowplugs as they where pretty ugly no change.
i have checked and replaced all vacuum lines. and checked for boost leaks. all are fine

the worst of all no codes or cel since we got it

 

[Vent5]

Remove the cover of the fuel pump. If you see gunked up grease that could be causing pump problems. Maybe the fuel pickup is clogged? What about the fuel filters?

Check injector balance too. It's one of the measuring blocks in engine through vag com. Sometimes smoke on start up is leaking fuel nozzles. They get worn out and dribble some fuel in the engine. White smoke could just be condensation though.

 

[MyGolfIsSlow]

Hey thanks for the response! When we bought the car there was a funny smell in the tank so we drained all the fuel out and replaced the pickup and filters. I forgot to mention that in the post. I'm going to look into the injector balance, thanks for the tip. I just ordered a vag com cable so should be able to work on that soon.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

Also check the IQ:http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/multi/IQ-adjust-hammer-mod-TDI.htm

If you haven't seen it, here's a checklist for fixing low power on a VW TDI engine: http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/multi/low-power-fix-TDI.htm

Please post a follow up if you manage to fix it or run into more problems.

 

[MyGolfIsSlow]

still sick $##@T%^&^&^^[email protected]
so tested the maf again with vagcom and the new one reads odd so got another new one and it still reads odd. and i got a whole new problem. it looks like all the sticky unburnt fuel has clogged the turbo acuator will not move by hand.
i tested the compression a few days ago and all seems well. i checked the IQ it seem spot on. i ran a can of LM through it and nothing helps. it is also now making lots of white smoke just about all the time. and now that the turbo will not spool i feel it is unsafe to drive.
i may pull the turbo apart this weekend and clean it as well as the intake and egr again. but untill i can find what is causing the fueling issue i feel it will just happen again. i have some one that can test the injectors for me, im gunna try and get that done tomorrow. im about ready to set the car on fire.

 

[MyGolfIsSlow]

ok so i didnt se the car on fire.... pulled it all apart this weekend cleaned everything; intake, egr, egr cooler, egr tubes, vnt rebuilt and working. and now it wont start. symptoms go cranks and runs for like 5 seconds and shuts off, vagcom conects but wont talk to any of the systems, cluster is blank no lites no clock no odomiter, lights come on on the dash but not the cluster power windows/ roof dont work unless you use the key. none of the fueses are bad. from what ive been reading looks like its the 109 do these symptoms sound right. the one i pulled out is the newer gray one. do the gray ones still go bad? i have a new one coming from GAP should be here tomorow. i just wanted to make sure im headed in the right direction.

 

[chittychittybangbang]

no, a bad relay 109 symptom is normally just no glow plug light on the instrument cluster.

 

[MyGolfIsSlow]

just checked cleaned and lubed all the grounds in the cowl and under the batt. still the same

 

[Richard55]

dont know how far you are from North Carolina, but there is a super guru in Colombia. He is Dan144 on Freds tdi forum. He can figure out anything and will help for free if you can get the car to him.

 

[Jerome]

Check to see if the cat is plugged you should be able to unbolt the exhaust system form the manifold and start it.