hi, everyone, i have just registered and am after some ideas or help regarding an octavia turbo. the car is a s reg 1.9 tdi with 120.000 miles. when i first bought it the turbo would work ok , but then started to work intermittently. every now and again it would work but then it just stopped working. (so i thought) it does not burn oil or smoke. it still drives ok reaching over 70mph and the fuel consumption is good at about 50mpg. a mechanic looked at it and said the turbo IS working but only giving very small amount of boost. i am told i need a new turbo, but i am looking for alternative before buying one. any hints or tips would be very much appreciated. thanks . billy

The turbo has a variable vane mechanism that is prone to getting clogged up with soot , especially when driven gently.

Most garages will tell you to replace it , but some people have had success with taking it off and giving it a thorough clean.

thanks for the quick response. i have read other post's and am i right in thinking if i add an additive to the fuel and run it hard for a bit , that may help unclog it ?. thanks

yep someone on here has had sucsess recently with the additive in fuel and drive it like you stole it mode.... worth a try if not remove and clean

if not new turbo:thumbup:

I am not convinced withe the fuel additive thing, purely because if I understand it right, then the additive will clean the rubbish out of the engine, when then ends up passing through the VNT side of the turbo? Surely more likely to jam it up with cr@p?

My good old Octy (y/2001 - 157k) average 64.2mpg on the drive home from work today (approx 60 miles of country A roads), so not a bad effort from the old girl!

Best bet is to get the turbo off and the VNT cleaned up. It is recommended you might need a new oil feeder pipe & 2 gasket for when refitting. Greg123 (?) offers this service and I am sure other ppl do too - that said I have not seen many posts from greg recently.

Which engine have u got? 90 or 110? a limited batch of 90s had VNTs (most do not), while all of the 110s do. S plate places you at pre-face lift, so I am less knowledgeable.

I think the pre-facelift 90s were the ones with the VVT, and agree it's almost certainly the VVT jamming.

Greg123 (?) offers this service and I am sure other ppl do too - that said I have not seen many posts from greg recently.

Which engine have u got? 90 or 110? a limited batch of 90s had VNTs (most do not), while all of the 110s do. S plate places you at pre-face lift, so I am less knowledgeable.

Greg123 is still around, although he has been very busy recently. He still does the strip/clean and rebuilds of VNT's - he's done loads! He offers a postal service if you remove the turbo yourself, or alternatively, he will remove and refit from your own car. If you live away, he is more than happy for you to leave the car for a couple of days, and give you a lift to and from Nottingham station! Greg will also undertake a full thorough diagnostic check before any work is done.

Quite a few 90's have the VNT turbo fitted from around 2001 (like mine), in fact Greg told me that the only difference between a VNT 90 and a 110 is the injectors.

My VNT suffers from occassional stickiness, but not enough to cause overboost and produce 'limp mode', but feels underpowered with very little boost evident when it 'sticks'. The fuel consumption also drops too.

After running Millers Diesel additive (Powersport) in the tank, there does seem to be some improvement though.

Dan

Just a quick thought on cleaning VNT turbos, at 120k (the original OP cars mileage) are people not overlooking the fact that if vanes were just cleaned & turbo put back onto the car & it works ok, thats all well & good. But what about the seals??? They have still done 120k & at some point may fail due to age & mileage (nothing lasts forever) This will end up in it needing to come off again for replacement, thats twice the amount of hassle IMHO. My advice would be replace it, but thats just my thoughts on the subject.

Just a quick thought on cleaning VNT turbos, at 120k (the original OP cars mileage) are people not overlooking the fact that if vanes were just cleaned & turbo put back onto the car & it works ok, thats all well & good. But what about the seals??? They have still done 120k & at some point may fail due to age & mileage (nothing lasts forever) This will end up in it needing to come off again for replacement, thats twice the amount of hassle IMHO. My advice would be replace it, but thats just my thoughts on the subject.

Greg123 has stripped and cleaned loads of VNT's and not had any other issues once cleaned. If there are any pending issues other than just cleaning, he takes them to Midland Turbo in Nottingham. Greg charges around £300 to remove, clean and refit the turbo, but obviously if any other work is required that is extra.

The Garratt turbo's fitted to the 90 and 110's are very reliable - they just get clogged with carbon. Once cleaned, they should be good for another 100k before any other work is required.

My choice would be to pay £300 rather than £1k plus from Skoda, but each their own.

Dan

My 04 Ambiente has 226k and is slow as, it suffers from this. Used Redex diesel treatment and drove it very hard, feels a little better than before.

thanks for all the messages. i will try the redex stuff first before committing to anything else. billy

I had a similar problem thinking turbo was shot as it didnt work or cut in after reving engine,read all threads on sticky vanes etc changed MAF sensor (10 min job) £30 off ebay and works great.

I just give mine a boot every once in a while (it's a nice excuse to tell yourself ). I'm considering running through the fuel additive every couple of months too, however if what someone posted earlier about potentially making the sticky vane problem worse, then i'm not so sure.

Is it advisable since most people seem to have at least some success doing this?

There is another way to try and free the vanes off,it is to use vagcom,can't remember what you do again,info is at my work,but vagcom puts the car in workshop mode,increases the revs up to 1200rpm and works the vanes in the turbo,have done it a few times on passats and a bora and all have been ok so far.

hi, everyone, i have just registered and am after some ideas or help regarding an octavia turbo. the car is a s reg 1.9 tdi with 120.000 miles. when i first bought it the turbo would work ok , but then started to work intermittently. every now and again it would work but then it just stopped working. (so i thought) it does not burn oil or smoke. it still drives ok reaching over 70mph and the fuel consumption is good at about 50mpg. a mechanic looked at it and said the turbo IS working but only giving very small amount of boost. i am told i need a new turbo, but i am looking for alternative before buying one. any hints or tips would be very much appreciated. thanks . billy

Could also be a faulty N75 valve or indeed MAP sensor. Might be worth trying to replace these before messing around with the turbo. The N75 at least is known to be needed to be replaced at least once in the cars lifetime.

Does it come back on if you 'cycle' the ignition? Turn it on and off?

Edited 25 July, 201015 yr by lumac999

There is another way to try and free the vanes off,it is to use vagcom,can't remember what you do again,info is at my work,but vagcom puts the car in workshop mode,increases the revs up to 1200rpm and works the vanes in the turbo,have done it a few times on passats and a bora and all have been ok so far.

I would interested to know how to do this.....

At the moment, I remove the vacuum hose from the n75 valve and suck on it (applying a vacuum) and then I can feel the adjuster move on the vane control on the turbo.... or on in my case, feel it step/judder....

hi, everyone, i have just registered and am after some ideas or help regarding an octavia turbo. the car is a s reg 1.9 tdi with 120.000 miles. when i first bought it the turbo would work ok , but then started to work intermittently. every now and again it would work but then it just stopped working. (so i thought) it does not burn oil or smoke. it still drives ok reaching over 70mph and the fuel consumption is good at about 50mpg. a mechanic looked at it and said the turbo IS working but only giving very small amount of boost. i am told i need a new turbo, but i am looking for alternative before buying one. any hints or tips would be very much appreciated. thanks . billy

Try unplugging the MAF sensor & give it a run, if the turbo kicks in you have a dead MAF.

PS My Octavia 1.9Tdi AGR engine has no variable vanes just a wastegate that opens when too much presure so dont be fooled into thinking you have vanes mine is T reg 95Kw 1999 engine.

PS My Octavia 1.9Tdi AGR engine has no variable vanes just a wastegate that opens when too much presure so dont be fooled into thinking you have vanes mine is T reg 95Kw 1999 engine.

Pre-facelift 90 TDIs came with wastegate based turbos, and post-face lift 90s are variable vane based.

my vote is the vanes clogged- removed my turbo 12mths ago, cleaned and has run like a dream since.. if the turbo/seals etc are found to be suspect upon strip down, overhaul kits are readily available on ebay.. certainly alot cheaper than new turbo good luck

I doubt it is a vnt on an S reg tdi. If it was a vnt then I use mr muscle oven cleaner foam and piece of fish tank air tube. I take the egr feed pipe off the manifold and then feed the air pipe down into the turbo vanes and filll the turbo up with foam. Leave for a couple of hours and see if the vnt mechanism is free. Job done. oven cleaner is 3 quid in adsa.

If its already broken then you cant harm it. Under boosting on a non vnt is rare they overboost all the time with a stuck wastegate or faulty actuator. if its a non vnt and its underboosting you need to see if it spins freely by hand it maybe siezing up and will just need a new set of bearings available on ebay as a kit with seals for about 30 quid.

Edited 8 April, 201214 yr by joeboy

mr muscle?- does that work to clean up the vnt vanes? the vanes are on the exhaust side of the impeller not the inlet side?? i could possibly see it working by taking the downpipe off and squirting it in there and hoping it finds its way in? :wonder:

mr muscle?- does that work to clean up the vnt vanes? the vanes are on the exhaust side of the impeller not the inlet side?? i could possibly see it working by taking the downpipe off and squirting it in there and hoping it finds its way in? :wonder:

If you read my post I said take the egr feed pipe from the manifold. The egr feed pipe is on the exhaust side (ERG is exhaust gas recirculation in case you are not sure). So yes it does go directly into the vnt vanes and clean them.