tim-spam

I hope it all goes well - just think of the money you're saving. The dealers would have just said, "New Turbo." and charged you well over

That's funny - most surveys I've read rate the Mk 2 as better, but I suppose reliability surveys are not always as reliable as they could be. My Alhambra has been fine, and, having driven both Mk1's and Mk 2's, I would say that the Mk 2 is a significant improvement over the Mk 1.

How many miles since the last cambelt change?

Companies producing mature products (which car batteries definitely are) who indulge in producing planned obsolescence usually destroy their own reputation and go obsolete themselves. The life of a car battery depends upon many factors, some of which relate to the car itself. The original battery on my wife's Mercedes 190D lasted 11 years and was replaced with the Halfords heavy duty battery specified for the vehicle. This is a calcium battery and is now 5 years old with no problems so far. Coincidently, when I replaced the battery on the Alhambra earlier this year with the recommended Halfords calcium battery, it was exactly the same model as the one fitted to the Merc, and has the same 4 year guarantee. It will be interesting to see which one lasts the longest....

Reading this thread makes me very glad that I do all my own servicing and repair work. It seems that many people spend at least as much time getting a dealer to service their cars as I take to service my own - I wonder if they'd get more efficient if they had to pay their customers

Pretty limited choice of engines.

But remember, the rotor is only around 45mm in diameter, and if the rotors are accurately balanced (which is very important), the forces on the bearings are not enormous. On the exhaust side, I think the material is a type of nimonic alloy similar to that used on aero engines. In terms of the centrifugal stresses (which are proportional to the product of radius and rotational velocity squared) within the rotors themselves, they will have been designed to withstand these with a fair factor of safety. Whilst the exhaust rotor gets a rougher deal due to the temperatures involved, the inlet rotor is the most critical structurally, as structural failure would have much more serious consequences for the engine.

I wouldn't think auto / manual would make much difference. Turbos are manufactured to very tight tolerances, and have to work at very high temperatures and speeds (over 200,000rpm). That makes them a comparatively expensive item to manufacture, but the main reason they are so expensive to buy is the usual dealer ripoff. As these cars get older, and the demand for aftermarket replacement grows, there will be an increasing number of suppliers selling at far below dealer prices - it is already possible to by re-conditioned turbos for under

Yes, I would agree that red line every day sounds a bit excessive - a bit American perhaps! I just make sure that I give it a bit of stick from time to time once the engine is warm. Mine has now covered just over 80,000 miles and tripping into limp mode is just starting to happen once in a while when the weather is cold and damp, so it looks like I shall be looking at cleaning the VNT mechanism before long. I would think that the clearances will be at their minimum soon after a cold start, as the internal turbo components, such as the rotor and VNT parts will warm up very quickly, with the outer casing taking a little longer, especially when the ambient conditions are cold and damp. If these clearance gaps are reduced by a layer of carbon, this will evidently cause the mechanism to stick during the warm-up phase. The procedure leaving the exhaust manifold in place looks to be a bit more fiddly, but much quicker - there is a considerable amount of dismantling required to remove the inlet and exhaust manifolds. The main potential problem looks to be access to drill out any of the ring of 5 bolts should they shear - if this happened, I guess that the manifold would then have to come off anyway. Earlier in this thread, I stated that a sticking VNT mechanism was probably the most expensive thing to put right - the main dealer response to this problem is a new turbo. However, if everything comes apart with not too much difficulty, this could end up being a near zero cost fix (apart from the few hours of labour, that is). If this procedure is required only once every 80,000 miles, I won't be complaining too much. P.S. Thanks for the pictures - these could prove very useful when preparing to do the job.

On the PD engines, the unit injectors are actuated by the camshaft, so if the timing was out by one tooth, this would affect the valve timing as well and the pump injector timing.

On my car, it looks possible to remove just the compressor section and rotor assembly, leaving the exhaust manifold and rotor housing on the engine and the exhaust attached - this should greatly reduce the amount of disassembly required. The only things to remove would be the induction hose connections to the turbo, the vacuum hose and the oil supply and return pipes - I guess that there will be some sealing rings for the oil pipes, which it would probably be better to replace. Then you would remove the ring of 5 bolts holding the turbo to the ehaust manifold - 2 of these bolts hold the actuator assembly and do not have washers under them. Once the turbo is removed, the VNT mechanism will be left in the exhaust side rotor housing in the manifold. This is held in with 3 torx screws. It appears that there are others who have done this - see the attachment. TurboRemoval.pdf It would seem from this that a lot of turbo problems could be fixed using this procedure, saving the considerable cost of replacement. I hope this helps.

If the timing was 1 tooth out, the engine would run extremely badly. It is possible, however, that the timing has been alterred during the cambelt change - the camwheel is secured by three bolts in slots to allow for fine adjustment during the belt change. If done properly, it ensures that the engine timing is reset to precisely the factory settings. The smoke may just be more noticeable due to the cold weather...

That's news to me. The caliper is actually an ATE design, and is common on VAG Group cars, Mercedes and BMW. I have owned several VW's and Mercedes' and never known one to lock up or sieze. In my experience, the earlier fixed caliper, twin piston design was more prone to siezure - more potential leak paths too. To be fair, this was usually caused by the brake pads siezing in the housing, rather than the pistons themselves, and if properly lubricated on assembly, rarely happened. The later designs of pad mounting with the floating calipers are much better in this respect. The flashing glowplug warning light will be caused by a faulty brake light switch.

Probably at least as much at Ford - let us know. You could try Seat, but the price is likely to be the same as VW.

Interesting... But, seriously though, I have never heard of a service schedule on a modern car that requires the stripping down of brakes (whatever they mean by that - probably just an excuse to charge more - it may even just mean removing the wheels...). Unless the handbrake cable has stretched (very unlikely), there is nothing to adjust on the brakes. Checking the brakes for general condition and operation, however, is not only a very good idea, it's an essential part of any service.

But if you really look around, you can find some pretty scary prices....

Interesting...

1.9 TDI - 310Nm (in the same ballpark as a VR6 - better than the Mk1 VR6) at 1900rpm. Tows a large caravan just fine. In 5th gear 60mph = 2000rpm, which is just above peak torque.

The only thing that can be added to a tank of fuel that will reliably guarantee being able to go further is a bit more fuel.

I don't think that the ASA was saying that Power Boost did not work - they were questioning the claims made that, for example, it could return the engine to its 'as manufactured' condition. Having read their advertising blurb, it does make some pretty extravagent claims, but if it is effective in removing carbon build up from the inlet, combustion chamber and exhaust (including the turbocharger), then it may be just what's needed. The testimonials seem pretty convincing.

I think you may have a problem with your ABS system - it sounds as if the system 'thinks' you have a locked wheel. Perhaps one of the toothed wheels has come adrift?

Very unlikely to be turbo related. It could be the throttle potentiometer - these engines are fly-by-wire, so if a small movement of the accelerator causes a 'full throttle' signal to be sent, that would explain your problem. A VAGCOM diagnostic may show if there are any spurious throttle potentiometer signals flying around.

Just heard of someone with a Golf TDI 130 who had the positive deviation fault code and the consequent tripping into limp mode on a regular basis. He traced the problem to a sticking VNT mechanism, and tried a product called 'Power Boost', which is sprayed into the intake and is supposed to clear carbon deposits from the intake and exhaust manifolds (including the turbo). Here's a quote: "Powerboost definitely worked although I had to use one and a half cans due to the amount of carbon build up, costs around

I am.....