No Power

[victor meldrew]

I towed my caravan with my mk1 tdi yesterday and it has no power at all, I've been in first on a dual carriageway with hazards on on one hill being overtaken by coffin dodgers shaking their heads at me.

I've towed this van with a 2litre gal, and a 2.3 with no probs.

Car seems to drive ok when not towing.

It could be trailer brakes binding but checked after 140 miles and no heat at the hubs

Cars done over 200k and is a bit noisy but I'm told this is due to pump timing being slightly out.

Car drives slower than my old maestro van in the eighties

Any suggestions?

I'm looking for a car while on holiday cos I can't face that journey again.

Wife's decided she doesnt want another galaxy so ive suggested a sharan or a alhambra but shes having none of it, shes been on eBay and wants another discovery but I don't fancy welding the thing once a week.

[alan_131]

With my old 90bhp 97 aspen I towed my boat back from Scotland to Essex. I suspect that all-up the trailer/boat combo is a very tight fit inside the 2000kg limit plus I had a load of gear in the back of the Galaxy. I'd normally describe the car's performance as less than sparkling but the extra weight was hardly noticeable even on some really steep hills - towing probably the thing it did best. At the time the Gal only had about 130K on, a fair bit less than yours I know, but i think you have something wrong there - could it be dropping into limp mode?

 

If you tell us where you are, some kind member might be near enough to scan your car, or even, dare I say it, might be worth getting it scanned by a garage...

Edited August 22, 2012 by alan_131

[victor meldrew]

I think you might be right about the limp mode. I took it to a garage where we are staying to get it looked at but it seems that the obd port doesn't work either

They said that the turbo was noisy and that it may be that, he also took off a pipe at the inlet manifold and found it clogged with about half inch of gunge all around the inside.

He said that the engine could be struggling to breathe with all that in there and this can cause the car to go to limp home mode.

I suggested blasting it out with some carb cleaner and he explained why this is not a good idea

We are going to drive it back on Saturday and see what happens

Keep an eye out for the silver beast dragging a caravan very slowly from Devon to Hampshire via Dorset ( may be on a rac wagon)

Just got it serviced with new belts etc new alt pulley, new brakes etc what's next?

Edited August 23, 2012 by victor meldrew

[alan_131]

Noisy turbo a worry, but there's a really good topic (you may have aleady seen it) in the faq ... cleaning intake and the difference it can make. There's lots of good stuff on here about limp mode....

 

BTW, just a thought, sounds like the garage was giving good advice but it might be worth trying a cheap ebay/vcds lead when you get home - there was recently a long topic on here where the op was using a more expensive lead that worked on other vw's but not his mk2 (don't know which model/variant you have....). If you come across the topic, you'll see why it springs so readily to my mind...

 

Otherwise, maybe obd down due to fuse or cable fault....

Edited August 24, 2012 by alan_131

[victor meldrew]

Ive bought a lead from eBay and hope it will be on the doormat when/if we get home

I'm completely computer illiterate so expect me back with loads of dumb questions about vagcom

How much does a new turbo cost or can I use one from a breakers yard?

[alan_131]

You'll find lots of help here with vcds. I've no experience on the turbo replacement front (been lucky so far) so not the best person to answer this, but guess it depends on your breaker. Probably rather rebuild my own, unless it was damaged, or get an exchange unit, but as I said, others are better placed to advise.

 

Hope you get back ok. Very economical on fuel travelling on the recovery lorry....

[a18nkd]

i replaced my turbo you need the exact turbo numbers on the side there will be a little plate on the side mine was a garrett something or other cost me £420 fitted but that was a mate of a mate that got it cost price and only charged half the labour cost to fit it there is a place in darlington (north east) that do re-con turbo's they were the cheapest will hunt the number out for you if you want i'm sure it was only £10 postage too

[seatkid]

First thing to check is the MAF sensor. Classic problem is the MAF sensor slowly dies with age severely limiting maximum power available. ("wont pull the skin opff a rice pudding") You wont notice this when pottering around town with no/little load, but you will when trying to pull anything at speed or uphill.

 

Symptoms are very slow 0-60 times (maybe 30+seconds instead of 18 secs for a 90 bhp Tdi). Probably limited top speed of less that 70mph or less when going uphill. (these all with no load)

 

Difficult to test the sensor, easiest to swap with a known good one.

 

Make sure the replacement is exact for your engine type and year and different ones exist and they arent interchangeable.

Edited August 25, 2012 by seatkid

[alan_131]

Not as good as the substitution test but you could try unplugging the maf - if it gets better, maf is u/s. I'd assumed that garage would have done this, looked for pipe leaks etc already but then I've just read the Gates post....

Is it gutless all the time, only when towing, or does it start out ok but then you feel it go when on a hill/overtaking and it stays that way until you turn the ignition off and on again?

 

It will be a lot easier to rule things out once you have the obd working - may even get a straight error code.

Which engine/gearbox do you have?

[victor meldrew]

Thanks for your suggestions, I've unplugged the maf plug while the car is idling and it makes no difference whatsoever to the engine speed. Should it have a noticeable effect when it's idling or will I have to drive it

[seatkid]

Idle speed is not affected by unplugging the MAF sensor.

 

The MAF sensor measures air flow into the engine. The ECU uses this information to calculate the maximum amount of fuel that can be injected without exceeding Euro emission limits i.e. without creating tons of black smoke when you floor the throttle.

 

When you disconnect the sensor, you normally see a drastic reduction in performance (acceleration and top speed) as the ECU defaults to using a very conservative setting of airflow based on engine speed and other assumptions.

 

If the MAF sensor is faulty, when you unplug it, you either see no difference in performance (because its already being ignored by the ecu) or even a slight improvement in performance. This test however is not a very good way of establishishing the maf sensor is faulty (unless performance increases when unplugged).

 

You havent told us exactly what engine you have (year, bhp) as there are other possibilities.

[victor meldrew]

Sorry seat kid I thought I'd included the details in my last post but forgot its a 1999 mk1 tdi, manual not sure if it's 90 or 110 though, when I gave the reg. to motor factors to order a water pump they thought it was a 130 but I've been told that's not possible on a mk1

How do I find out?

The reg is t832mkk

Edited August 26, 2012 by victor meldrew

[SilverBeast]

If you put your reg in here it tells you the details. It describes the engine as "1.9LDiesel P" which doesn't tell me any more, but I'm sure someone more knowledeable will be along who will know.

[victor meldrew]

Drove the car yesterday with maf plugged in and unplugged and there is a marked drop in performance when it's unplugged

Does the maf break down slowly? If so could this still be the fault?

[chrispb123456]

Your engine model code is found on a sticker on top of the timing belt cover if it's still legible or on the front face of cylinder block, your looking for either; 1Z or AHU for a 90ps, or AFN for the 110.

 

As for the MAF to be sure it's faulty you either need to substitute for a known good one, or better still record some live data and check for any logged fault codes with Vagcom.

 

I'll take a guess and say you have a 110 as my old MK1 was diesel P on Ford Etis.

[alan_131]

MAF could still be less than perfect, but if it all gets that much worse when you unplug it I'd suggest that this isn't the main problem. If you can get the obd port to work with your vcds cable, one of the live data sets you can get is the flow reported by the MAF and what the ecu expects it to be. You may well have a simple code just waiting to be read that will be a big pointer.

 

With the 110 engine, you have the VNT turbo. This has some moving vanes inside which regulate the boost level under the direction of the ecu and if this isn't working properly (lots of possible reasons, they gunge up, or the vacuum pipes crack/block, or the sensors fail, or the solenoid valve that controls the vacuum goes faulty, or the wiring to it, etc etc ......).. Basically lots of things that are probably not terribly expensive/difficult to fix (unless turbo is really on its way out) but can be a bit of a sod to diagnose. Search the forum for "limp" and you'll see what I mean.

 

Meanwhile, if you're still on holiday, I can't think of much else to suggest other than perhaps check for any pipes that are split or cracked. I'm only a newbie compared with the others who've replied so they may have a much better suggestion...