just bought altea TDI concerned about turbo

[slippers]

hi all
just bought an altea 2.0TDI sport DSG. love the car, 05 model with 52k on the clock.
when pulling away gently theres a sort of siren / police car type noise which clears up as you accelerate further, not sure what this is. is this normal ?
the other day i put my foot down got it up to about 60 (rather quickly) and the power cut off, went into limp mode i think. pulled over to switch car off / on and this cleared the fault. hasnt happend since.
do you think this is a sign of the turbo on its way out ? sticky vanes ?
i bought the car from a dealer with a 3rd party warrnty cover so need to check terms of this

cheers for any advice

 

[cadman2k]

altea tdi

The police type siren or the 'owl' is generally normal sound from the turbo on VAG motors, my mates audi had it from New, although I must admit never noticed mine did it till 80K (maybe the turbo loosened up?)
Does the car have a full service history?
One thing I would do is treat it to some 'Millers sport' - The fuel additive, may have a new name now. I'd throw 5 treatments through for the next 100 litres of fuel (1 for every 20 litres)., I am not sure how common the 'sticky vanes turbo syndrome is'
My 2.0TDI is now over 90K and no issues, started Millers additive at 70K so mix that with normal diesel and use the good stuff BP Ultimate every 2nd Tank.

 

[slippers]

hi thanks for that,

yes the car has full SEAT service history, serviced every 10'000 miles, theres 5 dealer stamps in the book. 1 previous lady owner so only done 50000 in 6 year so i suspect its never been opened up and EGR valve / variable vanes probably all sooted up
i'll give it a course of miller and give it a good run every now and then to try and flush it through
the limp mode was a bit concerning but give it a good blast on saturday and its been fine since. maybe it needed a work out ?
the dealer stuck a 12 month 3rd party warranty on it but i need to check whats covered in this
cheers

 

[CrispDust]

Clean egr and catchcan for CCV to stop all that nasty oil hitting tubo blades.
Siren sound is fairly common. Mine has actually reduced since I bought car 2 years ago. Use Millers always, blanked and cleaned egr and have catch tank.
Also check your air intake pipe is fully attached, especially bottom hose to intercooler - tends to come loose after time and if you tonk it!

 

[tinky]

Mine had 59k on hte clock when turbo went. But saying that, as cadman2k said, it varies between cars, some blow some keep going for k's of miles.

Just out of interest, do you get really aggressive boost at around 2k rpm, when turbo kicks in? Or it's sooth?

 

[mike55]

turbo noise

They all seem to make a noise after a while. My previous Altea TDI was second hand and whistled from the day I got it. Told they all do that and that is true. Had problems with over boost at about 30K miles. It would go into limp home mode until I reset it. Diagnosed whilst under warranty as control valve. Several weeks later now out of warranty it did it several times. Diagnosed as sticking variable vanes. Found a company who said they could clean it out. Unfortunately a couple of weeks later it went wrong and ran the bearings. I believe short journeys and leaking pipe to intercooler did not help. replacement turbo was quiet until it had done 3k miles.

New car a Freetrack was quiet until it also had done 3K. When the 3 years are up I will be purchasing additional waranty as was quoted £2k for previous turbo replacement. Did it myself for £750. I don't fancy having to get behind the 4WD transfer box next time.

Hope yours just carries on whistling' but I am concerned about the limp home mode if related to over boost, as if it is working correct it should not over boost. Get the boost pressure checked.

 

[bungle]

Yup, our Freetrack makes this distant siren type noise as the turbo spools - especially when cold. It was quiet when new also. On the other hand our previous Altea's turbo was almost silent until the day it popped at 25K so make from that what you will!

 

[MWG]

Mine whines and has done for the last 2 years, haven't had a problem with sticking vanes or over boosting as of yet but then i do tend drive it quite hard which helps to keep things working

I plan to get a remap so if its gonna pop that'll make it happen

 

[bare]

mine has 4. turbo now :=)

1. highway, going in safe mode for 5 times in 30k miles, latter that evening, hoked up an computer on it and try to see whats happening but, on 4% hill an full throttle it vanished in an explosion, 1000 peaces, a lot off smoke and tingling sounds while pieces going true the exhaust and pipes
(my car was used car before me so i had no influence on the way of driving)

2. after 5k miles eat up some small peace of garbage(found latter a small pieces of metal in the pipes from the first turbo that exploded), mechanic didn't check everything
3. started whistling after 10k miles,also some small peace gone true her (finally changed my mechanic after that second time) getting on my nerves, changed that one also
4. now running for 20k miles, 100% ok

from my experience, like i think everybody knows, not push turbo while it's cold, don't turn off the engine after pushing but some small thing that i learned on the way, after starting the engine, wait for 15-20 sec, it means a lot for the oil to get it's viscosity and to get the right pressure and center the axle of the turbo before you push on

maybe funny to someone but after that procedure the noise of the turbo reduces a lot while cold engine start

 

[tinky]

mine has 4. turbo now :=)

2. after 5k miles eat up some small peace of garbage(found latter a small pieces of metal in the pipes from the first turbo that exploded), mechanic didn't check everything
t

You just sceared crap out of me! After 5k!!! How do i know mine is going to be ok? Looks like some sort of the lottery, doesn't it?
Tell you what, love the mpg, but more i learn about this pd130/pd140 engines, more it looks like very badly designed engine,turbo problems, special oil because of engineering mistakes, and so on. Should've stuck with trusty 1.8t it looks, but it's a rip off on road tax and takes twice as much fuel, but if the money saved on diesel are going to be spent on repairs, what's the point then?

 

[Scotty2hotty]

Mine makes the turbo siren or 'owl noise' This happens throughout gear changes, mainly between 1500 to 2000 rpm. Its normal and I would not worry about it. Ive been in several 2.0l tdi's and they all make this noise. Some are more apparent, some less so. Mine is noisier than it used to be. Worried me at first but after reading up on these and other forums, this seems to be very common. I suppose alot of my travel is short journey, perhaps not the best for the car...

What would worry me would be the intermitent loss of power and limp mode. Mine has never done this, I would take it into the stealers just in case.

 

[bare]

You just sceared crap out of me! After 5k!!! How do i know mine is going to be ok? Looks like some sort of the lottery, doesn't it?
Tell you what, love the mpg, but more i learn about this pd130/pd140 engines, more it looks like very badly designed engine,turbo problems, special oil because of engineering mistakes, and so on. Should've stuck with trusty 1.8t it looks, but it's a rip off on road tax and takes twice as much fuel, but if the money saved on diesel are going to be spent on repairs, what's the point then?

don't be so scared
this was a special case, mechanic problem from a foreign object and suppose will not happen to everyone.

but that this engine was not successfully engineered is true. putting two cam shafts, 16 valves and aluminum casing while thinning the housing seams to be not such a smart move. 5 of 7 engines from my friends had to change enginehead because of the cracks, only mine and one other are still waiting this to happen (mine started to loose cooling matter by the way, so it will not be long).

but to keep on track, about the turbo: as you have seen mine has 4. turbo, 2 was destroyed by a mechanical fault from a foreign object, one was replaced because of the whistling and this one now is running longer then every before.

 

[tinky]

Sorry, shouldn't have put pd130 in the post. Looks like it affects pd140 only.

Is it worth getting rid of the car and getting something more reliable like pd130? Or going for the different make altogether? It looks like the engine is a disaster waiting to happend.

You mentioned the head, but i've never come (online) across this problem before. Replacement is probably going to cost more than the turbo, isn't it?

 

[bare]

also wanted to say, whistling sound from turbo,as much your dealer tried to convince you it's normal, it's not. i have disassembled and put back a lot of them and seen that the turbo which is whistling has marks on it's blades and/or some gap between the axle and bearing, so that air is making the noise while going over the blades to the piping. the turbo that has clean blades and good bearings on the axle is silent as an owl. you can only hear high pressure air going true the pipes.
also you can hear a small amount of noise from turbo while cold engine and oil until the oil reaches the good pressure and center the axle of the turbo. you may notice that the noise is reduced as the engine and oil heats up.
regarding this heating up, this is the reason why if your are careless and push the throttle hard on start you may damage the blades because it's not centered good and it could touch the chamber wall and by that damage the scoops or the chamber wall and you'll have a noise from the air going over this channels.

this is all from my personal experience, if someone knows i'm wrong please comment, always whant to learn more

 

[tinky]

I wonder if remanufacturers do a better job at balancing and setting up turbo than factory.

 

[bare]

Sorry, shouldn't have put pd130 in the post. Looks like it affects pd140 only.

Is it worth getting rid of the car and getting something more reliable like pd130? Or going for the different make altogether? It looks like the engine is a disaster waiting to happend.

You mentioned the head, but i've never come (online) across this problem before. Replacement is probably going to cost more than the turbo, isn't it?

don't get me wrong, nothing's perfect but as i had before altea a toledo with 1.9tdi,110ps this engine compared with the old 1.9tdi especially the 110ps really is an mistake in engineering.

the problem with the head is not all over the news but as i said, 5 out of 7 engines had to replace the head. don't matter the year or car model vw group, it's the engine.
also as i said mine started to loose some fluid, maybe someone will say that the problem is with the piping or maybe some crack not on the head but in my case, really think that the problem is just that.

i'll put some pictures latter with an oil catch can, just for you to see what would go true my piping if i hadn't install the can. disaster , you'll see

 

[tinky]

Can i have more info on oil catch can please? I think it's worth installing one, as it seems that oil going to the turbo is one of the things damaging/leaving depositon on blades.
Or, as i said, just get rid of the car, get something like pd130, and forget about problems?

 

[bare]

here's the picture from oil catch can

before mounting the oil catch can had to clean my turbo 2 times in 2k miles, now you can see way
after mounting the can, no more turbo cleaning and no more oily pipes on the intecooler

 

[bare]

Can i have more info on oil catch can please? I think it's worth installing one, as it seems that oil going to the turbo is one of the things damaging/leaving depositon on blades.
Or, as i said, just get rid of the car, get something like pd130, and forget about problems?

just write on ebay oil catch can, you'll see a lot of them, pricing will be diferent, mine was something like 20$


p.s. slippers sorry for going maybe off topic

 

[tinky]

I think it's perfectrly in the topic. Topic should be renamed "worries about turbo and problem prevention"

Is there a diagram how to connect catch can?