2004 cupra 1.9 tdi 150 failed on me today

[leoncupra1]

Hello there everyone

I have a 2004 54 SEAT LEON CUPRA 1.9 TDI 150 BHP

Recently, I've found that the car started to lose power when I was driving, then I would just restart the engine and it would be fine

More recently, it started to Judder, ever ever so slightly

Today, I started driving from Cold, drove for about 1 minute, then the car just completely lost power and wouldn't go over 20mph, smoke start coming out of the exhaust, I then turned the car around and start heading back home, luckily I wasn't too far, it then got worse and worse, the Power started to decrease, more smoke started to come out and it was initially a slightly dark greyish smoke that turned to a lighter grey, although in the heat of the moment I didn't pay much attention to that so may be confused on the colours of the smoke

The car then started to keep cutting out so I kept starting it back up so I could park up somewhere safe, and I just left the car there

After that it wouldn't stay on for long so I just left it, walked home..

Came back to it later and started it and drove it home at no more than 8-10mph and it drove like crap

SYMPTOMS AT THE MOMENT:

-NO POWER WHATSOEVER
-SMOKE AS EXPECTED FROM THE EXHAUST
-SMOKE HAS A SLIGHTLY SWEET SMELL TO IT
-SOME BLACK OIL ON ONE OF THE TURBO PIPES ALTHOUGH I DON'T KNOW HOW LONG THIS HAS BEEN THERE FOR
-NOT VERY SMOOTH ENGINE NOISE, SOUNDS LIKE ITS KNOCKING A TINY BIT
-KEEPS WANTING TO CUT OUT
-DOES NOT GO OVER 700-800RPM

A FEW THINGS TO NOTE

-BEFORE THIS BUILD UP OF SYMPTOMS, THE CAR HAS BEEN FINE AND STRONG, JUST A FEW DAYS AGO, WE WENT TO BIRMINGHAM IN IT WHICH IS 55 MILES AWAY, AND NEVER HAD A SINGLE PROBLEM

A FEW THINGS I HAVE READ UP ON THAT IT MAY BE:
-- TURBO
--TURBO PIPES
--MAF SENSOR
--SPLIT IN THE PIPES
--N75 VALVE

Please advise me on what I should do or what to check for?

 

[leoncupra1]

Just to add

I started the car this morning, it was smoking a lot, But all the power has come back and its driving as normal, yet I only took it for a 30 second drive as I was a bit scared of it happening again. Its smoking now whilst driving.

So it seems to be an intermittent fault

ANY IDEAS?

 

[dgjdrummer]

Sounds like it's goin in to limp mode, which is usually symptomatic of a boost leak.

Check all of the pipes from the turbo to intercooler for any splits and check that the connections are all secure, the VAG clip connectors are notorious for wearing and not being secure. It's worth changing all of the o-rings and c-clips on the pipe connectors and work up to bigger/more expensive things from there.

It's worth scanning for any fault codes in case something has been stored in the ecu that hasn't been picked up on yet.

Unless you're getting blue smoke from the exhaust it's unlikely to be the turbo, you might have sticking turbo vanes though. Have a look on TDI club for a how to on cleaning the vanes and see if that helps.

Let us know how you get on with that lot for starters and hopefully you'll cure it in the meantime

 

[leoncupra1]

Update:

Can't really see any splits in any hoses, can't see any leaks either

But, cars been sat there for a week now, just been driving my other one

Tried starting it again yesterday, now it's lumpy as anything, smoking again and now Engine Management light has come on

I don't understand it at all, the last time I left it, it was lumpy and smokey but the engine stayed on and had power

Now, no power again lol. And E/M light and smokey

I'm going to end up Breaking it for Parts lol

I'm in Nottingham if anyone wants to come and have a look. I'll Pay!!!

 

[Pimped up vario]

Get the ecu read first to see what it's boggle is.

 

[dgjdrummer]

Lumpy/smoky could mean a valve seal has gone? As above, I'd get it scanned for the fault code and go from there.

 

[Pimped up vario]

I'd say dj is on to something there with the valve stem seals. They would cause a loss of compression. One of the injector seals on my tdi failed. And gave a loss of compression which made the engine run wild lumpy.

 

[leoncupra1]

Air Mass flow

 

[leoncupra1]

AN UPDATE!!

I played about with the AIR MASS FLOW SENSOR, sometimes the car has power back and then other times it was gone, as soon as I messed about with the AIR MASS FLOW sensor, all the power came back, or it either went, until the engine Management light came on. And Read that its the Air Mass flow Sensor

So, thanks everybody for your input, I will keep you updated if anything changes

But I hope this helps others in the future.

 

[Pimped up vario]

Did you get the ECU read for fault codes? The ross-tech vcds-lite can be used to read the real time values of your car and let you know if it's functioning properly. You do a third gear pull to the end of the power band if safe and legal to do so and log what the air mass flow sensor is seeing. The air flow sensor should see about 80% of the peak power value and the units are mg (I think). so if your car is generating 130 bhp of power then your air flow sensor will read approximately 104 whatever units it is.