Anyone used www.small-engine.co.uk, maybe of interest to people with sticky turbos?

[Swig]

Hello,

Has anyone had any dealings with this company/mechanic?

http://www.small-engine.co.uk/ same website also at http://www.britishvegoil.co.uk/

Based around notts/derby way. He seems to offer a clean and rebuild of a VNT mech for £125 - potentially of use to lots of people who have problems with "limp" mode (like me).

Cheers,

Andy

 

[allh2k]

Too good to be true....

If I was to setup a fake website it would look just like that ha but saying that it does look good.

 

[muddyboots]

I think it's legit, remember reading about his services when I was looking at vegoil conversions, and had an email or two back about how much he'd charge for fitting a kit.

Remember the £125 assumes the turbo is already off the car, so does not include labour for removal/refitting.

Reading through the various bits of the site I get the impression he probably knows his stuff when it comes to VAG TDIs

 

[Swig]

Yeah, what's written on the website seems to fit with what people say on here.

The total cost of a VNT clean from him would be £275 (inc 150 to remove and refit the turbo)

Turbo technics also mention VNT mech cleaning - anyone got any experience of that?

http://www.turbotechnics.com/docs/news/vnt_clean.htm

I'll probably talk to both of them.

(£275 is certainly attractive vs. the £1077 I've been quoted for a new turbo fitted!)

 

[af1]

no-one tried the innotec turbo clean set.. best £30 i EVER spent

 

[teds1969]

i had this problem as well, and used the Innotech cleaning system. At the same time i had the inlet manifold cleaned and disconnected the egr. Difference at first was amazing. The mechanic who carried out the work was sceptical and felt that i was delaying the inevitable, i.e. new turbo. A few months down the line and the problems have started to resurface, however not as bad as before. So personally i feel the Innotech system does work but its just a temporary measure.

 

[Swig]

teds - yes I've got that impression from internet searches. maybe you need to physically take it apart and clean it as the small engine people do. I wouldn't do the innotec myself so I'd be paying someone for a couple of hours labour so it would push the cost up to £130+ anyway.

of course there's always the question - does the overboosting wear out the turbo? Certainly the people at JBS who recommended a new turbo take that line.

what I did monday night was to stick my arm behind the engine and waggle the VNT actuator (I also sprayed some WD40 on it) until my arm hurt. it was still connected up so I was working against the spring as well as any seized-ness so I'm not really sure whether it got looser what.

I then went for drive and once the engine was warm blasted up a hill - with revs up to 3500-4000 a couple of times. I still hit the limp mode though...

But maybe if I do it again a few times it'll help regain the movement in the VNT. And obviously it costs me nothing but time.

Certainly the car has been better to drive since I've done it. Before that it was inconsistent - sometimes it was fast sometimes laboured which would fit with the turbo vanes getting stuck in different positions.

 

[ChrisGTL]

teds - yes I've got that impression from internet searches. maybe you need to physically take it apart and clean it as the small engine people do. I wouldn't do the innotec myself so I'd be paying someone for a couple of hours labour so it would push the cost up to £130+ anyway.

of course there's always the question - does the overboosting wear out the turbo? Certainly the people at JBS who recommended a new turbo take that line.

what I did monday night was to stick my arm behind the engine and waggle the VNT actuator (I also sprayed some WD40 on it) until my arm hurt. it was still connected up so I was working against the spring as well as any seized-ness so I'm not really sure whether it got looser what.

I then went for drive and once the engine was warm blasted up a hill - with revs up to 3500-4000 a couple of times. I still hit the limp mode though...

But maybe if I do it again a few times it'll help regain the movement in the VNT. And obviously it costs me nothing but time.

Certainly the car has been better to drive since I've done it. Before that it was inconsistent - sometimes it was fast sometimes laboured which would fit with the turbo vanes getting stuck in different positions.

What engine is this on? A PD 130/150?

Which side of the engine did you feel for the actuator? back left or back right?

 

[Swig]

It's a PD130 in a Leon.

I stuck my arm down the back right (facing the car), found something that felt like the bit that the vacuum pipe is connected to and worked my hand up until I found something that would move!

Did I waggle the right bit?

 

[Fisher]

I've used Small Engine Greg is good and knows it stuff. Yes its all legit!

 

[Swig]

Thanks.

 

[allh2k]

teds - yes I've got that impression from internet searches. maybe you need to physically take it apart and clean it as the small engine people do. I wouldn't do the innotec myself so I'd be paying someone for a couple of hours labour so it would push the cost up to £130+ anyway.

of course there's always the question - does the overboosting wear out the turbo? Certainly the people at JBS who recommended a new turbo take that line.

what I did monday night was to stick my arm behind the engine and waggle the VNT actuator (I also sprayed some WD40 on it) until my arm hurt. it was still connected up so I was working against the spring as well as any seized-ness so I'm not really sure whether it got looser what.

I then went for drive and once the engine was warm blasted up a hill - with revs up to 3500-4000 a couple of times. I still hit the limp mode though...

But maybe if I do it again a few times it'll help regain the movement in the VNT. And obviously it costs me nothing but time.

Certainly the car has been better to drive since I've done it. Before that it was inconsistent - sometimes it was fast sometimes laboured which would fit with the turbo vanes getting stuck in different positions.

I had sticky vanes (I think) I just changed the oil and all that stuff then filled up with shell expensive stuff and when the fuel light came on I managed to get hold of 3 bottles of redex fuel cleaner stuff for a £1 each so throw all three in and ragged the **** out of here for a while.

Limp mode gone but boost is all over the place sometimes, i can go faster with half open throttle than when the peddle is on the floor.

How does the sticky vanes work are they on the exhaust gas side or both?

 

[Swig]

Yeah, they are on the exhaust gas side and get clogged up with stuff because of that. They direct the exhaust gases onto the turbine.

At one extreme they allow the turbo to spin up really quickly (and it overdoes it and that's the overboost problem) at the other extreme the turbo won't spin up quickly and the car will be "laggy".

 

[rscott4563]

I'd say try the innotech first, for £35 it's well worth trying and anyone with basic mechanical skills should be able to do it themselves as long as you've got a couple of decent jacks. You only need to unbolt the exhaust downpipe from the turbo and move it over to the side and thats it! 3 bolts move exhaust, run through the innotec instructions, refit downpipe and put the 3 bolts back on.

 

[MarkWales]

any pics of innotec system being used

 

[Fl@pper]

any pics of innotec system being used

http://www.innotecworld.com/c-1064-turbo-clean-set.aspx

looks like a video on the main site

 

[MarkWales]

most of their products have videos but ot turbo clean

 

[Mrs Sticky]

Just had mine Innotec'd. Fantastic. You can buy it on ebay now for about £40 delivered to your door.
Mrs Sticky xxxx