Big drop in power

[robwlaws]

My 05 Leon FR had a superchip remap about 18 months ago and WAS running well. All of a sudden i have experienced a noticeable drop in power, about back to the original spec, its as if the remap has disappeared! I've also started getting a slight judder/hesitation when applying very slight pressure on the accelerator at around 1500-2000rpm - sort of pressure you'd put on to maintain 30 or 40mph.

Has anyone experienced anything like this before? Any advice would be great.

Cheers

Rob

 

[muddyboots]

Sounds like a boost leak somewhere to me, or maybe a faulty EGR...

 

[OLDOILER]

Sounds like a boost leak somewhere to me, or maybe a faulty EGR...

Concurr with Muddyboots on this one, check ALL your boost pipe fittings for splits etc.

 

[James_R]

Remaps can sometimes revert back to standard just out of the blue believe it or not but as above - that would be the first check, is it smoking any more than normal?

 

[S3 AKR]

I've had similar "juddering" at the same sort of speeds and it got bad enough today for me to get under the car and have a look. I found a boost hose hanging out of the socket with the intercoooler on the passenger side. I had the hose replaced a few months back when it was serviced and thought that would solve it, but obviously not so. Refitted it and used 4 cable ties to help it a bit - wrapped one round the hose, one round the intercooler connection, then ran 2 more across the connections to those ties to pull them towards each other and pull the hose into the connection. Still used the original metal retaining clips too, but hopefully this will hold it together and stop it popping out. Felt a lot better on the test drive in terms of power (also found a leaking power steering pump - I guess some cash is going to be spent in the next couple of weeks).

 

[robwlaws]

Nice one will have a look and check nothing has come loose.

MJ - it does seem to be smoking slighly more, nothing major tho

 

[aaronbromley]

Could this be the common MAF sensor?

 

[muddyboots]

I've had similar "juddering" at the same sort of speeds and it got bad enough today for me to get under the car and have a look. I found a boost hose hanging out of the socket with the intercoooler on the passenger side. I had the hose replaced a few months back when it was serviced and thought that would solve it, but obviously not so. Refitted it and used 4 cable ties to help it a bit - wrapped one round the hose, one round the intercooler connection, then ran 2 more across the connections to those ties to pull them towards each other and pull the hose into the connection. Still used the original metal retaining clips too, but hopefully this will hold it together and stop it popping out. Felt a lot better on the test drive in terms of power (also found a leaking power steering pump - I guess some cash is going to be spent in the next couple of weeks).

I had the exact same problem on my Passat, pipe was half out of the IC at an angle, leaking enough air to cause serious hesitation, but not enough to flag a fault.
I put a post on here about my own special method of re-fixing the pipe

 

[S3 AKR]

That must be this special fix eh!!!

I will be giving that one a try if my cable ties melt!!

 

[muddyboots]

That's the one
Still going strong too.

 

[robwlaws]

Do i need to look from underneath the engine to see the majority of these hoses? And for that would i need to remove covers and that to be able to see?

 

[muddyboots]

Not directly familiar with the Leon, but yes I would expect you'd have to get underneath and remove the undertray (assuming there is one) to have a look.

Look at all the pipe joints to see if any have popped apart, either completely or partially. Methodically follow the pipes from the turbo outlet, via the intercooler, via the EGR/ASV assembly, to the inlet manifold.

The flexible hoses have a metal end with 2 "lugs" on either side. This end slots into a rigid socket of whatever it's connecting to, and a horse-shoe type clip goes over the outside which is supposed to fit behind the 2 lugs and stop the pipe coming back out.
The small lugs tend to get worn or damaged easily, and lose the ability to hold the pipes together under pressure (under full boost there's a significant amount of pressure in the pipes).
If that's the case, the answer is usually a new pipe, or think up an alternative means of securing it (as per my post linked to above!).
It's a fairly common problem - sometimes the joints just come apart partially, other times completely - accompanied by a loud noise and lots of black smoke out the back !

 

[robwlaws]

Nice one, cheers for the advice mate. Gonna have a look as best i can over the weekend. Is it a pricey job to replace a hose or hose fitting if the lugs have become worn down?

 

[muddyboots]

Don't know exact prices, other than they are "more than you probably expect"

 

[muddyboots]

Oh and you'll probably find oil apparently leaking from around some of the joints, don't worry this is fairly normal. It does mean ti can get quite a messy job down there, so perhaps get some gloves if you don't want to spend hours scraping crud from under your fingernails.

 

[James_R]

Don't know exact prices, other than they are "more than you probably expect"

so very true!