leon fr (170 turbo issues, loss of power)

[samcar_98]

Hi guys.

Im new to this, this being my 1st post. but I'm after some help.

about 2 months ago, i was doing my usual run to work in the morning on the motorway, when my glow plug light started to flash and i lost all power from the engine, about 2 minutes later it kicked back in and everything was fine. 2 days later exactly the same was happening and this time it happened about 5 times on the same journey. on the the home it was fine. it started to happen more and more every time. until it was constant.

i got in touch with a friend of mine who works for a garage, he put it on there computer and it was giving a constant throttle position sensor fault, with obvious boost pressure faults if i can remember. we decided to go for the waste gate actuator, after finding out that my engine was code BNM (i think its that way or BMN) and you can't get a repair kit for the turbo, i turned my attention to eBay and looking there. i found a new actuator on the for £94. so ordered that, fitted it. for anybody having ever tried to replace this in whilst turbo still on the car you will feel my pain when trying to get the circlip back on!!! (which i lost 4) so i decided to leave it off whilst it didn't look like it would pop off.

Finally i got my turbo back straight away, i was well pleased. so ran that. found when i let off the accelerator the glow plug light would flash. i put that down to the actuator not being set up perfectly.. although i did measure the old 1 and set the new 1 to that. anyways i carried on driving it with no problems.. then again i started to intermittently lose the the turbo.. i found the actuator was popping off the turbo. so i ordered 6 clips off eBay and managed to get the sixth clip on before i lost it!! lol. but still no turbo!!!!!

by this time the DPF light was on at 101% blocked. we managed to trick the car into thinking it had been replaced so it did a regen! still no turbo... i was starting to stress at this point. i just wasn't convinced it was the turbo its self at fault. so then i started clutching at straws. i bought some turbo cleaner, and the guy who delivered it had a vag-com. we ran a quick test and found the position sensor fault on the turbo, i tried to lift the actuator via my fingers and found it solid!! i removed the actuator off the turbo and somehow found it well out of adjustment to the old 1 i still had, measured it up exactly and fitted it..

BOOOOM now i had my turbo back, no glow plug lights flashing when i drive, NOTHING!! drove it about 5 miles cleaning all the crap out of it.. got up in the morning, started it to a flashing glow plug light!! GRRR now i get NO turbo again.. now heres the interesting bit, and please i know exactly how this is going to sound because I'm a senior technician for BMW... but here we go, when i turn right, either from a start off or in motion the turbo kicks in every single time.. but as soon as i straighten up or turn left i lose it.. i know it sound mad and i would laugh if some body told me that but thats how it is at the minute..

Just a stab in the dark but can anybody help me before i have to take the horrible step of replacing the turbo.. i hate spending big money on my own cars now!!

thank you guys!!
sam

 

[Daniel M]

My advice would be to scan it again on VCDS.

Mine did this and it turned out to be a leaky boost pipe, nice and simple fix. Have you checked all the boost pipes?

 

[samcar_98]

Cheers for the reply mate. no i haven't checked the boost pipes yet, its something that i will check. just doesn't feel like I'm losing boost like that, i thought i would hear it losing boost like a swooshing sound. i can't get me head around this with the steering. it does it every time. even if i move the wheel like 10 degrees to the right the turbo comes in, so its not a harsh right turn. to me that says loose connection, but i just can't see where from. everything seems good to me..

 

[samcar_98]

Quick update. i am going down the route of a broken wire now. connected the vcds before. Have current fault with turbo boost control position sensor signal low. Again i told my mate about the turbo kicking in when turning right, as i would have (he laughed)... so i demonstrated this and he couldn't believe it. on the live data on the vcds you could see when the actuator come out of its nominal value of 3.5v and 85% charge pressure actuator position and started to boost. SURELY the only thing now is down to wiring..

MY NEXT QUESTION IS WHERE ARE COMMON AREAS ON THESE FOR BROKEN WIRING?? before i start stripping loom and checking continuity just wondered if anybody could give me some heads up. around the fan area and under the battery tray look favourable.

cheers

 

[samcar_98]

just to let people know more bout this, just incase they have a issue..

I found a broken wire for the actuator wiring!!!

I removed the engine control unit from underneath the windscreen, checked continuity of the 3 wires from the actuator to the control unit. i found a open circuit on the Purple/yellow wire pin 2 on the actuator plug. stripped down the loom in a few places, removed the battery, air box and battery tray. eventually narrowed it down to infront of the fan. BOOM found it in the plastic shrouding, looks like the purple/yellow wire had broken, and also the red wire (live) for the same plug had wires exposed so they were shorting on each other. makes sense when i turned right they must be moving enough to separate and work fine., then touch again when i straighten up!

Strange 1 this really, when we were 1st checking wiring there was no problem because the wires were just starting to rub threw... Just want to let everyone know about it because ALOT of people will dive in straight away and start replacing turbos!! when really theres no need... i do have pictures but don't have a clue how to post them on here?????

 

[gingerwinger]

Hi Folks, I have a power loss issue, sort of...

The car drives perfectly fine, but the top end is only about 100-115mph, I squeezed 120mph down hill a few weeks ago. I had an emergency a few months back, the kind that involved the police escorting me nearly 200 miles due to a medic emergency. Thanks plod by the way!!!

Anyway, has anyone got any ideas why I have lost over 40mph when the rest of the time she drive perfectly?

 

[Daniel M]

Hi Folks, I have a power loss issue, sort of...

The car drives perfectly fine, but the top end is only about 100-115mph, I squeezed 120mph down hill a few weeks ago. I had an emergency a few months back, the kind that involved the police escorting me nearly 200 miles due to a medic emergency. Thanks plod by the way!!!

Anyway, has anyone got any ideas why I have lost over 40mph when the rest of the time she drive perfectly?

Why would you need to go that fast anyway???

Regardless, I would get it scanned on VCDS.

 

[gingerwinger]

I take it to a local airfield to play every now and then and if I get another emergency I'll want that and more.

On the original emergency I over took plod when they were doing only 130mph, they put their foot down a bit after that, thankfully!

 

[gingerwinger]

I have a basic scanner which tells me if there are any issues, and there's nothing. Would the VCDS give anything more?

 

[GordieC]

I take it to a local airfield to play every now and then and if I get another emergency I'll want that and more.

On the original emergency I over took plod when they were doing only 130mph, they put their foot down a bit after that, thankfully!

What possible emergency could you have that requires the police to allow you to travel at nearly double the motorway speed limit while simultaneously giving you an escort?

If it's a medical emergency that requires such speeds, they have helicopters for that. I can't see them allowing a random to belt along at those speeds on open public roads.

 

[gingerwinger]

That's somewhat irrelevant now, and hopefully will not happen again.

In the meantime, where has my 40mph gone?

 

[GordieC]

If it's irrelevant, why mention it? Whatever, I hope you get your car sorted so you can go back to passing the police as they trundle along at 130mph.

 

[gingerwinger]

Didn't think of it like that, my point was that having known it was able to go fast, why does it not go fast now?

It's serviced regularly with good quality oil and filters, though I don't use the better diesel, just the cheap stuff, but that should not bother it to such an extent, surely?

I think it was Fifth Gear that did a test on the differences between cheap diesel at the super markets and the expensive stuff from the big brand stations and the difference was only a few bhp...

 

[Jakevag]

just to let people know more bout this, just incase they have a issue..

I found a broken wire for the actuator wiring!!!

I removed the engine control unit from underneath the windscreen, checked continuity of the 3 wires from the actuator to the control unit. i found a open circuit on the Purple/yellow wire pin 2 on the actuator plug. stripped down the loom in a few places, removed the battery, air box and battery tray. eventually narrowed it down to infront of the fan. BOOM found it in the plastic shrouding, looks like the purple/yellow wire had broken, and also the red wire (live) for the same plug had wires exposed so they were shorting on each other. makes sense when i turned right they must be moving enough to separate and work fine., then touch again when i straighten up!

Strange 1 this really, when we were 1st checking wiring there was no problem because the wires were just starting to rub threw... Just want to let everyone know about it because ALOT of people will dive in straight away and start replacing turbos!! when really theres no need... i do have pictures but don't have a clue how to post them on here?????

Hi mate having same problem as you and if I move actuator wires it fixes the issue until wires move again you don't happen to have a photo of roughly were the broken wires were do you be much appreciated