3.0 tdi throttle pause

[mhobson]

I am still very confused about the actuator programming. The VW garage who I hope to fit the turbo say that it must be programmed once fitted. A company in Germany selling brand new turbos say that it has to be programmed before use but companies in the UK selling reconditioned turbos with new actuators say that the actuator is programmed automatically by the ECU upon initial connection and they are virtually plug and play, can someone tell me definitively what is the case. The VW garage obviously want to sell a new turbo, and although maybe prepared to fit a recon unit, they may just be trying to put me off. Problem is I don't have €2200 spare and the car is a pain to drive.

[mhobson]

So I have spent a s..tload of money on this problem, car went away to genuine VW garage, they replaced the turbo and also for some reason the air mass meter for which there had been no fault codes and I am sure was unnecessary, the car has come back and.......guess what? The problem is exactly the same as before, throttle to the floor in the appropriate gear, appropriate revs and you have to wait sometomes several seconds before there is any response. My wife's A4, I know a lighter car, but with the exact same ASB engine, the throttle response is immediate. There seems to be another issue as well, when after a run slowing down for a junction for example there is a smell of engine fumes coming through the air con. The rubber bonnet seal between the engine and A/C seems sound.

[lynalldiscovery]

I havent read the entire thread so this may have been asked already, have you checked auto gearbox oil level?

[mhobson]

Thanks, but the car has a manual box

[pawelzaucha88]

So you ended up replacing fine turbo? If the problem is back can you get your money back for a wrong diagnosis on the part of VW garage?

[mhobson]

Could this issue be because of a faulty throttle body or throttle position sensor, and if it was should there not be a fault code. On a long drive today the normally smooth cruise control seemed a bit lumpy, the engine seemed to be delaying changing power up and down hills, I don't seem to have any other symptoms, how could I make sure if it was. Engine not swiftly responding to ECU.

[zit501]

Could this issue be because of a faulty throttle body or throttle position sensor, and if it was should there not be a fault code. On a long drive today the normally smooth cruise control seemed a bit lumpy, the engine seemed to be delaying changing power up and down hills, I don't seem to have any other symptoms, how could I make sure if it was. Engine not swiftly responding to ECU.

Hey there,

Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I see it wasn't resolved in the end and wasn't too long ago. Did you ever find the cause and fix the issue?

I'm experiencing something similar on my 3.0TDi BMK engine. It's intermittent, in that some days it does it, some days it doesn't. It drives fine at part throttle, but when I go to medium or floor it, it's like it's holding back (almost like weak or poor spark on a petrol).
I am getting no codes on either the engine or transmission.

I have had turbo actutaor issues before, and it's been replaced. I would always get codes for that, about the regulation of the turbo not being met. Like I said, no codes this time.

It seems like an input signal sensor more than an output from the ECU. It's like the ECU is getting erroneous signals. If I were to guess, I would go for air flow meter. I had similar issues with my MAF on my previous 1.9TDi. The ECU wouldn't throw a code since it couldn't see the fault, just that it was getting junk data from the MAF. I guess it could also be a MAP sensor, or even cam or crank, but generally those I think the ECU can tell are erroneous.

[mhobson]

The issues on my car have improved, more by luck than judgement. Naïvely I thought that if I took my car to main dealer garage, they would be able to solve the issue, but these are complicated engines and faults are difficult to determine even by specialists. Not only did the garage replace the turbo, actuator, and air mass meter which had been showing no faults, but when they replaced the engine undertray instead of using the VW Audi tray clips when putting the tray back on, they used pop rivets with washers, so that when I changed my suspension arms and needed to remove the tray, I had to drill the rivets out, which wrecked all the female clips and I have still not located replacements for the two female clips that sit inside the steel rear crossmember, so the rear is temporarily held by cable ties. After all that, the car ran no better than before, and I had a big bill. What changed was that over the years I have noticed white smoke coming from the exhaust when stuck in traffic, which living here is very rare. Recently after following several VWAF posts I saw reference to this fault caused by worn diesel injectors. For a 2006 car I was not prepared for the ridiculous bill of taking it to a main dealer garage nor fitting new injectors. From ebay germany I sourced a set of reconditioned injectors, which cost €399 delivered, I had to buy an injector puller set for about €84 and I changed the injectors myself with the help of someone with a computer to code them. The improvement in performance was frankly shocking, it has never gone so well, gives a kick in the back which it never had but there is still a little bit of turbo lag. It also uses less fuel. It solved another problem which has cursed the car for some time, engine fumes coming into the cabin. I suspect the injectors were overfuelling the cylinders with some excess fuel going into the sump, I did notice the oil level rising over time, and the diesel fumes were vented when I slowed down to a junction, maybe from the oil filler, there was oil vapour residue around it. This problem has since not reappeared. There have never been fault codes for air mass meter nor injectors on this car since I bought it in 2011.

[zit501]

Hey,

Thanks for the reply. That's a pity you had to be subjected to the expense of a new turbo, actuator and MAF, all for nothing! Typical dealer mechanics these days. (actually a lot of mechanics in general).

I've replaced my injectors already, due to them dribbling like everyone's end up doing. So I don't think it's those.

My problem is very intermittent. I can't recall now if yours was all the time or not. When it becomes more regular I'm going to have to start logging the various sensor signals whilst driving. I was doing this on the way to work yesterday, and as usual the problem was completely gone from the day before.