Seat Leon 2.0 tdi PD 140 (2010)

[Mat20sws]

I am in need of help big time. I have a seat Leon tdi. Had it remapped at 40k miles ... New turbo at 50k and again blew at 56k (it's current millage). However this time a new turbo has gone on again but continued problems. Under heavy acceleration it holds back and rattles before firing into life with a huge plume of black smoke. Smoke a lot under acceleration too. Two separate mechanics have had a look and a lot of time and money spent. New maf sensor ... egr valve ... intercooler flushed ... smoke checks for leaks in hoses. However nothing is healing my baby.

I really don't want to see her go to auction and am in desperate need of a solution.

Thank you for your time in advance.

[Crasher]

Are these replacement turbo's from Euro Car Parts by any chance?

[Mat20sws]

Gmf turbo .... I'm guessing the euro car parts are dodgey!?

[Crasher]

About two years ago a local fast fit centre who do our tyres asked me to look at a Leon 2 with a BKD engine. The car had been over boosting so they fitted an exchange unit from ECP but this made it virtually undrivable. To get it to move you had to gently build up the revs and get it into boost or else it violently diesel knocked and pumped out clouds of black smoke. I went throughout the car with a fine tooth comb and could find no reason, I even tried a new ECU which as you will know is time consuming and costly. I felt that the symptom was akin to excessive exhaust gas recirculation but the fault remained with it blocked off. Eventually I got one off my chaps to pull the turbo off and then it revved fine if noisily! We still had access to the old turbo as it had not gone back so we had this rebuilt by Midland Turbo who are beyond criticism and the rebuilt unit once fitted, performed perfectly and the fault had gone. We did not have the opportunity to strip the suspect unit as it had to be returned but visually there was nothing apparent and the shaft spun freely. I had the impression that something was wrong with the turbine wheel which was causing exhaust gasses to be trapped in the manifold and being re-burnt until the turbo shaft span fast enough to blow past the restriction, my guess was a badly designed replacement turbine wheel.

[Mat20sws]

That makes sense. Unfortunately not the cheap answer I was hoping for ... I will keep a look out for a new turbo and look to have it replaced. Thank you for the reply.