B5 TDi sudden power loss/fixed itself

[Frameboy]

Hi guys,

Me again, sorry. Last night I was overtaking uphill in 4th when suddenly I seemed to lose power from what felt like the turbo with no bangs or smoke that I could see and no lights came up on the dash. The engine still pulled in the low range but there was nothing further up the revs and putting the pedal to the floor seemed to make it accelerate even slower as if I was flooding the engine. It didn't feel like limp mode but I'm not sure what the Passat limp mode feels like anyway and my LCD is broken so any error messages wouldn't have been visible!

I managed to nurse it to my gig and on returning to the car for the homeward journey, everything was fine. Now while that's all fine and dandy, it does worry me that it could happen again. Any ideas why this might have happened on an overtake and then fixed itself after a rest? Sounds more like something ECU and less like something mechanical right?

Cheers for any help,

FB

[zollaf]

what engine code i.e. pd or rotary pump, presuming its a diesel ???

[Frameboy]

Yeah, 100bhp tdi, is there any way to see the code without a OBDII reader? Otherwise the only person round here I know with one is the garage and then I might as well just put it in for a check but I'm loathe to throw 50 quid down the drain just for a diagnostic!

[zollaf]

right , so its a pd engine then. the engine id can be found in the boot near the spare wheel on a sticker. it does sound like limp home mode from what you have said. the only way to find what caused it is to plug it into a computer and this will probably show an overboost fault which may be the turbo vnt mechanism sticking due to carbon build up, but there are other reasons for it and it may also not be an underboost but only a code read will find out. flicking the ignition off and back on clears limp mode, usually.